“... Another type of similarity applies to the curses in Deuteronomy 28:26-33, which are paralleled in almost identical order in the treaty of Esarhaddon. [...] There is one difference in the order of these curses: had Deuteronomy followed Esarhaddon's order, verse 26 would have followed verses 27-28. This exception could be intentional, since it enables Deuteronomy to place verse 26 in a chiastically suitable location (see Excursus 26). The similar outlines could be mere coincidence; they involve only four of twenty-one paragraphs in the Esarhaddon treaty, and other parallels between Deuteronomy 28 and Esarhaddon's treaty appear in different places in the two texts with no similarity in the order. What suggests a relationship between the two texts at this point is the fact that while there is no inherent reason for this order in Deuteronomy, the order seems to correspond to traditional groupings of the gods in Mesopotamian texts. Thus plagues imposed by Sin (the moon god) and Shamash (the sun god) appear next to each other because those two deities, and the punishments they impose, are commonly paired in Mesopotamian texts. However, only the order of the curses is shared; their wording is too different to suggest that Deuteronomy copied them from Esarhaddon's treaty. ...”