The Altar on Mount Ebal

27 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: “Keep all these commandsw that I give you today. 2 When you have crossed the Jordanx into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stonesy and coat them with plaster.z 3 Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey,a just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. 4 And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal,b as I command you today, and coat them with plaster. 5 Build there an altarc to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron toold on them. 6 Build the altar of the Lord your God with fieldstones and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. 7 Sacrifice fellowship offeringse there, eating them and rejoicingf in the presence of the Lord your God.g 8 And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stonesh you have set up.”i

Curses From Mount Ebal

9 Then Moses and the Leviticalj priests said to all Israel, “Be silent, Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God.k 10 Obey the Lord your God and follow his commands and decrees that I give you today.”

11 On the same day Moses commanded the people:

12 When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Geriziml to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar,m Joseph and Benjamin.n 13 And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebalo to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali.

14 The Levites shall recite to all the people of Israel in a loud voice:

15 “Cursed is anyone who makes an idolp—a thing detestableq to the Lord, the work of skilled hands—and sets it up in secret.”

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”r

16 “Cursed is anyone who dishonors their father or mother.”s

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

17 “Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor’s boundary stone.”t

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

18 “Cursed is anyone who leads the blind astray on the road.”u

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

19 “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner,v the fatherless or the widow.”w

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

20 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he dishonors his father’s bed.”x

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

21 “Cursed is anyone who has sexual relations with any animal.”y

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

22 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.”z

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

23 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his mother-in-law.”a

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

24 “Cursed is anyone who killsb their neighbor secretly.”c

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

25 “Cursed is anyone who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.”d

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

26 “Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.”e

Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”f

Blessings for Obedience

28 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully followg all his commandsh I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.i 2 All these blessings will come on youj and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:

3 You will be blessedk in the city and blessed in the country.l

4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.m

5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.n

7 The Lord will grant that the enemieso who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.p

8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will blessq you in the land he is giving you.

9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people,r as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commandss of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the namet of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestocku and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.v

12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehousew of his bounty,x to send rainy on your land in season and to blessz all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.a 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully followb them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.c 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left,d following other gods and serving them.

Curses for Disobedience

15 However, if you do not obeye the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today,f all these curses will come on you and overtake you:g

16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.h

17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.i

18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.j

19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.k

20 The Lord will send on you curses,l confusion and rebukem in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruinn because of the evilo you have done in forsaking him.a 21 The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess.p 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting disease,q with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought,r with blights and mildew, which will plaguet you until you perish.u 23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron.v 24 The Lord will turn the rainw of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.

25 The Lord will cause you to be defeatedx before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven,y and you will become a thing of horrorz to all the kingdoms on earth.a 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birdsb and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away.c 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egyptd and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29 At midday you will gropee about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescuef you.

30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her.g You will build a house, but you will not live in it.h You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.i 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation,j and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. 33 A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppressionk all your days.l 34 The sights you see will drive you mad.m 35 The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boilsn that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.o

36 The Lord will drive you and the kingp you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors.q There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone.r 37 You will become a thing of horror,s a bywordt and an object of ridiculeu among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.v

38 You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little,w because locustsx will devoury it. 39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the winez or gather the grapes, because worms will eata them.b 40 You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off.c 41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity.d 42 Swarms of locustse will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.

43 The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower.f 44 They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them.g They will be the head, but you will be the tail.h

45 All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake youi until you are destroyed,j because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. 46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.k 47 Because you did not servel the Lord your God joyfully and gladlym in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst,n in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yokeo on your neckp until he has destroyed you.

49 The Lord will bring a nation against youq from far away, from the ends of the earth,r like an eagles swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand,t 50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the oldu or pity for the young. 51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new winev or olive oil,w nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined.x 52 They will lay siegey to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.z

53 Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you.a 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities.b 56 The most gentle and sensitivec woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughterd 57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat theme secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.

58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law,f which are written in this book, and do not revereg this glorious and awesome nameh—the Lord your God—59 the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60 He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypti that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law,j until you are destroyed.k 62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the skyl will be left but fewm in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63 Just as it pleasedn the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will pleaseo him to ruin and destroy you.p You will be uprootedq from the land you are entering to possess.

64 Then the Lord will scatterr you among all nations,s from one end of the earth to the other.t There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.u 65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting placev for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyesw weary with longing, and a despairing heart.x 66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.y 68 The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again.z There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.

Renewal of the Covenant

29 a These are the terms of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab,a in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb.b

2 Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them:

Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land.c 3 With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders.d 4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.e 5 Yet the Lord says, “During the forty years that I ledf you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.g 6 You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink.h I did this so that you might know that I am the Lord your God.”i

7 When you reached this place, Sihonj king of Heshbonk and Og king of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them.l 8 We took their land and gave it as an inheritancem to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.n

9 Carefully followo the terms of this covenant,p so that you may prosper in everything you do.q 10 All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God—your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, 11 together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water.r 12 You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, 13 to confirm you this day as his people,s that he may be your Godt as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 14 I am making this covenant,u with its oath, not only with you 15 who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today.v

16 You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. 17 You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold.w 18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turnsx away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.y

19 When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessingz on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,”a they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. 20 The Lord will never be willing to forgiveb them; his wrath and zealc will burnd against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blote out their names from under heaven. 21 The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster,f according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.g

22 Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it.h 23 The whole land will be a burning wastei of saltj and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,k Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger.l 24 All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land?m Why this fierce, burning anger?”

25 And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.n 26 They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. 27 Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.o 28 In furious anger and in great wrathp the Lord uprootedq them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”

29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God,r but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.s