16. “You remember what life was like in Egypt and what it was like to travel through the territory of other nations.
17. You saw their disgusting idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold.
18. Make sure that no man, woman, family, or tribe standing here today turns from the Lord our God to worship the gods of other nations. This would be like a root that grows to be a bitter and poisonous plant.
19. Make sure that there is no one here today who hears these solemn demands and yet convinces himself that all will be well with him, even if he stubbornly goes his own way. That would destroy all of you, good and evil alike.
20. The Lord will not forgive such a man. Instead, the Lord's burning anger will flame up against him, and all the disasters written in this book will fall on him until the Lord has destroyed him completely.
21. The Lord will make an example of him before all the tribes of Israel and will bring disaster on him in accordance with all the curses listed in the covenant that is written in this book of the Lord's teachings.
22. “In future generations your descendants and foreigners from distant lands will see the disasters and sufferings that the Lord has brought on your land.
23. The fields will be a barren waste, covered with sulphur and salt; nothing will be planted, and not even weeds will grow there. Your land will be like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed when he was furiously angry.
24. Then the whole world will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do this to their land? What was the reason for his fierce anger?’
25. And the answer will be, ‘It is because the Lord's people broke the covenant they had made with him, the God of their ancestors, when he brought them out of Egypt.
26. They served other gods that they had never worshipped before, gods that the Lord had forbidden them to worship.
27. And so the Lord became angry with his people and brought on their land all the disasters written in this book.
28. The Lord became furiously angry, and in his great anger he uprooted them from their land and threw them into a foreign land, and there they are today.’
29. “There are some things that the Lord our God has kept secret; but he has revealed his Law, and we and our descendants are to obey it for ever.