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Deuteronomy 28
Legacy Standard Bible

Blessings for Keeping the Commandments

28 “(A)Now it will be, if you diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, Yahweh your God (B)will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings will come upon you and (C)overtake you if you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God:

3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be (D)in the [a]field.

4 “Blessed shall be the [b]offspring of your [c]body and the [d]produce of your ground and the [e]offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.

5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

6 “Blessed shall you be (E)when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

7 “Yahweh shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be [f]defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. 8 Yahweh will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in (F)all that you send forth your hand to do, and He will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 9 (G)Yahweh will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and walk in His ways. 10 So all the peoples of the earth will see that [g](H)you are called by the name of Yahweh, and they will be afraid of you. 11 (I)And Yahweh will make you abound in prosperity, in the [h]offspring of your [i]body and in the [j]offspring of your beast and in the [k]produce of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. 12 Yahweh will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and (J)you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 (K)And Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am commanding you today, to keep and to do, 14 and (L)do not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right or to the left, to walk after other gods to serve them.

Curses for Not Keeping the Commandments

15 “(M)But it will be, if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep and to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

16 “(N)Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the [l]field.

17 “(O)Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

18 “(P)Cursed shall be the [m]offspring of your [n]body and the [o]produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.

19 “(Q)Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

20 “(R)Yahweh will send upon you the curse, confusion, and (S)rebuke, in all [p]that you send forth your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until (T)you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me. 21 (U)Yahweh will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. 22 (V)Yahweh will strike you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with [q]the sword and (W)with scorching wind and with mildew, and they will pursue you until (X)you perish. 23 And [r]the heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. 24 (Y)Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

25 “(Z)Yahweh shall cause you to be [s]defeated before your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will (AA)become an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 (AB)And your carcasses will be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

27 “(AC)Yahweh will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with (AD)tumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 Yahweh will strike you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart; 29 and you will [t](AE)grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not succeed in your ways; but you shall only be oppressed and robbed all your days, with none to save you. 30 (AF)You shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; (AG)you shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not [u]use its fruit. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey shall be torn away from you and will not be returned to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you will have none to save you. 32 (AH)Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and yearn for them all the day long; but there will be nothing [v]you can do. 33 (AI)A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed all your days. 34 And you shall be driven mad by the sight of what your eyes see. 35 (AJ)Yahweh will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. 36 (AK)Yahweh will lead you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, (AL)wood and stone. 37 (AM)You shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the people where Yahweh drives you.

38 “(AN)You shall bring out much seed to the field, but you will gather in little, for (AO)the locust will consume it. 39 (AP)You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them. 40 (AQ)You shall have olive trees throughout your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. 41 (AR)You shall become the father of sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. 42 (AS)The cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground. 43 (AT)The sojourner who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower. 44 (AU)He shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; (AV)he shall be the head, and you will be the tail.

45 “So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you (AW)until you are destroyed, because you would not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And they shall become (AX)a sign and a wonder on you and your seed forever.

47 “(AY)Because you did not serve Yahweh your God with gladness and a merry heart—because of the abundance of all things, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom Yahweh will send against you, (AZ)in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He (BA)will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

49 “(BB)Yahweh will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, (BC)as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose tongue you shall not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance who will (BD)have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. 51 Moreover, it shall eat the [w]offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also will not allow grain, new wine, or oil, and the increase of your herd or the young of your flock to remain for you until they have caused you to perish. 52 (BE)And it shall besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your gates throughout your land which Yahweh your God has given you. 53 (BF)Then you shall eat the [x]offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom Yahweh your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will [y]oppress you. 54 The man who is [z]refined and very delicate among you [aa]shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife [ab]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 which he will eat, since he has nothing else remaining, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will [ac]oppress you in all your gates. 56 (BG)The [ad]refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and [ae]refinement, [af]shall be hostile toward the husband [ag]she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, 57 and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her [ah]legs and toward her children whom she bears; for (BH)she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will [ai]oppress you in your gates.

