Deuteronomy 28:1-43

English Standard Version

Blessings for Obedience

28 “And ^(A)if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you ^(B)high above all the nations of the earth. ²And all these blessings shall come upon you and ^(C)overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. ³Blessed shall you be in the city, and ^(D)blessed shall you be in the field. ⁴Blessed shall be ^(E)the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. ⁵Blessed shall be your basket and your ^(F)kneading bowl. ⁶Blessed shall you be ^(G)when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

⁷“The Lord ^(H)will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. ⁸The Lord ^(I)will command the blessing on you in your barns and ^(J)in all that you undertake. ^(K)And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ⁹^(L)The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. ¹⁰And ^(M)all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are ^(N)called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be ^(O)afraid of you. ¹¹And ^(P)the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in ^(Q)the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. ¹²The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, ^(R)to give the rain to your land in its season and ^(S)to bless all the work of your hands. And ^(T)you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. ¹³And the Lord will make you ^(U)the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, ¹⁴^(V)and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Curses for Disobedience

¹⁵“But ^(W)if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and ^(X)overtake you. ¹⁶Cursed shall you be ^(Y)in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. ¹⁷Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ¹⁸Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. ¹⁹Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

²⁰“The Lord ^(Z)will send on you curses, confusion, and ^(AA)frustration in all that you undertake to do, ^(AB)until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. ²¹The Lord will make ^(AC)the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. ²²^(AD)The Lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought^[a] and with ^(AE)blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. ²³And ^(AF)the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. ²⁴The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

²⁵^(AG)“The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you ^(AH)shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶And ^(AI)your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and ^(AJ)there shall be no one to frighten them away. ²⁷The Lord will strike you ^(AK)with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and ^(AL)scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed. ²⁸The Lord will strike you with ^(AM)madness and blindness and confusion of mind, ²⁹and you shall ^(AN)grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways.^[b] And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. ³⁰^(AO)You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. ^(AP)You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. ^(AQ)You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. ³¹Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. ³²^(AR)Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, ^(AS)but you shall be helpless. ³³A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, ³⁴so that you are driven mad ^(AT)by the sights that your eyes see. ³⁵The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs ^(AU)with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

³⁶“The Lord will ^(AV)bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you ^(AW)nor your fathers have known. And ^(AX)there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷And you shall become ^(AY)a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away. ³⁸^(AZ)You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for ^(BA)the locust shall consume it. ³⁹^(BB)You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. ⁴⁰You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you ^(BC)shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. ⁴¹You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for ^(BD)they shall go into captivity. ⁴²^(BE)The cricket^[c] shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground. ⁴³^(BF)The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.