1   Moses, with the elders of Israel, gave the people this charge: ‘Keep all the commandments that I lay upon you this day. 2   On the day that you cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up great stones and plaster them over. 3   You shall inscribe on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over to enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord the God of your fathers promised you. 4   When you have crossed the Jordan you shall set up these stones on Mount Ebal, ^note as I command you this day, and cover them with plaster. 5   You shall build an altar there to the Lord your God: it shall be an altar of stones on which you shall use no tool of iron. 6   You shall build the altar of the Lord your God with blocks of undressed stone, and you shall offer whole-offerings upon it to the Lord your God. 7   You shall slaughter shared-offerings and eat them there, and rejoice before the Lord your God. 8   You shall inscribe on the stones all the words of this law, engraving them with care.’

9   Moses and the levitical priests spoke to all Israel, ‘Be silent, Israel, and listen; this day you have become a people belonging to the Lord your God. 10   Obey the Lord your God, and observe his commandments and statutes which I lay upon you this day.’

11    12   That day Moses gave the people this command: ‘Those who shall stand for the blessing of the people on Mount Gerizim when you have crossed the Jordan are these: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13   Those who shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse are these: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.’

14   The Levites, in the hearing of all Israel, shall intone ^note these words:

15   ‘A curse upon the man who carves an idol or casts an image, anything abominable to the Lord that craftsmen make, and sets it up in secret’: the people shall all respond and say, ‘Amen.’

16   ‘A curse upon him who slights his father or his mother’: the people shall all say, ‘Amen.’

17   ‘A curse upon him who moves his neighbour's boundary stone’: the people shall all say, ‘Amen.’

18   ‘A curse upon him who misdirects a blind man’: the people shall all say, ‘Amen.’

19   ‘A curse upon him who withholds justice from the alien, the orphan, and the widow’: the people shall all say, ‘Amen.’

Concluding charge of Moses

20   ‘A curse upon him who lies with his father's wife, for he brings shame upon his father’: the people shall all say, ‘Amen.’

21   ‘A curse upon him who lies with any animal’: the people shall all say, ‘Amen.’

22   ‘A curse upon him who lies with his sister, his father's daughter or his mother's daughter’: the people shall all say, ‘Amen.’

23   ‘A curse upon him who lies with his wife's mother’: the people shall all say, ‘Amen.’

24   ‘A curse upon him who strikes another man in secret’: the people shall all say, ‘Amen.’

25   ‘A curse upon him who takes reward to kill a man with whom he has no feud’: the people shall all say, ‘Amen.’

26   ‘A curse upon any man who does not fulfil this law by doing all that it prescribes’: the people shall all say, ‘Amen.’

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