²⁸ the curse if you disobey^(A) the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods,^(B) which you have not known.

¹⁰ For all who rely on the works of the law^(A) are under a curse,^(B) as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”^[a](C)

⁸ But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil,^(A) there will be wrath and anger.^{(B) 9} There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil:^(C) first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;^(D)

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— 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^(CE) 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,^(CF) until you are destroyed.^{(CG) 62} You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky^(CH) will be left but few^(CI) in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. ⁶³ Just as it pleased^(CJ) the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please^(CK) him to ruin and destroy you.^(CL) You will be uprooted^(CM) from the land you are entering to possess.

⁶⁴ Then the Lord will scatter^(CN) you among all nations,^(CO) from one end of the earth to the other.^(CP) There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.^{(CQ) 65} Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place^(CR) for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes^(CS) weary with longing, and a despairing heart.^{(CT) 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.^{(CU) 68} The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again.^(CV) There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.

⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me,^(A) you who are cursed, into the eternal fire^(B) prepared for the devil and his angels.^(C)

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

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.^{(I) 23} The whole land will be a burning waste^(J) of salt^(K) and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,^(L) Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger.^{(M) 24} All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land?^(N) Why this fierce, burning anger?”

²⁵ And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.^{(O) 26} They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. ²⁷ Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.^{(P) 28} In furious anger and in great wrath^(Q) the Lord uprooted^(R) them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”

Punishment for Disobedience