Deuteronomy:26-29

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* "And it shall be , when you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance , and you possess it and dwell in it , * that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground , which you shall bring from your land that the LORD your God is giving you , and put it in a basket and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide . * And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days , and say to him , "I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the country which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us .' * "Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God . * And you shall answer and say before the LORD your God : "My father was a Syrian , about to perish , and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there , few in number ; and there he became a nation , great , mighty , and populous . * But the Egyptians mistreated us , afflicted us , and laid hard bondage on us . * Then we cried out to the LORD God of our fathers , and the LORD heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression . * So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm , with great terror and with signs and wonders . * He has brought us to this place and has given us this land , "a land flowing with milk and honey "; * and now , behold , I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you , O LORD , have given me .' "Then you shall set it before the LORD your God , and worship before the LORD your God . * So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the LORD your God has given to you and your house , you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you . * "When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year--the year of tithing--and have given it to the Levite , the stranger , the fatherless , and the widow , so that they may eat within your gates and be filled , * then you shall say before the LORD your God : "I have removed the holy tithe from my house , and also have given them to the Levite , the stranger , the fatherless , and the widow , according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me ; I have not transgressed Your commandments , nor have I forgotten them . * I have not eaten any of it when in mourning , nor have I removed any of it for an unclean use , nor given any of it for the dead . I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God , and have done according to all that You have commanded me . * Look down from Your holy habitation , from heaven , and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us , just as You swore to our fathers , "a land flowing with milk and honey ."' * "This day the LORD your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments ; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul . * Today you have proclaimed the LORD to be your God , and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes , His commandments , and His judgments , and that you will obey His voice . * Also today the LORD has proclaimed you to be His special people , just as He promised you , that you should keep all His commandments , * and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made , in praise , in name , and in honor , and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God , just as He has spoken ." * Now Moses , with the elders of Israel , commanded the people , saying : "Keep all the commandments which I command you today . * And it shall be , on the day when you cross over the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God is giving you , that you shall set up for yourselves large stones , and whitewash them with lime . * You shall write on them all the words of this law , when you have crossed over , 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 God of your fathers promised you . * Therefore it shall be , when you have crossed over the Jordan , that on Mount Ebal you shall set up these stones , which I command you today , and you shall whitewash them with lime . * And there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God , an altar of stones ; you shall not use an iron tool on them . * You shall build with whole stones the altar of the LORD your God , and offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God . * You shall offer peace offerings , and shall eat there , and rejoice before the LORD your God . * And you shall write very plainly on the stones all the words of this law ." * Then Moses and the priests , the Levites , spoke to all Israel , saying , "Take heed and listen , O Israel : This day you have become the people of the LORD your God . * Therefore you shall obey the voice of the LORD your God , and observe His commandments and His statutes which I command you today ." * And Moses commanded the people on the same day , saying , * "These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people , when you have crossed over the Jordan : Simeon , Levi , Judah , Issachar , Joseph , and Benjamin ; * and these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse : Reuben , Gad , Asher , Zebulun , Dan , and Naphtali . * "And the Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel : * "Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image , an abomination to the LORD , the work of the hands of the craftsman , and sets it up in secret .' "And all the people shall answer and say , "Amen !' * "Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt .' "And all the people shall say , "Amen !' * "Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor 's landmark .' "And all the people shall say , "Amen !' * "Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road .' "And all the people shall say , "Amen !' * "Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger , the fatherless , and widow .' "And all the people shall say , "Amen !' * "Cursed is the one who lies with his father 's wife , because he has uncovered his father 's bed .' "And all the people shall say , "Amen !' * "Cursed is the one who lies with any kind of animal .' "And all the people shall say , "Amen !' * "Cursed is the one who lies with his sister , the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother .' "And all the people shall say , "Amen !' * "Cursed is the one who lies with his mother-in-law .' "And all the people shall say , "Amen !' * "Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly .' "And all the people shall say , "Amen !' * "Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person .' "And all the people shall say , "Amen !' * "Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law .' "And all the people shall say , "Amen !"' * "Now it shall come to pass , if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God , to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today , that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth . * And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you , because you obey the voice of the LORD your God : * "Blessed shall you be in the city , and blessed shall you be in the country . * "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body , the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds , the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks . * "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl . * "Blessed shall you be when you come in , and blessed shall you be when you go out . * "The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face ; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways . * "The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand , and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you . * "The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself , just as He has sworn to you , if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways . * Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD , and they shall be afraid of you . * And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods , in the fruit of your body , in the increase of your livestock , and in the produce of your ground , in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you . * The LORD will open to you His good treasure , the heavens , to give the rain to your land in its season , and to bless all the work of your hand . You shall lend to many nations , but you shall not borrow . * And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail ; you shall be above only , and not be beneath , if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God , which I command you today , and are careful to observe them . * So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day , to the right or the left , to go after other gods to serve them . * "But it shall come to pass , if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God , to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today , that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you : * "Cursed shall you be in the city , and cursed shall you be in the country . * "Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl . * "Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land , the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks . * "Cursed shall you be when you come in , and cursed shall you be when you go out . * "The LORD will send on you cursing , confusion , and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do , until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly , because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me . * The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess . * The LORD will strike you with consumption , with fever , with inflammation , with severe burning fever , with the sword , with scorching , and with mildew ; they shall pursue you until you perish . * And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze , and the earth which is under you shall be iron . * The LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust ; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed . * "The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies ; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them ; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth . * Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth , and no one shall frighten them away . * The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt , with tumors , with the scab , and with the itch , from which you cannot be healed . * The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart . * And you shall grope at noonday , as a blind man gropes in darkness ; you shall not prosper in your ways ; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually , and no one shall save you . * "You shall betroth a wife , but another man shall lie with her ; you shall build a house , but you shall not dwell in it ; you shall plant a vineyard , but shall not gather its grapes . * Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes , but you shall not eat of it ; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you , and shall not be restored to you ; your sheep shall be given to your enemies , and you shall have no one to rescue them . * Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people , and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long ; and there shall be no strength in your hand . * A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor , and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually . * So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see . * The LORD will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed , and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head . * "The LORD will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known , and there you shall serve other gods--wood and stone . * And you shall become an astonishment , a proverb , and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you . * "You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in , for the locust shall consume it . * You shall plant vineyards and tend them , but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes ; for the worms shall eat them . * You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory , but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil ; for your olives shall drop off . * You shall beget sons and daughters , but they shall not be yours ; for they shall go into captivity . * Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land . * "The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you , and you shall come down lower and lower . * He shall lend to you , but you shall not lend to him ; he shall be the head , and you shall be the tail . * "Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you , until you are destroyed , because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God , to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you . * And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder , and on your descendants forever . * "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart , for the abundance of everything , * therefore you shall serve your enemies , whom the LORD will send against you , in hunger , in thirst , in nakedness , and in need of everything ; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you . * The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar , from the end of the earth , as swift as the eagle flies , a nation whose language you will not understand , * a nation of fierce countenance , which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young . * And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land , until you are destroyed ; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil , or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks , until they have destroyed you . * "They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls , in which you trust , come down throughout all your land ; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you . * You shall eat the fruit of your own body , the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the LORD your God has given you , in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you . * The sensitive and very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother , toward the wife of his bosom , and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind , * so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat , because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates . * The tender and delicate woman among you , who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity , will refuse to the husband of her bosom , and to her son and her daughter , * her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears ; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates . * "If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book , that you may fear this glorious and awesome name , THE LORD YOUR GOD , * then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues--great and prolonged plagues--and serious and prolonged sicknesses . * Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt , of which you were afraid , and they shall cling to you . * Also every sickness and every plague , which is not written in this Book of the Law , will the LORD bring upon you until you are destroyed . * You shall be left few in number , whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude , because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God . * And it shall be , that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you , so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing ; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess . * "Then the LORD will scatter you among all peoples , from one end of the earth to the other , and there you shall serve other gods , which neither you nor your fathers have known--wood and stone . * And among those nations you shall find no rest , nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place ; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart , failing eyes , and anguish of soul . * Your life shall hang in doubt before you ; you shall fear day and night , and have no assurance of life . * In the morning you shall say , "Oh , that it were evening !' And at evening you shall say , "Oh , that it were morning !' because of the fear which terrifies your heart , and because of the sight which your eyes see . * "And the LORD will take you back to Egypt in ships , by the way of which I said to you , "You shall never see it again .' And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves , but no one will buy you ." * These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab , besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb . * Now Moses called all Israel and said to them : "You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt , to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land -- * the great trials which your eyes have seen , the signs , and those great wonders . * Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear , to this very day . * And I have led you forty years in the wilderness . Your clothes have not worn out on you , and your sandals have not worn out on your feet . * You have not eaten bread , nor have you drunk wine or similar drink , that you may know that I am the LORD your God . * And when you came to this place , Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle , and we conquered them . * We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites , to the Gadites , and to half the tribe of Manasseh . * Therefore keep the words of this covenant , and do them , that you may prosper in all that you do . * "All of you stand today before the LORD your God : your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers , all the men of Israel , * your little ones and your wives--also the stranger who is in your camp , from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water -- * that you may enter into covenant with the LORD your God , and into His oath , which the LORD your God makes with you today , * that He may establish you today as a people for Himself , and that He may be God to you , just as He has spoken to you , and just as He has sworn to your fathers , to Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob . * "I make this covenant and this oath , not with you alone , * but with him who stands here with us today before the LORD our God , as well as with him who is not here with us today * (for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by , * and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them--wood and stone and silver and gold ); * so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe , whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God , to go and serve the gods of these nations , and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood ; * and so it may not happen , when he hears the words of this curse , that he blesses himself in his heart , saying , "I shall have peace , even though I follow the dictates of my heart '--as though the drunkard could be included with the sober . * "The LORD would not spare him ; for then the anger of the LORD and His jealousy would burn against that man , and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him , and the LORD would blot out his name from under heaven . * And the LORD would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity , according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law , * so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you , and the foreigner who comes from a far land , would say , when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the LORD has laid on it : * "The whole land is brimstone , salt , and burning ; it is not sown , nor does it bear , nor does any grass grow there , like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah , Admah , and Zeboiim , which the LORD overthrew in His anger and His wrath .' * All nations would say , "Why has the LORD done so to this land ? What does the heat of this great anger mean ?' * Then people would say : "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 ; * for they went and served other gods and worshiped them , gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them . * Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against this land , to bring on it every curse that is written in this book . * And the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger , in wrath , and in great indignation , and cast them into another land , as it is this day .' * "The secret things belong to the LORD our God , but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever , that we may do all the words of this law . * "Now it shall come to pass , when all these things come upon you , the blessing and the curse which I have set before you , and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you ,

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