These are the terms of the covenant the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites while they were in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Mount Sinai.
Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them, "You have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and his whole country--
all the great tests of strength, the miraculous signs, and the amazing wonders.
But to this day the LORD has not given you minds that understand, nor eyes that see, nor ears that hear!
For forty years I led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out.
You had no bread or wine or other strong drink, but he gave you food so you would know that he is the LORD your God.
When we came here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them.
We took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and to the half-tribe of Manasseh as their inheritance.
"Therefore, obey the terms of this covenant so that you will prosper in everything you do.
All of you--your tribal leaders, your judges, your officers, all the men of Israel--are standing today before the LORD your God.
With you are your little ones, your wives, and the foreigners living among you who chop your wood and carry your water.
You are standing here today to enter into a covenant with the LORD your God. The LORD is making this covenant with you today, and he has sealed it with an oath.
He wants to confirm you today as his people and to confirm that he is your God, just as he promised you, and as he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But you are not the only ones with whom the LORD is making this covenant with its obligations.
The LORD your God is making this covenant with you who stand in his presence today and also with all future generations of Israel.
"Surely you remember how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we traveled through the lands of enemy nations as we left.
You have seen their detestable idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold.
The LORD made this covenant with you so that no man, woman, family, or tribe among you would turn away from the LORD our God to worship these gods of other nations, and so that no root among you would bear bitter and poisonous fruit.
Let none of those who hear the warnings of this curse consider themselves immune, thinking, `I am safe, even though I am walking in my own stubborn way.' This would lead to utter ruin!
The LORD will not pardon such people. His anger and jealousy will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will come down on them, and the LORD will erase their names from under heaven.
The LORD will separate them from all the tribes of Israel, to pour out on them all the covenant curses recorded in this Book of the Law.
"Then the generations to come, both your own descendants and the foreigners who come from distant lands, will see the devastation of the land and the diseases the LORD will send against it.
They will find its soil turned into sulfur and salt, with nothing planted and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass. It will be just like Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD destroyed in his anger.
The surrounding nations will ask, `Why has the LORD done this to his land? Why was he so angry?'
"And they will be told, `This happened because the people of the land broke the covenant they made with the LORD, the God of their ancestors, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
They turned to serve and worship other gods that were foreign to them, gods that the LORD had not designated for them.
That is why the LORD's anger burned against this land, bringing down on it all the curses recorded in this book.
In great anger and fury the LORD uprooted his people from their land and exiled them to another land, where they still live today!'
"There are secret things that belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our descendants forever, so that we may obey these words of the law.