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
- Deuteronomy 28:1 Or listen to
- Deuteronomy 28:2 Lit. and will overtake you
- Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit. shall the fruit of your womb
- Deuteronomy 28:5 The Heb. lacks grain
- Deuteronomy 28:9 Or nation
- Deuteronomy 28:9 Lit. of the Lord your God
- Deuteronomy 28:10 Lit. called
- Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit. the fruit of your womb
- Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit. the Lord
- Deuteronomy 28:12 Or good
- Deuteronomy 28:17 The Heb. lacks grain
- Deuteronomy 28:18 Lit. shall the fruit of your womb
- Deuteronomy 28:20 Lit. me
- Deuteronomy 28:25 Lit. be struck down
- Deuteronomy 28:28 Lit. and confusion of the heart
- Deuteronomy 28:29 Lit. in your ways
- Deuteronomy 28:30 Lit. violate
- Deuteronomy 28:30 Or enjoy
- Deuteronomy 28:32 Lit. all the day
- Deuteronomy 28:32 Lit. and there will be no power in your hand
- Deuteronomy 28:45 Lit. listen to the voice
- Deuteronomy 28:46 Heb. lacks curses
- Deuteronomy 28:46 Lit. seed
- Deuteronomy 28:46 Lit. until eternity
- Deuteronomy 28:47 Lit. and with gladness of heart
- Deuteronomy 28:48 Or in hunger and thirst
- Deuteronomy 28:48 Lit. he
- Deuteronomy 28:48 Lit. he
- Deuteronomy 28:50 Lit. a nation
- Deuteronomy 28:50 Or face
- Deuteronomy 28:50 Lit. who does not lift faces
- Deuteronomy 28:51 Heb. lacks army
- Deuteronomy 28:51 Lit. it
- Deuteronomy 28:52 Lit. it
- Deuteronomy 28:53 Lit. eat the fruit of your womb
- Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit. will begrudge that which comes out from between her feet
- Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit. sons whom she will bear
- Deuteronomy 28:58 The Heb. lacks instructing you
- Deuteronomy 28:59 Lit. the Lord
- Deuteronomy 28:60 Lit. will return
- Deuteronomy 28:60 Lit. they will cling to you
- Deuteronomy 28:62 Lit. listen to the voice of
- Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit. the Lord
- Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit. peoples
- Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit. end of the earth
- Deuteronomy 28:67 Lit. the dread of your heart that you will dread
- Deuteronomy 28:67 Lit. the vision of your eyes that you will see
Deuteronomy 28
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
28 Now if thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to do and keep all his commandments, which I command thee this day, the Lord thy God will make thee higher than all the nations that are on the earth.
2 And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee: yet so if thou hear his precepts,
3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed in the field.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the droves of thy herds, and the folds of thy sheep.
5 Blessed shall be thy barns and blessed thy stores.
6 Blessed shalt thou be coming in and going out.
7 The Lord shall cause thy enemies, that rise up against thee, to fall down before thy face: one way shall they come out against thee, and seven ways shall they flee before thee.
8 The Lord will send forth a blessing upon thy storehouses, and upon all the works of thy hands: and will bless thee in the land that thou shalt receive.
9 The Lord will raise thee up to be a holy people to himself, as he swore to thee: if thou keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.
10 And all the people of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord is invocated upon thee, and they shall fear thee.
11 The Lord will make thee abound with all goods, with the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy cattle, with the fruit of thy land, which the Lord swore to thy fathers that he would give thee.
12 The Lord will open his excellent treasure, the heaven, that it may give rain in due season: and he will bless all the works of thy hands. And thou shalt lend to many nations, and shalt not borrow of any one.
13 And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail: and thou shalt be always above, and not beneath: yet so if thou wilt hear the commandments of the Lord thy God which I command thee this day, and keep and do them,
14 And turn not away from them neither to the right hand, nor to the left, nor follow strange gods, nor worship them.
15 But if thou wilt not hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep and to do all his commandments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day, all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.
16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field.
17 Cursed shall be thy barn, and cursed thy stores.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, the herds of thy oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep.
19 Cursed shalt thou be coming in, and cursed going out.
20 The Lord shall send upon thee famine and hunger, and a rebuke upon all the works which thou shalt do: until he consume and destroy thee quickly, for thy most wicked inventions, by which thou hast forsaken me.
21 May the Lord set the pestilence upon thee, until he consume thee out of the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.
22 May the Lord afflict thee with miserable want, with the fever and with cold, with burning and with heat, and with corrupted air and with blasting, and pursue thee till thou perish.
23 Be the heaven, that is over thee, of brass: and the ground thou treadest on, of iron.
24 The Lord give thee dust for rain upon thy land, and let ashes come down from heaven upon thee, till thou be consumed.
25 The Lord make thee to fall down before thy enemies, one way mayst thou go out against them, and flee seven ways, and be scattered throughout all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 And be thy carcass meat for all the Fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, and be there none to drive them away.
27 The Lord strike thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and the part of thy body, by which the dung is cast out, with the scab and with the itch: so that thou canst not be healed.
