Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32

New American Bible (Revised Edition)

II. Second Address

A. The Lord’s Covenant with Israel

Introduction. ⁴⁴ This is the law^[a] which Moses set before the Israelites.^{(A) 45} These are the decrees, and the statutes and ordinances^[b] which Moses proclaimed to the Israelites after they came out of Egypt,^{(B) 46 (C)}beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated after they came out of Egypt.^{(D) 47} They took possession of his land and the land of Og, king of Bashan, as well—the land of these two kings of the Amorites in the region beyond the Jordan to the east: ⁴⁸ from Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon to Mount Sion^[c] (that is, Hermon) ⁴⁹ and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan to the east, as far as the Arabah Sea^[d] under the slopes of Pisgah.

Chapter 5

The Covenant at Horeb. ¹ Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances which I proclaim in your hearing this day, that you may learn them and take care to observe them.^{(E) 2} The Lord, our God, made a covenant with us at Horeb; ³ not with our ancestors^[e] did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, all of us who are alive here this day. ^4 (F)Face to face, the Lord spoke with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire,^{(G) 5} while I was standing between the Lord and you at that time, to announce to you these words of the Lord, since you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain:

The Decalogue. ^6 (H)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,^(I) out of the house of slavery. ^7 (J)You shall not have other gods beside me. ⁸ You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; ^9 [f]you shall not bow down before them or serve them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous^[g] God, bringing punishment for their parents’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation, ¹⁰ but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

¹¹ You shall not invoke the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.^(K) For the Lord will not leave unpunished anyone who invokes his name in vain.

^12 (L)Observe the sabbath day—keep it holy, as the Lord, your God, commanded you. ¹³ Six days you may labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God. You shall not do any work, either you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or donkey or any work animal, or the resident alien within your gates, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. ¹⁵ Remember that you too were once slaves in the land of Egypt, and the Lord, your God, brought you out from there with a strong hand and outstretched arm. That is why the Lord, your God, has commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

^16 (M)Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord, your God, has commanded you, that you may have a long life and that you may prosper in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

^17 (N)You shall not kill.^[h]

^18 (O)You shall not commit adultery.

^19 (P)You shall not steal.

^20 (Q)You shall not bear dishonest witness against your neighbor.

^21 (R)You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.

You shall not desire your neighbor’s house or field, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Moses as Mediator. ²² These words the Lord spoke with a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire and the dense black cloud, and added no more. He inscribed them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.^{(S) 23} But when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, you came near to me, all your tribal heads and elders, ²⁴ and said, “The Lord, our God, has indeed let us see his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire.^(T) Today we have found out that God may speak to a mortal and that person may still live. ²⁵ Now, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord, our God, any more, we shall die.^{(U) 26} For what mortal has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of fire, as we have, and lived? ²⁷ You go closer and listen to all that the Lord, our God, will say, and then tell us what the Lord, our God, tells you; we will listen and obey.”^(V)

²⁸ The Lord heard your words as you were speaking to me and said to me, I have heard the words these people have spoken to you, which are all well said.^{(W) 29} Would that they might always be of such a mind, to fear me and to keep all my commandments! Then they and their descendants would prosper forever. ³⁰ Go, tell them: Return to your tents. ³¹ Then you stand here near me and I will give you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances; you must teach them, that they may observe them in the land I am giving them to possess.^(X)

³² Be careful, therefore, to do as the Lord, your God, has commanded you, not turning aside to the right or to the left, ³³ but following exactly the way that the Lord, your God, commanded you that you may live and prosper, and may have long life in the land which you are to possess.^(Y)

Chapter 6

¹ This then is the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances,^(Z) which the Lord, your God, has commanded that you be taught to observe in the land you are about to cross into to possess, ² so that you, that is, you, your child, and your grandchild, may fear the Lord, your God, by keeping, as long as you live, all his statutes and commandments^(AA) which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life. ³ Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly; for the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.^(AB)

The Great Commandment.^{[i] 4 (AC)}Hear, O Israel!^[j] The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! ⁵ Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.^{(AD) 6 (AE)}Take to heart these words which I command you today.^{(AF) 7} Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up.^{(AG) 8} Bind them on your arm as a sign^[k] and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.^{(AH) 9} Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.^(AI)

