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Deuteronomy 28
New International Version - UK

Blessings for obedience

28 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands that I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:

3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock – the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.

8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity – in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground – in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.

12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.

Curses for disobedience

15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.

18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

20 The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.[a] 21 The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. 23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. 24 The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.

25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumours, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29 At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.

30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. 33 A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labour produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. 34 The sights you see will drive you mad. 35 The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.

36 The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. 37 You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.

38 You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. 39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. 41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. 42 Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.

43 The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. 44 They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail.

45 All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. 46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants for ever. 47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. 51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no corn, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. 52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.

53 Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you. 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. 56 The most gentle and sensitive woman among you – so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot – will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter 57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.

58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name – the Lord your God – 59 the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60 He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. 62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63 Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.

64 Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods – gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. 65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. 66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening, ‘If only it were morning!’– because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. 68 The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:20 Hebrew me
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Deuteronomy 28
New American Standard Bible

The Blessings at Mount Gerizim

28 “(A)Now it shall be, if you diligently [a]obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, that the Lord your God (B)will put you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings will come to you and (C)reach you if you [b]obey the Lord your God:

3 “Blessed will you be in the city, and blessed will you be (D)in the [c]country.

4 “Blessed will be the [d]children of your womb, the [e]produce of your ground, and the [f]offspring of your animals: the newborn of your herd and the young of your flock.

5 “Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.

6 “Blessed will you be (E)when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.

7 “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be [g]defeated by you; they will go out against you one way and will flee at your presence seven ways. 8 The Lord will command the blessing for you in your [h]barns and in (F)everything that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 9 (G)The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 So all the peoples of the earth will see that [i](H)you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will be afraid of you. 11 (I)And the Lord will give you more than enough prosperity, in the [j]children of your womb, in the [k]offspring of your livestock, and in the [l]produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless every work of your hand; and (J)you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. 13 (K)And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will only be above, and not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you today, to [m]follow them carefully, 14 and (L)do not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right or the left, to pursue other gods to serve them.

Consequences of Disobedience

15 “(M)But it shall come about, if you do not [n]obey the Lord your God, to be careful to [o]follow all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

16 “(N)Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the [p]country.

17 “(O)Cursed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.

18 “(P)Cursed will be the [q]children of your womb, the [r]produce of your ground, the newborn of your herd, and the offspring of your flock.

19 “(Q)Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go out.

20 “(R)The Lord will send against you curses, panic, and (S)rebuke, in [s]everything you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until (T)you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have abandoned Me. 21 (U)The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has eliminated you from the land where you are entering to take possession of it. 22 (V)The Lord will strike you with consumption, inflammation, fever, feverish heat, and with [t]the sword, (W)with blight, and with mildew, and they will pursue you until (X)you perish. 23 [u]The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. 24 (Y)The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

25 “(Z)The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways from their presence, and you will (AA)be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 (AB)Your dead bodies will [v]serve as food for all birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

27 “(AC)The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with (AD)tumors, the festering rash, and with scabies, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will strike you with insanity, blindness, and with confusion of [w]mind; 29 and you will be (AE)groping about at noon, just as a person who is blind gropes in the darkness, and you will not be successful in your ways; but you will only be [x]oppressed and robbed all the time, with no one to save you. 30 (AF)You will [y]betroth a woman, but another man will [z]violate her; (AG)you will build a house, but you will not live in it; you will plant a vineyard, but you will not make use of its fruit. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey will be snatched away from you, and will not [aa]be restored to you; your [ab]sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you. 32 (AH)Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes look on and long for them constantly; but there will be nothing [ac]you can do. 33 (AI)A people whom you do not know will eat the produce of your ground and every product of your labor, and you will never be anything but oppressed and mistreated continually. 34 You will also be driven insane by the sight of [ad]what you see. 35 (AJ)The Lord will strike you on the knees and thighs with severe boils from which you cannot be healed, and strike you from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. 36 (AK)The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you appoint over you, to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, made of (AL)wood and stone. 37 And (AM)you will become an object of horror, a song of mockery, and an object of taunting among all the peoples where the Lord drives you.

