The LORD affirmed this day that you are his prized possession. Therefore, observe his commands,

so he may elevate you far above all the nations that he has made. Then you will live to the praise, fame, and glory of God, and so be a nation that is holy to the LORD your God, as he has promised."

Moses and the elders of Israel gave these orders to the people: "Observe all of the commandments that I'm giving you today.

On the day you cross over the Jordan River to the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, set up large stones and coat them with plaster.

Then inscribe on them all the words of this Law when you've crossed over into the land that the LORD your God is about to give you a land flowing with milk and honey just as the LORD God of your ancestors promised you.

Then build an altar there to the LORD your God, an altar of stones that hasn't been worked with iron tools.

Build the altar to the LORD your God with uncut stones, then offer a burnt offering to him.

Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to Israel. They said, "Be quiet and listen, Israel! Today you have become the people of the LORD your God.

Listen to his voice and carry out his commands and statutes that I'm giving you today."

Moses gave the people these commands that day:

"When you cross the Jordan River, these tribes are to stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.

The tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali are to stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce the curse.

The descendants of Levi are to declare in a loud voice to every Israeli:

""Cursed is the one who makes a sculptured or cast image a detestable thing to the LORD, the work of a craftsman and sets it up secretly.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

""Cursed is the one who treats his father and mother with dishonor.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

""Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor's boundary stone.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

""Cursed is the one who misleads a blind person on the road.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

""Cursed is the one who perverts justice due the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

"Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his father's wife, because he has disgraced his father.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

""Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with any animal.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

""Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his sister, the daughter of his father or mother.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

""Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

""Cursed is one who strikes his neighbor secretly.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

""Cursed is one who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

""Cursed is the one who doesn't uphold the words of this Law and observe them.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'"

"Indeed, if you diligently obey the LORD your God to carry out all his commands that I'm giving you today, then the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

"The LORD will make your enemies, who rise against you and attack from one direction, to flee from you in seven directions.

"The LORD will send blessings for you with regard to your barns and everything you undertake. Indeed, he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is about to give you.

"The LORD will assign you to be a holy people for himself, just as he promised you, as long as you keep his commands and walk in his ways.

"The LORD will show his abundant goodness with respect to your children, the offspring of your animals, and the produce of your farmland that he promised your ancestors he would give you.

"The LORD will open his rich treasury, the heavens, to release rain upon your land in season and bless everything you undertake so that you'll lend to many nations but won't borrow.

"The LORD your God will make you the head and not the tail placing you above and not beneath if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I'm giving you today to keep and observe.

Do not deviate from any of his commands that I'm giving you today neither to the right nor the left to follow and serve other gods."

"But if you don't obey the LORD your God and faithfully carry out all his commands and statutes that I'm giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you:

The LORD will cause you to be ill with long-lasting diseases until you are wiped out from the land that you are entering to possess.

The LORD will change the rain on your land to powder and dust. It will come down from the sky until you are exterminated."

"The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You'll go out against them in one direction, but you'll flee from them in seven directions. Consequently, you'll be in a state of great terror throughout all the kingdoms of the earth.

Your dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, with no one to chase them away.

As a result, you'll wander aimlessly in broad daylight just as a blind person wanders in darkness. You won't prosper in life. Instead, you'll be oppressed and plundered all day long, with no deliverer.

"You'll be engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You'll build a house, but you won't live in it. You'll plant a vineyard, but you won't harvest it.

Your ox will be slaughtered in front of you, and you won't be able to eat it. Your donkey will be stolen from you while you watch and won't be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be handed to your enemies, and there will be no deliverer.

Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you watch. You won't be able to approach them at all, and you'll be powerless to help.

"A people whom you don't know will devour what your land and labor produces. You'll be only oppressed and discouraged continuously

"The LORD will afflict you with incurable boils on your knees and legs, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

"The LORD will banish you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you'll serve other gods of wood and stone.

You'll plant a vineyard, but you won't drink wine or harvest any grapes because worms will consume it.

You'll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won't be able to anoint yourself with oil because the olives will drop off the trees.

You'll bear sons and daughters, but they won't belong to you because they'll go into captivity.

He will lend to you, but you won't lend to him. He'll be the head, but you'll be the tail.

All these curses will come upon you and will overwhelm you until you are exterminated, because you didn't obey the LORD your God to keep his commands and statutes, which he had commanded you.

"Because you didn't serve the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly, despite the abundance of everything you have,

it will be a nation whose language you don't understand, whose stern appearance neither shows regard nor extends grace to anyone whether old or young.

The most tender and sensitive lady among you, who doesn't venture to touch the soles of her feet to the ground on account of her daintiness, will look with hostility in her eyes against her beloved husband, her sons, and her daughters.

"If you aren't careful to observe all the words of this Law that have been written in this book, instructing you to fear this glorious and awesome name of the LORD your God,

He will inflict on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they won't be curable.

