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Deuteronomy 28:15-68
New Living Translation

Curses for Disobedience

15 “But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you:

16 Your towns and your fields
    will be cursed.
17 Your fruit baskets and breadboards
    will be cursed.
18 Your children and your crops
    will be cursed.
The offspring of your herds and flocks
    will be cursed.
19 Wherever you go and whatever you do,
    you will be cursed.

20 “The Lord himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me. 21 The Lord will afflict you with diseases until none of you are left in the land you are about to enter and occupy. 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting diseases, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew. These disasters will pursue you until you die. 23 The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain that falls on your land into powder, and dust will pour down from the sky until you are destroyed.

25 “The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will attack your enemies from one direction, but you will scatter from them in seven! You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your corpses will be food for all the scavenging birds and wild animals, and no one will be there to chase them away.

27 “The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The Lord will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic. 29 You will grope around in broad daylight like a blind person groping in the darkness, but you will not find your way. You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you.

30 “You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her. You will build a house, but someone else will live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will never enjoy its fruit. 31 Your ox will be butchered before your eyes, but you will not eat a single bite of the meat. Your donkey will be taken from you, never to be returned. Your sheep and goats will be given to your enemies, and no one will be there to help you. 32 You will watch as your sons and daughters are taken away as slaves. Your heart will break for them, but you won’t be able to help them. 33 A foreign nation you have never heard about will eat the crops you worked so hard to grow. You will suffer under constant oppression and harsh treatment. 34 You will go mad because of all the tragedy you see around you. 35 The Lord will cover your knees and legs with incurable boils. In fact, you will be covered from head to foot.

36 “The Lord will exile you and your king to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors. There in exile you will worship gods of wood and stone! 37 You will become an object of horror, ridicule, and mockery among all the nations to which the Lord sends you.

38 “You will plant much but harvest little, for locusts will eat your crops. 39 You will plant vineyards and care for them, but you will not drink the wine or eat the grapes, for worms will destroy the vines. 40 You will grow olive trees throughout your land, but you will never use the olive oil, for the fruit will drop before it ripens. 41 You will have sons and daughters, but you will lose them, for they will be led away into captivity. 42 Swarms of insects will destroy your trees and crops.

43 “The foreigners living among you will become stronger and stronger, while you become weaker and weaker. 44 They will lend money to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail!

45 “If you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and to obey the commands and decrees he has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed. 46 These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever. 47 If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received, 48 you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything. The Lord will put an iron yoke on your neck, oppressing you harshly until he has destroyed you.

49 “The Lord will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the earth, and it will swoop down on you like a vulture. It is a nation whose language you do not understand, 50 a fierce and heartless nation that shows no respect for the old and no pity for the young. 51 Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you will be destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs, and you will starve to death. 52 They will attack your cities until all the fortified walls in your land—the walls you trusted to protect you—are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the Lord your God has given you.

53 “The siege and terrible distress of the enemy’s attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you. 54 The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving children. 55 He will refuse to share with them the flesh he is devouring—the flesh of one of his own children—because he has nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns. 56 The most tender and delicate woman among you—so delicate she would not so much as touch the ground with her foot—will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or daughter. 57 She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.

58 “If you refuse to obey all the words of instruction that are written in this book, and if you do not fear the glorious and awesome name of the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will overwhelm you and your children with indescribable plagues. These plagues will be intense and without relief, making you miserable and unbearably sick. 60 He will afflict you with all the diseases of Egypt that you feared so much, and you will have no relief. 61 The Lord will afflict you with every sickness and plague there is, even those not mentioned in this Book of Instruction, until you are destroyed. 62 Though you become as numerous as the stars in the sky, few of you will be left because you would not listen to the Lord your God.

63 “Just as the Lord has found great pleasure in causing you to prosper and multiply, the Lord will find pleasure in destroying you. You will be torn from the land you are about to enter and occupy. 64 For the Lord will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship foreign gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods made of wood and stone! 65 There among those nations you will find no peace or place to rest. And the Lord will cause your heart to tremble, your eyesight to fail, and your soul to despair. 66 Your life will constantly hang in the balance. You will live night and day in fear, unsure if you will survive. 67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were night!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ For you will be terrified by the awful horrors you see around you. 68 Then the Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships, to a destination I promised you would never see again. There you will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will buy you.”

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Deuteronomy 28:15-68
Lexham English Bible

15 “And then[a] if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God by diligently observing[b] all of his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today,[c] then all of these curses shall come upon you, and they shall overtake you:

16 “You shall[d] be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field.