58 “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law which are written in this book, to [aj](BI)fear this glorious and fearsome (BJ)name, Yahweh your God, 59 then Yahweh will bring wondrous plagues on you and plagues on those who are your seed, even great and enduring plagues, and miserable and enduring sicknesses. 60 (BK)And He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, Yahweh will bring on you (BL)until you are destroyed. 62 Then you shall remain few in number, (BM)whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. 63 And it will be that as Yahweh (BN)delighted over you to prosper you and multiply you, so Yahweh will (BO)delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be (BP)torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. 64 Moreover, Yahweh will (BQ)scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall (BR)serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. 65 (BS)Moreover, among those nations you shall find no relief, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there (BT)Yahweh will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 So your life shall [ak]hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day and shall not have any faith in your life. 67 (BU)In the morning you shall say, ‘Would that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Would that it were morning!’ because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and because of the sight of your eyes which you will see. 68 And Yahweh will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke 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 buyer.”

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:3 Or country
  2. Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit fruit
  3. Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit womb
  4. Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit fruit
  5. Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit fruit
  6. Deuteronomy 28:7 Lit smitten
  7. Deuteronomy 28:10 Lit the name of Yahweh is called upon you
  8. Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit fruit
  9. Deuteronomy 28:11 Or womb
  10. Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit fruit
  11. Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit fruit
  12. Deuteronomy 28:16 Or country
  13. Deuteronomy 28:18 Lit fruit
  14. Deuteronomy 28:18 Or womb
  15. Deuteronomy 28:18 Lit fruit
  16. Deuteronomy 28:20 Lit the putting forth of your hand which you do
  17. Deuteronomy 28:22 Or drought
  18. Deuteronomy 28:23 Lit your
  19. Deuteronomy 28:25 Lit smitten
  20. Deuteronomy 28:29 Lit be groping
  21. Deuteronomy 28:30 Lit begin it
  22. Deuteronomy 28:32 Lit in the strength of your hand
  23. Deuteronomy 28:51 Lit fruit
  24. Deuteronomy 28:53 Lit fruit
  25. Deuteronomy 28:53 Or distress
  26. Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit tender
  27. Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit his eye shall be evil toward
  28. Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit of his bosom
  29. Deuteronomy 28:55 Or distress
  30. Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit tender
  31. Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit tenderness
  32. Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit her eye shall be evil toward
  33. Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit of her bosom
  34. Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit feet
  35. Deuteronomy 28:57 Or distress
  36. Deuteronomy 28:58 Or reverence
  37. Deuteronomy 28:66 Lit be hung for you in front
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Deuteronomy 28
International Standard Version

Rewards for Obedience

28 “Indeed, if you diligently obey[a] the Lord your God to carry out all his commands that I’m giving you today, then the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 Moreover, all these blessings will come upon you in abundance,[b] if you obey the Lord your God:

3 “Blessed will you be in the city and blessed will you be in the country.

4 “Blessed will your children[c] be, as well as the produce of your land, the offspring of your beasts and cattle, and the offspring of your flock.

5 “Blessed will be your grain[d] basket and your kneading bowl.

6 “Blessed will you be in your comings and goings.

7 “The Lord will make your enemies, who rise against you and attack from one direction, to flee from you in seven directions.

8 “The Lord will send blessings for you with regard to your barns and everything you undertake. Indeed, he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you.

9 “The Lord will assign you to be a holy people[e] for himself, just as he promised you, as long as you keep his[f] commands and walk in his ways.

10 “Then all the people of the earth will observe that the name of the Lord is proclaimed[g] among you, and they will fear you.

11 “The Lord will show his abundant goodness with respect to your children,[h] the offspring of your animals, and the produce of your farmland that he[i] promised your ancestors he would give you.

12 “The Lord will open his rich[j] treasury, the heavens, to release rain upon your land in season and bless everything you undertake so that you’ll lend to many nations but won’t borrow.

13 “The Lord your God will make you the head and not the tail—placing you above and not beneath—if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I’m giving you today to keep and observe. 14 Do not deviate from any of his commands that I’m giving you today—neither to the right nor the left—to follow and serve other gods.”

Reversal of Blessings

15 “But if you don’t obey the Lord your God and faithfully carry out all his commands and statutes that I’m giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you:

16 “Cursed will you be in the city and cursed will you be in the country.

17 “Cursed will be your grain[k] basket and your kneading bowl.

18 “Cursed will your children[l] be, as well as the produce of your land, the offspring of your beasts and cattle, and the offspring of your flock.

19 “Cursed will you be in your comings and goings.”

