So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding<n id="1" /> to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, &#8220;Indeed, this great nation is a very wise<n id="2" /> people.&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said.<n id="1" /> Then he inscribed the words<n id="2" /> on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

<t /><p class="bodytext">If you obey these ordinances and are careful to do them, the <sc>Lordsc> your God will faithfully keep covenant with you<n id="1" /> as he promised<n id="2" /> your ancestors.

Do not think to yourself after the <sc>Lordsc> your God has driven them out before you, &#8220;Because of my own righteousness the <sc>Lordsc> has brought me here to possess this land.&#8221; It is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out ahead of you.

It is not because of your righteousness, or even your inner uprightness,<n id="1" /> that you have come here to possess their land. Instead, because of the wickedness of these nations the <sc>Lordsc> your God is driving them out ahead of you in order to confirm the promise he<n id="2" /> made on oath to your ancestors,<n id="3" /> to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Pay careful attention to all these things I am commanding you so that it may always go well with you and your children after you when you do what is good and right in the sight of the <sc>Lordsc> your God.p>

After they have been destroyed from your presence, be careful not to be ensnared like they are; do not pursue their gods and say, &#8220;How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.&#8221;

It must be with him constantly and he must read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to revere the <sc>Lordsc> his God and observe all the words of this law and these statutes and carry them out.

Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen readers and diviners, but the <sc>Lordsc> your God has not given you permission to do such things.p>

Suppose he goes with someone else<n id="1" /> to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax<n id="2" /> to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose<n id="3" /> from the handle and strikes<n id="4" /> his fellow worker<n id="5" /> so hard that he dies. The person responsible<n id="6" /> may then flee to one of these cities to save himself.<n id="7" />

and then you are careful to observe all these commandments<n id="1" /> I am giving<n id="2" /> you today (namely, to love the <sc>Lordsc> your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities<n id="3" /> to these three.

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;But if you ignore<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> 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:<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the <sc>Lordsc> your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given<n id="1" /> you.

When such a person<n id="1" /> hears the words of this oath he secretly<n id="2" /> blesses himself<n id="3" /> and says, &#8220;I will have peace though I continue to walk with a stubborn spirit.&#8221;<n id="4" /> This will destroy<n id="5" /> the watered ground with the parched.<n id="6" />

The <sc>Lordsc> will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger<n id="1" /> will rage<n id="2" /> against that man; all the curses<n id="3" /> written in this scroll will fall upon him<n id="4" /> and the <sc>Lordsc> will obliterate his name from memory.<n id="5" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses<n id="1" /> I have set before you, you will reflect upon them<n id="2" /> in all the nations where the <sc>Lordsc> your God has banished you.

As for the <sc>Lordsc> your God, he is about to cross over before you; he will destroy these nations before you and dispossess them. As for Joshua, he is about to cross before you just as the <sc>Lordsc> has said.

At that time<n id="1" /> my anger will erupt against them<n id="2" /> and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome<n id="3" /> them<n id="4" /> so that they<n id="5" /> will say at that time, &#8216;Have not these disasters<n id="6" /> overcome us<n id="7" /> because our<n id="8" /> God is not among us<n id="9" />?&#8217;