¹⁸ Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns^(A) away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.^(B)

¹⁹ When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing^(C) on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,”^(D) they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. ²⁰ The Lord will never be willing to forgive^(E) them; his wrath and zeal^(F) will burn^(G) against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot^(H) out their names from under heaven. ²¹ The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster,^(I) according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.^(J)

²⁵ And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.^{(A) 26} They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. ²⁷ Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.^{(B) 28} In furious anger and in great wrath^(C) the Lord uprooted^(D) them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”