38 “(AN)You will bring out a great amount of seed to the field, but you will gather in little, because (AO)the locust will devour it. 39 (AP)You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor bring in the harvest, because the worm will eat it. 40 (AQ)You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, because your olives will drop off prematurely. 41 (AR)You will father sons and daughters but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity. 42 (AS)The cricket will take possession of all your trees and the produce of your ground. 43 (AT)The stranger who is among you will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower. 44 (AU)He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; (AV)he will be the head, and you will be the tail.

45 “So all these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you (AW)until you are destroyed, because you would not [ae]obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And they will become (AX)a sign and a wonder [af]against you and your [ag]descendants forever.

47 “(AY)Since you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, in gratitude for the abundance of all things, 48 you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, (AZ)in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and devoid of all things; and He (BA)will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

49 “(BB)The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, (BC)as the eagle swoops down; a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation [ah]with a defiant attitude, who will (BD)have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. 51 Furthermore, it will eat the [ai]offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed; a nation that will leave you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the newborn of your cattle or the young of your flock, until they have eliminated you. 52 (BE)And it will besiege you in all your [aj]towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it will besiege you in all your [ak]towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53 (BF)Then you will eat the [al]offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the hardship by which your enemy will [am]oppress you. 54 The man who is [an]refined and very delicate among you [ao]will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife [ap]he cherishes, and toward the rest of his children who are left, 55 so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else left, during the siege and the hardship by which your enemy will [aq]oppress you in all your [ar]towns. 56 (BG)The [as]refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and tenderness, [at]will be hostile toward the husband [au]she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, 57 and toward her afterbirth that comes from between her [av]legs, and toward her children to whom she gives birth, because (BH)she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the hardship with which your enemy will [aw]oppress you in your [ax]towns.

58 “If you are not careful to [ay]follow all the words of this Law that are written in this book, to [az](BI)fear this honored and awesome (BJ)name, [ba]the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and [bb]your descendants, [bc]severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. 60 (BK)And He will bring back on you every disease of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which are not written in the book of this Law, the Lord will bring on you (BL)until you are destroyed. 62 Then you will be left few in [bd]number, (BM)whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not [be]obey the Lord your God. 63 And it will come about that, just as the Lord (BN)rejoiced over you to be good to you, and make you numerous, so will the Lord (BO)rejoice over you to wipe you out and destroy you; and you will be (BP)torn away from the land which you are entering to possess. 64 Furthermore, the Lord will (BQ)scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to [bf]the other; and there you will (BR)serve other gods, made of wood and stone, which you and your fathers have not known. 65 (BS)Among those nations you will find no peace, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there (BT)the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 So your lives will be [bg]hanging in doubt before you; and you will be terrified night and day, and have no assurance of your life. 67 (BU)In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And at evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the terror of your heart which you fear, and the sight of your eyes which you will see. 68 And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I said to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:1 Lit listen to the voice of
  2. Deuteronomy 28:2 Lit listen to the voice of
  3. Deuteronomy 28:3 Lit field
  4. Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit fruit
  5. Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit fruit
  6. Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit fruit
  7. Deuteronomy 28:7 Lit struck
  8. Deuteronomy 28:8 Or storehouses
  9. Deuteronomy 28:10 Lit the name of the Lord is called upon you
  10. Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit fruit
  11. Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit fruit
  12. Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit fruit
  13. Deuteronomy 28:13 Lit be careful and to perform
  14. Deuteronomy 28:15 Lit listen to the voice of
  15. Deuteronomy 28:15 Lit perform
  16. Deuteronomy 28:16 Lit field
  17. Deuteronomy 28:18 Lit fruit
  18. Deuteronomy 28:18 Lit fruit
  19. Deuteronomy 28:20 Lit every putting forth of your hand which you do
  20. Deuteronomy 28:22 Another reading is drought
  21. Deuteronomy 28:23 Lit Your
  22. Deuteronomy 28:26 Lit be for
  23. Deuteronomy 28:28 Lit heart
  24. Deuteronomy 28:29 Or exploited
  25. Deuteronomy 28:30 A betrothed couple was considered legally married, but did not yet live together
  26. Deuteronomy 28:30 Or be intimate with
  27. Deuteronomy 28:31 Lit return to
  28. Deuteronomy 28:31 Or flock
  29. Deuteronomy 28:32 Lit to the power of your hand
  30. Deuteronomy 28:34 Lit your eyes which you
  31. Deuteronomy 28:45 Lit listen to the voice of
  32. Deuteronomy 28:46 Or on
  33. Deuteronomy 28:46 Lit seed
  34. Deuteronomy 28:50 Lit defiant-faced
  35. Deuteronomy 28:51 Lit fruit
  36. Deuteronomy 28:52 Lit gates
  37. Deuteronomy 28:52 Lit gates
  38. Deuteronomy 28:53 Lit fruit of your womb
  39. Deuteronomy 28:53 Or torment
  40. Deuteronomy 28:54 Or spoiled and pampered
  41. Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit his eye will be evil toward
  42. Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit of his breast
  43. Deuteronomy 28:55 Or torment
  44. Deuteronomy 28:55 Lit gates
  45. Deuteronomy 28:56 Or spoiled and pampered
  46. Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit her eye shall be evil toward
  47. Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit of her breast
  48. Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit feet
  49. Deuteronomy 28:57 Or torment
  50. Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit gates
  51. Deuteronomy 28:58 Lit perform
  52. Deuteronomy 28:58 Or revere
  53. Deuteronomy 28:58 Heb YHWH
  54. Deuteronomy 28:59 Lit plagues on your seed
  55. Deuteronomy 28:59 Lit great
  56. Deuteronomy 28:62 Lit people
  57. Deuteronomy 28:62 Lit listen to the voice of
  58. Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit the end of the earth
  59. Deuteronomy 28:66 Lit be hung for you in front
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Deuteronomy 28
New Century Version

