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Deuteronomy 29 · a question people ask

"The LORD will not pardon him" (29:20). Is there no way back?

In the text

The verse is about the one Moses has just described: someone "whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations" (29:18), who hears "the words of this curse" and tells himself, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart" (29:19). Of him Moses says, "The LORD will not pardon him, but then the LORD’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man" (29:20). The chapter speaks of one who goes on in his own way while counting himself safe. It doesn't speak here of one who turns back. The next chapter speaks of the people turning: when they "return to the LORD your God and obey his voice" (30:2), "the LORD your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you" (30:3). The text doesn't say how 29:20 and 30:2-3 fit together for one person, and doesn't set them against each other.

The verses

“and return to the LORD 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, that then the LORD your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.”
Deuteronomy 30:2-3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Deuteronomy 29

Deuteronomy 29: A heart to know

Israel had seen every sign in Egypt, and Moses still said, "the LORD has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day" (29:4). Seeing wonders didn't give a heart to know. And the covenant in Moab was made "with those who stand here with us today… and also with those who are not here with us today" (29:15).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions