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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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Deuteronomy 28:15-68
International Standard Version

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[a] basket and your kneading bowl.

18 “Cursed will your children[b] 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.[c] 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[d] 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.[e] 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.[f] 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[g] her. You’ll build a house, but you won’t live in it. You’ll plant a vineyard, but you won’t harvest[h] 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,[i] and you’ll be powerless to help.[j]

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[k] the Lord your God to keep his commands and statutes, which he had commanded you. 46 These curses[l] will serve as a sign and wonder for you and your descendants[m] as long as you live.”[n]

Servitude and Bondage

47 “Because you didn’t serve the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly,[o] 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,[p] in nakedness, and in lack of everything. They’ll[q] set a yoke of iron upon your neck until they[r] 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[s] stern appearance[t] neither shows regard[u] nor extends grace to anyone whether old or young. 51 Its army[v] will consume the offspring of your animals and the produce of your soil until you are exterminated. They[w] 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[x] 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[y]—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[z] and her newborn children[aa] 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[ab] to fear this glorious and awesome name of the Lord your God, 59 then he[ac] will inflict extraordinary plagues on you and your children, great and lasting plagues, and severe and lasting illnesses. 60 He will inflict[ad] on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they won’t be curable.[ae] 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[af] 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[ag] scatter you among the nations[ah] from one end of the earth to the other,[ai] 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[aj] and what you’ll see.[ak] 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.”

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:17 The Heb. lacks grain
  2. Deuteronomy 28:18 Lit. shall the fruit of your womb
  3. Deuteronomy 28:20 Lit. me
  4. Deuteronomy 28:25 Lit. be struck down
  5. Deuteronomy 28:28 Lit. and confusion of the heart
  6. Deuteronomy 28:29 Lit. in your ways
  7. Deuteronomy 28:30 Lit. violate
  8. Deuteronomy 28:30 Or enjoy
  9. Deuteronomy 28:32 Lit. all the day
  10. Deuteronomy 28:32 Lit. and there will be no power in your hand
  11. Deuteronomy 28:45 Lit. listen to the voice
  12. Deuteronomy 28:46 Heb. lacks curses
  13. Deuteronomy 28:46 Lit. seed
  14. Deuteronomy 28:46 Lit. until eternity
  15. Deuteronomy 28:47 Lit. and with gladness of heart
  16. Deuteronomy 28:48 Or in hunger and thirst
  17. Deuteronomy 28:48 Lit. he
  18. Deuteronomy 28:48 Lit. he
  19. Deuteronomy 28:50 Lit. a nation
  20. Deuteronomy 28:50 Or face
  21. Deuteronomy 28:50 Lit. who does not lift faces
  22. Deuteronomy 28:51 Heb. lacks army
  23. Deuteronomy 28:51 Lit. it
  24. Deuteronomy 28:52 Lit. it
  25. Deuteronomy 28:53 Lit. eat the fruit of your womb
  26. Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit. will begrudge that which comes out from between her feet
  27. Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit. sons whom she will bear
  28. Deuteronomy 28:58 The Heb. lacks instructing you
  29. Deuteronomy 28:59 Lit. the Lord
  30. Deuteronomy 28:60 Lit. will return
  31. Deuteronomy 28:60 Lit. they will cling to you
  32. Deuteronomy 28:62 Lit. listen to the voice of
  33. Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit. the Lord
  34. Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit. peoples
  35. Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit. end of the earth
  36. Deuteronomy 28:67 Lit. the dread of your heart that you will dread
  37. Deuteronomy 28:67 Lit. the vision of your eyes that you will see
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