Deuteronomy 28
Names of God Bible
Blessings from the Lord
28 Carefully obey Yahweh your Elohim, and faithfully follow all his commands that I’m giving you today. If you do, Yahweh your Elohim will place you high above all the other nations in the world. 2 These are all the blessings that will come to you and stay close to you because you obey Yahweh your Elohim:
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
4 You will be blessed. You will have children. Your land will have crops. Your animals will have offspring. Your cattle will have calves, and your flocks will have lambs and kids.
5 The grain you harvest and the bread you bake will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come and blessed when you go.
7 Yahweh will defeat your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction but run away from you in seven directions.
8 Yahweh will bless your barns and everything you do. Yahweh your Elohim will bless you in the land that he is giving you.
9 You will be Yahweh’s holy people, as he promised you with an oath. He will do this if you obey the commands of Yahweh your Elohim and follow his directions. 10 Then all the people in the world will see that you are Yahweh’s people, and they will be afraid of you. 11 Yahweh will give you plenty of blessings: You will have many children. Your animals will have many offspring. Your soil will produce many crops in the land Yahweh will give you, as he swore to your ancestors.
12 Yahweh will open the heavens, his rich storehouse, for you. He will send rain on your land at the right time and bless everything you do. You will be able to make loans to many nations but won’t need to borrow from any. 13 Yahweh will make you the head, not the tail. You will always be at the top, never at the bottom, if you faithfully obey the commands of Yahweh your Elohim that I am giving you today. 14 Do everything I’m commanding you today. Never worship other gods or serve them.
Curses from the Lord
15 Obey Yahweh your Elohim, and faithfully follow all his commands and laws that I am giving you today. If you don’t, all these curses will come to you and stay close to you:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17 The grain you harvest and the bread you bake will be cursed.
18 You will be cursed. You will have few children. Your land will have few crops. Your cattle will be cursed with few calves, and your flocks will have few lambs and kids.
19 You will be cursed when you come and cursed when you go.
20 Yahweh will send you curses, panic, and frustration in everything you do until you’re destroyed and quickly disappear for the evil you will do by abandoning Yahweh. 21 Yahweh will send one plague after another on you until he wipes you out of the land you’re about to enter and take possession of. 22 Yahweh will strike you with disease, fever, and inflammation; heat waves,[a] drought,[b] scorching winds,[c] and ruined crops. They will pursue you until you die. 23 The sky above will look like bronze, and the ground below will be as hard as iron. 24 Yahweh will send dust storms and sandstorms on you from the sky until you’re destroyed.
25 Yahweh will let your enemies defeat you. You will attack them from one direction but run away from them in seven directions. You will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms in the world. 26 Your dead bodies will be food for all the birds and wild animals. There will be no one to scare them away. 27 Yahweh will strike you with the same boils that plagued the Egyptians. He will strike you with hemorrhoids,[d] sores,[e] and itching[f] that won’t go away. 28 Yahweh will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic. 29 You will grope in broad daylight as blind people grope in their blindness. You won’t be successful in anything you do.[g] As long as you live, you will be oppressed and robbed with no one to rescue you.
30 You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will have sex with her. You will build a house, but you won’t live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you won’t enjoy the grapes. 31 Your ox will be butchered as you watch, but you won’t eat any of its meat. You will watch as your donkey is stolen from you, but you’ll never get it back. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue it. 32 You will watch with your own eyes as your sons and daughters are given to another nation. You will strain your eyes looking for them all day long, but there will be nothing you can do. 33 People you never knew will eat what your land and your hard work have produced. As long as you live, you will know nothing but oppression and abuse. 34 The things you see will drive you mad. 35 Yahweh will afflict your knees and legs with severe boils that can’t be cured. The boils will cover your whole body from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
36 Yahweh will lead you and the king you choose to a nation that you and your ancestors never knew. There you will worship gods made of wood and stone. 37 You will become a thing of horror. All the nations where Yahweh will send you will make an example of you and ridicule you.
38 You will plant many crops in your fields, but harvest little because locusts will destroy your crops. 39 You will plant vineyards and take care of them, but you won’t drink any wine or gather any grapes, because worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees everywhere in your country but no olive oil to rub on your skin, because the olives will fall off the trees. 41 You will have sons and daughters, but you won’t be able to keep them because they will be taken as prisoners of war. 42 Crickets will swarm all over your trees and the crops in your fields.
43 The standard of living for the foreigners who live among you will rise higher and higher, while your standard of living will sink lower and lower. 44 They will be able to make loans to you, but you won’t be able to make loans to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail.
45 All these curses will come to you. They will pursue you and stay close to you until you’re destroyed, because you didn’t obey Yahweh your Elohim or follow his commands and laws, which I’m giving you. 46 These curses will be a sign and an amazing thing to warn you and your descendants forever. 47 You didn’t serve Yahweh your Elohim with a joyful and happy heart when you had so much. 48 So you will serve your enemies, whom Yahweh will send against you. You will serve them even though you are already hungry, thirsty, naked, and in need of everything. Yahweh will put a heavy burden of hard work on you until he destroys you.
49 Yahweh will bring against you a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth. The nation will swoop down on you like an eagle. It will be a nation whose language you won’t understand. 50 Its people will be fierce-looking. They will show no respect for the old and no pity for the young. 51 They’ll eat the offspring of your animals and the crops from your fields until you’re destroyed. They’ll leave you no grain, no new wine, no olive oil, no calves from your herds, and no lambs or kids from your flocks. They’ll continue to do this until they’ve completely ruined you. 52 They will blockade all your cities until the high, fortified walls in which you trust come down everywhere in your land. They’ll blockade all the cities everywhere in the land that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you.
53 Because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade, you will eat the flesh of your own children, the sons and daughters, whom Yahweh your Elohim has given you. 54 Even the most tender and sensitive man among you will become stingy toward his brother, the wife he loves, and the children he still has left. 55 He will give none of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all that he has left, because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade of all your cities. 56 The most tender and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and tender that she wouldn’t even step on an ant—will become stingy toward the husband she loves or toward her own son or daughter. 57 She won’t share with them the afterbirth from her body and the children she gives birth to. She will secretly eat them out of dire necessity, because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade of your cities.
58 You might not faithfully obey every word of the teachings that are written in this book. You might not fear this glorious and awe-inspiring name: Yahweh your Elohim. 59 If so, Yahweh will strike you and your descendants with unimaginable plagues. They will be terrible and continuing plagues and severe and lingering diseases. 60 He will again bring all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 Yahweh will also bring you every kind of sickness and plague not written in this Book of Teachings. They will continue until you’re dead. 62 At one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky. But only a few of you will be left, because you didn’t obey Yahweh your Elohim. 63 At one time Yahweh was more than glad to make you prosperous and numerous. Now Yahweh will be more than glad to destroy you and wipe you out. You will be torn out of the land you’re about to enter and take possession of.
64 Then Yahweh will scatter you among all the people of the world, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve gods made of wood and stone that neither you nor your ancestors ever knew. 65 Among those nations you will find no peace, no place to call your own. There Yahweh will give you an unsettled mind, failing eyesight, and despair. 66 Your life will always be hanging by a thread. You will live in terror day and night. You will never feel sure of your life. 67 In the morning you’ll say, “If only it were evening!” And in the evening you’ll say, “If only it were morning!” You’ll talk this way because of the things that will terrify you and because of the things you’ll see. 68 Yahweh will bring you back to Egypt in ships[h] on a journey that I said you would never take again. There you will try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies, but no one will buy you.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 28:22 Or “uncontrolled fever.”
- Deuteronomy 28:22 Latin; Masoretic Text “warfare.”
- Deuteronomy 28:22 Or “blight.”
- Deuteronomy 28:27 Or “boils.”
- Deuteronomy 28:27 Or “scurvy.”
- Deuteronomy 28:27 Hebrew meaning uncertain.
- Deuteronomy 28:29 Or “darkness, but you won’t be able to find your way.”
- Deuteronomy 28:68 Or “in sorrow.”
Deuteronomy 28
New International Reader's Version
Blessings for Obeying the Lord
28 Make sure you obey the Lord your God completely. Be careful to obey all his commands. I’m giving them to you today. If you do these things, the Lord will honor you more than all the other nations on earth. 2 If you obey the Lord your God, here are the blessings that will come to you and remain with you.
