9. The Lord your God will make you his holy people. He will set you apart for himself. He took an oath and promised to do that. He promised to do it if you would keep his commands and live exactly as he wants you to live.
10. All of the nations on earth will see that you belong to the Lord. And they will be afraid of you.
11. The Lord will give you more than you need. You will have many children. Your livestock will have many little ones. Your crops will do very well. All of that will happen in the land he promised with an oath to your fathers to give you.
12. The Lord will open up the heavens. That's where he stores his riches. He will send rain on your land at just the right time. He'll bless everything you do. You will lend money to many nations. But you won't have to borrow from any of them.
13. The Lord your God will make you leaders, not followers. Pay attention to his commands that I'm giving you today. Be careful to follow them. Then you will always be on top. You will never be on the bottom.
14. Don't turn away from any of the commands I'm giving you today. Don't turn to the right or the left. Don't follow other gods. Don't worship them.
15. But suppose you don't obey the Lord your God. And you aren't careful to follow all of his commands and rules I'm giving you today. Then he will send curses on you. They'll catch up with you. Here are those curses.
16. You will be cursed in the cities. You will be cursed out in the country.
17. Your baskets and bread pans will be cursed.
18. Your children will be cursed. Your crops will be cursed. Your calves and lambs will be cursed.
19. You will be cursed no matter where you go.
20. The Lord will send curses on you. You won't know what's going on. In everything you do, he will be angry with you. You will be destroyed suddenly and completely. That will happen because you did an evil thing when you deserted the Lord.