Blessings for Obeying

28 You must completely obey the Lord your God, and you must carefully follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the Lord your God will make you greater than any other nation on earth. 2 Obey the Lord your God so that all these blessings will come and stay with you:

3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

4 Your children will be blessed, as well as your crops; your herds will be blessed with calves and your flocks with lambs.

5 Your basket and your kitchen will be blessed.

6 You will be blessed when you come in and when you go out.

7 The Lord will help you defeat the enemies that come to fight you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will run from you in seven directions.

8 The Lord your God will bless you with full barns, and he will bless everything you do. He will bless the land he is giving you.

9 The Lord will make you his holy people, as he promised. But you must obey his commands and do what he wants you to do. 10 Then everyone on earth will see that you are the Lord’s people, and they will be afraid of you. 11 The Lord will make you rich: You will have many children, your animals will have many young, and your land will give good crops. It is the land that the Lord promised your ancestors he would give to you.

12 The Lord will open up his heavenly storehouse so that the skies send rain on your land at the right time, and he will bless everything you do. You will lend to other nations, but you will not need to borrow from them. 13 The Lord will make you like the head and not like the tail; you will be on top and not on bottom. But you must obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, being careful to keep them. 14 Do not disobey anything I command you today. Do exactly as I command, and do not follow other gods or serve them.

Curses for Disobeying

15 But if you do not obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands and laws I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and stay:

16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

17 Your basket and your kitchen will be cursed.

18 Your children will be cursed, as well as your crops; the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks will be cursed.

19 You will be cursed when you go in and when you go out.

20 The Lord will send you curses, confusion, and punishment in everything you do. You will be destroyed and suddenly ruined because you did wrong when you left him. 21 The Lord will give you terrible diseases and destroy you from the land you are going to take. 22 The Lord will punish you with disease, fever, swelling, heat, lack of rain, plant diseases, and mildew until you die. 23 The sky above will be like bronze, and the ground below will be like iron.[a] 24 The Lord will turn the rain into dust and sand, which will fall from the skies until you are destroyed.