3 You will be blessed in the cities. You will be blessed out in the country.
4 Your children will be blessed. Your crops will be blessed. The young animals among your livestock will be blessed. That includes your calves and lambs.
5 Your baskets and bread pans will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed no matter where you go.
7 Enemies will rise up against you. But the Lord will help you win the battle over them. They will come at you from one direction. But they’ll run away from you in every direction.
8 The Lord your God will bless your barns with plenty of grain and other food. He will bless everything you do. He’ll bless you in the land he’s giving you.
9 The Lord your God will make you his holy people. He will set you apart for himself. He promised to do this. He promised to do it if you would keep his commands and live exactly as he wants you to live. 10 All the nations on earth will see that you belong to the Lord. And they will be afraid of you. 11 The Lord will give you more than you need. You will have many children. Your livestock will have many little ones. Your crops will do very well. All of that will happen in the land he promised to give you. He promised this to your people of long ago.
12 The Lord will open up the heavens. That’s where he stores his riches. He will send rain on your land at just the right time. He’ll bless everything you do. You will lend money to many nations. But you won’t have to borrow from any of them. 13 The Lord your God will make you leaders, not followers. Pay attention to his commands that I’m giving you today. Be careful to obey them. Then you will always be on top. You will never be on the bottom. 14 Don’t turn away from any of the commands I’m giving you today. Don’t turn to the right or the left. Don’t follow other gods. Don’t worship them.
Curses for Not Obeying the Lord
15 But suppose you don’t obey the Lord your God. And you aren’t careful to obey all his commands and rules I’m giving you today. Then he will send curses on you. They’ll catch up with you. Here are those curses.
16 You will be cursed in the cities. You will be cursed out in the country.
17 Your baskets and bread pans will be cursed.
18 Your children will be cursed. Your crops will be cursed. Your calves and lambs will be cursed.
19 You will be cursed no matter where you go.
20 The Lord will send curses on you. You won’t know what’s going on. In everything you do, he will be angry with you. You will be destroyed suddenly and completely. This will happen because you did an evil thing when you deserted the Lord. 21 He will send all kinds of sicknesses on you. He’ll send them until he has destroyed you. He’ll remove you from the land you are entering to take as your own. 22 The Lord will make you sick and very weak. He will strike you with fever and swelling. He’ll send burning heat. There won’t be any rain. The hot winds will completely dry up your crops. All those things will happen until you die. 23 The sky above you will be like bronze. The ground beneath you will be like iron. 24 The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder. It will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.
25 The Lord will help your enemies win the battle over you. You will come at them from one direction. But you will run away from them in every direction. All the kingdoms on earth will be completely shocked when they see you. 26 Birds and wild animals will eat up your dead bodies. There won’t be anyone left to scare them away. 27 The Lord will send boils on you, just like the ones he sent on the Egyptians. You will have growths in your bodies and boils on your skin. You will itch all over. No one will be able to heal you. 28 The Lord will make you lose your mind. He will make you blind. You won’t know what’s going on. 29 Even at noon you will have to feel your way around like a blind person in the dark. You won’t have success in anything you do. Day after day you will be robbed and treated badly. No one will be able to save you.
30 You and a woman will promise to marry each other. But another man will take her and rape her. You will build a house. But you won’t live in it. You will plant a vineyard. But you won’t eat a single grape from it. 31 Your ox will be killed right in front of your eyes. But you won’t eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you by force. And you will never get it back. Your sheep will be given to your enemies. No one will be able to save them. 32 Your children will be given to another nation. Day after day you will watch for them to come back. But you will only wear out your eyes. You won’t be able to help your children. 33 A nation you don’t know anything about will eat what you work to produce on your land. You will only be treated badly as long as you live. 34 The things you see will make you lose your mind. 35 The Lord will send painful boils on your knees and legs. No one will be able to heal them. They will cover you from head to toe.
36 The Lord will drive you out of the land. And he will drive out the king you place over yourselves. All of you will go to another nation. You and your people of long ago didn’t know anything about them. There you will worship other gods. They will be made out of wood and stone. 37 You will look very bad to all the nations where the Lord sends you. They will be completely shocked when they see you. They will mock you and make fun of you.
