For the curse: this may be rendered as “to listen to the curses” or “to hear how Yahweh will punish people.” Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje rearranges the verse: “The curses will be pronounced from Mount Ebal, and there the following tribes will stand:….” For a comment on curse see 11.26. Or the full sentence may be alternatively rendered as “The tribes of … will go up and stand on Mount Ebal, where they will listen to the curses [or, hear how Yahweh will punish people].”

The six tribes on Mount Ebal, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali, have the names of sons of Leah (Reuben and Zebulun), of Bilhah, Rachel’s slave (Dan and Naphtali), and of Zilpah, Leah’s slave (Gad and Asher); see Gen 35.22-26. All of these tribes had their territory in the north of Israel or on the east side of the Jordan.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• The tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali will go up on Mount Ebal, where they will hear how Yahweh will punish people.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .