Curses Pronounced from Ebal

Moses arranges the covenant ceremony by assigning tribes to Mount Gerizim for blessing and Mount Ebal for curse, with the Levites set to proclaim the words aloud to all Israel.

O¹¹n that day Moses commanded the people: ¹²“When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. ¹³And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal to deliver the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. ¹⁴Then the Levites shall proclaim in a loud voice to every Israelite:

The first curses fall on hidden idolatry, dishonoring parents, moving boundary stones, misleading the blind, and denying justice to the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

¹⁵‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved idol or molten image — an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of a craftsman — and sets it up in secret.’ ¹⁶‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ ¹⁷‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary stone.’ ¹⁸‘Cursed is he who lets a blind man wander in the road.’ ¹⁹‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’

The next curses condemn sexual acts that violate household and kinship boundaries, including relations with a father's wife, an animal, a sister, or a mother-in-law.

²⁰‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ ²¹‘Cursed is he who lies with any animal.’ ²²‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ ²³‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law.’

The final curses address secret violence, bribed killing of the innocent, and the broader refusal to uphold the words of the law in practice.

²⁴‘Cursed is he who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ ²⁵‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ ²⁶‘Cursed is he who does not put the words of this law into practice.’