10. All of you—tribal leaders, elders, officers, all the men of Israel—are standing today in the presence of the lord your God.
11. Your little ones and your wives are with you, as well as the foreigners living among you who chop your wood and carry your water.
12. You are standing here today to enter into the covenant of the lord your God. The lord is making this covenant, including the curses.
13. By entering into the covenant today, he will establish you as his people and confirm that he is your God, just as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14. “But you are not the only ones with whom I am making this covenant with its curses.
15. I am making this covenant both with you who stand here today in the presence of the lord our God, and also with the future generations who are not standing here today.
16. “You remember how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we traveled through the lands of enemy nations as we left.
17. You have seen their detestable practices and their idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold.
18. I am making this covenant with you so that no one among you—no man, woman, clan, or tribe—will turn away from the lord our God to worship these gods of other nations, and so that no root among you bears bitter and poisonous fruit.
19. “Those who hear the warnings of this curse should not congratulate themselves, thinking, ‘I am safe, even though I am following the desires of my own stubborn heart.’ This would lead to utter ruin!
20. The lord will never pardon such people. Instead his anger and jealousy will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will come down on them, and the lord will erase their names from under heaven.