²⁵ After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt^(A) and make any kind of idol,^(B) doing evil^(C) in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, ²⁶ I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses^(D) against you^(E) this day that you will quickly perish^(F) from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. ²⁷ The Lord will scatter^(G) you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive^(H) among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ There you will worship man-made gods^(I) of wood and stone,^(J) which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.^{(K) 29} But if from there you seek^(L) the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart^(M) and with all your soul.^{(N) 30} When you are in distress^(O) and all these things have happened to you, then in later days^(P) you will return^(Q) to the Lord your God and obey him. ³¹ For the Lord your God is a merciful^(R) God; he will not abandon^(S) or destroy^(T) you or forget^(U) the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.

Curses for Disobedience

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

²⁰ The Lord will send on you curses,^(H) confusion and rebuke^(I) in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin^(J) because of the evil^(K) 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.^{(L) 22} The Lord will strike you with wasting disease,^(M) with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought,^(N) with blight^(O) and mildew, which will plague^(P) you until you perish.^{(Q) 23} The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron.^{(R) 24} The Lord will turn the rain^(S) 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^(T) before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven,^(U) and you will become a thing of horror^(V) to all the kingdoms on earth.^{(W) 26} Your carcasses will be food for all the birds^(X) and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away.^{(Y) 27} The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt^(Z) and with tumors, 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^(AA) 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^(AB) you.

³⁰ You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her.^(AC) You will build a house, but you will not live in it.^(AD) You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.^{(AE) 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,^(AF) 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 labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression^(AG) all your days.^{(AH) 34} The sights you see will drive you mad.^{(AI) 35} The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils^(AJ) that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.^(AK)

³⁶ The Lord will drive you and the king^(AL) you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors.^(AM) There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone.^{(AN) 37} You will become a thing of horror,^(AO) a byword^(AP) and an object of ridicule^(AQ) among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.^(AR)

³⁸ You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little,^(AS) because locusts^(AT) will devour^(AU) it. ³⁹ You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine^(AV) or gather the grapes, because worms will eat^(AW) them.^{(AX) 40} You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off.^{(AY) 41} You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity.^{(AZ) 42} Swarms of locusts^(BA) 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.^{(BB) 44} They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them.^(BC) They will be the head, but you will be the tail.^(BD)

⁴⁵ All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you^(BE) until you are destroyed,^(BF) 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 forever.^{(BG) 47} Because you did not serve^(BH) the Lord your God joyfully and gladly^(BI) in the time of prosperity, ⁴⁸ therefore in hunger and thirst,^(BJ) in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke^(BK) on your neck^(BL) until he has destroyed you.

⁴⁹ The Lord will bring a nation against you^(BM) from far away, from the ends of the earth,^(BN) like an eagle^(BO) swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand,^{(BP) 50} a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old^(BQ) 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 grain, new wine^(BR) or olive oil,^(BS) nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined.^{(BT) 52} They will lay siege^(BU) 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.^(BV)

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.^{(BW) 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 your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities.^{(BX) 56} The most gentle and sensitive^(BY) 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^{(BZ) 57} the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them^(CA) 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,^(CB) which are written in this book, and do not revere^(CC) this glorious and awesome name^(CD)—the Lord your God—

¹⁴ I am making this covenant,^(A) with its oath, not only with you ¹⁵ who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today.^(B)

¹⁶ You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. ¹⁷ You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold.^{(C) 18} Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns^(D) away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.^(E)

¹⁹ When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing^(F) on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,”^(G) they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. ²⁰ The Lord will never be willing to forgive^(H) them; his wrath and zeal^(I) will burn^(J) against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot^(K) out their names from under heaven. ²¹ The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster,^(L) according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.^(M)

²² Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it.^{(N) 23} The whole land will be a burning waste^(O) of salt^(P) and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,^(Q) Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger.^{(R) 24} All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land?^(S) Why this fierce, burning anger?”

Prosperity After Turning to the Lord

30 When all these blessings and curses^(A) I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations,^{(B) 2} and when you and your children return^(C) to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart^(D) and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, ³ then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes^[a](E) and have compassion^(F) on you and gather^(G) you again from all the nations where he scattered^(H) you.^{(I) 4} Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens,^(J) from there the Lord your God will gather^(K) you and bring you back.^{(L) 5} He will bring^(M) you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous^(N) than your ancestors. ⁶ The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants,^(O) so that you may love^(P) him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. ⁷ The Lord your God will put all these curses^(Q) on your enemies who hate and persecute you.^{(R) 8} You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today. ⁹ Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land.^(S) The Lord will again delight^(T) in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, ¹⁰ if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law^(U) and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.^(V)