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These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.
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And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: "You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land,
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the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders.
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But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.
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I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet.
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You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.
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And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them.
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We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites.
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Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
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"You are standing today all of you before the LORD your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel,
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your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water,
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so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the LORD your God, which the LORD your God is making with you today,
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that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
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It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant,
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but with whomever is standing here with us today before the LORD our God, and with whomever is not here with us today.
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"You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed.
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And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them.
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Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit,
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one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.' This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.
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The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven.
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And the LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
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And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, will say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the LORD has made it sick-
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the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger and wrath-
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all the nations will say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?'
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Then people will say, 'It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt,
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and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them.
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Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book,
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and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.'
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"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
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"And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you,
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and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul,
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then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.
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If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.
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And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.
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And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
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And the LORD your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you.
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And you shall again obey the voice of the LORD and keep all his commandments that I command you today.
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The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers,
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when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
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"For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.
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It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?'
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Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?'
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But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
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"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.
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If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.
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But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,
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I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.
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I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,
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loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."
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In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach,
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until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
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To them he presented himself alive after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
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And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me;
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for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
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So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
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He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
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But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
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And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
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And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,
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and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
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Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.
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And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James.
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All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
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In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said,
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"Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
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For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry."
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(Now this man bought a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.
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And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
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"For it is written in the Book of Psalms, "' May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it'; and "'Let another take his office.'
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So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
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beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us- one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection."
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And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias.
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And they prayed and said, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen
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to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place."
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And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
