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
1 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the LORD your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to the LORD your God’s voice. 3You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field. 4You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock. 5Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed. 6You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out. 7The LORD will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways. 8The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 9The LORD will establish you for 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. 10All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the LORD’s name, and they will be afraid of you. 11The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 12The LORD will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow. 13The LORD will make you the head, and not the tail. You will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today, to observe and to do, 14and shall not turn away from any of the words which I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the LORD your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come on you and overtake you. 16You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the field. 17Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. 18The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed. 19You will be cursed when you come in, and you will be cursed when you go out. 20The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me. 21The LORD will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land where you go in to possess it. 22The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew. They will pursue you until you perish. 23Your sky that is over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron. 24The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come down on you from the sky, until you are destroyed. 25The LORD will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth amongst all the kingdoms of the earth. 26Your dead bodies will be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with the tumours, with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed. 28The LORD will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of heart. 29You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you. 30You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit. 31Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from before your face, and will not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you. 32Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look and fail with longing for them all day long. There will be no power in your hand. 33A nation which you don’t know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always, 34so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad. 35The LORD will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. 36The LORD will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone. 37You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword amongst all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away. 38You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in, for the locust will consume it. 39You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat them. 40You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won’t anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. 41You will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. 42Locusts will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground. 43The foreigner who is amongst you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower. 44He will lend to you, and you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
45 All these curses will come on you, and will pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you didn’t listen to the LORD your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you. 46They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your offspring forever. 47Because you didn’t serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; 48therefore you will serve your enemies whom the LORD sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. 49The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies: a nation whose language you will not understand, 50a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favour to the young. 51They will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. 52They will besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you. 53You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you. 54The man who is tender amongst you, and very delicate, his eye will be evil towards his brother, towards the wife whom he loves, and towards the remnant of his children whom he has remaining, 55so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left to him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates. 56The tender and delicate woman amongst you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil towards the husband that she loves, towards her son, towards her daughter, 57towards her young one who comes out from between her feet, and towards her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your gates. 58If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD your God, 59then the LORD will make your plagues and the plagues of your offspring fearful, even great plagues, and of long duration, and severe sicknesses, and of long duration. 60He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they will cling to you. 61Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring them on you until you are destroyed. 62You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude, because you didn’t listen to the LORD your God’s voice. 63It will happen that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be plucked from the land that you are going in to possess. 64The LORD will scatter you amongst all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will serve other gods which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone. 65Amongst these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul. 66Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life. 67In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening!” and at evening you will say, “I wish it were morning!” for the fear of your heart which you will fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see. 68The LORD will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I told to you that you would never see it again. There you will offer yourselves to your enemies for male and female slaves, and nobody will buy you.
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