12 Yahweh will open the heavens, his rich storehouse, for you. He will send rain on your land at the right time and bless everything you do. You will be able to make loans to many nations but won't need to borrow from any. 13 Yahweh will make you the head, not the tail. You will always be at the top, never at the bottom, if you faithfully obey the commands of Yahweh your Elohim that I am giving you today. 14 Do everything I'm commanding you today. Never worship other gods or serve them.

Curses from the LORD 15 Obey Yahweh your Elohim, and faithfully follow all his commands and laws that I am giving you today. If you don't, all these curses will come to you and stay close to you: 16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

17 The grain you harvest and the bread you bake will be cursed.

18 You will be cursed. You will have few children. Your land will have few crops. Your cattle will be cursed with few calves, and your flocks will have few lambs and kids.

19 You will be cursed when you come and cursed when you go.

20 Yahweh will send you curses, panic, and frustration in everything you do until you're destroyed and quickly disappear for the evil you will do by abandoning Yahweh. 21 Yahweh will send one plague after another on you until he wipes you out of the land you're about to enter and take possession of. 22 Yahweh will strike you with disease, fever, and inflammation; heat waves,a drought,b scorching winds,c and ruined crops. They will pursue you until you die. 23 The sky above will look like bronze, and the ground below will be as hard as iron. 24 Yahweh will send dust storms and sandstorms on you from the sky until you're destroyed.

25 Yahweh will let your enemies defeat you. You will attack them from one direction but run away from them in seven directions. You will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms in the world. 26 Your dead bodies will be food for all the birds and wild animals. There will be no one to scare them away. 27 Yahweh will strike you with the same boils that plagued the Egyptians. He will strike you with hemorrhoids,a sores,b and itchingc that won't go away. 28 Yahweh will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic. 29 You will grope in broad daylight as blind people grope in their blindness. You won't be successful in anything you do.d As long as you live, you will be oppressed and robbed with no one to rescue you.

30 You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will have sex with her. You will build a house, but you won't live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you won't enjoy the grapes. 31 Your ox will be butchered as you watch, but you won't eat any of its meat. You will watch as your donkey is stolen from you, but you'll never get it back. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue it. 32 You will watch with your own eyes as your sons and daughters are given to another nation. You will strain your eyes looking for them all day long, but there will be nothing you can do. 33 People you never knew will eat what your land and your hard work have produced. As long as you live, you will know nothing but oppression and abuse. 34 The things you see will drive you mad. 35 Yahweh will afflict your knees and legs with severe boils that can't be cured. The boils will cover your whole body from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.

36 Yahweh will lead you and the king you choose to a nation that you and your ancestors never knew. There you will worship gods made of wood and stone. 37 You will become a thing of horror. All the nations where Yahweh will send you will make an example of you and ridicule you.

38 You will plant many crops in your fields, but harvest little because locusts will destroy your crops. 39 You will plant vineyards and take care of them, but you won't drink any wine or gather any grapes, because worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees everywhere in your country but no olive oil to rub on your skin, because the olives will fall off the trees. 41 You will have sons and daughters, but you won't be able to keep them because they will be taken as prisoners of war. 42 Crickets will swarm all over your trees and the crops in your fields.

43 The standard of living for the foreigners who live among you will rise higher and higher, while your standard of living will sink lower and lower. 44 They will be able to make loans to you, but you won't be able to make loans to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail.

45 All these curses will come to you. They will pursue you and stay close to you until you're destroyed, because you didn't obey Yahweh your Elohim or follow his commands and laws, which I'm giving you. 46 These curses will be a sign and an amazing thing to warn you and your descendants forever. 47 You didn't serve Yahweh your Elohim with a joyful and happy heart when you had so much. 48 So you will serve your enemies, whom Yahweh will send against you. You will serve them even though you are already hungry, thirsty, naked, and in need of everything. Yahweh will put a heavy burden of hard work on you until he destroys you.

49 Yahweh will bring against you a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth. The nation will swoop down on you like an eagle. It will be a nation whose language you won't understand. 50 Its people will be fierce-looking. They will show no respect for the old and no pity for the young. 51 They'll eat the offspring of your animals and the crops from your fields until you're destroyed. They'll leave you no grain, no new wine, no olive oil, no calves from your herds, and no lambs or kids from your flocks. They'll continue to do this until they've completely ruined you. 52 They will blockade all your cities until the high, fortified walls in which you trust come down everywhere in your land. They'll blockade all the cities everywhere in the land that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you.

53 Because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade, you will eat the flesh of your own children, the sons and daughters, whom Yahweh your Elohim has given you. 54 Even the most tender and sensitive man among you will become stingy toward his brother, the wife he loves, and the children he still has left. 55 He will give none of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all that he has left, because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade of all your cities. 56 The most tender and sensitive woman among you-so sensitive and tender that she wouldn't even step on an ant-will become stingy toward the husband she loves or toward her own son or daughter. 57 She won't share with them the afterbirth from her body and the children she gives birth to. She will secretly eat them out of dire necessity, because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade of your cities.

