Deuteronomy 27-30

Living Bible

27 Then Moses and the elders of Israel gave the people these further instructions to obey:^[a]

^2-4 “When you cross the Jordan River and go into the Promised Land—a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’—take out boulders from the river bottom and immediately pile them into a monument on the other side, at Mount Ebal. Face the stones with a coating of lime^[b] and then write the laws of God in the lime. ^5-6 And build an altar there to the Lord your God. Use uncut boulders, and on the altar offer burnt offerings to the Lord your God. ⁷ Sacrifice peace offerings upon it also, and feast there with great joy before the Lord your God. ⁸ Write all of these laws plainly upon the monument.^[c]”

⁹ Then Moses and the Levite-priests addressed all Israel as follows: “O Israel, listen! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God, ¹⁰ so today you must begin to obey all of these commandments I have given you.”

¹¹ That same day Moses gave this charge to the people:

¹² “When you cross into the Promised Land, the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to proclaim a blessing, ¹³ and the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali shall stand upon Mount Ebal to proclaim a curse. ¹⁴ Then the Levites standing between^[d] them shall shout to all Israel,

¹⁵ “‘The curse of God be upon anyone who makes and worships an idol, even in secret, whether carved of wood or made from molten metal—for these handmade gods are hated by the Lord.’ And all the people shall reply, ‘Amen.’

¹⁶ “‘Cursed is anyone who despises his father or mother.’ And all the people shall reply, ‘Amen.’

¹⁷ “‘Cursed is he who moves the boundary marker between his land and his neighbor’s.’ And all the people shall reply, ‘Amen.’

¹⁸ “‘Cursed is he who takes advantage of a blind man.’ And all the people shall reply, ‘Amen.’

¹⁹ “‘Cursed is he who is unjust to the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow.’ And all the people shall reply, ‘Amen.’

²⁰ “‘Cursed is he who commits adultery with one of his father’s wives, for she belongs to his father.’ And all the people shall reply, ‘Amen.’

²¹ “‘Cursed is he who has sexual intercourse with an animal.’ And all the people shall reply, ‘Amen.’

²² “‘Cursed is he who has sexual intercourse with his sister, whether she be a full sister or a half sister.’ And all the people shall reply, ‘Amen.’

²³ “‘Cursed is he who has sexual intercourse with his widowed^[e] mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall reply, ‘Amen.’

²⁴ “‘Cursed is he who secretly slays another.’ And all the people shall reply, ‘Amen.’

²⁵ “‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ And all the people shall reply, ‘Amen.’

²⁶ “‘Cursed is anyone who does not obey these laws.’ And all the people shall reply, ‘Amen.’

28 “If you fully obey all of these commandments of the Lord your God, the laws I am declaring to you today, God will transform you into the greatest nation in the world. ^2-6 These are the blessings that will come upon you:

⁷ “The Lord will defeat your enemies before you; they will march out together against you but scatter before you in seven directions! ⁸ The Lord will bless you with good crops and healthy cattle, and prosper everything you do when you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving you. ⁹ He will change you into a holy people dedicated to himself; this he has promised to do if you will only obey him and walk in his ways. ¹⁰ All the nations in the world shall see that you belong to the Lord, and they will stand in awe.

¹¹ “The Lord will give you an abundance of good things in the land, just as he promised: many children, many cattle, and abundant crops. ¹² He will open to you his wonderful treasury of rain in the heavens, to give you fine crops every season. He will bless everything you do; and you shall lend to many nations, but shall not borrow from them. ¹³ If you will only listen and obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, he will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall always have the upper hand. ¹⁴ But each of these blessings depends on your not turning aside in any way from the laws I have given you; and you must never worship other gods.

^15-19 “If you won’t listen to the Lord your God and won’t obey these laws I am giving you today, then all of these curses shall come upon you:

²⁰ “For the Lord himself will send his personal curse upon you. You will be confused and a failure in everything you do, until at last you are destroyed because of the sin of forsaking him. ²¹ He will send disease among you until you are destroyed from the face of the land you are about to enter and possess. ²² He will send tuberculosis, fever, infections, plague, and war. He will blight your crops, covering them with mildew. All these devastations shall pursue you until you perish.

²³ “The heavens above you will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as iron. ²⁴ The land will become as dry as dust for lack of rain, and dust storms shall destroy you.

²⁵ “The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will march out to battle gloriously, but flee before your enemies in utter confusion; and you will be tossed to and fro among all the nations of the earth. ²⁶ Your dead bodies will be food to the birds and wild animals, and no one will be there to chase them away.

²⁷ “He will send upon you Egyptian boils, tumors, scurvy, and itch, for none of which will there be a remedy. ²⁸ He will send madness, blindness, fear, and panic upon you. ²⁹ You shall grope in the bright sunlight just as the blind man gropes in darkness. You shall not prosper in anything you do; you will be oppressed and robbed continually, and nothing will save you.

