(11) Thereupon Moses charged the people, saying: (12) After you have crossed the Jordan, the following shall stand on Mount Gerizim when the blessing for the people is spoken: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. (13) And for the curse, the following shall stand on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. (14) The Levites shall then proclaim in a loud voice to all the people of Israel: (15) Cursed be any party who makes a sculptured or molten image, abhorred by יהוה, a craftsman’s handiwork, and sets it up in secret.—And all the people shall respond, Amen. (16) Cursed be the one who insults father or mother.—And all the people shall say, Amen. (17) Cursed be the one who moves a neighbor’s landmark.—And all the people shall say, Amen. (18) Cursed be the one who misdirects a blind person who is underway.—And all the people shall say, Amen. (19) Cursed be the one who subverts the rights of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.—And all the people shall say, Amen. (20) Cursed be the [man] who lies with his father’s wife, for he has removed his father’s garment. —And all the people shall say, Amen. (21) Cursed be the one who lies with any beast.—And all the people shall say, Amen. (22) Cursed be the [man] who lies with his sister, whether daughter of his father or of his mother.—And all the people shall say, Amen. (23) Cursed be the [man] who lies with his mother-in-law.—And all the people shall say, Amen. (24) Cursed be the one who strikes down a fellow [Israelite] in secret.—And all the people shall say, Amen. (25) Cursed be the one who accepts a bribe in the case of the murder of an innocent person.—And all the people shall say, Amen. (26) Cursed be whoever will not uphold the terms of this Teaching and observe them.—And all the people shall say, Amen. (1) Now, if you obey your God יהוה, to observe faithfully all the divine commandments which I enjoin upon you this day, your God יהוה will set you high above all the nations of the earth. (2) All these blessings shall come upon you and take effect, if you will but heed the word of your God יהוה: (3) Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country.

(4) Blessed shall be your issue from the womb, your produce from the soil, and the offspring of your cattle, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock. (5) Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. (6) Blessed shall you be in your comings and blessed shall you be in your goings.

(7)יהוה will put to rout before [your army] the enemies who attack you; they will march out against you by a single road, but flee from you by many roads. (8)יהוה will ordain blessings for you upon your barns and upon all your undertakings: you will be blessed in the land that your God יהוה is giving you. (9)יהוה will establish you as God’s holy people, as was sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of your God יהוה and walk in God’s ways. (10) And all the peoples of the earth shall see that יהוה’s name is proclaimed over you, and they shall stand in fear of you. (11)יהוה will give you abounding prosperity in your issue from the womb, the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil in the land that יהוה swore to your fathers to assign to you.

(12)יהוה will open for you that bounteous store, the heavens, to provide rain for your land in season and to bless all your undertakings. You will be creditor to many nations, but debtor to none. (13)יהוה will make you the head, not the tail; you will always be at the top and never at the bottom—if only you obey and faithfully observe the commandments of your God יהוה that I enjoin upon you this day, (14) and do not deviate to the right or to the left from any of the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day and turn to the worship of other gods.