Diseases and Drought

20 “The Lord will send the curse among you, will confuse you, and will rebuke you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and perish quickly because of your evil deeds, since you will have forsaken him.[m] 21 The Lord will cause you to be ill with long-lasting diseases until you are wiped out from the land that you are entering to possess. 22 The Lord will afflict you with tuberculosis, fever, inflammation, high fever, drought, blight, and mildew. These will attack you until you are completely destroyed. 23 The sky above your head will become bronze while the ground beneath you will become iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain on your land to powder and dust. It will come down from the sky until you are exterminated.”

From Defeat to Exile

25 “The Lord will cause you to be defeated[n] by your enemies. You’ll go out against them in one direction, but you’ll flee from them in seven directions. Consequently, you’ll be in a state of great terror throughout all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, with no one to chase them away.

27 “The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, skin disease, and festering rashes, and none of them will be curable. 28 The Lord will afflict you with insanity, blindness, and mental confusion.[o] 29 As a result, you’ll wander aimlessly in broad daylight just as a blind person wanders in darkness. You won’t prosper in life.[p] Instead, you’ll be oppressed and plundered all day long, with no deliverer.

30 “You’ll be engaged to a woman, but another man will rape[q] her. You’ll build a house, but you won’t live in it. You’ll plant a vineyard, but you won’t harvest[r] it. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered in front of you, and you won’t be able to eat it. Your donkey will be stolen from you while you watch and won’t be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be handed to your enemies, and there will be no deliverer. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you watch. You won’t be able to approach them at all,[s] and you’ll be powerless to help.[t]

33 “A people whom you don’t know will devour what your land and labor produces. You’ll be only oppressed and discouraged continuously 34 until you are driven insane from what your eyes will see.

35 “The Lord will afflict you with incurable boils on your knees and legs, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

36 “The Lord will banish you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you’ll serve other gods of wood and stone. 37 You’ll become a desolation and a proverb, and you’ll be mocked among the people where the Lord will drive you.”

Complete Reversal

38 “You’ll plant many seeds in a field, but your harvest will be small because the locust will consume it. 39 You’ll plant a vineyard, but you won’t drink wine or harvest any grapes because worms will consume it. 40 You’ll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won’t be able to anoint yourself with oil because the olives will drop off the trees. 41 You’ll bear sons and daughters, but they won’t belong to you because they’ll go into captivity. 42 Whirling locusts will consume every tree and the produce of your land. 43 The foreigner in your midst will be elevated higher and higher over you, while you are brought low little by little. 44 He will lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He’ll be the head, but you’ll be the tail. 45 All these curses will come upon you and will overwhelm you until you are exterminated, because you didn’t obey[u] the Lord your God to keep his commands and statutes, which he had commanded you. 46 These curses[v] will serve as a sign and wonder for you and your descendants[w] as long as you live.”[x]

Servitude and Bondage

47 “Because you didn’t serve the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly,[y] despite the abundance of everything you have, 48 you’ll serve your enemies whom the Lord your God will send against you. You will serve in famine and in drought,[z] in nakedness, and in lack of everything. They’ll[aa] set a yoke of iron upon your neck until they[ab] have exterminated you.

49 “The Lord will raise a distant nation against you from the other side of the earth. Swooping down like a vulture, 50 it will be a nation whose language you don’t understand, whose[ac] stern appearance[ad] neither shows regard[ae] nor extends grace to anyone whether old or young. 51 Its army[af] will consume the offspring of your animals and the produce of your soil until you are exterminated. They[ag] will leave you without your grain, wine, oil, the increase of your cattle, and the lamb of your flock, until you are completely destroyed. 52 They’ll[ah] besiege all your cities until your high and fortified walls in which you have trusted collapse throughout the land. Indeed, they will besiege all your cities, which the Lord your God gave you.”

Cannibalism

53 “You’ll eat your own children[ai]—the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God gave you—on account of the siege and the distress with which your enemy will oppress you. 54 Even the compassionate man among you—the very sensitive one—will look with evil in his eyes toward his brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving sons, whom he spared. 55 He will withhold from each of them the flesh of his sons that he is eating—since there will be nothing left—on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in all your cities. 56 The most tender and sensitive lady among you, who doesn’t venture to touch the soles of her feet to the ground on account of her daintiness, will look with hostility in her eyes against her beloved husband, her sons, and her daughters. 57 She will eat her afterbirth[aj] and her newborn children[ak] secretly—since there will be nothing left—on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in your cities.”

