If they would keep the words of the covenant and do them, they would live and be blessed, prosper in all things, multiply, and prolong their days (Deut. 29:9; 30:16, 20). Jehovah God is the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments, but repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them (Deut. 7:9-10). Therefore, if they would keep the words of the covenant and do them, God would love them and bless them that they might be blessed in the good land which they would enter to possess. They would be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. The fruit of their body would be blessed, and the fruit of their ground, and the fruit of their beasts, the increase of their cattle, and the young of their flock. They would be blessed when they came in and blessed when they went out. They would be blessed everywhere and in everything (Deut. 28:3-6). Moreover, they would be able to prevail against all their enemies and settle down in the good land of Canaan which God promised to give to their fathers (Deut. 28:7-8).
If the children of Israel would turn away in their heart from Jehovah their God to disobey the words of His covenant and if they would be enticed to worship and serve other gods, Jehovah would not forgive them; His anger and His jealousy would smoke against them, and all the curse that was written in the book of the law would lie upon them that they might suffer calamities (Deut. 29:18, 20-21). They would be cursed when they went out and cursed when they came in. They would be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. The fruit of their body would be cursed, and the fruit of their ground, the increase of their cattle, and the young of their flock. They would be cursed everywhere and in everything (Deut. 28:16-19). Jehovah would root them out of their land, cast them into another land, and scatter them among the nations (Deut. 29:28; 30:1, 3). How strict God is toward those who forsake Him and His covenant! He is truly fearsome (2 Cor. 5:11), for He is a jealous God (Exo. 20:5) and a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29).
If the children of Israel would take God’s word of blessing to heart in the land of captivity, and if they would return to Jehovah their God and obey His voice with all their heart and with all their soul, Jehovah God would return and have compassion upon them, restoring them and gathering them from all the peoples where He had scattered them. Even if they were in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there God would gather them and bring them back. He would bring them into the good land which their fathers possessed, and He would do them good and multiply them above their fathers (Deut. 30:1-5). This is because Jehovah is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth; He keeps lovingkindness for thousands and forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin (Exo. 34:6-7a). He says, “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer” (Isa. 54:7-8). For His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime; weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning (Psa. 30:5).
After He would gather them and bring them back from the land of captivity, God would circumcise the heart of the returned ones and the heart of their descendants to love Jehovah their God with all their heart and with all their soul and to obey His voice. Moreover, He would make them plenteous in all the work of their hand, in the fruit of their body, and in the fruit of their cattle, and in the fruit of their ground, for good; for God would again rejoice over them for good, as He rejoiced over their fathers (Deut. 30:6-10).
The new generation of the children of Israel, like their fathers, turned away from God through all their generations. They disobeyed all the commandments, statutes, and judgments contained in the two covenants which God made with them at Mount Sinai and in the land of Moab. Although Jehovah God warned them through the prophets to turn from their evil ways, they would not hear, but hardened their neck and would not believe in Jehovah their God. Moreover, they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He made with their fathers, and His warnings with which He warned them; they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations that were around them; and they did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, provoking Him to anger (2 Kings 17:13-17).