25 The Lord will help your enemies defeat you. You will attack them from one direction, but you will run from them in seven directions. And you will become a thing of horror among all the kingdoms on earth. 26 Your dead bodies will be food for all the birds and wild animals, and there will be no one to scare them away. 27 The Lord will punish you with boils like those the Egyptians had. You will have bad growths, sores, and itches that can’t be cured. 28 The Lord will give you madness, blindness, and a confused mind. 29 You will have to feel around in the daylight like a blind person. You will fail in everything you do. People will hurt you and steal from you every day, and no one will save you.

30 You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will force her to have sexual relations with him. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not get its grapes. 31 Your ox will be killed before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you, and it will not be brought back. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will grow tired looking for them every day, but there will be nothing you can do. 33 People you don’t know will eat the crops your land and hard work have produced. You will be mistreated and abused all your life. 34 The things you see will cause you to go mad. 35 The Lord will give you sore boils on your knees and legs that cannot be cured, and they will go from the soles of your feet to the tops of your heads.

36 The Lord will send you and your king away to a nation neither you nor your ancestors know, where you will serve other gods made of wood and stone. 37 You will become a hated thing to the nations where the Lord sends you; they will laugh at you and make fun of you.

38 You will plant much seed in your field, but your harvest will be small, because locusts will eat the crop. 39 You will plant vineyards and work hard in them, but you will not pick the grapes or drink the wine, because the worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees in all your land, but you will not get any olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees. 41 You will have sons and daughters, but you will not be able to keep them, because they will be taken captive. 42 Locusts will destroy all your trees and crops.

43 The foreigners who live among you will get stronger and stronger, and you will get weaker and weaker. 44 Foreigners will lend money to you, but you will not be able to lend to them. They will be like the head, and you will be like the tail.

45 All these curses will come upon you. They will chase you and catch you and destroy you, because you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commands and laws he gave you. 46 The curses will be signs and miracles to you and your descendants forever. 47 You had plenty of everything, but you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a pure heart, 48 so you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. You will be hungry, thirsty, naked, and poor, and the Lord will put a load on you until he has destroyed you.

The Curse of an Enemy Nation

49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the world, and it will swoop down like an eagle. You won’t understand their language, 50 and they will look mean. They will not respect old people or feel sorry for the young. 51 They will eat the calves from your herds and the harvest of your field, and you will be destroyed. They will not leave you any grain, new wine or oil, or any calves from your herds or lambs from your flocks. You will be ruined. 52 That nation will surround and attack all your cities. You trust in your high, strong walls, but they will fall down. That nation will surround all your cities everywhere in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

53 Your enemy will surround you. Those people will make you starve so that you will eat your own babies, the bodies of the sons and daughters the Lord your God gave you. 54 Even the most gentle and kind man among you will become cruel to his brother, his wife whom he loves, and his children who are still alive. 55 He will not even give them any of the flesh of his children he is eating, because it will be all he has left. Your enemy will surround you and make you starve in all your cities. 56 The most gentle and kind woman among you, so gentle and kind she would hardly even walk on the ground, will be cruel to her husband whom she loves and to her son and daughter. 57 She will give birth to a baby, but she will plan to eat the baby and what comes after the birth itself. She will eat them secretly while the enemy surrounds the city. Those people will make you starve in all your cities.

58 Be careful to obey everything in these teachings that are written in this book. You must respect the glorious and wonderful name of the Lord your God, 59 or the Lord will give terrible diseases to you and your descendants. You will have long and serious diseases, and long and miserable sicknesses. 60 He will give you all the diseases of Egypt that you dread, and the diseases will stay with you. 61 The Lord will also give you every disease and sickness not written in this Book of the Teachings, until you are destroyed. 62 You people may have outnumbered the stars, but only a few of you will be left, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63 Just as the Lord was once happy with you and gave you good things and made you grow in number, so then the Lord will be happy to ruin and destroy you, and you will be removed from the land you are entering to take as your own.

