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.
Currently Selected:
Deuteronomy 28: CEVUK
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
Deuteronomy 28
28
Blessings for Obeying
1You must completely obey the Lord your God. And you must carefully follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the Lord your God will make you greater than any other nation on earth. 2Obey the Lord your God. Then all these blessings will come and stay with you:
3You will be blessed in the city. You will be blessed in the country.
4Your children will be blessed. Your crops will be blessed. Your cattle will be blessed with calves and your sheep with lambs.
5Your basket and your kitchen will be blessed.
6You will be blessed when you come in and when you go out.
7The Lord will let you defeat the enemies that come to fight you. They will attack you from one direction. But they will run from you in seven directions.
8The Lord your God will bless you with full barns. He will bless everything you do. He will bless the land he is giving you.
9The Lord will make you his holy people, as he promised. But you must obey his commands. You must do what he wants you to do. 10Then everyone on earth will see that you are the Lord’s people. They will be afraid of you. 11The Lord will make you rich. You will have many children. Your cattle will have many calves. Your land will give good crops. It is the land that the Lord promised your ancestors he would give to you.
12The Lord will open up his storehouse. The skies will send rain on your land at the right time. And he will bless everything you do. You will lend to other nations. But you will not need to borrow from them. 13The Lord will make you like the head and not like the tail. You will be on top and not on bottom. But you must obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today. Be careful to keep them. 14Do not disobey anything I command you today. Do exactly as I command. Do not follow other gods or serve them.
Curses for Disobeying
15But you might not obey the Lord your God. You might not carefully follow all his commands and laws I am giving you today. Then all these curses will come upon you and stay:
16You will be cursed in the city. You will be cursed in the country.
17Your basket and your kitchen will be cursed.
18Your children will be cursed. Your crops will be cursed. The calves of your cattle will be cursed. And the lambs of your flocks will be cursed.
19You will be cursed when you go in and when you go out.
20The Lord will send you curses, confusion and punishment in everything you do. You will be destroyed. You will suddenly be ruined. You did wrong when you left him. 21The Lord will give you terrible diseases. He will destroy you from the land you are going to take. 22The Lord will punish you with disease, fever, swelling, heat, no rain, plant diseases and mildew. Then you will die. 23The sky above will look like bronze. And the ground below will be like iron. 24The Lord will turn the rain into dust and sand. It will fall from the skies until you are destroyed.
25The Lord will let your enemies defeat you. You will attack them from one direction. But you will run from them in seven directions. And you will become a thing of horror among all the kingdoms on earth. 26Your dead bodies will be food for all the birds and wild animals. There will be no one to scare them away. 27The Lord will punish you with boils like those the Egyptians had. You will have bad growths, sores and itches that can’t be cured. 28The Lord will give you madness, blindness and a confused mind. 29You will have to feel around in the daylight like a blind man. You will fail in everything you do. People will hurt you and steal from you every day. There will be no one to save you.
30You will be engaged to a woman. But another man will rape her. You will build a house. But you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard. But you will not get its grapes. 31Your ox will be killed before your eyes. But you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you. And it will not be brought back. Your sheep will be given to your enemies. And no one will rescue them. 32Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation. You will grow tired looking for them every day. But there is nothing you can do. 33People you don’t know will eat the crops your land and hard work have produced. You will be mistreated and abused all your life. 34The things you see will cause you to go mad. 35The Lord will give you sore boils on your knees and legs. They cannot be cured. They will go from the soles of your feet to the tops of your heads.
36The Lord will send you and your king away to a nation you do not know. There you will serve other gods made of wood and stone. 37You will become a hated thing to the nations where the Lord sends you. They will laugh at you and make fun of you.
38You will plant much seed in your field. But your harvest will be small. Locusts will eat the crop. 39You will plant vineyards and work hard in them. But you will not pick the grapes or drink the wine. The worms will eat them. 40You will have olive trees in all your land. But you will not get any olive oil. The olives will drop off the trees. 41You will have sons and daughters. But you will not be able to keep them. They will be taken captive. 42Locusts will destroy all your trees and crops.
43The foreigners who live among you will get stronger and stronger. And you will get weaker and weaker. 44Foreigners will lend money to you. But you will not be able to lend to them. They will be like the head. And you will be like the tail.
45All these curses will come upon you. They will chase you and catch you and destroy you. This will happen because you did not obey the Lord your God. You did not keep the commands and laws he gave you. 46The curses will be signs and miracles to you and your descendants forever. 47You had plenty of everything. But you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a pure heart. 48So you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. You will be hungry, thirsty, naked and poor. The Lord will put a load on you until he has destroyed you.
The Curse of an Enemy Nation
49The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away. It will be from the end of the world. The nation will swoop down like an eagle. You won’t understand their language. 50They will look mean. They will not respect old people or feel sorry for the young. 51They will eat the calves from your cattle and the harvest of your field. And you will be destroyed. They will not leave you any grain, new wine or oil. They will not leave you any calves from your herds or lambs from your flocks. You will be ruined. 52That nation will surround and attack all your cities. You trust in your high, strong walls. But they will fall down. That nation will surround all your cities everywhere in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
53Your enemy will surround you. Those people will make you starve. You will eat your own babies. You will eat the bodies of the sons and daughters the Lord gave you. 54Even the most gentle and kind man among you will become cruel. He will be cruel to his brother, his wife whom he loves and his children who are still alive. 55He will not even give them any of the flesh of his children he is eating. It will be all he has left. Your enemy will surround you. Those people will make you starve in all your cities. 56The most gentle and kind woman among you will become cruel. She is so gentle and kind she would hardly even walk on the ground. But she will be cruel to her husband whom she loves. And she will be cruel to her son and daughter. 57She will give birth to a baby. But she will plan to eat the baby and what comes after the birth itself. She will eat them while the enemy surrounds the city. Those people will make you starve in all your cities.
58Be careful to obey everything in these teachings. They are written in this book. You must respect the glorious and wonderful name of the Lord your God. 59The Lord will give terrible diseases to you and your descendants. You will have long and serious diseases. You will have long and miserable sicknesses. 60And the Lord will give you all the diseases of Egypt that you dread. And the diseases will stay with you. 61The Lord will also give you every disease and sickness not written in this Book of the Teachings. Then you will be destroyed. 62You people may have outnumbered the stars. But only a few of you will be left. You did not obey the Lord your God. 63Once the Lord was happy with you. He gave you good things. He made you grow in number. But now the Lord will be happy to ruin and destroy you. You will be removed from the land you are entering to own.
64Then the Lord will scatter you among the nations. He will scatter you from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone. They are gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known. 65You will have no rest among those nations. You will have no place that is yours. The Lord will make your mind worried, your sight weak and your soul sad. 66You will live with danger. You will be afraid night and day. You will not be sure that you will live. 67In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening.” And in the evening you will say, “I wish it were morning.” Terror will be in your heart because of the things you have seen. 68The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships. I, Moses, said you would never go back to Egypt. And there you will try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies. But no one will buy you.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.