Just as the LORD delighted to prosper and increase you, so now the LORD will delight to destroy, exterminate, and banish you from the land that you are about to enter to possess."

"He'll scatter you among the nations from one end of the earth to the other, and there you'll serve other gods made of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.

You'll cling to life, being fearful by both night and day, with no assurance of survival.

Finally, the LORD will bring you back to Egypt by ship, a place that I said you'd never see again. There you'll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you."

These are the terms of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelis in the land of Moab in addition to the covenant that he made with them in Horeb.

Moses called all Israel together and addressed them: "You saw everything that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to his whole country.

Yet to this day, the LORD hasn't given you a heart that understands, eyes that perceive, and ears that discern.

You didn't have bread to eat or wine or anything intoxicating to drink, so that you would learn that I am the LORD your God.

Then you reached this place, where King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan had come out to meet and fight with us, but we defeated them.

We captured their land and handed it as an inheritance to the descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh.

Therefore, keep the terms of this covenant, carrying them out so that you'll be wise in everything you do."

to enter into a covenant with the LORD your God and into the oath that he is about to make with you today,

so that he will elevate you to be a people for him. And he will be God to you, just as he promised you and swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

but with whoever is here with us standing in the presence of the LORD our God today, as well as with those who aren't here with us today."

Be alert so there is no man, woman, family, or a tribe whose heart is turning away from the LORD your God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Be alert so there will be no root among you that produces poisonous and bitter fruit,

because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he will bless himself and say: "I will have a peaceful life, even though I'm determined to be stubborn.' By doing this he will be sweeping away both watered and parched ground alike.'

"The LORD won't forgive such a person. Instead, the zealous anger of the LORD will blaze against him. All the curses that were written in this book will fall on him. Then the LORD will wipe out his memory from under heaven.

The LORD will set him apart from all the tribes of Israel for destruction, according to the curses of the covenant that were written in this Book of the Law."

"Then the generation to come your descendants after you and the foreigners who come from afar will see plagues and illnesses infecting the land that the LORD will inflict on it.

All the nations will ask, "Why did the LORD do this to this land? What is the meaning of this fierce and great anger?'

"Because they've abandoned the covenant of their LORD, the God of their ancestors that he had made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshipped other gods whom they had not known and whom he did not assign to them.

For this reason, the anger of the LORD raged against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that were written in this book.

The LORD uprooted them from the land in his anger, wrath, and great fury, deporting them to another land, and that's the way things are today.'

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but what has been revealed belongs to us and to our children forever, so that we might observe the words of this Law."

"When all these things happen to you both the blessings and the curses that I've presented to you and you take them seriously in all the nations where the LORD your God will deport you,

and when you you and your descendants, that is will have returned to him and obeyed all the commands that I'm giving you today with all your heart and soul,

then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and will show compassion to you. He will gather you from among the nations where he had scattered you.

Even if the LORD had banished you to the ends of the heavens, the LORD your God will gather you from there

and he'll bring you to the land that your ancestors inherited. You'll possess it, you'll prosper, and you'll greatly multiply more than your ancestors did.

and the LORD your God will prosper you abundantly in all that you do, along with your children, your livestock, and the produce of your fields, because the LORD your God will again be delighted with you for good, just as he was delighted with your ancestors,

if you obey him and keep his commands and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you return to him with all your heart and soul.

They aren't in the heavens, so you have to ask, "Who'll go up to the heavens for us and get it for us so we can hear it and act on it?'

And they aren't beyond the seas either, so you have to ask, "Who'll cross the sea and get it for us so we can hear it and act on it?'

No, the word is very near you it's within your mouth and heart for you to attain."

That's why I'm commanding you today to love the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by observing his commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live long, increase, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are about to enter to possess.

But if you turn your heart away, and do not obey, but instead if you stray away to worship and serve other gods,

I'm declaring to you today that you will surely be destroyed. You won't live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan River to enter and possess.

I call heaven and earth to testify against you today! I've set life and death before you today: both blessings and curses. Choose life, that it may be well with you you and your children.

Love the LORD your God, obey his voice, and cling to him, because he is your life even your long life so that you may live in the land that the LORD promised to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

Moses went and explained these things to everyone in Israel.

Then he concluded, "I'm now 120 years old. I'm not able to get around anymore,

and the LORD told me, "You won't be crossing the Jordan River.' But the LORD your God is crossing over before you. He will destroy these nations in front of you and you will dispossess them. As for Joshua, he will cross over before you, just as the LORD promised.

The LORD will do to them just as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land when he destroyed them.

The LORD will hand them over to you, so you can do to them what I've instructed you to do.

Be strong and courageous. Don't fear or tremble before them, because the LORD your God will be the one who keeps on walking with you he won't leave you or abandon you."