Study Desk

'I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the LORD my God; I have acted in accordance with everything that You have commanded me.

'Look down from Your holy dwelling place, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey just as You swore to our fathers.'

"This day the LORD your God commands you to perform these statutes and ordinances. Therefore you shall be careful to perform them with all your heart and with all your soul.

"So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God is giving you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime

and write on them all the words of this Law, when you cross over, so that you may enter the land which the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.

"So it shall be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime.

"The Levites shall then respond and say to all the people of Israel with a loud voice,

'Cursed is he who sleeps with his father's wife, because he has uncovered his father's garment.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

'Cursed is one who has sexual intercourse with any animal.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

'Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or of his mother.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

'Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

"The LORD will strike you with consumption, inflammation, fever, feverish heat, and with the sword, with blight, and with mildew, and they will pursue you until you perish.

"The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, the festering rash, and with scabies, from which you cannot be healed.

"The LORD will strike you with insanity, blindness, and with confusion of mind;

and you will be groping about at noon, just as a person who is blind gropes in the darkness, and you will not be successful in your ways; but you will only be oppressed and robbed all the time, with no one to save you.

"The LORD will strike you on the knees and thighs with severe boils from which you cannot be healed, and strike you from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

"You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, because your olives will drop off prematurely.

"Since you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a cheerful heart, in gratitude for the abundance of all things,

a nation with a defiant attitude, who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.

and toward her afterbirth that comes from between her legs, and toward her children to whom she gives birth, because she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the hardship with which your enemy will oppress you in your towns.