17. the Lord will become angry and keep the rain from falling. Nothing will grow in your fields, and you will die and disappear from the good land that the Lord is giving you.
18. Memorize these laws and think about them. Write down copies and tie them to your wrists and your foreheads to help you obey them.
19. Teach them to your children. Talk about them all the time—whether you're at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning.
20. Write them on the door frames of your homes and on your town gates.
21. Then you and your descendants will live a long time in the land that the Lord promised your ancestors. Your families will live there as long as the sky is above the earth.
22. Love the Lord your God and obey all the laws and teachings that I'm giving you today. If you live the way the Lord wants,
23. he will help you take the land. And even though the nations there are more powerful than you, the Lord will force them to leave when you attack.
24. You will capture the land everywhere you go, from the Southern Desert to the Lebanon Mountains, and from the River Euphrates west to the Mediterranean Sea.
25. No one will be able to stand up to you. The Lord will make everyone terrified of you, just as he promised.
26. You have a choice—do you want the Lord to bless you, or do you want him to put a curse on you?
27. Today I am giving you his laws, and if you obey him, he will bless you.
28. But if you disobey him and worship those gods that have never done anything for you, the Lord will put a curse on you.