The Altar on Mount Ebal

27 Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep the whole commandment that I command you today. 2 And on the day syou cross over the Jordan to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. 3 tAnd you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, ua land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 4 And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, von Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. 5 And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. wYou shall wield no iron tool on them; 6 you shall build an altar to the Lord your God of uncut1 stones. And you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God, 7 and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and xshall eat there, and you xshall rejoice before the Lord your God. 8 And yyou shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”

Curses from Mount Ebal

9 Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, “Keep silence and hear, O Israel: zthis day you have become the people of the Lord your God. 10 You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.”

11 That day Moses charged the people, saying, 12 “When you have crossed over the Jordan, athese shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13 And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14 And bthe Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel in a loud voice:

15 c“ ‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ dAnd all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’

16 e“ ‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

17 f“ ‘Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

18 g“ ‘Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

19 h“ ‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

20 i“ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his father’s wife, because he has juncovered his father’s nakedness.’2 And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

21 k“ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with any kind of animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

22 l“ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

23 m“ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

24 n“ ‘Cursed be anyone who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

25 o“ ‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

26 p“ ‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

The Covenant Renewed in Moab

29 1 These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel cin the land of Moab, besides dthe covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.

2 2 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: e“You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 3 the great ftrials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 But to this day gthe Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. 5 hI have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. 6 iYou have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. 7 And when you came to this place, jSihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and kgave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. 9 lTherefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper3 in all that you do.

10 “You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God: the heads of your tribes,4 your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones, your wives, and the msojourner who is in your camp, from nthe one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, 12 so that you may enter into the osworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, 13 that he may pestablish you today as his people, and that qhe may be your God, as he promised you, and ras he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 It is not with you alone sthat I am making this sworn covenant, 15 but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, tand with whoever is not here with us today.

16 “You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. 17 And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. 18 Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you ua root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, 19 one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. 20 The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather vthe anger of the Lord and whis jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord xwill blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. 22 And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, ywill say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick— 23 the whole land burned out with brimstone and zsalt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, aan overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, bAdmah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath— 24 all the nations cwill say, d‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’ 25 Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, 26 and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. 27 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, ebringing upon it all the curses written in this book, 28 and the Lord fuprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and gcast them into another land, as they are this day.’

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

Repentance and Forgiveness

30 h“And iwhen all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and jyou call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and kreturn to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the Lord your God lwill restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will mgather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 nIf your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your …