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