13. With this agreement he is making you his own special people, and he himself will become your God. He told you this. He promised this to your ancestors—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14. The Lord is making this agreement with its promises with you people, but not only with you.
15. Yes, he is making this agreement with all of you who stand here with us today before the Lord our God. But this agreement is also for our descendants who are not here with us today.
16. You remember how we lived in the land of Egypt. And you remember how we traveled through the countries that were on our way here.
17. You saw their hated things—the idols they had made from wood, stone, silver, and gold.
18. Be sure that there is no man, woman, family or tribe here today who turns away from the Lord our God. No one should go and serve the gods of the other nations. People who do that are like a plant that grows bitter and poisonous fruit.
19. “Some people might hear these curses and comfort themselves by saying, ‘I will continue doing what I want. Nothing bad will happen to me.’ But that attitude will bring total disaster.
20-21. The Lord will not forgive them for that. No, the Lord will be angry and upset with them and punish them. The Lord will separate them from the tribes of Israel. He will completely destroy them. All the curses that are written in this book will happen to them. They are a part of the agreement that is written in this Book of Teachings.
22. “In the future, your descendants and foreigners from faraway countries will see how the land has been ruined. They will see the diseases that the Lord has brought to it.
23. All the land will be useless—destroyed by burning sulfur and covered with salt. The land will have nothing planted in it. Nothing will be growing—not even weeds. The land will be destroyed like Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, the cities the Lord destroyed when he was very angry.
24. “All the other nations will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land? Why was he so angry?’
25. The answer will be, ‘This happened because the Israelites left the agreement of the Lord, the God of their ancestors. They stopped following the agreement he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.
26. The Israelites started serving other gods—gods they never worshiped before. The Lord told his people not to worship those gods.
27. That is why the Lord became very angry with the people of this land. So he brought to them all the curses that are written in this book.