7. “You came to this place, and King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to fight against us. But we defeated them.
8. Then we took their land and gave it to the people in the tribes of Reuben and Gad and to half the tribe of Manasseh.
9. If you obey all the commands in this agreement, you will continue to succeed in everything you do.
10. “Today all of you are standing here before the Lord your God. Your leaders, your officials, your elders, and all the other men are here.
11. Your wives and children are here and also the foreigners living among you—the people who cut your wood and bring you water.
12. You are all here to enter into an agreement with the Lord your God. The Lord your God is making this agreement with you today.
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.
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.