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 for Obedience
1“Now # Lv 26:3-13 if you faithfully obey the Lord your God # Ex 15:26; 19:5; 23:22; Dt 11:13; 15:5; Jr 17:24; Zch 6:15 and are careful to follow all His commands I am giving you today, # Dt 13:18; 30:8 the Lord your God will put you far above all the nations of the earth. # Gn 18:18; 22:18; Jr 33:9; Zch 12:3 2All these blessings will come and overtake # Dt 28:15,45; Is 35:10; 51:11; Zch 1:6 you, because you obey the Lord your God:
3You will be blessed in the city
and blessed in the country. # Dt 28:16
4Your descendants # Lit The fruit of your womb will be blessed,
and your land’s produce,
and the offspring of your livestock,
including the young of your herds
and the newborn of your flocks. # Dt 7:13
5Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.
6You will be blessed when you come in
and blessed when you go out. # Dt 28:19; 2Kg 19:27; Is 37:28
7“The Lord will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you from one direction but flee from you in seven directions. 8The Lord will grant you a blessing on your storehouses and on everything you do; # Lit you put your hand to # Pr 3:10 He will bless you in the land the Lord your God is giving you. # Dt 15:4; 30:16 9The Lord will establish you as His holy people, # Ex 22:31; Dt 7:6; 14:2,21; 26:19; Is 62:12; 63:18 as He swore to you, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by Yahweh’s name, # 1Kg 8:60; 2Ch 6:33; Zph 3:20 and they will stand in awe of you. # Dt 2:4; Mc 7:17 11The Lord will make you prosper abundantly with children, # Lit abundantly in the fruit of your womb the offspring of your livestock, and your land’s produce in the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12The Lord will open for you His abundant storehouse, # Ps 135:7; Jr 10:13; 51:16 the sky, to give your land rain in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. # Dt 2:7; 14:29; 16:15; 24:19; 30:9 You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. 13The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; # Dt 28:44 you will only move upward and never downward if you listen to the Lord your God’s commands I am giving you today and are careful to follow them. 14Do not turn aside to the right or the left from all the things I am commanding you today, # 1Sm 6:12; 12:21; 1Kg 15:5; 2Kg 22:2; 2Ch 34:2 and do not go after other gods to worship them.
Curses for Disobedience
15“But if you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all His commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake # Hs 10:9; Zch 1:6; Ps 7:5; 40:12; 69:24; Jb 27:20 you: # Lv 26:14-46
16You will be cursed in the city
and cursed in the country.
17Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed.
18Your descendants # Lit The fruit of your womb will be cursed,
and your land’s produce,
the young of your herds,
and the newborn of your flocks.
19You will be cursed when you come in
and cursed when you go out.
20The Lord will send against you curses, confusion, # Ezk 7:7 and rebuke in everything you do # Lit you put your hand to until you are destroyed and quickly perish, # Dt 7:23,24; 28:45,48,51,61; Jos 23:15 because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning Me. # Jr 4:4; 21:12; 26:3; 44:22 21The Lord will make pestilence cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land you are entering to possess. # 1Sm 15:18; Jr 9:16; 49:37 22The Lord will afflict you with wasting disease, fever, inflammation, burning heat, drought, # Or sword blight, and mildew; # Am 4:9 these will pursue you until you perish. 23The sky above you will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. 24The Lord will turn the rain of your land into falling # Lit powder and dust; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed. 25The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions. # Dt 28:7 You will be an object of horror # Jr 15:4; 24:9; 29:18; 34:17; 2Ch 29:8 to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away. # Ps 79:2; Is 5:25; 34:3; Jr 7:33; 16:4; 19:7; 34:20; Ezk 6:5; Nah 3:3
27“The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, # Ex 9:9-11 tumors, a festering rash, and scabies, from which you cannot be cured. 28The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and mental confusion, # 2Kg 9:20; Zch 12:4 29so that at noon you will grope as a blind man gropes in the dark. # Jb 5:14; Ps 91:6; Is 59:9-10; Am 8:9; Mt 27:45 You will not be successful in anything you do. You will only be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will help you. # Dt 22:27; 1Sm 11:3; 2Sm 22:42; Ps 18:41; Is 47:15 30You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it. # Ac 1:20 You will plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit. 31Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will help you. 32Your sons and daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes grow weary looking for them every day. But you will be powerless to do anything. # Lit day, and not for power your hand # Neh 5:5 33A people you don’t know will eat your land’s produce and everything you have labored for. You will only be oppressed and crushed continually. # Jdg 10:8; Jb 20:19; Hs 5:11; Am 4:1 34You will be driven mad by what you see. 35The Lord will afflict you with painful and incurable boils on your knees and thighs — from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. # Jb 2:7; Is 1:6
