Curses for Not Obeying the Law

¹⁵ “But if you don’t listen to what the Lord your God tells you—if you don’t obey all his commands and laws that I tell you today—then all these bad things will happen to you:

²⁰ “If you do evil and turn away from the Lord, he will make bad things happen to you. You will have frustration and trouble in everything you do. He will continue to do this until you are quickly and completely destroyed. He will do this because you turned away from him and left him. ²¹ The Lord will send you terrible diseases until you no longer exist, until you are completely gone from the land. ²² The Lord will punish you with diseases, fever, and swelling. He will send you terrible heat and you will have no rain. Your crops will die from the heat and disease.^[a] All these bad things will happen until you are destroyed! ²³ There will be no clouds in the sky—the sky will look like polished brass. And the ground under you will be hard like iron. ²⁴ The Lord will not send rain—only sand and dust will fall from the sky. It will come down on you until you are destroyed.

²⁵ “The Lord will let your enemies defeat you. You will go to fight against your enemies one way, but you will run away from them seven different ways. The bad things that happen to you will make all the people on earth afraid. ²⁶ Your dead bodies will be food for the wild birds and animals. There will be no one to scare them away from your dead bodies.

²⁷ “The Lord will punish you with boils, like those he sent on the Egyptians. He will punish you with tumors, sores that run, and an itch that cannot be cured. ²⁸ The Lord will punish you by making you crazy. He will make you blind and confused. ²⁹ In daylight you will have to feel your way like a blind man. You will fail in everything you do. Again and again people will hurt you and steal from you. And there will be no one to save you.

³⁰ “You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will have sexual relations with her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not gather anything from it. ³¹ People will kill your cattle in front of you, but you will not eat any of the meat. People will take your donkeys, and they will not give them back to you. Your enemies will get your sheep, and there will be no one to help you.

³² “Other people will be allowed to take your sons and your daughters. Day after day you will look for your children. You will look for them until your eyes become weak and blind—but you will not find them. And God will not help you.

³³ “A nation that you don’t know will take all your crops and everything you worked for. People will treat you badly and abuse you. ³⁴ The things you see will make you go crazy. ³⁵ The Lord will punish you with sore boils that cannot be healed. These boils will be on your knees and legs. The boils will be on every part of your body—from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head.

³⁶ “The Lord will send you and your king away to a nation you don’t know. You and your ancestors have never seen that nation. There you will serve false gods made of wood and stone. ³⁷ In the countries where the Lord will send you, the people will be shocked at the terrible things that happen to you. They will laugh at you and say bad things about you.