Deuteronomy 28
Expanded Bible
Blessings for Obeying
28 You must completely ·obey [listen to the voice of] the Lord your God, and you must carefully follow all his commands I am ·giving [commanding] you today. Then the Lord your God will ·make you greater [set you higher] than any other nation on earth. 2 ·Obey [Listen to the voice of] the Lord your God so that all these blessings will come and ·stay with [overtake] you:
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the ·country [field].
4 ·Your children [L The fruit of your womb] will be blessed, as well as ·your crops [L the fruit of your land]; your ·herds [L the fruit of your livestock] will be blessed with calves and your flocks with lambs.
5 Your basket and your ·kitchen [L kneading bowl] will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and when you go out.
7 The Lord will help you defeat the enemies that ·come [L rise against you] to fight you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will run from you in seven directions [C as at Jericho; Josh. 6–7].
8 The Lord your God will bless you with full barns, and he will bless ·everything you do [all your undertakings; L all that is sent out from your hand]. He will bless the land he is giving you.
9 The Lord will make you his holy people, as he ·promised [swore; Ex. 19:6]. But you must obey his commands and ·do what he wants you to do [L you must walk on his way/path]. 10 Then everyone on earth will see that you are ·the Lord’s people [L called by the name of the Lord], and they will be afraid of you. 11 The Lord will make you rich: ·You will have many children, your animals will have many young, and your land will give good crops [L …in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your land]. It is the land that the Lord ·promised [swore to] your ·ancestors [fathers] he would give to you [Gen. 12:1–3].
12 The Lord will open up his heavenly storehouse so that the skies 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 [commanding] you today, being careful to keep them. 14 Do not ·disobey [L turn aside to the right or to the left from] anything I command you today. Do exactly as I command, and do not follow other gods or serve them.
Curses for Disobeying
15 But if you do not ·obey [listen to the voice of] the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands and ·laws [statutes; ordinances; requirements] I am ·giving [commanding] you today, all these curses will come upon you and ·stay [overtake you]:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the ·country [field].
17 Your basket and your ·kitchen [L kneading bowl] will be cursed.
18 ·Your children [L The fruit of your womb] will be cursed, as well as ·your crops [L the fruit of your land]; the calves of your herds 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 [all your undertakings; L all that is sent out from your hand]. You will be destroyed and suddenly ruined because you did wrong when you ·left [abandoned; forsook] him. 21 The Lord will ·give [make cling to] you ·terrible diseases [plagues] and destroy you from the land you are going to ·take [possess]. 22 The Lord will ·punish [L strike] you with disease, fever, swelling, heat, lack of rain, plant diseases, and mildew until you ·die [perish]. 23 The ·sky [heavens] above will be like bronze [C giving no rain], and the ground below will be like iron [1 Kin. 17:1]. 24 The Lord will turn the rain into dust and sand, which will fall from the ·skies [heavens] until you are destroyed.
25 The Lord will help your enemies defeat you [C as at Ai; Josh. 8]. You will attack them from one direction, but you will run from them in seven directions. And you will become a thing of horror among all the kingdoms on earth. 26 Your dead bodies will be food for all the birds of the ·sky [heavens] and wild animals, and there will be no one to scare them away. 27 The Lord will ·punish [L strike] you with boils like those the Egyptians had. You will have ·bad growths [tumors; ulcers], sores, and itches that can’t be ·cured [healed]. 28 The Lord will ·give you [L strike you with] madness, blindness, and a confused mind. 29 You will have to feel around ·in the daylight [at noon] like a blind person in darkness. You will ·fail in everything you do [L not succeed in your way]. People will ·hurt [oppress] you and steal from you every day, and no one will ·save [help] you.
30 You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will ·force her to have sexual relations with him [have her]. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not ·get its grapes [L enjoy it]. 31 Your ox will be ·killed [slaughtered; butchered] before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be ·taken away [stolen] from you, and it will not be brought back. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will ·save [help] you. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will grow tired looking for them every day, but there will be nothing you can do. 33 People you don’t know will eat the ·crops [L fruit of] your land and hard work have produced. You will be ·mistreated [oppressed] and ·abused [ill-treated] all your life. 34 The things ·you [L your eyes] see will ·cause you to go mad [drive you crazy]. 35 The Lord will ·give you [L strike you with] ·sore [horrible] boils on your knees and legs that cannot be cured, and they will go from the soles of your feet to the tops of your heads.