Fidelity in Prosperity. ^10 (AJ)When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land which he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give you, a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,^{(AK) 11} with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner, with cisterns that you did not dig, with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant; and when, therefore, you eat and are satisfied,^{(AL) 12 (AM)}be careful not to forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that house of slavery. ^13 (AN)The Lord, your God, shall you fear; him shall you serve,^[l] and by his name shall you swear. ^14 (AO)You shall not go after other gods, any of the gods of the surrounding peoples— ¹⁵ for the Lord, your God who is in your midst, is a passionate God—lest the anger of the Lord, your God, flare up against you and he destroy you from upon the land.

¹⁶ You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test, as you did at Massah.^{(AP) 17} But keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, and the decrees and the statutes he has commanded you. ¹⁸ Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and you may enter in and possess the good land which the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, ¹⁹ driving all your enemies out of your way, as the Lord has promised.^(AQ)

Instruction to Children. ^20 (AR)Later on, when your son asks you, “What do these decrees and statutes and ordinances mean?”^(AS) which the Lord, our God, has enjoined on you, ^21 (AT)you shall say to your son, “We were once slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand^{(AU) 22} and wrought before our eyes signs and wonders, great and dire, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and his whole house. ²³ He brought us from there to bring us in and give us the land he had promised on oath to our ancestors.^{(AV) 24 (AW)}The Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes in fear of the Lord, our God, that we may always have as good a life as we have today. ²⁵ This is our justice before the Lord, our God: to observe carefully this whole commandment he has enjoined on us.”

Chapter 7

Destruction of the Nations in the Land. ^1 (AX)When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land which you are about to enter to possess, and removes many nations before you—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites,^(AY) seven nations more numerous and powerful than you— ² and when the Lord, your God, gives them over to you and you defeat them, you shall put them under the ban. Make no covenant with them^(AZ) and do not be gracious to them. ^3 (BA)You shall not intermarry with them, neither giving your daughters to their sons nor taking their daughters for your sons. ⁴ For they would turn your sons from following me to serving other gods, and then the anger of the Lord would flare up against you and he would quickly destroy you.

⁵ But this is how you must deal with them:^(BB) Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, chop down their asherahs,^[m] and destroy their idols by fire. ⁶ For you are a people holy to the Lord, your God; the Lord, your God, has chosen you from all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people specially his own.^{(BC) 7} It was not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you; for you are really the smallest of all peoples.^{(BD) 8} It was because the Lord loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn to your ancestors, that the Lord brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.^{(BE) 9 (BF)}Know, then, that the Lord, your God, is God: the faithful God who keeps covenant mercy to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and keep his commandments,^{(BG) 10} but who repays with destruction those who hate him; he does not delay with those who hate him, but makes them pay for it. ¹¹ Therefore carefully observe the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances which I command you today.

Blessings of Obedience. ^12 (BH)As your reward for heeding these ordinances and keeping them carefully, the Lord, your God, will keep with you the covenant mercy he promised on oath to your ancestors. ¹³ He will love and bless and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your soil, your grain and wine and oil, the young of your herds and the offspring of your flocks, in the land which he swore to your ancestors he would give you. ¹⁴ You will be blessed above all peoples; no man or woman among you shall be childless nor shall your livestock be barren. ¹⁵ The Lord will remove all sickness from you; he will not afflict you with any of the malignant diseases that you know from Egypt, but will leave them with all those who hate you.

