“See, I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse:
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:
- KJV Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
- BSB See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse—
- NKJV “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:
- NLT “Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses sets before Israel a clear choice of blessing or curse. Their response to God's word would determine their destiny.
Overview
Moses presents the covenant as a decisive choice between blessing and curse. The stark alternatives press the seriousness of obeying or rejecting God. This either-or echoes throughout Scripture and finds its resolution in Christ, who bore the curse so His people might receive the blessing.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Deut 30:15–20Behold, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil.
- Deut 30:1It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where Yahweh your God has driven you,
- Gal 3:10For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
- Gal 3:13–14Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 11:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.