15 'Cursed is anyone who carves or casts an idol and secretly sets it up. These idols, the work of craftsmen, are detestable to the Lord .' And all the people will reply, 'Amen.' 16 'Cursed is anyone who dishonors father or mother.' And all the people will reply, 'Amen.' 17 'Cursed is anyone who steals property from a neighbor by moving a boundary marker.' And all the people will reply, 'Amen.' 18 'Cursed is anyone who leads a blind person astray on the road.' And all the people will reply, 'Amen.' 19 'Cursed is anyone who denies justice to foreigners, orphans, or widows.' And all the people will reply, 'Amen.' 20 'Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with one of his father's wives, for he has violated his father.' And all the people will reply, 'Amen.' 21 'Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with an animal.' And all the people will reply, 'Amen.' 22 'Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with his sister, whether she is the daughter of his father or his mother.' And all the people will reply, 'Amen.' 23 'Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with his mother-in-law.' And all the people will reply, 'Amen.' 24 'Cursed is anyone who attacks a neighbor in secret.' And all the people will reply, 'Amen.' 25 'Cursed is anyone who accepts payment to kill an innocent person.' And all the people will reply, 'Amen.' 26 'Cursed is anyone who does not affirm and obey the terms of these instructions.' And all the people will reply, 'Amen.'
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Deuteronomy 27:15-26
Commentary on Deuteronomy 27:11-26
(Read Deuteronomy 27:11-26)
The six tribes appointed for blessing, were all children of the free women, for to such the promise belongs, Galatians 4:31. Levi is here among the rest. Ministers should apply to themselves the blessing and curse they preach to others, and by faith set their own Amen to it. And they must not only allure people to their duty with the promises of a blessing, but awe them with the threatenings of a curse, by declaring that a curse would be upon those who do such things. To each of the curses the people were to say, Amen. It professed their faith, that these, and the like curses, were real declarations of the wrath of God against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, not one jot of which shall fall to the ground. It was acknowledging the equity of these curses. Those who do such things deserve to fall, and lie under the curse. Lest those who were guilty of other sins, not here mentioned, should think themselves safe from the curse, the last reaches all. Not only those who do the evil which the law forbids, but those also who omit the good which the law requires. Without the atoning blood of Christ, sinners can neither have communion with a holy God, nor do any thing acceptable to him; his righteous law condemns every one who, at any time, or in any thing, transgresses it. Under its awful curse we remain as transgressors, until the redemption of Christ is applied to our hearts. Wherever the grace of God brings salvation, it teaches the believer to deny ungodliness and wordly lusts, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, consenting to, and delighting in the words of God's law, after the inward man. In this holy walk, true peace and solid joy are to be found.