58 You might not faithfully obey every word of the teachings that are written in this book. You might not fear this glorious and awe-inspiring name: Yahweh your Elohim. 59 If so, Yahweh will strike you and your descendants with unimaginable plagues. They will be terrible and continuing plagues and severe and lingering diseases. 60 He will again bring all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 Yahweh will also bring you every kind of sickness and plague not written in this Book of Teachings. They will continue until you're dead. 62 At one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky. But only a few of you will be left, because you didn't obey Yahweh your Elohim . 63 At one time Yahweh was more than glad to make you prosperous and numerous. Now Yahweh will be more than glad to destroy you and wipe you out. You will be torn out of the land you're about to enter and take possession of.

64 Then Yahweh will scatter you among all the people of the world, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve gods made of wood and stone that neither you nor your ancestors ever knew. 65 Among those nations you will find no peace, no place to call your own. There Yahweh will give you an unsettled mind, failing eyesight, and despair. 66 Your life will always be hanging by a thread. You will live in terror day and night. You will never feel sure of your life. 67 In the morning you'll say, "If only it were evening!" And in the evening you'll say, "If only it were morning!" You'll talk this way because of the things that will terrify you and because of the things you'll see. 68 Yahweh will bring you back to Egypt in shipsa on a journey that I said you would never take again. There you will try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies, but no one will buy you.

Israel's Past, Present, and Future 29 a1 These are the terms of the promiseb that Yahweh commanded Moses to give to the Israelites in Moab. This was in addition to the promise Yahweh gave them at Mount Horeb.

2 Moses summoned all the people of Israel and said to them: You've seen with your own eyes everything that Yahweh did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his whole country. 3 You also saw those terrible plagues, those miraculous signs, and those spectacular, amazing things. 4 But to this day Yahweh hasn't given you a mind that understands, eyes that see, or ears that hear. 5 For 40 years I led you through the desert. During that time your clothes and shoes never wore out. 6 You ate no bread and drank no wine or liquor. I did this so that you would know that I am Yahweh your Elohim.

7 When you came to this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to fight us, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh as their property. 9 Faithfully obey the terms of this promise. Then you will be successful in everything you do.

10 All of you are standing here today in the presence of Yahweh your Elohim. The heads of your tribes,c your leaders, your officers, and all the men of Israel are here. 11 Your children, your wives, and the foreigners who cut wood and carry water in your camp are also here. 12 You are ready to accept the terms and conditions of the promise that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you today. 13 With this promise Yahweh your Elohim will confirm today that you are his people and that he is your Elohim. This is what he told you, and this is what he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with an oath. 14 You aren't the only people to receive this promise and its conditions. 15 It is for those of you who are standing here with us today in the presence of Yahweh our Elohim and also for those who are not here today.

16 You know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through other countries on our way here. 17 You saw their disgusting gods and idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold. 18 Make sure there is no man, woman, family, or tribe among you today who turns from Yahweh our Elohim to worship the gods of those nations. Make sure that no one among you is the source of this kind of bitter poison.

19 Someone may hear the conditions of this promise. He may think that he is so blessed that he can say, "I'll be safe even if I go my own stubborn way. After all, the LORD would never sweep away well-watered ground along with dryd ground." 20 Yahweh will never be willing to forgive that person, because Yahweh's burning anger will smolder against him. All the curses described in this book will happen to him. Yahweh will erase every memory of that person's name from the earth. 21 And Yahweh will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster based on all the conditions of the promise written in this Book of the Teachings.

22 Then the next generation of your children and foreigners who come from distant countries will see the plagues that have happened in this land and the diseases Yahweh sent here. 23 They will see all the soil poisoned with sulfur and salt. Nothing will be planted. Nothing will be growing. There will be no plants in sight. It will be as desolate as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, cities Yahweh destroyed in fierce anger. 24 Then all the other nations in the world will ask, "Why has Yahweh done this to their land? Why is he so angry?"

25 The answer will be, "Because they abandoned the promise of Yahweh Elohim of their ancestors. He made this promise to them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26 They worshiped other gods and bowed down to them. These were gods they never heard of, gods Yahweh didn't permit them to have. 27 So Yahweh became angry with this land and brought on it all the curses described in this book. 28 In his fierce anger and fury Yahweh uprooted these people from their land and deported them to another country, where they still are today."

29 Some things are hidden. They belong to Yahweh our Elohim . But the things that have been revealed in these teachings belong to us and to our children forever. We must obey every word of these teachings.

