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God’s Fidelity Assured

30 “When all these things have happened to you, the blessings and the curses that I have set before you, if you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you(A)

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47 then if they come to their senses in the land to which they have been taken captive and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and have done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’(A) 48 if they repent with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive and pray to you toward their land that you gave to their ancestors, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name,(B)

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15 “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.(A)

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28 The Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, fury, and great wrath and cast them into another land, as is now the case.’(A)

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19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,(A)

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64 The Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.(A)

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29 From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.(A) 30 In your distress, when all these things have happened to you in time to come, you will return to the Lord your God and heed him.

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17 But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!

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28 Because they considered and turned away from all the transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they shall not die.

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Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, says the Lord of hosts.(A)

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18 It may be that there is among you a man or woman or a family or tribe whose heart is already turning away from the Lord our God to serve the gods of those nations. It may be that there is among you a root sprouting poisonous and bitter growth.(A) 19 All who hear the words of this oath and bless themselves, thinking in their hearts, ‘We are safe even though we go our own stubborn ways’ (thus sweeping away the moist with the dry)[a] 20 the Lord will be unwilling to pardon them, for then the Lord’s anger and passion will smoke against them. All the curses written in this book will descend on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven.(B) 21 The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.(C) 22 The next generation, your children who rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who comes from a distant country, will see the devastation of that land and the afflictions with which the Lord has afflicted it(D) 23 all its soil burned out by sulfur and salt, nothing planted, nothing sprouting, unable to support any vegetation, like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his fierce anger(E)

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Footnotes

  1. 29.19 Meaning of Heb uncertain

26 “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:(A) 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today;(B) 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known.(C)

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Remember this and consider;[a]
    recall it to mind, you transgressors;(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 46.8 Meaning of Heb uncertain

The Inscribed Stones and Altar on Mount Ebal

27 Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged all the people as follows: “Keep the entire commandment that I am commanding you today. On the day that you cross over the Jordan into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and cover them with plaster.(A) You shall write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over, to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.(B) So when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones about which I am commanding you today on Mount Ebal, and you shall cover them with plaster. And you shall build an altar there to the Lord your God, an altar of stones on which you have not used an iron tool.(C) You must build the altar of the Lord your God of unhewn[a] stones. Then offer up burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God; make sacrifices of well-being, and eat them there, rejoicing before the Lord your God. You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very clearly.”

Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Keep silence and hear, O Israel! This very day you have become the people of the Lord your God.(D) 10 Therefore obey the Lord your God, observing his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today.”

Twelve Curses

11 The same day Moses charged the people as follows: 12 “When you have crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.(E) 13 And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14 Then the Levites shall declare in a loud voice to all the Israelites,

15 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who makes an idol or casts an image, anything abhorrent to the Lord, the work of an artisan, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall respond, saying, ‘Amen!’(F)

16 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors father or mother.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(G)

17 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who moves a neighbor’s boundary marker.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(H)

18 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind person on the road.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(I)

19 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who deprives an alien, an orphan, or a widow of justice.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(J)

20 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his father’s wife, because he has violated his father’s rights.’[b] All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(K)

21 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with any animal.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(L)

22 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(M)

23 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his mother-in-law.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(N)

24 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who strikes down a neighbor in secret.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(O)

25 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(P)

26 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by observing them.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen!’(Q)

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Footnotes

  1. 27.6 Heb whole
  2. 27.20 Heb uncovered his father’s skirt

Rewards for Obedience

26 “You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no carved images or pillars, and you shall not place figured stones in your land, to worship at them, for I am the Lord your God.(A) You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.(B)

“If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully,(C) I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall overlap the vintage, and the vintage shall overlap the sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full and live securely in your land.(D) And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword shall go through your land.(E) You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall give chase to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.(F) I will look with favor upon you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will maintain my covenant with you.(G) 10 You shall eat old grain long stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make way for the new.(H) 11 I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you.(I) 12 I[a] will be your God, and you shall be my people.(J) 13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be their slaves no more; I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

Penalties for Disobedience

14 “But if you will not obey me and do not observe all these commandments,(K) 15 if you spurn my statutes and abhor my ordinances, so that you will not observe all my commandments and you break my covenant, 16 I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror on you, consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.(L) 17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies; your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues you.(M) 18 And if in spite of this you will not obey me, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins. 19 I will break your proud glory, and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like copper.(N) 20 Your strength shall be spent to no purpose: your land shall not yield its produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.(O)

21 “If you continue hostile to me and will not obey me, I will continue to plague you sevenfold for your sins. 22 I will let loose wild animals against you, and they shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock; they shall make you few in number, and your roads shall be deserted.(P)

23 “If in spite of these punishments you have not turned back to me but continue hostile to me,(Q) 24 then I, too, will continue hostile to you: I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.(R) 25 I will bring the sword against you, executing vengeance for the covenant, and if you withdraw into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands.(S) 26 When I cut off your supply of bread,[b] ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven, and they shall dole out your bread by weight, and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied.(T)

27 “But if, despite this, you disobey me and continue hostile to me, 28 I will continue hostile to you in fury; I in turn will punish you myself sevenfold for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.(U) 30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars; I will heap your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols. I will abhor you.(V) 31 I will lay your cities waste, will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing odors.(W) 32 I will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to settle in it shall be appalled at it.(X) 33 And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword against you; your land shall be a desolation and your cities a waste.(Y)

34 “Then the land shall enjoy[c] its Sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest and enjoy[d] its Sabbath years.(Z) 35 As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were living on it. 36 And as for those of you who survive, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall though no one pursues.(AA) 37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though no one pursues, and you shall have no power to stand against your enemies.(AB) 38 You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall devour you.(AC) 39 And those of you who survive shall languish in the land of your enemies because of their iniquities; they shall also languish because of the iniquities of their ancestors.(AD)

40 “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors—their treachery against me and also their continued hostility to me,(AE) 41 so that I in turn was hostile to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if, then, their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,(AF) 42 then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.(AG) 43 For the land shall be deserted by them and enjoy[e] its Sabbath years by lying desolate without them, while they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they dared to spurn my ordinances, and they abhorred my statutes.(AH) 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God,(AI) 45 but I will remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord.”(AJ)

46 These are the statutes and ordinances and laws that the Lord established between himself and the Israelites on Mount Sinai through Moses.(AK)

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Footnotes

  1. 26.12 Q ms: MT adds I will walk among you, and I
  2. 26.26 Heb staff of bread
  3. 26.34 Or make up for
  4. 26.34 Or make up for
  5. 26.43 Or make up for

14 Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.”(A)

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