64 Then the Lord will scatter you among the nations—from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone, gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known. 65 You will have no rest among those nations and no place that is yours. The Lord will make your mind worried, your sight weak, and your soul sad. 66 You will live with danger and be afraid night and day. You will not be sure that you will live. 67 In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening,” and in the evening you will say, “I wish it were morning.” Terror will be in your heart, and the things you have seen will scare you. 68 The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships, even though I, Moses, said you would never go back to Egypt. And there you will try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies, but no one will buy you.

Footnotes

  1. 28:23 sky . . . iron This means the sky will give no rain and the earth will produce no crops.
Close NIRV

Deuteronomy 28
New International Reader's Version

Blessings for Obeying the Lord

28 Make sure you obey the Lord your God completely. Be careful to obey all his commands. I’m giving them to you today. If you do these things, the Lord will honor you more than all the other nations on earth. 2 If you obey the Lord your God, here are the blessings that will come to you and remain with you.

3 You will be blessed in the cities. You will be blessed out in the country.

4 Your children will be blessed. Your crops will be blessed. The young animals among your livestock will be blessed. That includes your calves and lambs.

5 Your baskets and bread pans will be blessed.

6 You will be blessed no matter where you go.

7 Enemies will rise up against you. But the Lord will help you win the battle over them. They will come at you from one direction. But they’ll run away from you in every direction.

8 The Lord your God will bless your barns with plenty of grain and other food. He will bless everything you do. He’ll bless you in the land he’s giving you.

9 The Lord your God will make you his holy people. He will set you apart for himself. He promised to do this. He promised to do it if you would keep his commands and live exactly as he wants you to live. 10 All the nations on earth will see that you belong to the Lord. And they will be afraid of you. 11 The Lord will give you more than you need. You will have many children. Your livestock will have many little ones. Your crops will do very well. All of that will happen in the land he promised to give you. He promised this to your people of long ago.

12 The Lord will open up the heavens. That’s where he stores his riches. He will send rain on your land at just the right time. He’ll bless everything you do. You will lend money to many nations. But you won’t have to borrow from any of them. 13 The Lord your God will make you leaders, not followers. Pay attention to his commands that I’m giving you today. Be careful to obey them. Then you will always be on top. You will never be on the bottom. 14 Don’t turn away from any of the commands I’m giving you today. Don’t turn to the right or the left. Don’t follow other gods. Don’t worship them.

Curses for Not Obeying the Lord

15 But suppose you don’t obey the Lord your God. And you aren’t careful to obey all his commands and rules I’m giving you today. Then he will send curses on you. They’ll catch up with you. Here are those curses.

16 You will be cursed in the cities. You will be cursed out in the country.

17 Your baskets and bread pans will be cursed.

18 Your children will be cursed. Your crops will be cursed. Your calves and lambs will be cursed.

19 You will be cursed no matter where you go.

20 The Lord will send curses on you. You won’t know what’s going on. In everything you do, he will be angry with you. You will be destroyed suddenly and completely. This will happen because you did an evil thing when you deserted the Lord. 21 He will send all kinds of sicknesses on you. He’ll send them until he has destroyed you. He’ll remove you from the land you are entering to take as your own. 22 The Lord will make you sick and very weak. He will strike you with fever and swelling. He’ll send burning heat. There won’t be any rain. The hot winds will completely dry up your crops. All those things will happen until you die. 23 The sky above you will be like bronze. The ground beneath you will be like iron. 24 The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder. It will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.

25 The Lord will help your enemies win the battle over you. You will come at them from one direction. But you will run away from them in every direction. All the kingdoms on earth will be completely shocked when they see you. 26 Birds and wild animals will eat up your dead bodies. There won’t be anyone left to scare them away. 27 The Lord will send boils on you, just like the ones he sent on the Egyptians. You will have growths in your bodies and boils on your skin. You will itch all over. No one will be able to heal you. 28 The Lord will make you lose your mind. He will make you blind. You won’t know what’s going on. 29 Even at noon you will have to feel your way around like a blind person in the dark. You won’t have success in anything you do. Day after day you will be robbed and treated badly. No one will be able to save you.