17 “Your basket shall be cursed and your kneading trough.

18 “The fruit of your womb shall be cursed and the fruit of you ground, the calves of your cattle and the lambs of your flock.

19 “You shall be cursed when you come in,[e] and you shall be cursed when you go out.[f]

20 “Yahweh will send upon you[g] the curse,[h] the panic,[i] and the threat[j] in everything that you undertake,[k] until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly[l] because of[m] the evil of your deeds in that[n] you have forsaken me. 21 Yahweh will cause the plague to cling to you until it consumes you[o] from the land that you are going to,[p] to take possession of it. 22 Yahweh will afflict you with the wasting diseases and with the fever and with the inflammation and with the scorching heat and with the sword[q] and with the blight and with the mildew, and they shall pursue you until you perish.[r] 23 And your heavens that are over your heads shall be like bronze, and the earth that is under you shall be like iron. 24 Yahweh will change the rain of your land to fine dust and to sand; from the heaven it shall come down upon you until you are destroyed.[s]

25 “Yahweh shall cause you to be defeated before[t] your enemies; on one road you shall go against[u] them,[v] but you will flee on seven roads before[w] them,[x] and you shall become a thing of horror to all of the kingdoms of the earth. 26 And your dead bodies shall be as food for all of the birds of the heaven and to the animals of the earth, and there shall not be anyone to frighten them away.[y]

27 “Yahweh shall afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scurvy and with the skin rash that cannot be healed.[z] 28 Yahweh shall afflict you with madness and with blindness and with confusion of heart. 29 And you shall be groping at noon just as the blind person gropes in the dark, and you shall not succeed in finding your way, and you shall only be abused and robbed all the time,[aa] and there will not be anyone who will rescue you. [ab] 30 You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall sleep[ac] with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not live in it; a vineyard you shall plant, but you shall not enjoy it. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, and you shall not eat it; your donkey shall be stolen right before you,[ad] and it shall not be returned to you; your sheep and your goats shall be given to your enemies, and there shall not be anyone who rescues you.[ae] 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to other people, and you will be looking on[af] longingly[ag] for[ah] them all day, but you will be powerless to do anything.[ai] 33 A people that you do not know shall consume the harvest of your land and all your labor, and you will be only oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives.[aj] 34 You shall become mad because of what your eyes shall see.[ak] 35 Yahweh shall strike you with grievous boils on the knees and on the upper thighs from which you will not be able to be healed,[al] from the sole of your foot and up to your crown. 36 Yahweh will bring you and your king whom you set up over you to a nation that you or your ancestors[am] have not known, and there you will serve other gods of wood and stone. 37 And you will become a horror and a proverb and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you there.

38 “You shall carry out much seed to the field, but you shall gather little produce, for the locust shall devour it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and you shall dress[an] them, but you shall not drink wine and you shall not gather grapes, for the worm shall eat it.[ao] 40 There shall be olive trees for you in all of your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself, for your olives[ap] shall drop off. 41 You shall bear sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours,[aq] for they shall go into captivity. 42 The cricket shall take possession of all your trees and the fruit of your ground. 43 The alien that is in your midst shall ascend over you, higher and higher, but you shall go down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, but you shall be the tail.

45 “And all of these curses shall come over you, and they shall pursue you, and they shall overtake you until you are destroyed,[ar] because you did not listen[as] to the voice of Yahweh your God, by observing[at] his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. 46 And they shall be among you as a sign and as a wonder and among your offspring forever.[au]

47 “Because[av] of the fact that you did not serve Yahweh your God with joy and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything, 48 then you shall serve your enemies, whom Yahweh will send against you under conditions of famine, in thirst, in nakedness, and in a lack of everything; and he shall place[aw] a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.[ax] 49 Yahweh will raise up against you a nation from far off, from the end of the earth, attacking as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you will not understand,[ay] 50 a grim-faced nation[az] who does not show respect[ba] to the old and the young and does not show pity. 51 And it[bb] shall consume the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed,[bc] and who will not leave for you any grain, wine, and olive oil, calves of your herds,[bd] and lambs of[be] your flock until it has destroyed you.[bf] 52 And it shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls fall,[bg] which you are trusting in[bh] throughout your land;[bi] and it shall besiege you in all of your towns in all of your land that Yahweh your God has given to you. 53 And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom Yahweh your God gave to you, during the siege and during the distress[bj] your enemy inflicts upon you. 54 The most refined and the very sensitive[bk] man among you shall be mean with his brother[bl] and against his beloved wife[bm] and against the rest[bn] of his children that he has left over, 55 by refraining from giving[bo] to even one of them any of the meat of his children that he eats, because there is not anything that is left over for him during the siege and distress[bp] that your enemy inflicts upon you. 56 The most refined and the most delicate woman among you, who shall[bq] not venture to put the sole of her foot on the ground from being so delicate and from such gentleness, shall be mean to her beloved husband[br] and against her son and against her daughter, 57 and even concerning her afterbirth that goes out[bs] from between her feet and also concerning her children that she bears, because she eats them for lack of anything in secret during the siege and during the distress[bt] that your enemy inflicts upon her in your towns.[bu]