³⁰ “Someone else will marry your fiancée; someone else will live in the house you build; someone else will eat the fruit of the vineyard you plant. ³¹ Your oxen shall be butchered before your eyes, but you won’t get a single bite of the meat. Your donkeys will be driven away as you watch and will never return to you again. Your sheep will be given to your enemies. And there will be no one to protect you. ³² You will watch as your sons and daughters are taken away as slaves. Your heart will break with longing for them, but you will not be able to help them. ³³ A foreign nation you have not even heard of will eat the crops you will have worked so hard to grow. You will always be oppressed and crushed. ³⁴ You will go mad because of all the tragedy you see around you. ³⁵ The Lord will cover you with boils from head to foot.

³⁶ “He will exile you and the king you will choose to a nation to which neither you nor your ancestors gave a second thought; and while in exile you shall worship gods of wood and stone! ³⁷ You will become an object of horror, a proverb and a byword among all the nations, for the Lord will thrust you away.

³⁸ “You will sow much but reap little, for the locusts will eat your crops. ³⁹ You will plant vineyards and care for them, but you won’t eat the grapes or drink the wine, for worms will destroy the vines. ⁴⁰ Olive trees will be growing everywhere, but there won’t be enough olive oil to anoint yourselves! For the trees will drop their fruit before it is matured. ⁴¹ Your sons and daughters will be snatched away from you as slaves. ⁴² The locusts shall destroy your trees and vines. ⁴³ Foreigners living among you shall become richer and richer while you become poorer and poorer. ⁴⁴ They shall lend to you, not you to them! They shall be the head and you shall be the tail!

⁴⁵ “All these curses shall pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed—all because you refuse to listen to the Lord your God. ⁴⁶ These horrors shall befall you and your descendants as a warning: ^47-48 You will become slaves to your enemies because of your failure to praise God for all that he has given you. The Lord will send your enemies against you, and you will be hungry, thirsty, naked, and in want of everything. A yoke of iron shall be placed around your neck until you are destroyed!

⁴⁹ “The Lord will bring a distant nation against you, swooping down upon you like an eagle; a nation whose language you don’t understand— ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce and angry men who will have no mercy upon young or old. ⁵¹ They will eat you out of house and home until your cattle and crops are gone. Your grain, new wine, olive oil, calves, and lambs will all disappear. ⁵² That nation will lay siege to your cities and knock down your highest walls—the walls you will trust to protect you. ⁵³ You will even eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters in the terrible days of siege that lie ahead. ⁵⁴ The most tenderhearted man among you will be utterly callous toward his own brother and his beloved wife and his children who are still alive. ⁵⁵ He will refuse to give them a share of the flesh he is devouring—the flesh of his own children—because he is starving in the midst of the siege of your cities. ^56-57 The most tender and delicate woman among you—the one who would not so much as touch her feet to the ground—will refuse to share with her beloved husband, son, and daughter. She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can eat them: so terrible will be the hunger during the siege and the awful distress caused by your enemies at your gates.

^58-59 “If you refuse to obey all the laws written in this book, thus refusing reverence to the glorious and fearful name of Jehovah your God, then Jehovah will send perpetual plagues upon you and upon your children. ⁶⁰ He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you feared so much, and they shall plague the land. ⁶¹ And that is not all! The Lord will bring upon you every sickness and plague there is, even those not mentioned in this book, until you are destroyed. ⁶² There will be few of you left, though before you were as numerous as stars. All this if you do not listen to the Lord your God.

⁶³ “Just as the Lord has rejoiced over you and has done such wonderful things for you and has multiplied you, so the Lord at that time will rejoice in destroying you; and you shall disappear from the land. ⁶⁴ For the Lord will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship heathen gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods made of wood and stone! ⁶⁵ There among those nations you shall find no rest, but the Lord will give you trembling hearts, darkness, and bodies wasted from sorrow and fear. ⁶⁶ Your lives will hang in doubt. You will live night and day in fear, and will have no reason to believe that you will see the morning light. ⁶⁷ In the morning you will say, ‘Oh, that night were here!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘Oh, that morning were here!’ You will say this because of the awesome horrors surrounding you. ⁶⁸ Then the Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships, a journey I promised you would never need to make again; and there you will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves—but no one will even want to buy you.”

29 It was on the plains of Moab that Moses restated the covenant that the Lord had made with the people of Israel at Mount Horeb. ^2-3 He summoned all Israel before him and told them, “You have seen with your own eyes the great plagues and mighty miracles that the Lord brought upon Pharaoh and his people in the land of Egypt. ⁴ But even yet the Lord hasn’t given you hearts that understand or eyes that see or ears that hear! ⁵ For forty years God has led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes haven’t become old, and your shoes haven’t worn out! ⁶ The reason he hasn’t let you settle down to grow grain for bread or grapes for wine and strong drink is so that you would realize that it is the Lord your God who has been caring for you.

