1These are the terms of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb (Mount Sinai).

2Moses summoned all Israel, and said to them: “You have seen all that the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land. 3With your own eyes you have seen those great trials, signs, and miracles; 4But to this day, the LORD has not given you a heart to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear. 5And yet the LORD says: ‘I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes and your shoe (sandals) have not worn out. 6You have not eaten bread, nor drunk wine or strong drink; I have provided for you so that you might know that I am the LORD your God.’ 7And when you came here, Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, came out to fight against us, and we defeated them. 8And we took their land, and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh.”

9“So abide by the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in all that you do. 10All of you are standing today in the presence of the LORD your God – the leaders of your tribes, your elders, officials, all the men of Israel, 11Your little ones, wives, foreigners in your camp who cut your wood and carry your water - 12You are standing here today to enter into a covenant with the LORD your God, which the LORD your God is making with you and which He seals by His oath: 13That He may confirm you today as His people, and that He may be your God, as He has said to you, and as He has sworn to your fathers – to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 14Nor do I make this covenant with its oath only with those of you who stand here with us today, 15Before the LORD our God; but also with those who are not here with us today:

16“You remember how we have lived in Egypt; and how we passed through the nations on our way here; 17And you have seen their abominations - their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold. 18Make sure there is no man, woman, family, or tribe among you, whose heart turns aside from the LORD our God, to serve the gods or idols of those nations; so that there is not a root that bears this kind of bitter poison among you; 19When such a person hears the words of this oath, and its warnings, he should not congratulate himself, thinking, ‘I will be safe, even though I follow the desires of my own heart.’ It will bring disaster upon the watered land, as well as the dry land. 20The LORD will not forgive or spare that person, but His anger and jealousy shall burn; and all the curses that are written in this book shall fall upon that person, and the LORD shall blot out their name from under heaven. 21And the LORD shall single that person out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law; 22So that, in generations to come, your children - as well as the foreigner who comes from afar - when they see the devastation of that land, and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it, 23Shall exclaim, ‘It is nothing but a wasteland of salt, brimstone, and burning sulfur, without any vegetation, cultivated or not, living or growing –- like the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD destroyed in His anger, and in His wrath!’24And all nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why was He so angry?’ 25Then men shall answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26They served and worshipped other gods - gods they did not know, gods that He had not given them; 27And so the anger of the LORD burned against this land, and brought upon it all the curses that are written in this book: 28The LORD uprooted them from their land in His furious anger and indignation; and drove them into another land, as it is this day’”.

29“The LORD’s secrets are known only to the LORD our God; but those secrets which are revealed to us belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may obey all the words of His law.”