Study Desk

Then Moses and the Levites who were priests spoke to all Israel and said, "Be quiet, Israel. Listen! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.

Obey the Lord your God, and keep his commands and laws that I give you today."

You must completely obey the Lord your God, and you must carefully follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the Lord your God will make you greater than any other nation on earth.

Obey the Lord your God so that all these blessings will come and stay with you:

The Lord your God will bless you with full barns, and he will bless everything you do. He will bless the land he is giving you.

The Lord will make you like the head and not like the tail; you will be on top and not on bottom. But you must obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, being careful to keep them.

But if you do not obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands and laws I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and stay:

All these curses will come upon you. They will chase you and catch you and destroy you, because you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commands and laws he gave you.

You had plenty of everything, but you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a pure heart,

That nation will surround and attack all your cities. You trust in your high, strong walls, but they will fall down. That nation will surround all your cities everywhere in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Your enemy will surround you. Those people will make you starve so that you will eat your own babies, the bodies of the sons and daughters the Lord your God gave you.

Be careful to obey everything in these teachings that are written in this book. You must respect the glorious and wonderful name of the Lord your God,

You people may have outnumbered the stars, but only a few of you will be left, because you did not obey the Lord your God.

You ate no bread and drank no wine or beer. This was so you would understand that I am the Lord your God.

Today you are all standing here before the Lord your God—your leaders and important men, your elders, officers, and all the other men of Israel,

You are all here to enter into an agreement and a promise with the Lord your God, an agreement the Lord your God is making with you today.

This will make you today his own people. He will be your God, as he told you and as he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

who are standing here before the Lord your God today, but also with those who are not here today.

Make sure no man, woman, family group, or tribe among you leaves the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. They would be to you like a plant that grows bitter, poisonous fruit.

And the answer will be, "It is because the people broke the Agreement of the Lord , the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.