30 You and a woman will promise to marry each other. But another man will take her and rape her. You will build a house. But you won’t live in it. You will plant a vineyard. But you won’t eat a single grape from it. 31 Your ox will be killed right in front of your eyes. But you won’t eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you by force. And you will never get it back. Your sheep will be given to your enemies. No one will be able to save them. 32 Your children will be given to another nation. Day after day you will watch for them to come back. But you will only wear out your eyes. You won’t be able to help your children. 33 A nation you don’t know anything about will eat what you work to produce on your land. You will only be treated badly as long as you live. 34 The things you see will make you lose your mind. 35 The Lord will send painful boils on your knees and legs. No one will be able to heal them. They will cover you from head to toe.

36 The Lord will drive you out of the land. And he will drive out the king you place over yourselves. All of you will go to another nation. You and your people of long ago didn’t know anything about them. There you will worship other gods. They will be made out of wood and stone. 37 You will look very bad to all the nations where the Lord sends you. They will be completely shocked when they see you. They will mock you and make fun of you.

38 You will plant many seeds in your field. But you will gather very little food. Locusts will eat it up. 39 You will plant vineyards and take care of them. But you won’t drink the wine. You won’t gather the grapes. Worms will eat them up. 40 You will have olive trees through your whole country. But you won’t use the oil. The olives will drop off the trees. 41 You will have children. But you won’t be able to keep them. They’ll be taken away as prisoners. 42 Large numbers of locusts will eat up the leaves on all your trees. They will also eat up the crops on your land.

43 Outsiders who live among you will become your leaders. They will rise higher and higher. But you will sink lower and lower. 44 They will lend money to you. But you won’t be able to lend money to them. They will be the leaders. But you will be the followers.

45 The Lord your God will send all these curses on you. They will follow you everywhere. They’ll catch up with you. You will be under the Lord’s curse until you are destroyed. That’s because you didn’t obey him. You didn’t keep the commands and rules he gave you. 46 These curses will remain as signs and awful judgments against you and your children after you forever. 47 You didn’t serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness when times were good. 48 So he will send enemies against you. You will have to serve them. You will be hungry and thirsty. You will be naked and poor. The Lord will put the iron chains of slavery around your necks until he has destroyed you.

49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away. It will come from the ends of the earth. It will dive down on you like an eagle. You won’t understand that nation’s language. 50 Its people will look mean. They won’t have any respect for old people. They won’t show any kindness to young people. 51 They will eat up the young animals among your livestock. They’ll eat up the crops on your land. They’ll destroy you. They won’t leave you any grain, olive oil or fresh wine. They won’t leave you any calves or lambs. They’ll destroy you. 52 They’ll surround all the cities throughout your whole land. They’ll attack those cities until the high, strong walls you trust in fall down. That’s what will happen to the cities in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

53 Your enemies will surround you and attack you. They will make you suffer greatly. So you will eat your own children. You will eat the dead bodies of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you. 54 There may be a gentle and caring man among you. But he will treat his own brother badly. He’ll be just as mean to the wife he loves and to any of his children who are still alive. 55 He won’t give to a single one of them any part of the dead bodies of his children that he’s eating. It will be all he has left to eat. That’s how much your enemies will make you suffer when they surround all your cities and attack them. 56 There may be a gentle and caring woman among you. She wouldn’t even touch the ground with her feet without first putting her sandals on. But she will not share anything with the husband she loves. She won’t share with her own children either. 57 She will eat what comes out of her body after she has a baby. Then she’ll even eat her baby. She won’t share it with anyone in her family. In her great hunger she’ll plan to eat it in secret. There won’t be anything else for her to eat because the city she lives in will be surrounded. That’s an example of how much your enemies will make you suffer when they are attacking your cities.

58 Be careful to follow all the words of this law. They are written in this scroll. Have respect for the glorious and wonderful name of the Lord your God. If you don’t, 59 he will send terrible plagues on you and your children after you. He’ll send horrible and lasting troubles. He’ll make you very sick for a long time. 60 He’ll bring on you all the sicknesses you were afraid of getting when you were in Egypt. You won’t be able to get rid of them. 61 The Lord will also bring on you all other kinds of sickness and trouble. I haven’t even written those down in this Book of the Law. You will be destroyed. 62 At one time you were as many as the stars in the sky. But there will only be a few of you left. That’s because you didn’t obey the Lord your God. 63 It pleased the Lord to give you success and to cause there to be many of you. But it will please him just as much to wipe you out and destroy you. You will be removed from the land you are entering to take as your own.

