Study Desk

Also sacrifice peace offerings on it, and celebrate by feasting there before the Lord your God.

Then Moses and the Levitical priests addressed all Israel as follows: "O Israel, be quiet and listen! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.

So you must obey the Lord your God by keeping all these commands and decrees that I am giving you today."

"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world.

You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God:

"The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

"If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, the Lord will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do.

If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.

"But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you:

"If you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and to obey the commands and decrees he has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed.

If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received,

They will attack your cities until all the fortified walls in your land—the walls you trusted to protect you—are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the Lord your God has given you.

"The siege and terrible distress of the enemy's attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you.

"If you refuse to obey all the words of instruction that are written in this book, and if you do not fear the glorious and awesome name of the Lord your God,

Though you become as numerous as the stars in the sky, few of you will be left because you would not listen to the Lord your God.

You ate no bread and drank no wine or other alcoholic drink, but he provided for you so you would know that he is the Lord your God.

All of you—tribal leaders, elders, officers, all the men of Israel—are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God.

You are standing here today to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God. The Lord is making this covenant, including the curses.

By entering into the covenant today, he will establish you as his people and confirm that he is your God, just as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I am making this covenant both with you who stand here today in the presence of the Lord our God, and also with the future generations who are not standing here today.