Deuteronomy 27–30

The Altar on Mount Ebal

27The elders of Israel and I gave commands to the people. We said, “Obey all of the commands we’re giving you today.

²“You will go across the Jordan River. You will enter the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you do, set up some large stones. Put a coat of plaster on them. ³Write all of the words of this law on them. Do it when you have crossed over into the land the Lord your God is giving you. It’s a land that has plenty of milk and honey. The Lord is the God of your fathers. He promised you that you would enter the land. ⁴After you have gone across the Jordan, set up those stones on Mount Ebal. Put a coat of plaster on them. We’re commanding you today to do that.

⁵“Build an altar there to honor the Lord your God. Make it out of stones. Don’t use any iron tool on them. ⁶Use stones you find in the fields to build his altar. Then offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. ⁷Sacrifice friendship offerings there. Eat them and be filled with joy in the sight of the Lord your God.

⁸“You must write all of the words of this law on the stones you have set up. Write the words very clearly.”

Curses for Not Obeying the Lord

⁹Then the priests, who are Levites, and I spoke to all of the people of Israel. We said, “Israel, be quiet! Listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God. ¹⁰Obey him. Follow his commands and rules that we’re giving you today.”

¹¹Here are the commands I gave the people that very day.

¹²You will go across the Jordan River. When you do, I want six tribes to stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people. Those tribes are Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. ¹³I want the other six tribes to stand on Mount Ebal to announce some curses. Those tribes are Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali.

¹⁴The Levites will speak to all of the people of Israel in a loud voice. They will say,

¹⁵“May any man who makes a wooden or metal statue of a god and sets it up in secret be under the Lord’s curse. That statue is made by a skilled worker. And the Lord hates it.”

Then all of the people will say, “Amen!”

¹⁶“May anyone who brings shame on his father or mother be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all of the people will say, “Amen!”

¹⁷“May anyone who moves his neighbor’s boundary stone be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all of the people will say, “Amen!”

¹⁸“May anyone who leads blind people down the wrong road be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all of the people will say, “Amen!”

¹⁹“May anyone who isn’t fair in the way he treats outsiders, widows, and children whose fathers have died be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all of the people will say, “Amen!”

²⁰“May any man who has sex with his stepmother be under the Lord’s curse. That man brings shame on his father by doing that.”

Then all of the people will say, “Amen!”

²¹“May anyone who has sex with animals be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all of the people will say, “Amen!”

²²“May any man who has sex with his sister be under the Lord’s curse. It doesn’t matter whether she is his full sister or his half sister.”

Then all of the people will say, “Amen!”

²³“May any man who has sex with his mother-in-law be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all of the people will say, “Amen!”

²⁴“May anyone who kills his neighbor secretly be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all of the people will say, “Amen!”

²⁵“May anyone who accepts money to kill someone who isn’t guilty of doing anything wrong be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all of the people will say, “Amen!”

²⁶“May anyone who doesn’t honor the words of this law by obeying them be under the Lord’s curse.”

Then all of the people will say, “Amen!”

Blessings for Obeying the Lord

28Make sure you obey the Lord your God completely. Be careful to follow all of his commands. I’m giving them to you today. If you do those things, the Lord will honor you more than all of the other nations on earth. ²If you obey the Lord your God, here are the blessings that will come to you and remain with you.

³You will be blessed in the cities. You will be blessed out in the country.

⁴Your children will be blessed. Your crops will be blessed. The young animals among your livestock will be blessed. That includes your calves and lambs.

⁵Your baskets and bread pans will be blessed.

⁶You will be blessed no matter where you go.

⁷Enemies will rise up against you. But the Lord will help you win the battle over them. They will come at you from one direction. But they’ll run away from you in seven directions.

⁸The Lord your God will bless your barns with plenty of grain and other food. He will bless everything you do. He’ll bless you in the land he’s giving you.

⁹The Lord your God will make you his holy people. He will set you apart for himself. He took an oath and promised to do that. He promised to do it if you would keep his commands and live exactly as he wants you to live. ¹⁰All of the nations on earth will see that you belong to the Lord. And they will be afraid of you.