¹⁶ You shall consume all the peoples which the Lord, your God, is giving over to you. You are not to look on them with pity, nor serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.^{(BI) 17 (BJ)}If you say to yourselves, “These nations are more numerous than we. How can we dispossess them?” ¹⁸ do not be afraid of them. Rather, remember clearly what the Lord, your God, did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ¹⁹ the great testings which your own eyes have seen, the signs and wonders, the strong hand and outstretched arm with which the Lord, your God, brought you out. The same also will he do to all the peoples of whom you are now afraid. ²⁰ Moreover, the Lord, your God, will send hornets among them, until those who are left and those who are hiding from you are destroyed.^{(BK) 21} Therefore, do not be terrified by them, for the Lord, your God, who is in your midst, is a great and awesome God. ²² He will remove these nations before you little by little. You cannot finish with them quickly, lest the wild beasts become too numerous for you.^{(BL) 23} The Lord, your God, will give them over to you and throw them into utter panic until they are destroyed.^{(BM) 24} He will deliver their kings into your power, that you may make their names perish from under the heavens. No one will be able to stand up against you,^(BN) till you have destroyed them. ^25 (BO)The images of their gods you shall destroy by fire. Do not covet the silver or gold on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord, your God.^{(BP) 26} You shall not bring any abominable thing into your house, so as to be, like it, under the ban; loathe and abhor it utterly for it is under the ban.^[n]

Chapter 8

God’s Care. ¹ Be careful to observe this whole commandment^(BQ) that I enjoin on you today, that you may live and increase, and may enter in and possess the land which the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. ² Remember how for these forty years the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the wilderness,^(BR) so as to test you by affliction, to know what was in your heart: to keep his commandments, or not. ³ He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna,^(BS) a food unknown to you and your ancestors, so you might know that it is not by bread alone^[o] that people live, but by all that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴ The clothing did not fall from you in tatters, nor did your feet swell these forty years.^{(BT) 5} So you must know in your heart that, even as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord, your God, disciplines you.^{(BU) 6} Therefore, keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, by walking in his ways and fearing him.

Cautions About Prosperity. ^7 (BV)For the Lord, your God, is bringing you into a good country, a land with streams of water, with springs and fountains welling up in the hills and valleys, ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, of olive trees and of honey, ⁹ a land where you will always have bread and where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones contain iron and in whose hills you can mine copper. ¹⁰ But when you have eaten and are satisfied, you must bless the Lord, your God, for the good land he has given you. ^11 (BW)Be careful not to forget the Lord, your God, by failing to keep his commandments and ordinances and statutes which I enjoin on you today: ¹² lest, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built fine houses and lived in them, ¹³ and your herds and flocks have increased, your silver and gold has increased, and all your property has increased, ¹⁴ you then become haughty of heart and forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that house of slavery; ¹⁵ he guided you through the vast and terrible wilderness with its saraph^[p] serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; he brought forth water for you from the flinty rock^{(BX) 16} and fed you in the wilderness with manna, a food unknown to your ancestors, that he might afflict you and test you, but also make you prosperous in the end. ¹⁷ Otherwise, you might say in your heart,^(BY) “It is my own power and the strength of my own hand that has got me this wealth.” ¹⁸ Remember then the Lord, your God, for he is the one who gives you the power to get wealth, by fulfilling, as he has now done, the covenant he swore to your ancestors. ¹⁹ But if you do forget the Lord, your God, and go after other gods, serving and bowing down to them,^(BZ) I bear witness to you this day that you will perish utterly. ²⁰ Like the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so shall you too perish for not listening to the voice of the Lord, your God.

Chapter 9

Unmerited Success. ¹ Hear, O Israel! You are now about to cross the Jordan to enter in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than yourselves, having large cities fortified to the heavens,^{(CA) 2} the Anakim, a people great and tall.^(CB) You yourselves know of them and have heard it said of them, “Who can stand up against the Anakim?” ³ Know, then, today that it is the Lord, your God, who will cross over before you as a consuming fire; he it is who will destroy them and subdue them before you, so that you can dispossess and remove them quickly, as the Lord promised you.^{(CC) 4} After the Lord, your God, has driven them out of your way, do not say in your heart, “It is because of my justice the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,^(CD) and because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord is dispossessing them before me.”^{[q] 5} No, it is not because of your justice or the integrity of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land; but it is because of their wickedness that the Lord, your God, is dispossessing these nations before you and in order to fulfill the promise he made on oath to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.^{(CE) 6} Know this, therefore: it is not because of your justice that the Lord, your God, is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.^(CF)