30 1 All these blessings and curses I have spoken about will happen to you. Take them to heart when you are among all the nations where Yahweh your Elohim will scatter you. 2 If you and your children return to Yahweh your Elohim and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, doing everything I command you today, 3 he will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and gather you from all the nations of the world where Yahweh your Elohim will scatter you. 4 Even if you are scattered to the most distant country in the world, Yahweh your Elohim will gather you and bring you back from there. 5 Yahweh your Elohim will bring you to the land your ancestors owned. You will take possession of it, and Yahweh will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors were.

6 Yahweh your Elohim will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants. You will love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul, and you will live. 7 Then Yahweh your Elohim will put all these curses on your enemies, those who hate you and persecute you. 8 You will again obey Yahweh and follow all his commands that I'm giving you today. 9 Yahweh your Elohim will give you many blessings in everything you do: You will have many children. Your animals will have many offspring. Your soil will produce many crops. Yahweh will again delight in making you as prosperous as he made your ancestors. 10 He will do this if you obey Yahweh your Elohim and follow his commands and laws that are written in this Book of Teachings and return to Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul.

11 This command I'm giving you today isn't too hard for you or beyond your reach. 12 It's not in heaven. You don't have to ask, "Who will go to heaven to get this command for us so that we can hear it and obey it?" 13 This command isn't on the other side of the sea. You don't have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it for us so that we can hear it and obey it?" 14 No, these words are very near you. They're in your mouth and in your heart so that you will obey them.

Choose between Life and Death 15 Today I offer you life and prosperity or death and destruction. 16 This is what I'm commanding you today: Love Yahweh your Elohim, follow his directions, and obey his commands, laws, and rules. Then you will live, your population will increase, and Yahweh your Elohim will bless you in the land that you're about to enter and take possession of.

17 But your hearts might turn away, and you might not listen. You might be tempted to bow down to other gods and worship them. 18 If you do, I tell you today that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live for a long time in the land that you're going to take possession of when you cross the Jordan River.

19 I call on heaven and earth as witnesses today that I have offered you life or death, blessings or curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants will live. 20 Love Yahweh your Elohim , obey him, and be loyal to him. This will be your way of life, and it will mean a long life for youa in the land that Yahweh swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Joshua Becomes Israel's Leader to Replace Moses 31 1 Moses continued to speak to all the Israelites: 2 "I'm 120 years old now, and I'm not able to lead you anymore. Besides, Yahweh has told me that I cannot cross the Jordan River. 3 Yahweh your Elohim is the one who will cross the river ahead of you. He will destroy those nations as you arrive, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua will also cross the river ahead of you, as Yahweh told you. 4 Yahweh will do to those nations what he did to King Sihon and King Og of the Amorites and to their lands when he destroyed them. 5 Yahweh will hand them over to you, and you must do to them everything that I commanded you. 6 Be strong and courageous. Don't tremble! Don't be afraid of them! Yahweh your Elohim is the one who is going with you. He won't abandon you or leave you."

7 Then Moses called for Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, "Be strong and courageous. You will go with these people into the land that Yahweh will give them, as he swore to their ancestors. You will help them take possession of the land.b 8 Yahweh is the one who is going ahead of you. He will be with you. He won't abandon you or leave you. So don't be afraid or terrified."

9 Moses wrote down these teachings and gave them to the Levitical priests who carried the ark of Yahweh's promise and to all the leaders of Israel. 10 Then Moses commanded them, "At the end of every seventh year you must cancel debts. At that time, during the Festival of Booths, 11 all the Israelites will come into the presence of Yahweh your Elohim at the place he will choose. Read these teachings so that they can hear them. 12 Assemble the men, women, and children, as well as the foreigners who live in your cities. Have them listen and learn to fear Yahweh your Elohim and faithfully obey every word of these teachings. 13 Their children, who don't know these teachings, must hear them and learn to fear Yahweh your Elohim as long as you live in the land that you are going to take possession of when you cross the Jordan River."

14 Yahweh said to Moses, "The time of your death is coming soon. Call for Joshua. Both of you come to the tent of meeting, and I will give him his instructions." Moses and Joshua came to the tent of meeting. 15 Then Yahweh appeared in a column of smoke at the entrance to the tent.

16 Yahweh said to Moses, "Soon you are going to lie down in death with your ancestors. When these people enter the land and are living among the foreigners there, they will chase after foreign gods as though they were prostitutes. They will abandon me and reject the promisec I made to them. 17 On that day I will become angry with them. I will abandon them and turn away from them. They will be destroyed, and many terrible disasters will happen to them. On that day they will ask, 'Haven't these disasters happened to us because our Elohim isn't with us?' 18 On that day I will certainly turn away from them because of all the evil they've done in turning to other gods.

