1   ‘When these things have befallen you, the blessing and the curse of which I have offered you the choice, if you and your sons take them to heart there in all the countries to which the Lord your God has banished you, 2   if you turn back to him and obey him heart and soul in all that I command you this day, 3   then the Lord your God will show you compassion and restore your fortunes. He will gather you again from all the countries to which he has scattered you. 4   Even though he were to banish you to the four corners of the world, ^note the Lord your God will gather you from there, from there he will fetch you home. 5   The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your forefathers occupied, and you will occupy it again; then he will bring you prosperity and make you more numerous than your forefathers were. 6   The Lord your God will circumcise ^note your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul and you will live. 7   Then the Lord your God will turn all these denunciations against your enemies and the foes who persecute you. 8   You will then again obey the Lord and keep all his commandments which I give you this day. 9    10   The Lord your God will make you more than prosperous in all that you do, in the fruit of your body and of your cattle and in the fruits of the earth; for, when you obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes, as they are written in this book of the law, and when you turn back to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, he will again rejoice over you and be good to you, as he rejoiced over your forefathers.

Concluding charge of Moses

11   ‘The commandment that I lay on you this day is not too difficult for you, it is not too remote. 12   It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us to fetch it and tell it to us, so that we can keep it?” 13   Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross the sea for us to fetch it and tell it to us, so that we can keep it?” 14   It is a thing very near to you, upon your lips ^note and in your heart ready to be kept.

15   ‘Today I offer you the choice of life and good, or death and evil. 16   If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God ^note which I give you this day, by loving the Lord your God, by conforming to his ways and by keeping his commandments, statutes, and laws, then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to occupy. 17   But if your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led on to bow down to other gods and worship them, I tell you this day that you will perish; 18   you will not live long in the land which you will enter to occupy after crossing the Jordan. 19   I summon heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I offer you the choice of life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life and then you and your descendants will live; 20   love the Lord your God, obey him and hold fast to him: that is life for you and length of days in the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’

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