Deuteronomy 28
Modern English Version
Blessings for Obedience
28 Now it will be, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, then the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings will come on you and overtake you if you listen to the voice of the Lord your God.
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field.
4 Your offspring will be blessed, and the produce of your ground, and the offspring of your livestock, the increase of your herd and the flocks of your sheep.
5 Your basket and your kneading bowl will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
7 The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8 The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you set your hand to do, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
9 The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He swore to you, if you will keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 All people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 The Lord will make you overflow in prosperity, in the offspring of your body, in the offspring of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.
12 The Lord will open up to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. 13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you will only be above and you will not be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, to observe and to do them. 14 Also, you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
Warnings Against Disobedience
15 But it will happen, if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, by being careful to do all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, that 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 Your offspring will be cursed along with the fruit of your land, the produce of your herd, and the flocks of your sheep.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
20 The Lord will send cursing, vexation, and rebuke on you in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly because of the wickedness of your doings, by which you have forsaken Me. 21 The Lord will make pestilence cling to you until it has consumed you from the land, which you are going to possess. 22 The Lord will strike you with a wasting disease, with a fever, with an inflammation, with an extreme heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew, and they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 The heavens which are over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron. 24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come from heaven down on you until you are destroyed.
25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies, and you will go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them, and will be become an object of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your carcass will be meat for all the fowls of the air and beasts of the earth, and no man will frighten them away. 27 The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will strike you with madness, and blindness, and bewilderment of heart. 29 You will grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and continually robbed, and no man will save you.
30 You will be engaged to a woman and another man shall rape her. You will build a house, but you will not dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not gather its grapes. 31 Your ox will be killed before your eyes, and you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from before you and will not be returned to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to rescue them. 32 Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look and fail with longing for them all day long, but there will be nothing you can do. 33 A nation that you do not know will consume the produce of your land and all your labors, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed all the time. 34 You will go insane because of what your eyes will see. 35 The Lord will strike you in the knees and legs with sore boils that cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 The Lord will bring you and your king, which you will set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods, wood and stone. 37 You will become a horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule among all nations where the Lord shall lead you.
38 You will carry a lot of seed out into the field but will gather but little in, for the locust will consume it. 39 You will plant vineyards and dress them, but will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees throughout all your coasts, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olive will drop off. 41 You will give birth to sons and daughters, but you will not enjoy them, for they will go into captivity. 42 The locust will consume all of your trees and fruit of your land.
43 The foreigner who resides with you will get up higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower. 44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail.
45 Moreover, all of these curses will come on you and will pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 They will be a perpetual sign and wonder in regard to you and your descendants, 47 because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things. 48 Therefore, you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and need of all things, and He will put a yoke of iron 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 flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation with a fierce countenance, which will not respect the old or show favor to the young. 51 They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, wine, or oil, or the offspring of your herd or the offspring of your sheep, until they have destroyed you. 52 He will lay siege on you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land, and he will lay siege on you in all your towns throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you.
53 You will eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, which the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and distress in which your enemies will persecute you. 54 The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be hostile toward his brother and toward his beloved wife and toward the rest of his children who remain, 55 so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, because he has nothing left to him because of the siege and the distress by which your enemies will persecute you in all your towns. 56 The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and tenderness, will be hostile toward her beloved husband, and toward her son and her daughter, 57 and toward her afterbirth that comes out from between her legs, and toward her children whom she will bear. For she will secretly eat them because of lack during the siege and distress in which your enemy will persecute you in your towns.
58 If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law that are written in this book so that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even great long-lasting plagues, and severe and long-lasting sicknesses. 60 Moreover, He will bring all the diseases of Egypt upon you, which you were afraid of, and they will cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the Book of the Law will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. 62 You will be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. 63 It will be that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the Lord will take pleasure over you to destroy you and to bring you to nothing. You will be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.
64 The Lord will scatter you among all the peoples, from the one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve other gods, wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. 65 Among these nations you will find no ease, nor will the sole of your foot have rest. But there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you. You will be in dread day and night and will have no assurance of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, “Would to God it were evening!” And at evening you will say, “Would to God it were morning!” because of the fear of your heart and because of the sights your eyes will see. 68 The Lord will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way by which I spoke to you, “You will not see it ever again.” And there you will be sold to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
Deuteronomy 28
21st Century King James Version
28 “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth;
2 and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God:
3 “Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy herds, the increase of thy cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep.
5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy stores.
6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
7 “The Lord shall cause thine enemies who rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face; they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
8 “The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and He shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
9 “The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto Himself, as He hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God and walk in His ways.
10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of thee.
11 And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord swore unto thy fathers to give thee.
12 The Lord shall open unto thee His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand; and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath, if thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them.
14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee:
16 “Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy stores.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep.
19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
20 “The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke in all that thou settest thine hand unto to do until thou be destroyed and until thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken Me.
21 The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee until He have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
22 The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
24 The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust; from heaven shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed.
25 “The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies; thou shalt go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them, and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall frighten them away.
27 The Lord will smite thee with the boils of Egypt, and with the hemorrhoids, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
28 The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart;
29 and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways. “And thou shalt be only oppressed and despoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. Thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein. Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.
31 Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof. Thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee. Thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.
32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thine hand.
33 The fruit of thy land and all thy labors shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed always,
34 so that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
35 The Lord shall smite thee in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.
36 “The Lord shall bring thee and thy king whom thou shalt set over thee unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.
37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.
38 “Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field and shalt gather but little in, for the locust shall consume it.
39 Thou shalt plant vineyards and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worms shall eat them.
40 Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy borders, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil, for thine olive shall cast his fruit.
41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them, for they shall go into captivity.
42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.
43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low.
44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee and overtake thee till thou be destroyed, because thou hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded thee.
46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.
47 “Because thou served not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things,
48 therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies whom the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in want of all things; and He shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until He have destroyed thee.
49 The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand,
50 a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old nor show favor to the young.
51 And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle and the fruit of thy land until thou be destroyed; he also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy cattle, or flocks of thy sheep until he have destroyed thee.
52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates until thy high and fortified walls come down wherein thou trusted, throughout all thy land; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land which the Lord thy God hath given thee.
53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege and in the extremity wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee,
54 so that the man that is tender among you and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he shall leave,
55 so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing left him in the siege and in the extremity wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
56 The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son and toward her daughter,
57 and toward her young one who cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them secretly for want of all things in the siege and extremity wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
58 “If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, The Lord Thy God,
59 then the Lord will make thy plagues wondrous, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.
60 Moreover He will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt which thou wast afraid of, and they shall cleave unto thee.
61 Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee until thou be destroyed.
62 And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God.
63 “And it shall come to pass that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
64 And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest; but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind.
66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have no assurance of thy life.
67 In the morning thou shalt say, ‘Would God it were evening!’ and at evening thou shalt say, ‘Would God it were morning!’ for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
68 And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships by the way whereof I spoke unto thee, ‘Thou shalt see it no more again.’ And there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.