1Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep all the commandment which I command you today. 2It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones, and coat them with plaster. 3You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have passed over, that you may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 4It shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall coat them with plaster. 5There you shall build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones. You shall not use any iron tool on them. 6You shall build Yahweh your God’s altar of uncut stones. You shall offer burnt offerings on it to Yahweh your God. 7You shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God. 8You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”
9Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent and listen, Israel! Today you have become the people of Yahweh your God. 10You shall therefore obey Yahweh your God’s voice, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.”
11Moses commanded the people the same day, saying, 12“These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14With a loud voice, the Levites shall say to all the men of Israel, 15‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’
All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’
16‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
17‘Cursed is he who removes his neighbor’s landmark.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
18‘Cursed is he who leads the blind astray on the road.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
19‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
20‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he dishonors his father’s bed.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
21‘Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
22‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
23‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
24‘Cursed is he who secretly kills his neighbor.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
25‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
26‘Cursed is he who doesn’t uphold the words of this law by doing them.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”
In Rom 10:3, Paul states that Jews who reject Jesus seek to establish their own righteousness: i.e. to earn God’s favor by their own efforts to obey the Mosaic law (cf. Rom 10:5). This righteousness Paul declares worthless when he asserts that no one can be justified by the works of the law (Rom 3:20; Gal 2:16). Because “all have sinned” (Rom 3:23), he reasons, all who seek salvation by the law are subject to a curse (Gal 3:10; Deut 27:26), and the Jews’ quest to obtain salvation through their own righteousness is correspondingly doomed to failure.
What Jews, like all human beings, need, according to Paul, is “the righteousness of God” (Rom 1:17; 3:22; 10:3; 2 Cor 5:21; Phil 3:9): i.e. the righteousness of Christ, which God imputes, or credits (Rom 5:18-19), to all believers in Jesus (Rom 1:16-17; 4:5). In comparison with this righteousness, Paul counts all of the achievements, whereby he sought to please God before his conversion, as loss and dung (Phil 3:7-8). He gladly forsakes them in order to “win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil 3:8-9). In order to attain salvation, Paul teaches in Romans 10 and elsewhere, the unbelieving Jews likewise must forsake all pretensions to their own righteousness and receive by faith the imputed righteousness of Christ.