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.”