Deuteronomy 28
28
The LORD will bless you if you obey
Moses said to Israel:
1-2Today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the LORD your God. Always obey them, and the LORD will make Israel the most famous and important nation on earth, and he will bless you in many ways.#Dt 11.13-17.
3The LORD will make your businesses and your farms successful.
4You will have many children. You will harvest large crops, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats will produce many young.
5You will have plenty of bread#28.5 bread: The main food of the Israelites. to eat.
6The LORD will make you successful in your daily work.
7The LORD will help you defeat your enemies and make them scatter in all directions.
8The LORD your God is giving you the land, and he will make sure you are successful in everything you do. Your harvests will be so large that your storehouses will be full.
9If you follow and obey the LORD, he will make you his own special people, just as he promised. 10Then everyone on earth will know that you belong to the LORD, and they will be afraid of you.
11The LORD will give you a lot of children and make sure that your animals give birth to many young. The LORD promised your ancestors that this land would be yours, and he will make it produce large crops for you.
12The LORD will open the storehouses of the skies where he keeps the rain, and he will send rain on your land at just the right times. He will make you successful in everything you do. You will have plenty of money to lend to other nations, but you won't need to borrow any yourself.
13Obey the laws and teachings that I'm giving you today, and the LORD your God will make Israel a leader among the nations, and not a follower. Israel will be wealthy and powerful, not poor and weak. 14But you must not reject any of his laws and teachings or worship other gods.
The LORD will put curses on you if you disobey
(Leviticus 26.14-46)
Moses said:
15Israel, today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the LORD your God. And if you don't obey them all, he will put many curses on you.
16Your businesses and farms will fail.
17You won't have enough bread#28.17 bread: The main food of the Israelites. to eat.
18You'll have only a few children, your crops will be small, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats won't produce many young.
19The LORD will make you fail in everything you do.
20No matter what you try to accomplish, the LORD will confuse you, and you will feel his anger. You won't last long, and you may even meet with disaster, all because you rejected the LORD.
21-23The LORD will send terrible diseases to attack you, and you will never be well again. You will suffer with burning fever and swelling and pain until you die somewhere in the land that you captured.
The LORD will make the sky overhead seem like a bronze roof that keeps out the rain, and the ground under your feet will become as hard as iron. Your crops will be scorched by the hot east wind or ruined by mildew. 24He will send dust and sandstorms instead of rain, and you will be wiped out.
25The LORD will let you be defeated by your enemies, and you will scatter in all directions. You will be a horrible sight for the other nations to see, 26and no one will disturb the birds and wild animals while they eat your dead bodies.
27The LORD will make you suffer with diseases that will cause oozing sores or crusty itchy patches on your skin or boils like the ones that are common in Egypt. And there will be no cure for you! 28You will become insane and go blind. The LORD will make you so confused, 29that even in bright sunshine you will have to feel your way around like a blind person, who cannot tell day from night. For the rest of your life, people will beat and rob you, and no one will be able to stop them.
30A man will be engaged to a woman, but before they can get married, she will be raped by enemy soldiers. Some of you will build houses, but never get to live in them. If you plant a vineyard, you won't be around long enough to enjoy the first harvest. 31Your cattle will be killed while you watch, but you won't get to eat any of the meat. Your donkeys and sheep will be stolen from you, and no one will be around to force your enemies to give them back. 32Your sons and daughters will be dragged off to a foreign country, while you stand there helpless. And even if you watch for them until you go blind, you will never see them again.
33You will work hard on your farms, but everything you harvest will be eaten by foreigners, who will ill-treat you and abuse you for the rest of your life.
34What you see will be so horrible that you will go insane, 35and the LORD will punish you from head to toe with boils that never heal.
36The LORD will let you and your king be taken captive to a country that you and your ancestors have never even heard of, and there you will have to worship idols#28.36 have to worship idols: It was sometimes thought that only the gods of a country could be worshipped within the borders of that country. made of wood and stone. 37People of nearby countries will shudder when they see your terrible troubles, but they will still make fun of you.
