Deuteronomy 11:26

Anticipation of a Blessing and Cursing Ceremony

11:26 Take note – I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ¹ 

Deuteronomy 27:13

27:13 And these other tribes must stand for the curse on Mount Ebal: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

Deuteronomy 29:27

29:27 That is why the Lord’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses ²  written in this scroll.

Deuteronomy 11:28-29

11:28 and the curse if you pay no attention ³  to his ⁴  commandments and turn from the way I am setting before ⁵  you today to pursue ⁶  other gods you have not known. 11:29 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are to possess, you must pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ⁷ 

Deuteronomy 21:23

21:23 his body must not remain all night on the tree; instead you must make certain you bury ⁸  him that same day, for the one who is left exposed ⁹  on a tree is cursed by God. ¹⁰  You must not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 23:5

23:5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed ¹¹  the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves ¹²  you.

Deuteronomy 28:15

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore ¹³  the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: ¹⁴ 

Deuteronomy 28:45

28:45 All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given ¹⁵  you.

Deuteronomy 30:1

The Results of Covenant Reaffirmation

30:1 “When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses ¹⁶  I have set before you, you will reflect upon them ¹⁷  in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you.

Deuteronomy 30:19

30:19 Today I invoke heaven and earth as a witness against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live!

[11:26]  ¹ sn A blessing and a curse. Every extant treaty text of the late Bronze Age attests to a section known as the “blessings and curses,” the former for covenant loyalty and the latter for covenant breach. Blessings were promised rewards for obedience; curses were threatened judgments for disobedience. In the Book of Deuteronomy these are fully developed in 27:1–28:68. Here Moses adumbrates the whole by way of anticipation.

[29:27]  ² tn Heb “the entire curse.”

[11:28]  ³ tn Heb “do not listen to,” that is, do not obey.

[11:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[11:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “am commanding” (so NASB, NRSV).

[11:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “walk after”; NIV “by following”; NLT “by worshiping.” This is a violation of the first commandment, the most serious of the covenant violations (Deut 5:6-7).

[11:29]  ⁴ sn Mount Gerizim…Mount Ebal. These two mountains are near the ancient site of Shechem and the modern city of Nablus. The valley between them is like a great amphitheater with the mountain slopes as seating sections. The place was sacred because it was there that Abraham pitched his camp and built his first altar after coming to Canaan (Gen 12:6). Jacob also settled at Shechem for a time and dug a well from which Jesus once requested a drink of water (Gen 33:18-20; John 4:5-7). When Joshua and the Israelites finally brought Canaan under control they assembled at Shechem as Moses commanded and undertook a ritual of covenant reaffirmation (Josh 8:30-35; 24:1, 25). Half the tribes stood on Mt. Gerizim and half on Mt. Ebal and in antiphonal chorus pledged their loyalty to the Lord before Joshua and the Levites who stood in the valley below (Josh 8:33; cf. Deut 27:11-13).

[21:23]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by “make certain.”

[21:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “hung,” but this could convey the wrong image in English (hanging with a rope as a means of execution). Cf. NCV “anyone whose body is displayed on a tree.”

[21:23]  ⁷ sn The idea behind the phrase cursed by God seems to be not that the person was impaled because he was cursed but that to leave him exposed there was to invite the curse of God upon the whole land. Why this would be so is not clear, though the rabbinic idea that even a criminal is created in the image of God may give some clue (thus J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy [JPSTC], 198). Paul cites this text (see Gal 3:13) to make the point that Christ, suspended from a cross, thereby took upon himself the curse associated with such a display of divine wrath and judgment (T. George, Galatians [NAC], 238-39).

[23:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord your God changed.” The phrase “the Lord your God” has not been included in the translation here for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy. Moreover, use of the pronoun “he” could create confusion regarding the referent (the Lord or Balaam).

[23:5]  ⁷ tn The verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”) here and commonly elsewhere in the Book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s elective grace toward Israel. See note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.

[28:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

[28:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

[28:45]  ⁸ tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”

[30:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “the blessing and the curse.”

[30:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and you bring (them) back to your heart.”