- And Moses, with the elders of Israel, commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day. And it shall be on the day when you shall pass over Jordan, unto the land which the Lord your God gives you, that you shall set yourselves up great stones and plaster them with plaster. And you shall write upon them all the words of this law when you are passed over, that you may go in unto the land which the Lord your God gives you; a land that flows with milk and honey, as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you. Therefore, it shall be when you have gone over Jordan that you shall set up these stones which I command you this day, in Mount Ebal; and you shall plaster them with plaster. And there shall you build an altar unto the Lord your God, an altar of stones. You shall not lift up any iron tool upon them. You shall build the altar of the Lord your God of whole stones, and you shall offer burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord your God. And you shall offer peace offerings, and shall eat there, and rejoice before the Lord your God. And you shall write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.
- And Moses and the priests, the Levites, spoke unto all Israel, saying, Take heed and listen, O Israel, this day you have become the people of the Lord your God. You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God and do his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day.
- And Moses charged the people the same day, saying, These shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you have come over Jordan: Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal to curse: Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levites shall speak, and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice, Cursed be the man that makes any engraved or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and puts it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen. Cursed be he that dishonors his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that removes his neighbor’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that makes the blind to wander out of the way. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that perverts the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lies with his father’s wife, because he uncovers his father’s skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lies with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that lies with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that smites his neighbor secretly. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that takes reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be he that confirms not all the words of this law, to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.
- And it shall come to pass, if you shall listen diligently unto the voice of the Lord your God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command you this day, that the Lord your God will set you on high, above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall listen unto the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your cattle and the flocks of your sheep. Blessed shall be your basket and your store. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
- The Lord shall cause your enemies that rise up against you to be smitten before your face. They shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouses, and in all that you set your hand unto, and he shall bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. The Lord shall establish you a holy people unto himself, as he has sworn unto you, if you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. And all people 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 shall make you plenteous in goods, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers to give you. The Lord shall open unto you his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto your land in his season, and to bless all the work of your hand. And you shall lend unto many nations, and you shall not borrow. And the Lord shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath, if you listen unto the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day, to observe and to do them. And you shall not go aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods, to serve them.
- But it shall come to pass if you will not listen unto the voice of the Lord your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your store. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your land, the increase of your cattle and the flocks of your sheep. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. The Lord shall send upon you cursing, vexation, and rebuke in all that you set your hand unto in order to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings whereby you have forsaken me. The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto you until he has consumed you from off the land to which you go to possess it. The Lord shall smite you with a wasting disease, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish. And your heaven that is over your head shall be brass, and the earth that is under you shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven shall it come down upon you until you are destroyed.
- The Lord shall cause you to be smitten before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them, and shall be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And your carcass shall be food unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall frighten them away.
- The Lord will smite you with the boils of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof you cannot be healed. The Lord shall smite you with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart. And you shall grope at noonday as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways, and you shall be only oppressed and spoiled for ever, and no man shall save you. You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house, and you shall not dwell therein. You shall plant a vineyard, and shall not gather the grapes thereof. Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat thereof. Your ass shall be violently taken away from before your face, and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given unto your enemies, and you shall have none to rescue them. Your sons and your daughters shall be given unto another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all the day long, and there shall be no might in your hand. The fruit of your land, and all your labors, shall a nation which you know not eat up. And you shall be only oppressed and crushed always, so that you shall be mad for the sight of your eyes which you shall see. The Lord shall smite you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil that cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot unto the top of your head. The Lord shall bring you, and your king whom you shall set over you, unto a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known; and there shall you serve other gods, wood and stone. And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord shall lead you.
- You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather but little in, for the locust shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worms shall eat them. You shall have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olive shall cast his fruit. You shall beget sons and daughters, but you shall not enjoy them, for they shall go into captivity. All your trees and fruit of your land shall the locust consume. The stranger that is within you shall get up above you, very high, and you shall come down very low. He shall lend to you and 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 shall pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you listened not unto 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 for a wonder, and upon your seed for ever.
- Because you served not the Lord your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore shall you serve your enemies whom the Lord shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in lack of all things. And he shall put a yoke of iron upon your neck until he has destroyed you.
- The Lord shall bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies; a nation whose tongue you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young. And he shall eat the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your land until you are destroyed — which also shall not leave you either grain, wine, or oil, or the increase of your cattle or flocks of your sheep, until he has destroyed you. And he shall besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls come down, wherein you trusted, throughout all your land. And he shall besiege you in all your gates, throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you. And you shall eat the fruit of your own body — the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you — in the siege and in the confinement by which your enemies shall distress you. So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he shall leave, so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left him in the siege and in the confinement by which your enemies shall distress you in all your gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one that comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for lack of all things, secretly, in the siege and confinement by which your enemy shall distress you in your gates.
- If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book — that you may fear this glorious and fearful name: the lord your god — then the Lord will make your plagues extraordinary, and the plagues of your seed, even great plagues of long continuance, and severe sicknesses of long continuance. Moreover, he will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt which you were afraid of, and they shall cleave unto you. Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon you, until you are destroyed. And you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. And it shall come to pass that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and to bring you to naught. And you shall be plucked from off the land to which you go to possess it. And the Lord shall scatter you among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other, and there you shall serve other gods which neither you nor your fathers have known, even wood and stone. And among these nations shall you find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have rest, but the Lord shall give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. And your life shall hang in doubt before you, and you shall fear day and night, and shall have none assurance of your life. In the morning, you shall say, Would to God it were evening. And at evening, you shall say, Would to God it were morning — for the fear of your heart with which you shall fear, and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see. And the Lord shall bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spoke unto you, You shall see it no more again; and there you shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall 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.
Chapter 8