¹¹The Lord will give you more than you need. You will have many children. Your livestock will have many little ones. Your crops will do very well. All of that will happen in the land he promised with an oath to your fathers to give you.

¹²The Lord will open up the heavens. That’s where he stores his riches. He will send rain on your land at just the right time. He’ll bless everything you do. You will lend money to many nations. But you won’t have to borrow from any of them. ¹³The Lord your God will make you leaders, not followers.

Pay attention to his commands that I’m giving you today. Be careful to follow them. Then you will always be on top. You will never be on the bottom.

¹⁴Don’t turn away from any of the commands I’m giving you today. Don’t turn to the right or the left. Don’t follow other gods. Don’t worship them.

More Curses for Not Obeying the Lord

¹⁵But suppose you don’t obey the Lord your God. And you aren’t careful to follow all of his commands and rules I’m giving you today. Then he will send curses on you. They’ll catch up with you. Here are those curses.

¹⁶You will be cursed in the cities. You will be cursed out in the country.

¹⁷Your baskets and bread pans will be cursed.

¹⁸Your children will be cursed. Your crops will be cursed. Your calves and lambs will be cursed.

¹⁹You will be cursed no matter where you go.

²⁰The Lord will send curses on you. You won’t know what’s going on. In everything you do, he will be angry with you. You will be destroyed suddenly and completely. That will happen because you did an evil thing when you deserted the Lord.

²¹He will send all kinds of sicknesses on you. He’ll send them until he has destroyed you. He’ll remove you from the land you are entering to take as your own. ²²The Lord will make you sick and very weak. He will strike you with fever and swelling. He’ll send burning heat. There won’t be any rain. The hot winds will completely dry up your crops. All of those things will happen until you die.

²³The sky above you will be like bronze. The ground beneath you will be like iron. ²⁴The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder. It will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.

²⁵The Lord will help your enemies win the battle over you. You will come at them from one direction. But you will run away from them in seven directions. You will look so bad that all of the kingdoms on earth will be completely shocked when they see you. ²⁶Birds and wild animals will eat up your dead bodies. There won’t be anyone left to scare them away.

²⁷The Lord will send boils on you, just like the ones he sent on the Egyptians. You will have growths in your bodies and boils on your skin. You will itch all over. No one will be able to heal you.

²⁸The Lord will make you lose your mind. He will make you blind. You won’t know what’s going on. ²⁹Even at noon you will have to feel your way around like a blind person in the dark. You won’t have success in anything you do. Day after day you will be robbed and beaten down. No one will be able to save you.

³⁰You and a woman will promise to get married to each other. But another man will take her and rape her. You will build a house. But you won’t live in it. You will plant a vineyard. But you won’t eat a single grape from it. ³¹Your ox will be killed right in front of your eyes. But you won’t eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you by force. And you will never get it back. Your sheep will be given to your enemies. No one will be able to save them.

³²Your children will be given to another nation. Day after day you will watch for them to come back. But you will only wear out your eyes. You won’t be able to help your children.

³³A nation you don’t know anything about will eat what you work to produce on your land. You will be completely beaten down as long as you live. ³⁴The things you see will make you lose your mind. ³⁵The Lord will send painful boils on your knees and legs. No one will be able to heal them. They will cover you from head to toe.

³⁶The Lord will drive you out of the land. And he will drive out the king you place over you. All of you will go to a nation you and your people long ago didn’t know anything about. There you will worship other gods. They will be made out of wood and stone. ³⁷You will look very bad to all of the nations where the Lord sends you. They will be completely shocked when they see you. They will laugh at you and make fun of you.

³⁸You will plant many seeds in your field. But you will gather very little food. Locusts will eat it up. ³⁹You will plant vineyards and take care of them. But you won’t drink the wine. You won’t gather the grapes. Worms will eat them up. ⁴⁰You will have olive trees through your whole country. But you won’t use the oil. The olives will drop off the trees. ⁴¹You will have children. But you won’t be able to keep them. They’ll be taken away as prisoners. ⁴²Large numbers of locusts will eat up the leaves on all of your trees. They will also eat up the crops on your land.

⁴³Outsiders who…