38 You will plant many seeds in your field. But you will gather very little food. Locusts will eat it up. 39 You will plant vineyards and take care of them. But you won’t drink the wine. You won’t gather the grapes. Worms will eat them up. 40 You will have olive trees through your whole country. But you won’t use the oil. The olives will drop off the trees. 41 You will have children. But you won’t be able to keep them. They’ll be taken away as prisoners. 42 Large numbers of locusts will eat up the leaves on all your trees. They will also eat up the crops on your land.
43 Outsiders who live among you will become your leaders. They will rise higher and higher. But you will sink lower and lower. 44 They will lend money to you. But you won’t be able to lend money to them. They will be the leaders. But you will be the followers.
45 The Lord your God will send all these curses on you. They will follow you everywhere. They’ll catch up with you. You will be under the Lord’s curse until you are destroyed. That’s because you didn’t obey him. You didn’t keep the commands and rules he gave you. 46 These curses will remain as signs and awful judgments against you and your children after you forever. 47 You didn’t serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness when times were good. 48 So he will send enemies against you. You will have to serve them. You will be hungry and thirsty. You will be naked and poor. The Lord will put the iron chains of slavery around your necks until he has destroyed you.
49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away. It will come from the ends of the earth. It will dive down on you like an eagle. You won’t understand that nation’s language. 50 Its people will look mean. They won’t have any respect for old people. They won’t show any kindness to young people. 51 They will eat up the young animals among your livestock. They’ll eat up the crops on your land. They’ll destroy you. They won’t leave you any grain, olive oil or fresh wine. They won’t leave you any calves or lambs. They’ll destroy you. 52 They’ll surround all the cities throughout your whole land. They’ll attack those cities until the high, strong walls you trust in fall down. That’s what will happen to the cities in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
53 Your enemies will surround you and attack you. They will make you suffer greatly. So you will eat your own children. You will eat the dead bodies of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you. 54 There may be a gentle and caring man among you. But he will treat his own brother badly. He’ll be just as mean to the wife he loves and to any of his children who are still alive. 55 He won’t give to a single one of them any part of the dead bodies of his children that he’s eating. It will be all he has left to eat. That’s how much your enemies will make you suffer when they surround all your cities and attack them. 56 There may be a gentle and caring woman among you. She wouldn’t even touch the ground with her feet without first putting her sandals on. But she will not share anything with the husband she loves. She won’t share with her own children either. 57 She will eat what comes out of her body after she has a baby. Then she’ll even eat her baby. She won’t share it with anyone in her family. In her great hunger she’ll plan to eat it in secret. There won’t be anything else for her to eat because the city she lives in will be surrounded. That’s an example of how much your enemies will make you suffer when they are attacking your cities.
58 Be careful to follow all the words of this law. They are written in this scroll. Have respect for the glorious and wonderful name of the Lord your God. If you don’t, 59 he will send terrible plagues on you and your children after you. He’ll send horrible and lasting troubles. He’ll make you very sick for a long time. 60 He’ll bring on you all the sicknesses you were afraid of getting when you were in Egypt. You won’t be able to get rid of them. 61 The Lord will also bring on you all other kinds of sickness and trouble. I haven’t even written those down in this Book of the Law. You will be destroyed. 62 At one time you were as many as the stars in the sky. But there will only be a few of you left. That’s because you didn’t obey the Lord your God. 63 It pleased the Lord to give you success and to cause there to be many of you. But it will please him just as much to wipe you out and destroy you. You will be removed from the land you are entering to take as your own.
64 Then the Lord will scatter you among all the nations. He’ll spread you around from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship statues of gods made out of wood and stone. You and your people of long ago hadn’t known anything about those gods. 65 Among those nations you won’t find any peace. There won’t be any place where you can make your home and rest your feet. The Lord will give you minds filled with worry. He’ll give you eyes worn out from looking for help. You won’t have any hope in your hearts. 66 Your lives will always be in danger. You will be filled with fear night and day. You will never be sure you are safe. 67 In the morning you will say, “We wish it were evening!” In the evening you will say, “We wish it were morning!” Your hearts will be filled with fear. The things you see will terrify you. 68 The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships. He’ll send you on a journey I said you should never have to make again. You will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves in Egypt. But no one will buy you.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.
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