Deuteronomy - The Old Testament

¹ 'And when all these words have come true for you -- the blessing and the curse, which I have offered you -- if you meditate on them in your heart wherever among the nations Yahweh your God has driven you,

² if you return to Yahweh your God, if with all your heart and with all your soul you obey his voice, you and your children, in everything that I am laying down for you today,

³ then Yahweh your God will bring back your captives, he will have pity on you and gather you back from all the peoples among whom Yahweh your God has scattered you.

⁴ Should you have been banished to the very sky's end, Yahweh your God will gather you again even from there, will come there to reclaim you

⁵ and bring you back to the country which belonged to your ancestors, so that you may possess it in your turn, and be made prosperous there and more numerous than your ancestors.

⁶ 'Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love Yahweh your God with all your heart and soul, and so will live.

⁷ Yahweh your God will make all these curses recoil on your foes and on your enemies who have persecuted you.

⁸ And once again you will obey the voice of Yahweh your God and you will put all his commandments into practice, which I am laying down for you today.

⁹ Yahweh your God will make you prosper in all your labours, in the offspring of your body, in the yield of your cattle and in the yield of your soil. For once again Yahweh will delight in your prosperity as he used to take delight in the prosperity of your ancestors,

¹⁰ if you obey the voice of Yahweh your God, by keeping his commandments and decrees written in the book of this Law, and if you return to Yahweh your God with all your heart and soul.

¹¹ 'For this Law which I am laying down for you today is neither obscure for you nor beyond your reach.

¹² It is not in heaven, so that you need to wonder, "Who will go up to heaven for us and bring it down to us, so that we can hear and practise it?"

¹³ Nor is it beyond the seas, so that you need to wonder, "Who will cross the seas for us and bring it back to us, so that we can hear and practise it?"

¹⁴ No, the word is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to put into practice.

¹⁵ 'Look, today I am offering you life and prosperity, death and disaster.

¹⁶ If you obey the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am laying down for you today, if you love Yahweh your God and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws and his customs, you will live and grow numerous, and Yahweh your God will bless you in the country which you are about to enter and make your own.

¹⁷ But if your heart turns away, if you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them,

¹⁸ I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will not live for long in the country which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

¹⁹ Today, I call heaven and earth to witness against you: I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live,

²⁰ in the love of Yahweh your God, obeying his voice, holding fast to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends the length of time that you stay in the country which Yahweh swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would give them.'