Reduction in Population

58 “If you aren’t careful to observe all the words of this Law that have been written in this book, instructing you[al] to fear this glorious and awesome name of the Lord your God, 59 then he[am] will inflict extraordinary plagues on you and your children, great and lasting plagues, and severe and lasting illnesses. 60 He will inflict[an] on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they won’t be curable.[ao] 61 Moreover, the Lord will inflict you with illnesses and plagues that were not written in this Book of the Law, until you are exterminated. 62 Because you will not have obeyed[ap] the Lord your God, very few of you will be left—instead of you being as numerous as the stars in the heavens. 63 Just as the Lord delighted to prosper and increase you, so now the Lord will delight to destroy, exterminate, and banish you from the land that you are about to enter to possess.”

Scattering among the Nations

64 “He’ll[aq] scatter you among the nations[ar] from one end of the earth to the other,[as] and there you’ll serve other gods made of wood and stones, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. 65 Among those nations you’ll have no rest. There’ll be no resting place for the soles of your feet. Instead, the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a despairing spirit. 66 You’ll cling to life, being fearful by both night and day, with no assurance of survival. 67 In the morning you’ll say, ‘I wish it were evening.’ Yet in the evening you’ll say, “I wish it were morning,” on account of what you’ll dread[at] and what you’ll see.[au] 68 Finally, the Lord will bring you back to Egypt by ship, a place that I said you’ll never see again. There you’ll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:1 Or listen to
  2. Deuteronomy 28:2 Lit. and will overtake you
  3. Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit. shall the fruit of your womb
  4. Deuteronomy 28:5 The Heb. lacks grain
  5. Deuteronomy 28:9 Or nation
  6. Deuteronomy 28:9 Lit. of the Lord your God
  7. Deuteronomy 28:10 Lit. called
  8. Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit. the fruit of your womb
  9. Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit. the Lord
  10. Deuteronomy 28:12 Or good
  11. Deuteronomy 28:17 The Heb. lacks grain
  12. Deuteronomy 28:18 Lit. shall the fruit of your womb
  13. Deuteronomy 28:20 Lit. me
  14. Deuteronomy 28:25 Lit. be struck down
  15. Deuteronomy 28:28 Lit. and confusion of the heart
  16. Deuteronomy 28:29 Lit. in your ways
  17. Deuteronomy 28:30 Lit. violate
  18. Deuteronomy 28:30 Or enjoy
  19. Deuteronomy 28:32 Lit. all the day
  20. Deuteronomy 28:32 Lit. and there will be no power in your hand
  21. Deuteronomy 28:45 Lit. listen to the voice
  22. Deuteronomy 28:46 Heb. lacks curses
  23. Deuteronomy 28:46 Lit. seed
  24. Deuteronomy 28:46 Lit. until eternity
  25. Deuteronomy 28:47 Lit. and with gladness of heart
  26. Deuteronomy 28:48 Or in hunger and thirst
  27. Deuteronomy 28:48 Lit. he
  28. Deuteronomy 28:48 Lit. he
  29. Deuteronomy 28:50 Lit. a nation
  30. Deuteronomy 28:50 Or face
  31. Deuteronomy 28:50 Lit. who does not lift faces
  32. Deuteronomy 28:51 Heb. lacks army
  33. Deuteronomy 28:51 Lit. it
  34. Deuteronomy 28:52 Lit. it
  35. Deuteronomy 28:53 Lit. eat the fruit of your womb
  36. Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit. will begrudge that which comes out from between her feet
  37. Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit. sons whom she will bear
  38. Deuteronomy 28:58 The Heb. lacks instructing you
  39. Deuteronomy 28:59 Lit. the Lord
  40. Deuteronomy 28:60 Lit. will return
  41. Deuteronomy 28:60 Lit. they will cling to you
  42. Deuteronomy 28:62 Lit. listen to the voice of
  43. Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit. the Lord
  44. Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit. peoples
  45. Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit. end of the earth
  46. Deuteronomy 28:67 Lit. the dread of your heart that you will dread
  47. Deuteronomy 28:67 Lit. the vision of your eyes that you will see
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