(15) But if you do not obey your God יהוה to observe faithfully all the commandments and laws which I enjoin upon you this day, all these curses shall come upon you and take effect: (16) Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the country. (17) Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. (18) Cursed shall be your issue from the womb and your produce from the soil, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock. (19) Cursed shall you be in your comings and cursed shall you be in your goings. (20)יהוה will let loose against you calamity, panic, and frustration in all the enterprises you undertake, so that you shall soon be utterly wiped out because of your evildoing in forsaking Me. (21)יהוה will make pestilence cling to you, until putting an end to you in the land that you are entering to possess. (22)יהוה will strike you with consumption, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew; they shall hound you until you perish. (23) The skies above your head shall be copper and the earth under you iron. (24)יהוה will make the rain of your land dust, and sand shall drop on you from the sky, until you are wiped out. (25)יהוה will put you to rout before your enemies; you shall march out against them by a single road, but flee from them by many roads; and you shall become a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. (26) Your carcasses shall become food for all the birds of the sky and all the beasts of the earth, with none to frighten them off. (27)יהוה will strike you with the Egyptian inflammation, with hemorrhoids, boil-scars, and itch, from which you shall never recover. (28)יהוה will strike you with madness, blindness, and dismay. (29) You shall grope at noon as the blind grope in the dark; you shall not prosper in your ventures, but shall be constantly abused and robbed, with none to give help. (30) If you [a man] pay the bride-price for a wife, another man shall enjoy her. If you build a house, you shall not live in it. If you plant a vineyard, you shall not harvest it. (31) Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your ass shall be seized in front of you, and it shall not be returned to you; your flock shall be delivered to your enemies, with none to help you. (32) Your sons and daughters shall be delivered to another people, while you look on; and your eyes shall strain for them constantly, but you shall be helpless. (33) A people you do not know shall eat up the produce of your soil and all your gains; you shall be abused and downtrodden continually, (34) until you are driven mad by what your eyes behold. (35)יהוה will afflict you at the knees and thighs with a severe inflammation, from which you shall never recover—from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. (36)יהוה will drive you, and the king you have set over you, to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors, where you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone. (37) You shall be a consternation, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples to which יהוה will drive you. (38) Though you take much seed out to the field, you shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it. (39) Though you plant vineyards and till them, you shall have no wine to drink or store, for the worm shall devour them. (40) Though you have olive trees throughout your territory, you shall have no oil for anointment, for your olives shall drop off. (41) Though you beget sons and daughters, they shall not remain with you, for they shall go into captivity. (42) The cricket shall take over all the trees and produce of your land. (43) The strangers in your midst shall rise above you higher and higher, while you sink lower and lower: (44) they shall be your creditors, but you shall not be theirs; they shall be the head and you the tail. (45) All these curses shall befall you; they shall pursue you and overtake you, until you are wiped out, because you did not heed your God יהוה and keep the commandments and laws that were enjoined upon you. (46) They shall serve as signs and proofs against you and your offspring for all time. (47) Because you would not serve your God יהוה in joy and gladness over the abundance of everything, (48) you shall have to serve—in hunger and thirst, naked and lacking everything—the enemies whom יהוה will let loose against you. [God] will put an iron yoke upon your neck until you are wiped out. (49)יהוה will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, which will swoop down like the eagle—a nation whose language you do not understand, (50) a ruthless nation, that will show the influential no regard and the vulnerable no mercy. (51) It shall devour the offspring of your cattle and the produce of your soil, until you have been wiped out, leaving you nothing of new grain, wine, or oil, of the calving of your herds and the lambing of your flocks, until it has brought you to ruin. (52) It shall shut you up in all your towns throughout your land until every mighty, towering wall in which you trust has come down. And when you are shut up in all your towns throughout your land that your God יהוה has assigned to you, (53) you shall eat your own issue, the flesh of your sons and daughters that your God יהוה has assigned to you, because of the desperate straits to which your enemy shall reduce you. (54) The householder who is most tender and fastidious among you shall be too mean to his brother and the wife of his bosom and the children he has spared (55) to share with any of them the flesh of the children that he eats, because he has nothing else left as a result of the desperate straits to which your enemy shall reduce you in all your towns. (56) And she who is most tender and dainty among you, so tender and dainty that she would never venture to set a foot on the ground, shall begrudge the husband of her bosom, and her son and her daughter, (57) the afterbirth that issues from between her legs and the babies she bears; she shall eat them secretly, because of utter want, in the desperate straits to which your enemy shall reduce you in your towns. (58) If you fail to observe faithfully all the terms of this Teaching that are written in this book, to reverence this honored and awesome Name, your God יהוה, (59)יהוה will inflict extraordinary plagues upon you and your offspring, strange and lasting plagues, malignant and chronic diseases— (60) bringing back upon you all the sicknesses of Egypt that you dreaded so, and they shall cling to you. (61) Moreover, יהוה will bring upon you all the other diseases and plagues that are not mentioned in this book of Teaching, until you are wiped out. (62) You shall be left a scant few, after having been as numerous as the stars in the skies, because you did not heed the command of your God יהוה. (63) And as יהוה once delighted in making you prosperous and many, so will יהוה now delight in causing you to perish and in wiping you out; you shall be torn from the land that you are about to enter and possess. (64)יהוה will scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, whom neither you nor your ancestors have experienced. (65) Yet even among those nations you shall find no peace, nor shall your foot find a place to rest. יהוה will give you there an anguished heart and eyes that pine and a despondent spirit. (66) The life you face shall be precarious; you shall be in terror, night and day, with no assurance of survival. (67) In the morning you shall say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening you shall say, “If only it were morning!”—because of what your heart shall dread and your eyes shall see. (68)יהוה will send you back to Egypt in galleys, by a route which I told you you should not see again. There you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but none will buy. (69) These are the terms of the covenant which יהוה commanded Moses to conclude with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant which was made with them at Horeb.