The Golden Calf. ⁷ Remember and do not forget how you angered the Lord, your God, in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious toward the Lord.^{(CG) 8 (CH)}At Horeb you so provoked the Lord that he was angry enough to destroy you,^{(CI) 9} when I had gone up the mountain to receive the stone tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you.^(CJ) Meanwhile I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no food and drank no water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me the two stone tablets inscribed, by God’s own finger,^(CK) with a copy of all the words that the Lord spoke to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. ¹¹ Then, at the end of the forty days and forty nights, when the Lord had given me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant, ^12 (CL)the Lord said to me, Go down from here now, quickly, for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt are acting corruptly; they have already turned aside from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a molten idol. ¹³ I have seen now how stiff-necked this people is, the Lord said to me. ¹⁴ Let me be, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens. I will then make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.

¹⁵ When I had come down again from the blazing, fiery mountain, with the two tablets of the covenant in both my hands,^{(CM) 16} I saw how you had sinned against the Lord, your God, by making for yourselves a molten calf. You had already turned aside from the way which the Lord had commanded you.^{(CN) 17} I took hold of the two tablets and with both hands cast them from me and broke them before your eyes.^{(CO) 18} Then, as before, I lay prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no food, I drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed in the sight of the Lord, doing wrong and provoking him.^{(CP) 19} For I dreaded the fierce anger of the Lord against you: his wrath would destroy you.^(CQ) Yet once again the Lord listened to me. ²⁰ With Aaron, too, the Lord was deeply angry, and would have destroyed him; but I prayed for Aaron also at that time.^{(CR) 21} Then, taking the calf, the sinful object you had made, I burnt it and ground it down to powder as fine as dust, which I threw into the wadi that went down the mountainside.^(CS)

²² At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah likewise, you enraged the Lord.^{(CT) 23} And when the Lord sent you up from Kadesh-barnea saying, Go up and take possession of the land I have given you, you rebelled against this command of the Lord, your God, and would not believe him or listen to his voice.^{(CU) 24} You have been rebels against the Lord from the day I first knew you.

^25 (CV)Those forty days, then, and forty nights, I lay prostrate before the Lord, because he had threatened to destroy you. ²⁶ And I prayed to the Lord and said: O Lord God, do not destroy your people, the heritage you redeemed in your greatness and have brought out of Egypt with your strong hand.^{(CW) 27} Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look upon the stubbornness of this people nor upon their wickedness and sin,^{(CX) 28} lest the land from which you have brought us say, “The Lord was not able to bring them into the land he promised them, and out of hatred for them, he brought them out to let them die in the wilderness.”^{(CY) 29} They are your people and your heritage, whom you have brought out by your great power and with your outstretched arm.^(CZ)

Chapter 10

^1 (DA)At that time the Lord said to me, Cut two stone tablets like the first ones^(DB) and come up the mountain to me. Also make an ark out of wood. ² I will write upon the tablets the words that were on the tablets that you broke, and you shall place them in the ark. ³ So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.^{(DC) 4 (DD)}The Lord then wrote on the tablets, as he had written before, the ten words^[r] that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and placed the tablets in the ark I had made.^(DE) There they have remained, as the Lord commanded me.

^6 (DF)The Israelites set out from Beeroth Bene-jaakan for Moserah; Aaron died there and was buried. His son Eleazar succeeded him as priest.^{(DG) 7} From there they set out for Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah for Jotbathah, a region where there is water in the wadies. ⁸ At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord,^(DH) to stand before the Lord to minister to him, and to bless in his name, as they have done to this day. ⁹ For this reason, Levi has no hereditary portion with his relatives;^(DI) the Lord himself is his portion, as the Lord, your God, promised him.

¹⁰ Meanwhile I stayed on the mountain as I did before, forty days and forty nights, and once again the Lord listened to me. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. ¹¹ The Lord said to me, Go now and set out at the head of the people,^(DJ) that they may enter in and possess the land that I swore to their ancestors I would give them.

