You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer, ¹  for the Lord your God will be testing you to see if you love him ²  with all your mind and being. ³ 

You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza ¹  and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin ²  forever – it must never be rebuilt again.

Then you may spend the money however you wish for cattle, sheep, wine, beer, or whatever you desire. You and your household may eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and enjoy it.

You must by all means lend ¹  to him and not be upset by doing it, ²  for because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you attempt.

You are to celebrate the festival seven days before the Lord your God in the place he ¹  chooses, for he ²  will bless you in all your productivity and in whatever you do; ³  so you will indeed rejoice!

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

Suppose a Levite comes by his own free will ¹  from one of your villages, from any part of Israel where he is living, ²  to the place the Lord chooses

and then you are careful to observe all these commandments ¹  I am giving ²  you today (namely, to love the Lord your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities ³  to these three.

However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city – all its plunder – you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the Lord your God has given you.

Then the Levitical priests ¹  will approach (for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name, ²  and to decide ³  every judicial verdict ⁴ )

“If you indeed ¹  obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving ²  you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.

“But if you ignore ¹  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: ² 

He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ¹  you in your villages.

The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ¹ 

“When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses ¹  I have set before you, you will reflect upon them ²  in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you.

if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this scroll of the law. But you must turn to him ¹  with your whole mind and being.

when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place he chooses, you must read this law before them ¹  within their hearing.

he said to them, “Keep in mind all the words I am solemnly proclaiming to you today; you must command your children to observe carefully all the words of this law.

The Lord your God is about to go ¹  ahead of you; he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt ² 

This very day I will begin to fill all the people of the earth ¹  with dread and to terrify them when they hear about you. They will shiver and shake in anticipation of your approach.” ²