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Deuteronomy 28
New English Translation

The Covenant Blessings

28 “If you indeed[a] obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving[b] you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. 2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance[c] if you obey the Lord your God: 3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field.[d] 4 Your children[e] will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 5 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. 6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.[f] 7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack[g] you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction[h] but flee from you in seven different directions. 8 The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do—yes, he will bless you in the land he[i] is giving you. 9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments[j] and obey him.[k] 10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord,[l] and they will respect you. 11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children,[m] the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land that he[n] promised your ancestors[o] he would give you. 12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do;[p] you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any. 13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his[q] commandments that I am urging[r] you today to be careful to do. 14 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving[s] you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship[t] them.

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

15 “But if you ignore[u] the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force:[v] 16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 18 Your children[w] will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.[x]

Curses by Disease and Drought

20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you[y] in everything you undertake[z] until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me.[aa] 21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases[ab] until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 22 He[ac] will afflict you with weakness,[ad] fever, inflammation, infection,[ae] sword,[af] blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 23 The[ag] sky[ah] above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Curses by Defeat and Deportation

25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror[ai] to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off. 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind.[aj] 29 You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do;[ak] you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you. 30 You will be engaged to a woman, and another man will rape[al] her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes, but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies, and there will be no one to save you. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it.[am] 33 As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives. 34 You will go insane from seeing all this. 35 The Lord will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils—from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. 36 The Lord will force you and your king[an] whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there. 37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.

The Curse of Reversed Status

38 “You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it. 39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe.[ao] 41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 42 Whirring locusts[ap] will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. 43 The resident foreigners[aq] who reside among you will become higher and higher over you, and you will become lower and lower. 44 They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them; they will become the head, and you will become the tail!

45 “All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given[ar] you. 46 These curses[as] will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants.[at]

The Curse of Military Siege

47 “Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have, 48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty[au] you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They[av] will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you. 49 The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth[aw] as the eagle flies,[ax] a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young. 51 They[ay] will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds,[az] or lambs of your flocks[ba] until they have destroyed you. 52 They will besiege all of your villages[bb] until all of your high and fortified walls collapse—those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. 53 You will then eat your own offspring,[bc] the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege[bd] by which your enemies will constrict you. 54 The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. 55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict[be] you in your villages. 56 Likewise, the most[bf] tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness,[bg] will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth[bh] and her newborn children[bi] (since she has nothing else),[bj] because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