The Lord’s Majesty and Compassion. ^12 (DK)Now, therefore, Israel, what does the Lord, your God, ask of you but to fear the Lord, your God, to follow in all his ways, to love and serve the Lord, your God, with your whole heart and with your whole being,^{(DL) 13} to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord that I am commanding you today for your own well-being?^{(DM) 14} Look, the heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the Lord, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it.^{(DN) 15} Yet only on your ancestors did the Lord set his heart to love them. He chose you, their descendants, from all the peoples, as it is today.^{(DO) 16} Circumcise therefore the foreskins of your hearts,^[s] and be stiff-necked no longer. ¹⁷ For the Lord, your God, is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes,^{(DP) 18} who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and loves the resident alien, giving them food and clothing.^{(DQ) 19} So you too should love the resident alien, for that is what you were in the land of Egypt.^{(DR) 20} The Lord, your God, shall you fear, and him shall you serve; to him hold fast and by his name shall you swear.^{(DS) 21} He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you those great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen.^{(DT) 22} Seventy strong your ancestors went down to Egypt,^(DU) and now the Lord, your God, has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Chapter 11

Recalling the Wonders of the Lord. ¹ Love the Lord, your God, therefore, and keep his charge, statutes, ordinances, and commandments always.^{(DV) 2} Recall today that it was not your children, who have neither known nor seen the discipline of the Lord, your God—his greatness, his strong hand and outstretched arm;^{(DW) 3} the signs and deeds he wrought in the midst of Egypt, on Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and on all his land;^{(DX) 4} what he did to the Egyptian army and to their horses and chariots, engulfing them in the waters of the Red Sea^[t] as they pursued you,^(DY) so that the Lord destroyed them even to this day; ⁵ what he did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and what he did to the Reubenites Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up out of the midst of Israel, with their families and tents and every living thing that belonged to them—^{(DZ) 7} but it was you who saw with your own eyes all these great deeds that the Lord has done.

The Gift of Rain. ^8 (EA)So keep all the commandments I give you today, that you may be strong enough to enter in and take possession of the land that you are crossing over to possess, ⁹ and that you may have long life on the land which the Lord swore to your ancestors he would give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ The land you are to enter and possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you would sow your seed and then water it by hand,^[u] as in a vegetable garden. ^11 (EB)No, the land into which you are crossing to take possession is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in rain from the heavens, ¹² a land which the Lord, your God, looks after; the eyes of the Lord, your God, are upon it continually through the year, from beginning to end.

^13 [v](EC)If, then, you truly listen to my commandments which I give you today, loving and serving the Lord, your God, with your whole heart and your whole being, ¹⁴ I will give the seasonal rain to your land, the early rain^[w] and the late rain, that you may have your grain, wine and oil to gather in; ¹⁵ and I will bring forth grass in your fields for your animals. Thus you may eat and be satisfied. ^16 (ED)But be careful lest your heart be so lured away that you serve other gods and bow down to them.^{(EE) 17} For then the anger of the Lord will flare up against you and he will close up the heavens, so that no rain will fall, and the soil will not yield its crops, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you.

Need for Fidelity. ^18 (EF)Therefore, take these words of mine into your heart and soul. Bind them on your arm as a sign, and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, speaking of them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up, ²⁰ and write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates, ²¹ so that, as long as the heavens are above the earth, you and your children may live on in the land which the Lord swore to your ancestors he would give them.

^22 (EG)For if you are careful to observe this entire commandment I am giving you, loving the Lord, your God, following his ways exactly, and holding fast to him, ²³ the Lord will dispossess all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. ^24 (EH)Every place where you set foot shall be yours: from the wilderness and the Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea,^[x] shall be your territory. ²⁵ None shall stand up against you; the Lord, your God, will spread the fear and dread of you through any land where you set foot, as he promised you.^(EI)

Blessing and Curse. ^26 (EJ)See, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: ²⁷ a blessing for obeying the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I give you today; ²⁸ a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, but turn aside from the way I command you today, to go after other gods, whom you do not know.^{(EK) 29} When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land which you are to enter and possess, then on Mount Gerizim you shall pronounce the blessing,^(EL) on Mount Ebal, the curse.^{[y] 30} (These are beyond the Jordan, on the other side of the western road in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal beside the oak of Moreh.)^{(EM) 31} Now you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and possess the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you. When, therefore, you take possession of it and settle there, ³² be careful to observe all the statutes and ordinances that I set before you today.