36“The Lord will bring you and your king that you have appointed to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone. # Dt 4:28; 28:64; Dn 5:23 37You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you. # Dt 4:27; 1Kg 9:7; 2Ch 7:20; Jr 24:9
38“You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because locusts will devour it. 39You will plant and cultivate vineyards but not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. 40You will have olive trees throughout your territory but not anoint yourself with oil, because your olives will drop off. 41You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will be taken prisoner. 42Whirring insects will take possession of all your trees and your land’s produce. 43The foreign resident among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower. 44He will lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
45“All these curses will come, pursue, and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commands and statutes He gave you. 46These curses will be a sign and a wonder # Ex 7:3; Dt 4:34; 6:22; 7:19; 26:8; Is 8:18; Jr 32:20 against you and your descendants forever. 47Because you didn’t serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, # Pr 15:15; Ec 9:7 even though you had an abundance of everything, 48you will serve your enemies the Lord will send against you, in famine, thirst, nakedness, and a lack of everything. He will place an iron yoke # Jr 28:13-14 on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, # Is 5:26 to swoop down on you like an eagle, # Jr 48:40; 49:22 a nation whose language you don’t understand, # Jr 5:15 50a ruthless nation, # Lit a nation strong of face showing no respect for the old and not sparing the young. 51They will eat the offspring of your livestock and your land’s produce until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, oil, young of your herds, or newborn of your flocks until they cause you to perish. 52They will besiege you within all your gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your gates throughout the land the Lord your God has given you.
53“You will eat your children, # Lit eat the fruit of your womb the flesh of your sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you # Lv 26:29; 2Kg 6:25-29; Jr 19:9; Lm 2:20; 4:10; Ezk 5:10 during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you. 54The most sensitive and refined man among you will look grudgingly # Lit you his eye will be evil at his brother, the wife he embraces, # Lit wife of his bosom and the rest of his children, 55refusing to share with any of them his children’s flesh that he will eat because he has nothing left during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you in all your towns. 56The most sensitive and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her refinement and sensitivity, will begrudge the husband she embraces, her son, and her daughter, 57the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you within your gates.
58“If you are not careful to obey all the words of this law, which are written in this scroll, by fearing this glorious and awesome name — Yahweh, your God — 59He will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses. 60He will afflict you again with all the diseases of Egypt, # Dt 7:15 which you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61The Lord will also afflict you with every sickness and plague not recorded in the book of this law, until you are destroyed. 62Though you were as numerous as the stars of the sky, you will be left with only a few people, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63Just as the Lord was glad to cause you to prosper and to multiply you, so He will also be glad to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be deported from the land you are entering to possess. 64Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, # Lv 26:33; Dt 4:27; Neh 1:8; Ezk 22:15 and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone, # Dt 4:28; 28:36; 2Kg 19:18; Ezk 20:32; Dn 5:4,23 which neither you nor your fathers have known. # Dt 8:16; 13:6; 28:36 65You will find no peace among those nations, and there will be no resting place # Gn 8:9; Dt 12:9 for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despondent spirit. 66Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be in dread night and day, never certain of survival. 67In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening! ’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning! ’ — because of the dread you will have in your heart and because of what you will see. 68The Lord will take you back in ships to Egypt by a route that I said you would never see again. # Dt 17:16 There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
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