4. But to this very day the Lord has not given you an understanding mind, perceptive eyes, or discerning ears!
5. I have led you through the desert for forty years. Your clothing has not worn out nor have your sandals deteriorated.
6. You have eaten no bread and drunk no wine or beer – all so that you might know that I am the Lord your God!
7. When you came to this place King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to make war and we defeated them.
8. Then we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh.
9. “Therefore, keep the terms of this covenant and obey them so that you may be successful in everything you do.
10. You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, your elders, your officials, every Israelite man,
11. your infants, your wives, and the foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water –
12. so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today.
13. Today he will affirm that you are his people and that he is your God, just as he promised you and as he swore by oath to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14. It is not with you alone that I am making this covenant by oath,
15. but with whoever stands with us here today before the Lord our God as well as those not with us here today.
16. “(For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we crossed through the nations as we traveled.
17. You have seen their detestable things and idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold.)
18. Beware that the heart of no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you turns away from the Lord our God today to pursue and serve the gods of those nations; beware that there is among you no root producing poisonous and bitter fruit.
19. When such a person hears the words of this oath he secretly blesses himself and says, “I will have peace though I continue to walk with a stubborn spirit.” This will destroy the watered ground with the parched.