36 The Lord will send you and the king whom you set over yourselves away to a nation neither you nor your ·ancestors [fathers] know, where you will serve other gods made of wood and stone. 37 You will become a ·hated thing [object of horror] to the nations where the Lord sends you; ·they will laugh at you and make fun of you [L a proverb and a byword].
38 You will ·plant much seed in [carry out much seed to] your field, but your harvest will be small, because locusts will ·eat the crop [consume it]. 39 You will plant vineyards and work hard in them, but you will not ·pick the grapes [harvest] or drink the wine, because the worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees in all your land, but you will not ·get any [L anoint yourself with] olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees. 41 You will ·have [bear] sons and daughters, but you will not be able to keep them, because they will be taken captive. 42 ·Locusts [or Crickets] will ·destroy [L take possession of] all your trees and crops.
43 The ·foreigners [resident aliens] who live among you will ·get stronger and stronger [go higher and higher], and you will ·get weaker and weaker [go lower and lower]. 44 ·Foreigners [L They] will lend money to you, but you will not be able to lend to them. They will be like the head, and you will be like the tail.
45 All these curses will come upon you. They will ·chase [pursue] you and ·catch [overtake] you and destroy you, because you did not ·obey [listen to the voice of] the Lord your God and keep the commands and ·laws [statutes; ordinances; requirements] he ·gave [commanded] you. 46 The curses will be signs and ·miracles [wonders] to you and your ·descendants [L seed] forever. 47 You had plenty of everything, but you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a ·pure [or glad] heart, 48 so you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. You will be hungry, thirsty, naked, and poor, and the Lord will put a ·load on you [L yoke of bronze on your neck] until he has destroyed you [Jer. 28:14].
The Curse of an Enemy Nation
49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the world, and it will swoop down like an eagle. You won’t ·understand their language [L hear its tongue; Jer. 5:15–17], 50 and they will ·look mean [be stern-faced]. They will not ·respect [show favoritism to] old people or ·feel sorry for [favor; have compassion for] the young. 51 They will eat the ·calves from your herds and the harvest of your field [L fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your land], and you will be destroyed. They will not leave you any grain, new wine or oil, or any calves from your herds or lambs from your flocks. You will ·be ruined [perish]. 52 That nation will ·surround and attack [besiege] all your ·cities [L gates]. You trust in your high, ·strong [fortified] walls, but they will fall down. That nation will ·surround [besiege] all your ·cities [gates] everywhere in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
53 ·Your enemy will surround you. Those people will make you starve so that [L In the dire position that the siege of your enemies places you] you will eat ·your own babies [L the fruit of your womb], the ·bodies [L flesh] of the sons and daughters the Lord your God gave you. 54 Even the most gentle and kind man among you will ·become cruel [look threateningly] to his brother, his wife ·whom he loves [L of his lap], and his children who ·are still alive [remain]. 55 He will not even give them any of the flesh of his children he is eating, because it will be all he has left. ·Your enemy will surround you and make you starve [L In the dire position that the siege of your enemies places you] in all your ·cities [L gates]. 56 The most gentle and kind woman among you, so gentle and kind she would hardly even walk on the ground, will ·be cruel [look threateningly] to her husband ·whom she loves [L of her lap] and to her son and daughter. 57 She will give birth to a baby, but she will plan to eat the baby and ·what comes after the birth itself [the afterbirth; L that which comes out between her feet]. She will eat them secretly ·while the enemy surrounds the city. Those people will make you starve in all your cities [L …in the dire position that the siege of your enemies places you; Lam. 2:20].
