The covenant enacted in chs. 29—30 was the covenant which Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, after the rehearsal of the law and the word of warning with the blessings and the curses. It was a covenant besides the one He made with them at Horeb, that is, at Mount Sinai. The warning was to remind the people, whereas the enactment of the covenant was to establish the warning.

Because the children of Israel were rebellious in the wilderness, they were in darkness and thus did not understand what God was doing with them.

According to the reading of the Septuagint; the Hebrew text reads, your leaders, your tribes.

God’s unique concern regarding Israel was that they would turn away from Him and serve idols (Jer. 2:13; cf. 1 John 5:21). This would be an insult to God, and it would cause Him to punish the people severely.

The root here refers to a rebellious person who rises up from among the people, similar to those mentioned in Acts 20:30.

Or, curse. So also in vv. 20-21.

A Hebrew idiom indicating destruction of everything in his path.

This indicates that we should take care of the revealed things and not seek the hidden things. For the children of Israel here, the things revealed were the law, the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances. They were to take care of these things so that they might do all the words of the law.