The Curse of Covenant Termination

58 “If you refuse to obey[bk] all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will increase your punishments and those of your descendants—great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. 60 He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt[bl] that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you.[bm] 61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments,[bn] until you have perished. 62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky,[bo] because you will have disobeyed[bp] the Lord your God. 63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, so he[bq] will also take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. 64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. 65 Among those nations you will have no rest, nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. 66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next.[br] 67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see. 68 Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:1 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”
  2. Deuteronomy 28:1 tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).
  3. Deuteronomy 28:2 tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”
  4. Deuteronomy 28:3 tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.
  5. Deuteronomy 28:4 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
  6. Deuteronomy 28:6 sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.
  7. Deuteronomy 28:7 tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).
  8. Deuteronomy 28:7 tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).
  9. Deuteronomy 28:8 tn Heb “the Lord your God.” Because English would not typically reintroduce the proper name following a relative pronoun (“he will bless…the Lord your God is giving”), the pronoun (“he”) has been employed here in the translation.
  10. Deuteronomy 28:9 tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.
  11. Deuteronomy 28:9 tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
  12. Deuteronomy 28:10 tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).
  13. Deuteronomy 28:11 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”
  14. Deuteronomy 28:11 tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.
  15. Deuteronomy 28:11 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).
  16. Deuteronomy 28:12 tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”
  17. Deuteronomy 28:13 tn Heb “the Lord your God’s.” See note on “he” in 28:8.
  18. Deuteronomy 28:13 tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”
  19. Deuteronomy 28:14 tn Heb “from all the words which I am commanding.”
  20. Deuteronomy 28:14 tn Heb “in order to serve.”
  21. Deuteronomy 28:15 tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”
  22. Deuteronomy 28:15 tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”
  23. Deuteronomy 28:18 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
  24. Deuteronomy 28:19 sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.
  25. Deuteronomy 28:20 tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”
  26. Deuteronomy 28:20 tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”
  27. Deuteronomy 28:20 tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.tn Heb “the evil of your doings wherein you have forsaken me”; CEV “all because you rejected the Lord.”
  28. Deuteronomy 28:21 tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”
  29. Deuteronomy 28:22 tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.
  30. Deuteronomy 28:22 tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).
  31. Deuteronomy 28:22 tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”
  32. Deuteronomy 28:22 tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).
  33. Deuteronomy 28:23 tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”
  34. Deuteronomy 28:23 tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
  35. Deuteronomy 28:25 tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (zaʿavah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zevaʿah, “terror”).
  36. Deuteronomy 28:28 tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).
  37. Deuteronomy 28:29 tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”
  38. Deuteronomy 28:30 tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.
  39. Deuteronomy 28:32 tn Heb “and there will be no power in your hand”; NCV “there will be nothing you can do.”
  40. Deuteronomy 28:36 tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”
  41. Deuteronomy 28:40 tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen. Elsewhere זַיִת (zayit, “olive”) can refer to an olive, the tree branch, the tree, or the grove. Agriculturally it might make the most sense to mean the olive flower (cf. Job 15:33). Whether the flowers drop off without being fertilized, or the olives drop off while unripe, the harvest is lost.
  42. Deuteronomy 28:42 tn The Hebrew term denotes some sort of buzzing or whirring insect; some have understood this to be a type of locust (KJV, NIV, CEV), but other insects have also been suggested: “buzzing insects” (NAB); “the cricket” (NASB); “the cicada” (NRSV).
  43. Deuteronomy 28:43 tn Heb “the foreigner.” This is a collective singular and has therefore been translated as plural; this includes the pronouns in the following verse, which are also singular in the Hebrew text.
  44. Deuteronomy 28:45 tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”
  45. Deuteronomy 28:46 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  46. Deuteronomy 28:46 tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).
  47. Deuteronomy 28:48 tn Heb “lack of everything.”
  48. Deuteronomy 28:48 tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV).
  49. Deuteronomy 28:49 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”
  50. Deuteronomy 28:49 tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.
  51. Deuteronomy 28:51 tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).
  52. Deuteronomy 28:51 tn Heb “increase of herds.”
  53. Deuteronomy 28:51 tn Heb “growth of flocks.”
  54. Deuteronomy 28:52 tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.
  55. Deuteronomy 28:53 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”
  56. Deuteronomy 28:53 tn Heb “siege and stress.”
  57. Deuteronomy 28:55 tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”
  58. Deuteronomy 28:56 tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sphodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.
  59. Deuteronomy 28:56 tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”
  60. Deuteronomy 28:57 tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”
  61. Deuteronomy 28:57 tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”
  62. Deuteronomy 28:57 tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”
  63. Deuteronomy 28:58 tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”
  64. Deuteronomy 28:60 sn These are the plagues the Lord inflicted on the Egyptians prior to the exodus which, though they did not fall upon the Israelites, must have caused great terror (cf. Exod 15:26).
  65. Deuteronomy 28:60 tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”
  66. Deuteronomy 28:61 tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) can refer either (1) to the whole Pentateuch or, more likely, (2) to the book of Deuteronomy or even (3) only to this curse section of the covenant text. “Scroll” better reflects the actual document, since “book” conveys the notion of a bound book with pages to the modern English reader. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the book of this law”; NIV, NLT “this Book of the Law”; TEV “this book of God’s laws and teachings.”
  67. Deuteronomy 28:62 tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
  68. Deuteronomy 28:62 tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”
  69. Deuteronomy 28:63 tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.
  70. Deuteronomy 28:66 tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.
Close EXB

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.

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