38You will plant a lot of seed, but gather a small harvest, because locusts#28.38 locusts: A type of grasshopper that comes in swarms and causes great damage to plant life. will eat your crops. 39You will plant vineyards and work hard at taking care of them, but you won't gather any grapes, much less get any wine, and the vines themselves will be eaten by worms. 40Even if your olive trees grow everywhere in your country, the olives will fall off before they are ready, and there won't be enough olive oil for combing your hair.#28.40 olive oil…hair: Olive oil was used for combing the hair.
41Even your infant sons and daughters will be taken as prisoners of war.
42Locusts#28.42 Locusts: See the note at 28.38. will eat your crops and strip your trees of leaves and fruit.
43Foreigners in your towns will become wealthy and powerful, while you become poor and powerless. 44You will be so short of money that you will have to borrow from those foreigners. They will be the leaders in the community, and you will be the followers.
More curses for disobedience
Moses said:
45Israel, if you don't obey the laws and teachings that the LORD your God is giving you, he will send these curses to chase, attack, and destroy you. 46Then everyone will look at you and your descendants and realize that the LORD has placed you under a curse.
47If the LORD makes you wealthy, but you don't joyfully worship and honour him, 48he will send enemies to attack you and make you their slaves. Then you will live in poverty with nothing to eat, drink, or wear, and your owners will work you to death.
49Foreigners who speak a strange language will be sent to attack you without warning, just like an eagle swooping down. 50They won't show any mercy, and they will have no respect for old people or pity for children. 51They will take your cattle, sheep, goats, grain, wine, and olive oil, then leave you to starve.
52All over the land that the LORD your God gave you, the enemy army will surround your towns. You may feel safe inside your town walls, but the enemy will tear them down, 53while you wait in horror. Finally, you will get so hungry that you will eat the sons and daughters that the LORD gave you. 54-55Because of hunger, a man who had been gentle and kind will eat his own children and refuse to share the meal with his brother or wife or with his other children. 56-57A woman may have grown up in such luxury that she never had to put a foot on the ground. But times will be so bad that she will secretly eat both her newborn baby and the afterbirth, without sharing any with her husband or her other children.#2 K 6.28,29; Lm 4.10.
Disobedience brings destruction
Moses said to Israel:
58You must obey everything in The Book of God's Law. Because if you don't respect the LORD, 59he will punish you and your descendants with incurable diseases, 60like those you were so afraid of in Egypt. 61Remember! If the LORD decides to destroy your nation, he can use any disease or disaster, not just the ones written in The Book of God's Law.
62There are as many of you now as the stars in the sky, but if you disobey the LORD your God, only a few of you will be left. 63The LORD is happy to make you successful and to help your nation grow while you conquer the land. But if you disobey him, he will be just as happy to pull you up by your roots.
64Those of you who survive will be scattered to every nation on earth, and you will have to worship stone and wood idols#28.64 have to worship…idols: See the note at 28.36. that never helped you or your ancestors. 65You will be restless—always longing for home, but never able to return. 66You will live in constant fear of death. 67Each morning you will wake up to such terrible sights that you will say, “I wish it were night!” But at night you will be terrified and say, “I wish it were day!”
68I told you never to go back to Egypt. But now the LORD himself will load you on ships and send you back. Then you will even try to sell yourselves as slaves, but no one will be interested.
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Deuteronomy 28: CEVUK
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
Deuteronomy 28
28
Blessings on Obedience
1“Now it shall come to pass, #Ex. 15:26; Lev. 26:3–13; Deut. 7:12–26; 11:13if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God #Deut. 26:19; 1 Chr. 14:2will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2And all these blessings shall come upon you and #Deut. 28:15overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:
3#Ps. 128:1, 4“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be #Gen. 39:5in the country.