58 “If you do not diligently observe[bv] all the words of this law written in this scroll by revering this glorious and awesome name, Yahweh your God, 59 then Yahweh shall overwhelm you with your plagues and the plagues of your offspring, severe plagues and lasting illnesses, grievous and enduring. 60 And he shall bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt concerning which you were in dread[bw] because of them.[bx] 61 Also any illness and any plague[by] that is not written in the scroll of this law, he shall bring them, Yahweh, upon you until you are destroyed. 62 And you shall remain only a few people[bz] in place of the fact you were formerly as the stars of heaven as far as number is concerned, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. 63 And then[ca] as Yahweh delighted over you to make you prosperous[cb] to make you numerous, so Yahweh shall delight over you to exterminate you[cc] and to destroy you, and so you shall be plucked from the land that you are going there to take possession of it. 64 And Yahweh shall scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth up to the other end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods that you have not known nor[cd] your ancestors,[ce] gods of wood and stone. 65 And among these nations you shall not find rest, and there shall not be a resting place for the sole of your foot, and Yahweh shall give you there an anxious heart and a weakening of eyes[cf] and a languishing of your inner self.[cg] 66 And your life shall hang in doubt before you,[ch] and you shall be startled[ci] night and day, and you shall not be confident of your life. 67 In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it was evening!’[cj] and in the evening you shall say ‘If only it was morning!’[ck] because of the dread of your heart that you shall feel, and because of the sight of your eyes that you shall see. 68 And Yahweh shall bring you back to Egypt in ships by the route that I promised[cl] to you that ‘You shall not see it again!’[cm] And you shall sell yourself there to your enemies as slaves and as female slaves, but there will not be a buyer.”

