Both their descendants and foreigners alike will remark on the singular desolation of the Land and its apparent inability to be sown or to produce crops. The conclusion will be apparent to all - the Jewish People have forsaken the One who protects them, in favor of idols which can do nothing. Moshe promises, however, that the people will eventually repent after both the blessings and the curses have been fulfilled. However assimilated they will have become among the nations, eventually Hashem will bring them back to Eretz Yisrael. The Parsha concludes with a dramatic choice between life and death.
Moshe exhorts the people to choose life.
Nothing is more frightening than the unknown. As little children, we asked our parents to leave the door open just a little so that some light could spill in from the hall. Nothing is as foreboding as an unspecified threat. We have no way of dealing with a vague menace, for we don't really know what it is that threatens us, and our imaginations run riot. The Midrash asks what is the connection between this week's Parsha and the 98 curses that conclude last week's Parsha.