1. The following are the terms of the agreement that the Lord ordered Moses to make with the Israelites in the country of Moab. This was in addition to the agreement he had made with them at Horeb.
2. Moses called all the Israelites together and announced to them, You saw with your own eyes everything the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his whole country.
3. You saw with your own eyes the amazing tests, and those great signs and miracles.
4. But up to now the Lord has not given you minds that understand, or eyes that see, or ears that hear, saying,
5. For forty years I led you through the desert, but your clothes and sandals didn't wear out.
6. You didn't have bread to eat, or wine or alcohol to drink in order that you would realize that I am the Lord your God.
7. When we arrived here, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan marched out to fight us in battle, but we defeated them.
8. We took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to own.
9. So make sure you keep and follow the terms of this agreement in order that you may be successful in everything you do.
10. Every one of you stands here today before the Lord your God: you tribal leaders, officials, and all the men of Israel,
11. your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your firewood and carry your water.
12. You're here so you can enter into the agreement of the Lord your God, which he is making with you today, and accept his solemn promise,
13. and so he can confirm you today as his people. He will be your God as he told you and as he promised your forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14. It's not only with you that the Lord is making this agreement and solemn promise,
15. those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God, but also with those who are not here today.
16. You know very well what it was like when we lived in the land of Egypt and our experiences as we passed through the nations on the way here.
17. You saw their disgusting religious practices and their idols of wood and stone, and silver and gold.
18. You need to make sure today that there's no man or woman, family or tribe of yours who wants to turn from the Lord our God and go and worship the gods of these nations. Make sure there is nothing like that among you that would produce such poison and bitterness.
19. For when someone like that hears the words of this solemn promise, they think they'll still receive a blessing, telling themselves, “I'll be safe, even though I'll go on doing whatever I feel like.” Such an attitude would destroy good and bad alike.
20. The Lord would never want to pardon them. In fact, his passionate anger will burn against them, and every curse written in this book will fall on them. The Lord will erase their name from the earth,
21. and will punish them as an example to all the Israelite tribes, in accordance with all the curses of the agreement written in this Book of the Law.
22. Later generations, your descendants and foreigners from far away, will see how the Lord has brought disaster on the country and devastated it.
23. The whole country will be a burning wasteland of sulfur and salt. Nothing is sown; it's totally unproductive; no plant grows there—just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his furious anger.
24. Everyone everywhere will ask, “Why did the Lord do this to the country? Why did he get so terribly angry?”
25. The people will answer, “It's because they abandoned the agreement of the Lord, the God of their forefathers, which he made with them when he led them out of Egypt.
26. They went off and worshiped other gods, bowing down to gods they'd never heard of—gods that the Lord had not given to them.
27. That's why the Lord was so angry with this land, and he rained down on it every curse written in this book.
28. The Lord uprooted them from their country in his anger, rage, and fury, and he threw them out, leaving them in another land, where they are to this day.”
29. The Lord our God has secrets that belong to him, but what has been revealed belong to us and to our descendants forever, so that we may follow everything in this law.