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:15 Literally “and it will happen”
  2. Deuteronomy 28:15 Literally “to observe and to do”
  3. Deuteronomy 28:15 Literally “the day”
  4. Deuteronomy 28:16 All of these curses have a future orientation that points to Israel in the land of Canaan
  5. Deuteronomy 28:19 Literally “at/in your coming”
  6. Deuteronomy 28:19 Literally “at/in your going out”
  7. Deuteronomy 28:20 Others translate as a wish: “may Yahweh send upon you …”
  8. Deuteronomy 28:20 These words are translated variously, e.g., “starvation,” “thirst,” “rebuke/dysentery” (NEB) or “curses,” “confusion,” “frustration” (NLT)
  9. Deuteronomy 28:20 Or “confusion”
  10. Deuteronomy 28:20 Or “rebuke”
  11. Deuteronomy 28:20 Literally “in all the sending out of your hand that you do”
  12. Deuteronomy 28:20 Literally “until your to be destroyed and until your to perish quickly”
  13. Deuteronomy 28:20 Literally “from the face of the evil of your deeds”
  14. Deuteronomy 28:20 Literally “which”
  15. Deuteronomy 28:21 Literally “it to consume to”
  16. Deuteronomy 28:21 Hebrew “to there”
  17. Deuteronomy 28:22 Others translate “drought” (NLT, NEB)
  18. Deuteronomy 28:22 Literally “until your/you to perish”
  19. Deuteronomy 28:24 Literally “until your being destroyed”
  20. Deuteronomy 28:25 Literally “to the face of”
  21. Deuteronomy 28:25 Literally “to/toward”
  22. Deuteronomy 28:25 Hebrew “him”
  23. Deuteronomy 28:25 Literally “to the face of”
  24. Deuteronomy 28:25 Hebrew “him”
  25. Deuteronomy 28:26 Literally “one causing fright to them”
  26. Deuteronomy 28:27 Literally “the skin rash that not it is able it to be healed”
  27. Deuteronomy 28:29 Literally “all the days”
  28. Deuteronomy 28:29 Literally “one who delivers/rescues you”
  29. Deuteronomy 28:30 Or “ravish/violate”
  30. Deuteronomy 28:31 Literally “to the face of you”
  31. Deuteronomy 28:31 Literally “there shall not be for you one who rescues”
  32. Deuteronomy 28:32 Literally “your eyes will see/look”
  33. Deuteronomy 28:32 Literally “wearing out”
  34. Deuteronomy 28:32 Hebrew “to”
  35. Deuteronomy 28:32 Literally “but there will not be for power of your hand”
  36. Deuteronomy 28:33 Literally “all of the days”
  37. Deuteronomy 28:34 Literally “from/by the sight of your eyes”
  38. Deuteronomy 28:35 Literally “which not you are able to heal”
  39. Deuteronomy 28:36 Or “fathers”
  40. Deuteronomy 28:39 Or “cultivate”
  41. Deuteronomy 28:39 That is, the produce
  42. Deuteronomy 28:40 Hebrew “olive”
  43. Deuteronomy 28:41 Literally “for you”
  44. Deuteronomy 28:45 Literally “until you to be destroyed”
  45. Deuteronomy 28:45 Literally “not you listened”
  46. Deuteronomy 28:45 Literally “to observe”
  47. Deuteronomy 28:46 Literally “until eternity,” but not in a timeless, philosophic sense
  48. Deuteronomy 28:47 Literally “Under”
  49. Deuteronomy 28:48 Literally “give”
  50. Deuteronomy 28:48 Literally “until his destroying of you”
  51. Deuteronomy 28:49 Literally “a nation who not you will understand its language”
  52. Deuteronomy 28:50 Literally “a nation fierce/determined of face”
  53. Deuteronomy 28:50 Literally “who not lifts up faces”
  54. Deuteronomy 28:51 That is, the invading nation
  55. Deuteronomy 28:51 Literally “until your destroying”
  56. Deuteronomy 28:51 Literally “what is dropped of your herds”
  57. Deuteronomy 28:51 Literally “the offspring of small animals”
  58. Deuteronomy 28:51 Literally “until his to destroy you”
  59. Deuteronomy 28:52 Literally “until the coming down of your walls, high and fortified”
  60. Deuteronomy 28:52 Hebrew “in them,” which is redundant
  61. Deuteronomy 28:52 Literally “in all of your land”
  62. Deuteronomy 28:53 Literally “in siege and in distress”
  63. Deuteronomy 28:54 Or “kindly disposed”
  64. Deuteronomy 28:54 Literally “shall be bad/evil his eye against his brother”
  65. Deuteronomy 28:54 Literally “against the wife of his lap”
  66. Deuteronomy 28:54 Or “remainder”
  67. Deuteronomy 28:55 Literally “from giving”
  68. Deuteronomy 28:55 Literally “in the siege and distress”
  69. Deuteronomy 28:56 Or “would”
  70. Deuteronomy 28:56 Literally “shall be bad her eye against the husband of her lap”
  71. Deuteronomy 28:57 Literally “the going out”
  72. Deuteronomy 28:57 Literally “in the siege and in the distress”
  73. Deuteronomy 28:57 Literally “gates”
  74. Deuteronomy 28:58 Literally “you observe to do”
  75. Deuteronomy 28:60 Literally “you dreaded”
  76. Deuteronomy 28:60 Literally “from their presence”
  77. Deuteronomy 28:61 Or “each illness and each plague”
  78. Deuteronomy 28:62 Literally “with people of few”
  79. Deuteronomy 28:63 Literally “And it will happen”
  80. Deuteronomy 28:63 Literally “to do good with you”
  81. Deuteronomy 28:63 Or “to cause you to perish”
  82. Deuteronomy 28:64 Hebrew “and”
  83. Deuteronomy 28:64 Or “your fathers”
  84. Deuteronomy 28:65 Or “a failure of eyes”
  85. Deuteronomy 28:65 Or “soul”
  86. Deuteronomy 28:66 Literally “they shall be your life hanging for you in front”
  87. Deuteronomy 28:66 Or “in fear”
  88. Deuteronomy 28:67 Literally “Who shall give evening?”
  89. Deuteronomy 28:67 Literally “Who shall give morning?”
  90. Deuteronomy 28:68 Literally “spoke”
  91. Deuteronomy 28:68 Literally “you shall not do again further to see it/her”
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