⁷ “When we came here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we destroyed them, ⁸ and took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and to the half-tribe of Manasseh as their inheritance. ⁹ Therefore, obey the terms of this covenant so that you will prosper in everything you do. ¹⁰ All of you—your leaders, the people, your judges, and your administrative officers—are standing today before the Lord your God, ¹¹ along with your little ones and your wives and the foreigners that are among you—those who chop your wood and carry your water. ¹² You are standing here to enter into a contract with Jehovah your God, a contract he is making with you today. ¹³ He wants to confirm you today as his people, and to confirm that he is your God, just as he promised your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ^14-15 This contract is not with you alone as you stand before him today, but with all future generations of Israel as well.

¹⁶ “Surely you remember how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how as we left, we came safely through the territory of enemy nations. ¹⁷ And you have seen their heathen idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold. ¹⁸ The day that any of you—man or woman, family or tribe of Israel—begins to turn away from the Lord our God and desires to worship these gods of other nations, that day a root will be planted that will grow bitter and poisonous fruit.

¹⁹ “Let no one blithely think, when he hears the warnings of this curse, ‘I shall prosper even though I walk in my own stubborn way!’ ²⁰ For the Lord will not pardon! His anger and jealousy will be hot against that man. And all the curses written in this book shall lie heavily upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. ²¹ The Lord will separate that man from all the tribes of Israel, to pour out upon him all the curses (which are recorded in this book) that befall those who break this contract. ²² Then your children and the generations to come and the foreigners that pass by from distant lands shall see the devastation of the land and the diseases the Lord will have sent upon it. ²³ They will see that the whole land is alkali and salt, a burned over wasteland, unsown, without crops, without a shred of vegetation—just like Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim, destroyed by the Lord in his anger.

²⁴ “‘Why has the Lord done this to his land?’ the nations will ask. ‘Why was he so angry?’

²⁵ “And they will be told, ‘Because the people of the land broke the contract made with them by Jehovah, the God of their ancestors, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁶ For they worshiped other gods, violating his express command. ²⁷ That is why the anger of the Lord was hot against this land, so that all his curses (which are recorded in this book) broke forth upon them. ²⁸ In great anger the Lord rooted them out of their land and threw them away into another land, where they still live today!’

²⁹ “There are secrets the Lord your God has not revealed to us, but these words that he has revealed are for us and our children to obey forever.

30 “When all these things have happened to you—the blessings and the curses I have listed—you will meditate upon them as you are living among the nations where the Lord your God will have driven you. ² If at that time you want to return to the Lord your God, and you and your children have begun wholeheartedly to obey all of the commandments I have given you today, ³ then the Lord your God will rescue you from your captivity! He will have mercy upon you and come and gather you out of all the nations where he will have scattered you. ⁴ Though you are at the ends of the earth, he will go and find you and bring you back again ⁵ to the land of your ancestors. You shall possess the land again, and he will do you good and bless you even more than he did your ancestors! ⁶ He will cleanse your hearts and the hearts of your children and of your children’s children so that you will love the Lord your God with all your hearts and souls, and Israel shall come alive again!

^7-8 “If you return to the Lord and obey all the commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will take his curses and turn them against your enemies—against those who hate you and persecute you. ⁹ The Lord your God will prosper everything you do and give you many children and much cattle and wonderful crops; for the Lord will again rejoice over you as he did over your fathers. ¹⁰ He will rejoice if you but obey the commandments written in this book of the law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your hearts and souls.

¹¹ “Obeying these commandments is not something beyond your strength and reach; ¹² for these laws are not in the far heavens, so distant that you can’t hear and obey them, and with no one to bring them down to you; ¹³ nor are they beyond the ocean, so far that no one can bring you their message; ¹⁴ but they are very close at hand—in your hearts and on your lips—so obey them.

¹⁵ “Look, today I have set before you life and death, depending on whether you obey or disobey. ¹⁶ I have commanded you today to love the Lord your God and to follow his paths and to keep his laws, so that you will live and become a great nation, and so that the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to possess. ¹⁷ But if your hearts turn away and you won’t listen—if you are drawn away to worship other gods— ¹⁸ then I declare to you this day that you shall surely perish; you will not have a long, good life in the land you are going in to possess.

¹⁹ “I call heaven and earth to witness against you that today I have set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Oh, that you would choose life; that you and your children might live! ²⁰ Choose to love the Lord your God and to obey him and to cling to him, for he is your life and the length of your days. You will then be able to live safely in the land the Lord promised your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”