Deuteronomy 27:23, Cursed by the Law

1. The Covenant Code, found in Exodus 21:1-23:19. See verse 24:7, where Moses reads from the “book of the covenant.”

2. The Book of the Law, as recorded in 2 Kings 22, usually called the Deuteronomic Code. 

3. The Holiness Code, found in Leviticus 17-26.

4. The Priestly Code, a collection of verses scattered through Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.

5. Finally, the section everyone knows about: the Ten Commandments.

But what fascinates many readers is a particular collection of laws with a strange punishment, embedded within the Covenant Code. 0Commit these laws and you’ll be “cursed,” like in today’s verse. There are twelve such laws, listed between Exodus 21:15-26.

What sort of deterrent is this? What if you don’t believe in curses? Will you still feel motivated to obey the law?

Trust me: you don’t want to be cursed. It means that the violator is condemned within his community, no longer a respectable member in a society which very much depends upon one another. That is why all twelve laws end with the refrain, “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’”