Deuteronomy 28:1-20

International Children’s Bible

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. Then all these blessings will come and stay with you:

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

⁴ Your children will be blessed. Your crops will be blessed. Your cattle will be blessed with calves and your sheep 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 let 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. 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. You must do what he wants you to do. ¹⁰ Then everyone on earth will see that you are the Lord’s people. They will be afraid of you. ¹¹ The Lord will make you rich. You will have many children. Your cattle will have many calves. 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 storehouse. The skies will 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. Be careful to keep them. ¹⁴ Do not disobey anything I command you today. Do exactly as I command. Do not follow other gods or serve them.

Curses for Disobeying

¹⁵ But you might not obey the Lord your God. You might not carefully follow all his commands and laws I am giving you today. Then all these curses will come upon you and stay:

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

¹⁷ Your basket and your kitchen will be cursed.

¹⁸ Your children will be cursed. Your crops will be cursed. The calves of your cattle will be cursed. 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. You will suddenly be ruined. You did wrong when you left him.