19 "Write down this song, teach it to the Israelites, and have them sing it. This song will be a witness for me against the Israelites. 20 I will bring them into the land that I swore to give to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey. When they have eaten all they want and have become fat,a they will turn to other gods and worship them. They will despise me and reject my promise. 21 When many terrible disasters happen to them, this song will testify against them, because it will never be forgotten by their descendants. I know what their hearts are set on doing, even now before I bring them into the land that I swore to give them." 22 That day Moses wrote down this song and taught it to the Israelites.

23 Yahweh gave this command to Joshua, son of Nun: "Be strong and courageous, because you will bring the Israelites into the land that I swore to give them, and I will be with you."

24 Finally, Moses finished writing all the words of these teachings in a book. 25 He gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of Yahweh's promise: 26 "Take this Book of Teachings, and put it next to the ark of the promise of Yahweh your Elohim , where it will be a witness against you. 27 I know how rebellious you are. You are impossible to deal with. While I am alive and still with you, you are rebelling against Yahweh. How much more rebellious will you be after I die? 28 Assemble all the leaders of your tribes and your officers in front of me. As they listen, I will speak these words and call on heaven and earth to testify against them. 29 I know that after I die you will become thoroughly corrupt and turn from the way I have commanded you to live. In the days to come disasters will happen to you because you will make Yahweh furious by doing what he considers evil."

The Song of Moses 30 Then, as the whole congregation of Israel listened, Moses recited all the words of this song: 32 1 Listen, heaven, and I will speak.

Earth, hear the words from my mouth.

2 Let my teachings come down like raindrops.

Let my words drip like dew, like gentle rain on grass, like showers on green plants.

3 I will proclaim the name of Yahweh.

Give our Elohim the greatness he deserves!

4 He is a rock.

What he does is perfect.

All his ways are fair.

He is a faithful El, who does no wrong.

He is honorable and reliable.

5 He recognizes that his people are corrupt.

To their shame they are no longer his children.

They are devious and scheming.

6 Is this how you repay Yahweh, you foolish and silly people?

Isn't he your Ab and Owner, who made you and formed you?

7 Remember a time long ago.

Think about all the past generations.

Ask your fathers to remind you, and your leaders to tell you.

8 When Elyon gave nations their land, when he divided the descendants of Adam, he set up borders for the tribes corresponding to the number of the sons of Israel.

9 But Yahweh's people were his property.

Jacob was his own possession.

10 He found his people in a desert land, in a barren place where animals howl.

He guarded them, took care of them, and protected them because they were helpless.

11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreads its wings to catch them, and carries them on its feathers, 12 so Yahweh alone led his people.

No foreign god was with him.

13 He made them ride on the heights of the earth and fed them with the produce of the fields.

He gave them honey from rocks and olive oil from solid rock.

14 They ate cheese from cows and drank milk from sheep and goats.

He gave them fat from lambs, rams from the stock of Bashan, male goats, and the best wheat.

They drank the blood-red wine of grapes.

15 Jeshuruna got fat and disrespectful.

(You got fat! You were stuffed! You were gorged!) They abandoned the Elohim who made them and treated the rock of their salvation like a fool.

16 They made him furious because they worshiped foreign gods and angered him because they worshiped worthless idols.

17 They sacrificed to demons that are not Elohim, to gods they never heard of.

These were new gods, who came from nearby, gods your ancestors never worshiped.

18 (You ignored the rock who fathered you and forgot the El who gave you life.) 19 Yahweh saw this and rejected them, because his own sons and daughters had made him angry.

20 He said, "I will turn away from them and find out what will happen to them.

They are devious people, children who can't be trusted.

21 They made him furious because they worshiped foreign gods and angered him because they worshiped worthless idols.

So I will use those who are not my people to make them jealous and a nation of godless fools to make them angry.

22 My anger has started a fire that will burn to the depths of hell.

It will consume the earth and its crops and set the foundations of the mountains on fire.

23 I will bring one disaster after another on them.

I will use up all my arrows on them.

24 They will be starved by famines and ravaged by pestilence and deadly epidemics.

I will send vicious animals against them along with poisonous animals that crawl on the ground.

25 Foreign wars will kill off their children, and even at home there will be horrors.

Young men and young women alike will die as well as nursing babies and gray-haired men.

26 I said that I would cut them in piecesa and erase everyone's memory of them.

27 But I didn't want their enemies to make me angry.

I didn't want their opponents to misunderstand and say, 'We won this victory!

It wasn't Yahweh who did all this!'"

28 My people have lost their good sense.

They are not able to understand.

29 If only they were wise enough to understand this and realize what will happen to them!

30 How could one person chase a thousand or two people make ten thousand flee?

Their rock used these people to defeat them and Yahweh gave them no help.

31 Their rock isn't like our rock.

Even our enemies will agree with this.

32 Their grapevines come from the vineyards of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah.