Beginning

28 “If you shall diligently obey the Voice of the LORD your God and observe and do all His Commandments which I command you this day, then the LORD your God will set you on high, above all the nations of the Earth.

² “And all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall obey the Voice of the LORD your God.

³ “Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed also in the field.

⁴ “Blessed shall the fruit of your body be, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep.

⁵ “Blessed shall your basket be, and your dough.

⁶ “Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed also when you go out.

⁷ “The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise against you to fall before your face. They shall come out against you one way and shall flee before you seven ways.

⁸ “The LORD shall Command the blessing to be with you in your store houses and in all to which you set your hand and will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

⁹ “The LORD shall make you a holy people to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you shall keep the Commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.

¹⁰ “Then all people of the Earth shall see that the Name of the LORD is called upon over you. And they shall be afraid of you.

¹¹ “And the LORD shall make you plenteous in goods, in the fruit of your body and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to give you.

¹² “The LORD shall open His good treasure to you, the heavens to give rain to your land in due season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations but shall not borrow yourself.

¹³ “And the LORD shall make you the head and not the tail. And you shall only be above, and shall not be beneath, if you obey the Commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day, to keep and to do.

¹⁴ “But you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

¹⁵ “But if you will not obey the Voice of the LORD your God, to keep and to do all His Commandments and His Ordinances which I command you this day, then all these curses shall come upon you, and overtake you:

¹⁶ “Cursed shall you be in the town and cursed also in the field.

¹⁷ “Cursed shall your basket be, and your dough.

¹⁸ “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your land, the increase of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep.

¹⁹ “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed also when you go out.

²⁰ “The LORD shall send cursing, trouble, and shame upon you, in all that which you set your hand to, ‘until you are destroyed and perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your works whereby you have forsaken Me’.

²¹ “The LORD shall make the pestilence cling to you, until He has consumed you from the land to which you go to possess.

²² “The LORD shall strike you with a consumption and with the fever and with a burning inflammation, with fervent heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew. And they shall pursue you until you perish.

²³ “And your heaven that is over your head shall be brass, and the earth that is under you, iron.

²⁴ “The LORD shall make the rain of your land into dust and ashes. It shall come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed.

²⁵ “The LORD shall cause you to fall before your enemies. You shall come out one way against them and shall flee seven ways before them and shall be scattered through all the kingdoms of the Earth.

²⁶ “And your carcass shall be food for all the birds of the air and for the beasts of the Earth. And no one shall frighten them away.

²⁷ “The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with the hemorrhoids and with the scab and with the itch, which cannot be healed.

²⁸ “And the LORD shall strike you with madness and with blindness and with confusion of heart.

²⁹ “You shall also grope at noon, as the blind gropes in darkness, and shall not prosper in your ways. You shall only be oppressed with wrong and be plundered evermore. Nothing shall save you.

³⁰ “You shall betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house and shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard and shall not eat the fruit.

³¹ “Your ox shall be killed before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be violently taken away before your face and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies. And nothing shall rescue them for you.

³² “Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people. And your eyes shall keep looking for them with longing. And there shall be no power in your hand.

³³ “A people which you do not know shall eat the fruit of your land and all your labors. And you shall only suffer wrong and violence, always,

³⁴ “so that you shall go mad because of the sight which your eyes shall see.

³⁵ “The LORD shall strike you in the knees, and in the thighs, with severe boils that cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

³⁶ “The LORD shall bring you and your king (which you shall set over yourselves) to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone.

³⁷ “And you shall be a wonder, a proverb, and a sharp word among all people where the LORD shall carry you.

³⁸ “You shall carry out much seed into the field but shall gather in little. For the grasshoppers shall destroy it.

³⁹ “You shall plant a vineyard, and dress it, but shall neither drink of the wine nor gather. For the worms shall eat it.

⁴⁰ “You shall have olive trees on all your coasts but shall not anoint yourself with the oil. For your olives shall fall.

⁴¹ “You shall beget sons and daughters but shall not keep them. For they shall go into captivity.

⁴² “All your trees and fruit of your land shall the grasshopper consume.

⁴³ “The stranger who is among you shall climb above you, up on high. And you shall come down low, beneath.

⁴⁴ “He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head and you shall be the tail.

⁴⁵ “Moreover, all these curses shall come upon you, and shall pursue you and overtake you, till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His Commandments, and His Ordinances, which He commanded you.

⁴⁶ “And they shall be upon you for signs and wonders, and upon your seed, forever,

⁴⁷ “because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and with a good heart, for the abundance of all things.

⁴⁸ “Therefore, you shall serve your enemies which the LORD shall send upon you, in hunger and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in need of all things. And he shall put a yoke of iron upon your neck until he has destroyed you.

⁴⁹ “The LORD shall bring a nation upon you from far — from the end of the world, flying as an eagle—a nation whose tongue you shall not understand,

⁵⁰ “a nation of a fierce countenance, which will not respect the old or be gracious to the young.

⁵¹ “The same shall eat the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your land, until you are destroyed. And he shall leave you neither wheat, nor wine, nor oil, nor the increase of your cattle, nor the flocks of your sheep, until he has brought you to nothing.

⁵² “And he shall besiege you in all your cities, until your high and strong walls in which you trusted in all the land fall down. And he shall besiege you in all your cities throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you.

⁵³ “And you shall eat the fruit of your body — the flesh of your sons and your daughters which the LORD your God has given you — during the siege and dire straits in which your enemies shall enclose you.

⁵⁴ “The exceedingly dainty and soft man among you shall be injurious to his brother, and to his wife in his bosom, and to the remnant of his children who still remain

⁵⁵ “when he gives any of them the flesh of his children, whom he shall eat because he has nothing left from that siege and dire straits with which your enemy shall besiege you in all your cities.

⁵⁶ “The tender and dainty woman among you, who never would venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground (because of her weakness and tenderness) shall be injurious to her husband in her bosom, and to her son, and to her daughter,

⁵⁷ “and to her afterbirth that shall come out from between her legs, and to her children which she shall bear. For when all things lack, she shall eat them secretly, during the siege and dire straits with which your enemy shall besiege you in your cities.

⁵⁸ “If you will not keep and do all the words of the Law that are written in this Book, and fear this glorious and fearful Name: THE LORD YOUR GOD,

⁵⁹ “Then the LORD will make your plagues extraordinary. And the plagues of your seed will be great prolonged plagues and terrible diseases of long duration.

⁶⁰ “Moreover, He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid. And they shall cling to you.

⁶¹ “And every sickness and every plague which is not written in the Book of this Law will the LORD heap upon you, until you are destroyed.

⁶² “And you shall be left few in number, where you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the Voice of the LORD your God.

⁶³ “And as the LORD has rejoiced over you, to do you good, and to multiply you, so He will rejoice over you, to destroy you, and bring you to nothing. And you shall be rooted out of the land to which you go to possess.

⁶⁴ “And the LORD shall scatter you among all people, from the one end of the world to the other. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

⁶⁵ “Also, you shall find no rest among these nations. Nor shall the sole of your foot have rest. For the LORD shall give you a trembling heart there, and failing eyes, and a sorrowful mind.

⁶⁶ “And your life shall hang in doubt before you. And you shall fear both night and day and shall have no assurance of your life.

⁶⁷ “In the morning, you shall say, ‘If only it were evening’, and at evening you shall say, ‘I wish it were morning’, because of the fear of your heart which you shall fear, and because of the sight of your eyes which you shall see.

⁶⁸ “And the LORD shall bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, ‘You shall see it no more again.’ And there you shall sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, with no buyers.”

29 These are the words of the Covenant which the LORD Commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the Covenant which He had made with them in Horeb.

² And Moses called all Israel, and said to them, “You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all the Earth in the land of Egypt,

³ “the great temptations which your eyes have seen, those great miracles and wonders.

⁴ “Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day.

⁵ ‘And I have led you for forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not grown old upon you, nor has your shoe grown old upon your foot.

⁶ ‘You have neither eaten bread nor drunk wine or strong drink, so that you might know that I am the LORD your God.’

⁷ “Afterward, you came to this place. And Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, came out against us to battle. And we killed them

⁸ “and took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites and to the Gadites and to the half-tribe of Manasseh.

⁹ “Therefore, keep the words of this Covenant and do them, so that you may prosper in all that you shall do.

¹⁰ “Every one of you stands before the LORD your God this day—the heads of your tribes, your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel,

¹¹ “your children, your wives and the stranger who is in your camp (from the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water) —

¹² “so that you could enter into the Covenant of the LORD your God and into His oath (which the LORD your God makes with you this day)

¹³ “to establish you this day as a people to Himself, and so that He may be to you a God, as He has said to you and as He has sworn to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

¹⁴ “Nor do I make this Covenant and this Oath with you only,

¹⁵ “but also with him who stands here with us this day before the LORD our God, as with him who is not here with us this day.

¹⁶ “For you know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt and how we passed through the midst of the nations by which you have passed.

¹⁷ “And you have seen their abominations and their idols (wood and stone, silver and gold) which were among them,

¹⁸ “so that there should not be among you man or woman or family or tribe which should turn his heart away from the LORD our God this day — to go and serve the gods of these nations — so that there should not be a root among you who brings forth bitterness and wormwood;

¹⁹ “so that when he hears the words of this curse, he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, although I walk according to the stubbornness of my own heart’, thus adding drunkenness to thirst.

²⁰ “The LORD will not be merciful to him. But then the wrath of the LORD and His jealousy shall smolder against that man. And every curse that is written in this Book shall land upon him. And the LORD shall put out his name from under Heaven.

²¹ “And the LORD shall separate him for affliction, out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the Covenant that are written in the Book of this Law.

²² “The generation to come — your children who shall rise up after you and the stranger who shall come from a far off land — shall say, when they shall see the plagues of this land and the diseases with which the LORD shall strike it

²³ “(All that land shall burn with brimstone and salt. It shall not be sown or bring forth fruit. Nor shall any grass grow in it, like as in the overthrowing of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His wrath and in His anger),

²⁴ “then shall all nations say, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this land? How fierce is this great wrath?’

²⁵ “And they shall answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which He had made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.

²⁶ ‘And they went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods which they did not know, and which had given them nothing.

²⁷ ‘Therefore the wrath of the LORD grew hot against this land, to bring upon it every curse that is written in this Book.

²⁸ ‘And the LORD has rooted them out of their land in anger and in wrath and in great indignation, and has cast them into another land, as they are this day.’

²⁹ “The secret things belong to the LORD our God. But the revealed things belong to us and to our children, forever, so that we may do all the words of this Law.”