28 The Lord strike thee with madness and blindness and fury of mind.
29 And mayst thou grope at midday as the blind is wont to grope in the dark, and not make straight thy ways. And mayst thou at all times suffer wrong, and be oppressed with violence, and mayst thou have no one to deliver thee.
30 Mayst thou take a wife, and another sleep with her. Mayst thou build a house, and not dwell therein. Mayest thou plant a vineyard and not gather the vintage thereof.
31 May thy ox be slain before thee, and thou not eat thereof. May thy ass be taken away in thy sight, and not restored to thee. May thy sheep be given to thy enemies, and may there be none to help thee.
32 May thy sons and thy daughters be given to another people, thy eyes looking on, and languishing at the sight of them all the day, and may there be no strength in thy hand.
33 May a people which thou knowest not, eat the fruits of thy land, and all thy labours: and mayst thou always suffer oppression, and be crushed at all times.
34 And be astonished at the terror of those things which thy eyes shall see:
35 May the Lord strike thee with a very sore ulcer in the knees and in the legs, and be thou incurable from the sole of the foot to the top of the head.
36 The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king, whom thou shalt have appointed over thee, into a nation which thou and thy fathers know not: and there thou shalt serve strange gods, wood and stone.
37 And thou shalt be lost, as a proverb and a byword to all people, among whom the Lord shall bring thee in.
38 Thou shalt cast much seed into the ground, and gather little: because the locusts shall consume all.
39 Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and dig it, and shalt not drink the wine, nor gather any thing thereof: because it shall be wasted with worms.
40 Thou shalt have olive trees in all thy borders, and shalt not be anointed with the oil: for the olives shall fall off and perish.
41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, and shalt not enjoy them: because they shall be led into captivity.
42 The blast shall consume all the trees and the fruits of thy ground.
43 The stranger that liveth with thee in the land, shall rise up over thee, and shall be higher: and thou shalt go down, and be lower.
44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be as the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
45 And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue and overtake thee, till thou perish: because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God, and didst not keep his commandments and ceremonies which he commanded thee.
46 And they shall be as signs and wonders on thee, and on thy seed for ever.
47 Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things:
48 Thou shalt serve thy enemy, whom the Lord will send upon thee, in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put an iron yoke upon thy neck, till he consume thee.
49 The Lord will bring upon thee a nation from afar, and from the uttermost ends of the earth, like an eagle that flyeth swiftly, whose tongue thou canst not understand,
50 A most insolent nation, that will shew no regard to the ancients, nor have pity on the infant,
51 And will devour the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruits of thy land: until thou be destroyed, and will leave thee no wheat, nor wine, nor oil, nor herds of oxen, nor flocks of sheep: until he destroy thee.
52 And consume thee in all thy cities, and thy strong and high walls be brought down, wherein thou trustedst in all thy land. Thou shalt be besieged within thy gates in all thy land which the Lord thy God will give thee:
53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in the distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee.
54 The man that is nice among you, and very delicate, shall envy his own brother, and his wife, that lieth in his bosom,
55 So that he will not give them of the flesh of his children, which he shall eat: because he hath nothing else in the siege and the want, wherewith thy enemies shall distress thee within all thy gates.
56 The tender and delicate woman, that could not go upon the ground, nor set down her foot for over much niceness and tenderness, will envy her husband who lieth in her bosom, the flesh of her son, and of her daughter,
57 And the filth of the afterbirths, that come forth from between her thighs, and the children that are born the same hour. For they shall eat them secretly for the want of all things, in the siege and distress, wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee within thy gates.
58 If thou wilt not keep, and fulfill all the words of this law, that are written in this volume, and fear his glorious and terrible name: that is, The Lord thy God:
59 The Lord shall increase thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed, plagues great and lasting, infirmities grievous and perpetual.
60 And he shall bring back on thee all the afflictions of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of, and they shall stick fast to thee.
61 Moreover the Lord will bring upon thee all the diseases, and plagues, that are not written in the volume of this law till he consume thee:
62 And you shall remain few in number, who before were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God.
63 And as the Lord rejoiced upon you before doing good to you, and multiplying you: so he shall rejoice destroying and bringing you to nought, so that you shall be taken away from the land which thou shalt go in to possess.
64 The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the farthest parts of the earth to the ends thereof: and there thou shalt serve strange gods, which both thou art ignorant of and thy fathers, wood and stone.
65 Neither shalt thou be quiet, even in those nations, nor shall there be any rest for the sole of thy foot. For the Lord will give thee a fearful heart, and languishing eyes, and a soul consumed with pensiveness:
66 And thy life shall be as it were hanging before thee. Thou shalt fear night and day, neither shalt thou trust thy life.
67 In the morning thou shalt say: Who will grant me evening? and at evening: Who will grant me morning? for the fearfulness of thy heart, wherewith thou shalt be terrified, and for those things which thou shalt see with thy eyes.
68 The Lord shall bring thee again with ships into Egypt, by the way whereof he said to thee that thou shouldst see it no more. There shalt thou be set to sale to thy enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.
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