(1) Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: You have seen all that יהוה did before your very eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his courtiers and to his whole country: (2) the wondrous feats that you saw with your own eyes, those prodigious signs and marvels. (3) Yet to this day יהוה has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. (4) I led you through the wilderness forty years; the clothes on your back did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet; (5) you had no bread to eat and no wine or other intoxicant to drink—that you might know that I יהוה am your God.

(6) When you reached this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to engage us in battle, but we defeated them. (7) We took their land and gave it to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh as their heritage. (8) Therefore observe faithfully all the terms of this covenant, that you may succeed in all that you undertake.

(6) When you reached this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to engage us in battle, but we defeated them. (7) We took their land and gave it to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh as their heritage. (8) Therefore observe faithfully all the terms of this covenant, that you may succeed in all that you undertake.

(1)Arise, shine, for your light has dawned;The Presence of GOD has shone upon you! (2)Behold! Darkness shall cover the earth,And thick clouds the peoples;But upon you GOD will shine, And God’s Presence be seen over you.(3)And nations shall walk by your light,Kings, by your shining radiance.(4)Raise your eyes and look about:They have all gathered and come to you.Your sons shall be brought from afar,Your daughters like babes on shoulders.(5)As you behold, you will glow;Your heart will throb and thrill—For the wealth of the sea shall pass on to you, The riches of nations shall flow to you.(6)Dust clouds of camels shall cover you,Dromedaries of Midian and Ephah.They all shall come from Sheba;They shall bear gold and frankincense,And shall herald GOD’s glories. (7)All the flocks of Kedar shall be assembled for you,The rams of Nebaioth shall serve your needs;They shall be welcome offerings on My altar,And I will add glory to My glorious House.(8)Who are these that float like a cloud,Like doves to their cotes?(9)Behold, the coastlands await me,With ships of Tarshish in the lead, To bring your children from afar,And their silver and gold as well— For the name of the ETERNAL your God, For the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you.(10)Aliens shall rebuild your walls,Their kings shall wait upon you—For in anger I struck you down,But in favor I take you back.(11)Your gates shall always stay open—Day and night they shall never be shut—To let in the wealth of the nations,With their kings in procession.(12)For the nation or the kingdomThat does not serve you shall perish;Such nations shall be destroyed.(13)The majesty of Lebanon shall come to you—Cypress and pine and box—To adorn the site of My Sanctuary,To glorify the place where My feet rest.(14)Bowing before you, shall comeThe children of those who tormented you;Prostrate at the soles of your feetShall be all those who reviled you;And you shall be called“City of GOD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”(15)Whereas you have been forsaken,Rejected, with none passing through,I will make you a pride everlasting,A joy for age after age.(16)You shall suck the milk of the nations,Suckle at royal breasts.And you shall knowThat I GOD am your Savior, I, The Mighty One of Jacob, am your Redeemer.(17)Instead of copper I will bring gold,Instead of iron I will bring silver;Instead of wood, copper—And instead of stone, iron.And I will appoint Well-being as your government,Prosperity as your officials.(18)The cry “Violence!”Shall no more be heard in your land,Nor “Wrack and ruin!”Within your borders.And you shall name your walls “Victory”And your gates “Renown.”(19)No longer shall you need the sunFor light by day,Nor the shining of the moonFor radiance [by night];For GOD shall be your light everlasting, Your God shall be your glory.(20)Your sun shall set no more,Your moon no more withdraw;For GOD shall be a light to you forever, And your days of mourning shall be ended.(21)And your people, all of them righteous,Shall possess the land for all time;They are the shoot that I planted,My handiwork in which I glory.(22)The smallest shall become a clan;The least, a mighty nation.I GOD will speed it in due time.

FOR THIS COMMANDMENT. The meaning thereof is that it refers to the entire Torah. But the correct interpretation is that when he refers to the entire Torah, he says [as above] Every commandment which I command thee this day. Rather [the expression used here] this commandment refers to [the commandment of] repentance aforementioned, for the verses, and thou shalt bethink thyself;and thou shalt return unto the Eternal thy G-d constitute a commandment, wherein he commands us to do so. It is stated in a future tense [rather than in the imperative] to suggest, in the form of a pledge, that it is destined [that Israel will repent]. And the sense thereof is to state that if thy outcasts be in the uttermost parts of heaven and you are under the power of the nations, you can yet return to G-d and do according to all that I command thee this day, for the thing is not hard, nor far off from you, but rather very nigh unto thee to do it at all times and in all places. This is the sense of the expression, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it meaning that they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers by word of their mouth, and return in their heart to G-d and accept the Torah upon themselves this day to perform it throughout the generations, as he mentioned, thou and thy children with all thy heart, as I have explained.