4“Blessed shall be #Gen. 22:17the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5“Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6#Ps. 121:8“Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7“The Lord #Lev. 26:7, 8will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8“The Lord will #Lev. 25:21command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you #Deut. 15:10set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
9#Ex. 19:5, 6“The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are #Num. 6:27; 2 Chr. 7:14; Is. 63:19; Dan. 9:18, 19called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be #Deut. 11:25afraid of you. 11And #Deut. 30:9the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, #Lev. 26:4; Deut. 11:14to give the rain to your land in its season, and #Deut. 14:29to bless all the work of your hand. #Deut. 15:6You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13And the Lord will make #(Is. 9:14, 15)you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. 14#Deut. 5:32; Josh. 1:7So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
Curses on Disobedience
15“But it shall come to pass, #Lev. 26:14–39; Josh. 23:15; Dan. 9:10–14; Mal. 2:2if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16“Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
17“Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18“Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
19“Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20“The Lord will send on you #Mal. 2:2cursing, #Is. 65:14confusion, and #Ps. 80:16; Is. 30:17rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. 22#Lev. 26:16The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with #Amos 4:9scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23And #Lev. 26:19your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 24The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
25#Deut. 32:30“The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26#1 Sam. 17:44; Ps. 79:2Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. 27The Lord will strike you with #Ex. 15:26the boils of Egypt, with #1 Sam. 5:6tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and #Jer. 4:9confusion of heart. 29And you shall #Job 5:14grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
30#2 Sam. 12:11; Job 31:10; Jer. 8:10“You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; #Amos 5:11; Zeph. 1:13you shall build a house, but #Deut. 20:6; Job 31:8; Jer. 12:13; Mic. 6:15you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. 31Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. 32Your sons and your daughters shall be given to #2 Chr. 29:9another people, and your eyes shall look and #Ps. 119:82fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your #Neh. 5:5hand. 33A nation whom you have not known shall eat #Lev. 26:16; Jer. 5:15, 17the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. 34So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. 35The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36“The Lord will #2 Kin. 17:4, 6; 24:12, 14; 25:7, 11; 2 Chr. 36:1–21; Jer. 39:1–9bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and #Deut. 4:28; Jer. 16:13there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37And you shall become #1 Kin. 9:7, 8; Jer. 24:9; 25:9an astonishment, a proverb, #Ps. 44:14and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.
38#Mic. 6:15; Hag. 1:6“You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for #Ex. 10:4; Joel 1:4the locust shall consume it. 39You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the #Zeph. 1:13wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. 40You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. 41You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for #Lam. 1:5they shall go into captivity. 42Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.
43“The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44He shall lend to you, but 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 pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46And they shall be upon #Num. 26:10; Is. 8:18; Ezek. 14:8you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.
47#Deut. 12:7; Neh. 9:35–37“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, #Deut. 32:15for the abundance of everything, 48therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in #Lam. 4:4–6hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He #Jer. 28:13, 14will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49#Is. 5:26–30; 7:18–20; Jer. 5:15The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, #Jer. 48:40; 49:22; Lam. 4:19; Hos. 8:1as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50a nation of fierce countenance, #2 Chr. 36:17which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. 51And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
52“They shall #2 Kin. 25:1, 2, 4besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53#Lev. 26:29; 2 Kin. 6:28, 29; Jer. 19:9; Lam. 2:20; 4:10You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. 54The sensitive and very refined man among you #Deut. 15:9will be hostile toward his brother, toward #Deut. 13:6the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, 55so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. 56The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, 57her placenta which comes out #Gen. 49:10from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.
58“If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear #Ex. 6:3this glorious and awesome name, THE Lord YOUR GOD, 59then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants #Dan. 9:12extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. 60Moreover He will bring back on you all #Deut. 7:15the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. 62You #Deut. 4:27shall be left few in number, whereas you were #Deut. 10:22; Neh. 9:23as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. 63And it shall be, that just as the Lord #Deut. 30:9; Jer. 32:41rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord #Prov. 1:26; (Is. 1:24)will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be #Jer. 12:14; 45:4plucked from off the land which you go to possess.
64“Then the Lord #Lev. 26:33; Deut. 4:27, 28; Neh. 1:8; Jer. 16:13; Amos 9:9will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and #Deut. 28:36there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. 65And #Lam. 1:3; Amos 9:4among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; #Lev. 26:36but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and #Lev. 26:16anguish of soul. 66Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. 67#Job 7:4In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and #Deut. 28:34because of the sight which your eyes see.
68“And the Lord #Jer. 43:7; Hos. 8:13will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, #Deut. 17:16‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.