64 Then the Lord will scatter you among all the nations. He’ll spread you around from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship statues of gods made out of wood and stone. You and your people of long ago hadn’t known anything about those gods. 65 Among those nations you won’t find any peace. There won’t be any place where you can make your home and rest your feet. The Lord will give you minds filled with worry. He’ll give you eyes worn out from looking for help. You won’t have any hope in your hearts. 66 Your lives will always be in danger. You will be filled with fear night and day. You will never be sure you are safe. 67 In the morning you will say, “We wish it were evening!” In the evening you will say, “We wish it were morning!” Your hearts will be filled with fear. The things you see will terrify you. 68 The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships. He’ll send you on a journey I said you should never have to make again. You will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves in Egypt. But no one will buy you.

Close KJ21

Deuteronomy 28
21st Century King James Version

28 “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth;

2 and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God:

3 “Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy herds, the increase of thy cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep.

5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy stores.

6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

7 “The Lord shall cause thine enemies who rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face; they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.

8 “The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and He shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

9 “The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto Himself, as He hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God and walk in His ways.

10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of thee.

11 And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord swore unto thy fathers to give thee.

12 The Lord shall open unto thee His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand; and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath, if thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them.

14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

15 “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee:

16 “Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy stores.

18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep.

19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

20 “The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke in all that thou settest thine hand unto to do until thou be destroyed and until thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken Me.

21 The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee until He have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.

22 The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

24 The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust; from heaven shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed.

25 “The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies; thou shalt go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them, and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall frighten them away.

27 The Lord will smite thee with the boils of Egypt, and with the hemorrhoids, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

28 The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart;

29 and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways. “And thou shalt be only oppressed and despoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. Thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein. Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

31 Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof. Thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee. Thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.

32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thine hand.

33 The fruit of thy land and all thy labors shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed always,

34 so that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

35 The Lord shall smite thee in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.

36 “The Lord shall bring thee and thy king whom thou shalt set over thee unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.

37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.

38 “Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field and shalt gather but little in, for the locust shall consume it.

39 Thou shalt plant vineyards and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worms shall eat them.

40 Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy borders, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil, for thine olive shall cast his fruit.

41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them, for they shall go into captivity.

42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.

43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low.

44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee and overtake thee till thou be destroyed, because thou hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded thee.

46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

47 “Because thou served not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things,

48 therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies whom the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things; and He shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until He have destroyed thee.

49 The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand,

50 a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old nor show favor to the young.

51 And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle and the fruit of thy land until thou be destroyed; he also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy cattle, or flocks of thy sheep until he have destroyed thee.

52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates until thy high and fortified walls come down wherein thou trusted, throughout all thy land; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land which the Lord thy God hath given thee.

53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege and in the extremity wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee,

54 so that the man that is tender among you and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he shall leave,

55 so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing left him in the siege and in the extremity wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.

56 The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son and toward her daughter,

57 and toward her young one who cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them secretly for want of all things in the siege and extremity wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.

58 “If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, The Lord Thy God,

59 then the Lord will make thy plagues wondrous, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.

60 Moreover He will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt which thou wast afraid of, and they shall cleave unto thee.

61 Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee until thou be destroyed.

62 And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God.

63 “And it shall come to pass that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.

64 And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest; but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind.

66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have no assurance of thy life.

67 In the morning thou shalt say, ‘Would God it were evening!’ and at evening thou shalt say, ‘Would God it were morning!’ for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

68 And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships by the way whereof I spoke unto thee, ‘Thou shalt see it no more again.’ And there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.”

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Deuteronomy 27
Deuteronomy 29
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