12. ready to enter into the Lord your God’s covenant and into the agreement that the Lord your God is making with you right now.
13. That means the Lord will make you his own people right now—he will be your God just as he promised you and just as he swore to our ancestors: to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14. But I’m not making this covenant and this agreement with you alone
15. but also with those standing here with us right now before the Lord our God, and also with those who aren’t here with us right now.
16. You know firsthand how we used to live in Egypt and how we passed right through the nations that you passed through.
17. You saw the horrific things, the filthy idols of wood and stone, silver and gold, that they had with them.
18. Make sure there isn’t any one among you right now—male or female, clan or tribe—whose mind is turning from being with the Lord our God in favor of going to serve these nations’ gods. Make sure there isn’t any root among you that is sprouting poison and bitterness.
19. When that kind of person hears the words of this agreement, they congratulate themselves, thinking: I’ll be fine even though I insist on being stubborn. This would cause something wet to dry up and become like something parched.
20. The Lord won’t be willing to forgive that kind of person; instead, the Lord’s anger and passion will smolder against that person. Every curse written in this scroll will stretch out over them, and the Lord will wipe out their name from under the heavens.
21. Out of all Israel’s tribes, the Lord will single them out for disaster in compliance with all the covenant curses that are written in this Instruction scroll.