58 Be careful to obey everything in these ·teachings [laws; instructions] that are written in this ·book [scroll]. You must respect the glorious and ·wonderful [awesome] name of the Lord your God, 59 or the Lord will give terrible diseases to you and your ·descendants [L seed]. You will have long and serious diseases, and long and miserable sicknesses. 60 He will ·give [bring back to] you all the diseases of Egypt that you dread, and the diseases will ·stay with [cling to] you. 61 The Lord will also give you every disease and sickness not written in this ·Book [Scroll] of the ·Teachings [Law; Instruction], until you are destroyed. 62 You people may have outnumbered the stars [Gen. 15:5; 22:17; 26:4; Ex. 32:13], but only a few of you will be left, because you did not ·obey [listen to the voice of] the Lord your God. 63 Just as the Lord was once ·happy [pleased; delighted] with you and gave you ·good things [prosperity] and made you grow in number, so then the Lord will be ·happy [pleased; delighted] to ruin and destroy you, and you will be removed from the land you are entering to take as your ·own [possession].
64 Then the Lord will scatter you among the nations—from one end of the earth to the other [Jer. 9:16; 18:17; Ezek. 12:15]. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone, gods that neither you nor your ·ancestors [fathers] have known. 65 You will have no rest among those nations and no place that is yours. The Lord will make your ·mind [or heart] ·worried [tremble], your ·sight weak [eyes fail], and your soul ·sad [languish; C depressed]. 66 You will live ·with danger [in suspense] and be afraid night and day. You will not be sure that you will live. 67 In the morning you will say, “·I wish [O that] it were evening,” and in the evening you will say, “·I wish [O that] it were morning.” ·Terror [Dread] will be in your heart, and the things you have seen will scare you. 68 The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships, even though ·I, Moses, [L I; C possibly a reference to God] said you would never go back to Egypt. And there you will try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies, but no one will buy you.
Deuteronomy 28
Amplified Bible
Blessings at Gerizim
28 “Now it shall be, if you diligently listen to and obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all of His commandments which I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you pay attention to the voice of the Lord your God.
3 “You will be blessed in the city, and you will be blessed in the field.
4 “The [a]offspring of your [b]body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your animals, the offspring of your herd and the young of your flock will be blessed.
5 “Your basket and your kneading bowl will be blessed.
6 “You will be blessed when you come in and you will be blessed when you go out.
7 “The Lord will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way, but flee before you seven ways. 8 The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your storehouses and in [c]all that you undertake, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. 9 The Lord will establish you as a people holy [and set apart] to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk [that is, live your life each and every day] in His ways. 10 So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will be afraid of you. 11 The Lord will give you great prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open for you His good treasure house, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. 13 The Lord will make you the head (leader) and not the tail (follower); and you will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen and pay attention to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, to observe them carefully. 14 Do not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right or to the left, to follow and serve other gods.
Consequences of Disobedience
15 “But it shall come about, if you do not listen to and obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 “You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field.
17 “Your basket and your kneading bowl will be cursed.
18 “The offspring of your body and the produce of your land, the offspring of your herd and the young of your flock will be cursed.
19 “You will be cursed when you come in and you will be cursed when you go out.
20 “The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed, perishing quickly because of the evil of your deeds, because you have [d]turned away from Me. 21 The Lord will make the pestilence and plague cling to you until He has consumed and eliminated you from the land which you are entering to possess. 22 The Lord will strike you with consumption [causing you to waste away] and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the sword and with blight and with mildew [on your crops]; and they will pursue you until you perish. 23 The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze [giving no rain and blocking all prayers], and the earth which is under you, iron [hard to plow and yielding no produce]. 24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it will come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you will go out against them one way, but flee before them seven ways, and you will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth [when they see your destruction].(A) 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.
27 “The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scab and the itch that you cannot heal. 28 The Lord will strike you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart and mind; 29 and you will be groping at noon [in broad daylight], just as the blind grope in the darkness, and nothing you do will prosper; but you will only be oppressed and exploited and robbed continually, with no one to save you. 30 You will be pledged to marry a wife, but another man will be intimate with her [before you]; you will build a house, but you will not live in it; you will plant a vineyard, but you will not use its fruit. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it; your donkey will be torn away from you, and it will not be returned to you; your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes look on and long for them continually; but there will be nothing you can do.(B) 33 A people whom you do not know will eat the produce of your land and all the products of your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and exploited and crushed continually.(C) 34 You shall be driven mad by the sight of [e]the things you see. 35 The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with sore boils that you cannot heal, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. 36 The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you appoint over you, to a nation which you and your fathers have never known; there you will [be forced to] serve other gods, [lifeless gods of] wood and stone.(D) 37 And you will become a horror, a proverb [a mere object lesson], and a taunt [a derisive joke] among all the people to which the Lord drives you.
