The Preacher's Bible

It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations where Jehovah your God has driven you, ²and return to Jehovah your God and obey his voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, ³that then Jehovah your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples where Jehovah your God has scattered you. ⁴If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there Jehovah your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back. ⁵Jehovah your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you will possess it. He will do you good, and increase your numbers more than your fathers. ⁶Jehovah your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. ⁷Jehovah your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. ⁸You shall return and obey Jehovah’s voice, and do all his commandments which I command you today. ⁹Jehovah your God will make you prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, for good; for Jehovah will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers, ¹⁰if you will obey Jehovah your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

¹¹For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant. ¹²It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” ¹³Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” ¹⁴But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. ¹⁵Behold, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil. ¹⁶For I command you today to love Jehovah your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Jehovah your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it. ¹⁷But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away and worship other gods, and serve them, ¹⁸I declare to you today that you will surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it. ¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants, ²⁰to love Jehovah your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which Jehovah swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.