¹⁶ (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we passed through the midst of the nations through which you passed; ¹⁷ moreover, you have seen their abominations and their idols made of ^(A)wood and stone, silver and gold, which they had with them); ^18 (B)so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you ^(C)a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. ¹⁹ And it shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will consider himself fortunate in his heart, saying, ‘I will do well though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order ^[a]to destroy the watered land along with the dry.’ ²⁰ The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and ^(D)His wrath will ^[b](E)burn against that person, and every curse that is written in this book will lie upon him, and the Lord will ^(F)wipe out his name from under heaven. ²¹ Then the Lord will single him out for disaster from all the tribes of Israel, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant ^(G)which is written in this Book of the Law.

²² “Now the future generation, your sons who rise up after you and ^(H)the foreigner who comes from a distant land, when they see the plagues of that land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it, will say, ²³ ‘All its land is ^(I)brimstone and salt, ^(J)burned debris, ^[c]unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows on it, like the overthrow of ^(K)Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.’ ²⁴ All the nations will say, ‘^(L)Why has the Lord done all this to this land? Why this great ^[d]outburst of anger?’ ²⁵ Then people will say, ‘It is ^(M)because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁶ And they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they have not known and whom He had not ^[e]assigned to them. ²⁷ Therefore, the anger of the Lord burned against that land, ^(N)to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; ²⁸ and ^(O)the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, fury, and in great wrath, and hurled them into another land, as it is this day.’

²⁹ “^(P)The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but ^(Q)the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, so that we may ^[f]follow all the words of this Law.