38 “You will bring out a great quantity of seed to the field, but you will gather in little, because the locusts will consume it.(E) 39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because the worm will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not [f]anoint yourselves with the oil, because your olives will drop off. 41 You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be yours [for long], because they will go into captivity.(F) 42 The cricket will take possession of all your trees and the produce of your ground.(G) 43 The stranger who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower. 44 He will lend to you [out of his affluence], but you will not lend to him [because of your poverty]; he will be the head, and you the tail.
45 “So all these curses will come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He has commanded you. 46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.
47 “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with a heart full of joy and gladness for the abundance of all things [with which He blessed you], 48 you will therefore serve your enemies whom the Lord sends against you, in hunger and in thirst, in nakedness and in lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke [of slavery] on your neck until He has destroyed you.
49 “The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, [as swift] as the eagle swoops down [to attack], a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a [g]defiant nation who will [h]have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young, 51 and it will eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who will leave you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the offspring of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. 52 They will besiege you in all your cities until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land; and they will besiege you in all your cities throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53 Then you will eat the offspring of your own body [to avoid starvation], the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the misery by which your enemy will oppress you.(H) 54 The man who is most refined and well-bred among you [i]will be cruel and hostile toward his brother and toward [j]the wife he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain, 55 so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children [k]which he will eat, [l]because he has nothing else left, during the siege and the misery by which your enemy will oppress you in all your cities. 56 The most refined and well-bred woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and pampered, [m]will be cruel and hostile toward [n]the husband she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, 57 and toward her afterbirth that comes from between her legs and toward the children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the misery by which your enemy will oppress you in your cities.
58 “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, to fear and honor with reverence this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. 60 Moreover, He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. 61 Also the Lord will bring on you every sickness and every plague which is not written in this book of this law, until you are destroyed. 62 Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, you who were as numerous as the stars of heaven shall be left few in number. 63 It shall come about that just as the Lord delighted over you to make you prosper and multiply, so the Lord will delight over you to bring you to ruin and destruction; and you will be [o]uprooted [violently] from the land which you are entering to possess. 64 And the Lord will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you will [be forced to] serve other gods, [lifeless gods of] wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.(I) 65 Among those nations you will find no peace (rest), and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul. 66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; night and day you will be filled with anxiety and have no assurance of living. 67 In the morning you will say, ‘I wish it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’—because of the dread in your heart with which you tremble, and because of the sight of your eyes which you will see. 68 The Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I said to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no one to buy you.(J)
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit fruit and so throughout.
- Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit womb.
- Deuteronomy 28:8 Lit all to which you set your hand.
- Deuteronomy 28:20 Lit forsaken.
- Deuteronomy 28:34 Lit your eyes which you.
- Deuteronomy 28:40 Olive oil was commonly used like a cosmetic to soften the skin, and as a hair dressing.
- Deuteronomy 28:50 Lit strong of face. Assyria and Babylonia have been suggested as prophetic fulfillments for this nation, and prophecy often has more than one fulfillment.
- Deuteronomy 28:50 Lit not lift up the face of.
- Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit his eye will be evil toward.
- Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit the wife of his bosom.
- Deuteronomy 28:55 The horror of the situation is understated: this self-absorbed father begins killing some of his children to feed himself. The rest of the family, also starving under the brutal conditions, probably want some of the macabre meal but the father keeps it all for himself.
- Deuteronomy 28:55 The implication is that under ordinary conditions, such a person would undoubtedly gag at eating perfectly good food that might be slightly stale or otherwise unappealing to him.
- Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit her eye will be evil toward.
- Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit the husband of her bosom.
- Deuteronomy 28:63 There have been many “uprootings” from the land, notably those by Nebuchadnezzar (605, 587, 586 b.c.), Titus (a.d. 70), and later by the Emperor Hadrian (a.d. 135) who issued a proclamation forbidding Jews to live in Judea, or even to approach its border. In his attempt to eradicate Judaism, among other things, Hadrian renamed the Roman province of Syria Palaestina (after the Philistines).
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