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
1Now if thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to do and keep all his commandments, which I command thee this day, the Lord thy God will make thee higher than all the nations that are on the earth.
2And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee: yet so if thou hear his precepts.
3Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed in the field.
4Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the droves of thy herds, and the folds of thy sheep.
5Blessed shall be thy barns and blessed thy stores.
6Blessed shalt thou be coming in and going out.
7The Lord shall cause thy enemies, that rise up against thee, to fall down before thy face. One way shall they come out against thee, and seven ways shall they flee before thee.
8The Lord will send forth a blessing upon thy storehouses, and upon all the works of thy hands: and will bless thee in the land that thou shalt receive.
9The Lord will raise thee up to be a holy people to himself. As he swore to thee: If thou keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.
10And all the people of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord is invocated upon thee, and they shall fear thee.
11The Lord will make thee abound with all goods, with the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy cattle, with the fruit of thy land, which the Lord swore to thy fathers that he would give thee.
12The Lord will open his excellent treasure, the heaven, that it may give rain in due season: and he will bless all the works of thy hands. And thou shalt lend to many nations, and shalt not borrow of any one.
13And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail: and thou shalt be always above, and not beneath. Yet so if thou wilt hear the commandments of the Lord thy God which I command thee this day, and keep and do them.
14And turn not away from them neither to the right hand, nor to the left, nor follow strange gods, nor worship them.
15But if thou wilt not hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep and to do all his commandments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day, all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.
16Cursed shalt thou be in the city: cursed in the field.
17Cursed shall be thy barn: and cursed thy stores.
18Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground: the herds of thy oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep.
19Cursed shalt thou be coming in: and cursed going out.
20The Lord shall send upon thee famine and hunger, and a rebuke upon all the works which thou shalt do. Until he consume and destroy thee quickly, for thy most wicked inventions, by which thou hast forsaken me.
21May the Lord set the pestilence upon thee: until he consume thee out of the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.
22May the Lord afflict thee with miserable want, with the fever and with cold, with burning and with heat, and with corrupted air and with blasting: and pursue thee till thou perish.
23Be the heaven, that is over thee, of brass: and the ground thou treadest on, of iron.
24The Lord give thee dust for rain upon thy land: and let ashes come down from heaven upon thee, till thou be consumed.
25The Lord make thee to fall down before thy enemies. One way mayst thou go out against them, and flee seven ways, and be scattered throughout all the kingdoms of the earth.
26And be thy carcass meat for all the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth: and be there none to drive them away.
27The Lord strike thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and the part of thy body, by which the dung is cast out, with the scab and with the itch: so that thou canst not be healed.
28The Lord strike thee with madness and blindness and fury of mind.
29And mayst thou grope at midday as the blind is wont to grope in the dark, and not make straight thy ways. And mayst thou at all times suffer wrong, and be oppressed with violence: and mayst thou have no one to deliver thee.
30Mayst thou take a wife, and another sleep with her. Mayst thou build a house, and not dwell therein. Mayest thou plant a vineyard and not gather the vintage thereof.
31May thy ox be slain before thee, and thou not eat thereof. May thy ass be taken away in thy sight, and not restored to thee. May thy sheep be given to thy enemies: and may there be none to help thee.
32May thy sons and thy daughters be given to another people, thy eyes looking on, and languishing at the sight of them all the day: and may there be no strength in thy hand.
33May a people, which thou knowest not, eat the fruits of thy land, and all thy labours: and mayst thou always suffer oppression, and be crushed at all times.
34And be astonished at the terror of those things which thy eyes shall see.
35May the Lord strike thee with a very sore ulcer in the knees and in the legs: and be thou incurable from the sole of the foot to the top of the head.
36The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king, whom thou shalt have appointed over thee, into a nation which thou and thy fathers know not: and there thou shalt serve strange gods, wood and stone.
37And thou shalt be lost, as a proverb and a byword to all people, among whom the Lord shall bring thee in.
38Thou shalt cast much seed into the ground, and gather little: because the locusts shall consume all.
39Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and dig it, and shalt not drink the wine, nor gather any thing thereof: because it shall be wasted with worms.
40Thou shalt have olive trees in all thy borders, and shalt not be anointed with the oil: for the olives shall fall off and perish.
41Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, and shalt not enjoy them: because they shall be led into captivity.
42The blast shall consume all the trees and the fruits of thy ground.
43The stranger that liveth with thee in the land shall rise up over thee, and shall be higher: and thou shalt go down, and be lower.
44He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be as the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
45And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue and overtake thee, till thou perish: because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God, and didst not keep his commandments and ceremonies which he commanded thee.
46And they shall be as signs and wonders on thee, and on thy seed for ever.
47Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things:
48Thou shalt serve thy enemy, whom the Lord will send upon thee, in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things. And he shall put an iron yoke upon thy neck, till he consume thee.
49The Lord will bring upon thee a nation from afar, and from the uttermost ends of the earth, like an eagle that flyeth swiftly, whose tongue thou canst not understand:
50A most insolent nation, that will shew no regard to the ancients, nor have pity on the infant:
51And will devour the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruits of thy land: until thou be destroyed. And will leave thee no wheat, nor wine, nor oil, nor herds of oxen, nor flocks of sheep: until he destroy thee,
52And consume thee in all thy cities: and thy strong and high walls be brought down, wherein thou trustedst in all thy land. Thou shalt be besieged within thy gates in all thy land which the Lord thy God will give thee.
53And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in the distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee.
54The man that is nice among you, and very delicate, shall envy his own brother, and his wife, that lieth in his bosom,
55So that he will not give them of the flesh of his children, which he shall eat: Because he hath nothing else in the siege and the want, wherewith thy enemies shall distress thee within all thy gates.
56The tender and delicate woman, that could not go upon the ground, nor set down her foot for over-much niceness and tenderness, will envy her husband who lieth in her bosom, the flesh of her son, and of her daughter,
57And the filth of the afterbirths, that come forth from between her thighs, and the children that are born the same hour. For they shall eat them secretly for the want of all things, in the siege and distress, wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee within thy gates.
58If thou wilt not keep, and fulfil all the words of this law, that are written in this volume, and fear his glorious and terrible name: that is, The Lord thy God.
59The Lord shall increase thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed, plagues great and lasting, infirmities grievous and perpetual.
60And he shall bring back on thee all the afflictions of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of: and they shall stick fast to thee.
61Moreover the Lord will bring upon thee all the diseases, and plagues, that are not written in the volume of this law till he consume thee.
62And you shall remain few in number, who before were as the stars of heaven for multitude: because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God.
63And as the Lord rejoiced upon you before, doing good to you, and multiplying you: so he shall rejoice destroying and bringing you to nought, so that you shall be taken away from the land which thou shalt go in to possess.
64The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the farthest parts of the earth to the ends thereof. And there thou shalt serve strange gods, which both thou art ignorant of and thy fathers, wood and stone.
65Neither shalt thou be quiet, even in those nations, nor shall there be any rest for the sole of thy foot. For the Lord will give thee a fearful heart, and languishing eyes, and a soul consumed with pensiveness.
66And thy life shall be as it were hanging before thee. Thou shalt fear night and day: neither shalt thou trust thy life.
67In the morning thou shalt say: Who will grant me evening? And at evening: Who will grant me morning? For the fearfulness of thy heart, wherewith thou shalt be terrified, and for those things which thou shalt see with thy eyes.
68The Lord shall bring thee again with ships into Egypt, by the way whereof he said to thee that thou shouldst see it no more. There shalt thou be set to sale to thy enemies for bondmen and bondwomen: and no man shall buy you.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.