Deuteronomy 28

1 Now if you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep with care all these orders which I have given you today, then the Lord your God will put you high over all the nations of the earth:

And it shall come to pass, if thou wilt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee highest above all nations of the earth.

2 And all these blessings will come on you and overtake you, if your ears are open to the voice of the Lord your God.

And all these blessings shall come upon thee, and overtake thee; because thou wilt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.

3 A blessing will be on you in the town, and a blessing in the field.

Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

4 A blessing will be on the fruit of your body, and on the fruit of your land, on the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herd, and the young of your flock.

Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy cattle, and the young of thy flocks.

5 A blessing will be on your basket and on your bread-basin.

Blessed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-through.

6 A blessing will be on your coming in and on your going out.

Blessed shalt thou be at thy coming in, and blessed shalt thou be at thy going out.

7 By the power of the Lord, those who take arms against you will be overcome before you: they will come out against you one way, and will go in flight from you seven ways.

The Lord will cause thy enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: on one way shall they come out against thee, and on seven ways shall they flee before thee.

8 The Lord will send his blessing on your store-houses and on everything to which you put your hand: his blessing will be on you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

The Lord will command upon thee the blessing in thy storehouse, and in all the acquisitions of thy hand; and he trill bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

9 The Lord will keep you as a people holy to himself, as he has said to you in his oath, if you keep the orders of the Lord your God and go on walking in his ways.

The Lord will raise thee up unto himself as a holy people, as he hath sworn unto thee; if thou wilt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.

10 And all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the Lord is on you, and they will go in fear of you.

And all the nations of the earth shall see, that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.

11 And the Lord will make you fertile in every good thing, in the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your fields, in the land which the Lord, by his oath to your fathers, said he would give you.

And the Lord will make thee pre-eminent for good, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord swore unto thy fathers to give unto thee.

12 Opening his store-house in heaven, the Lord will send rain on your land at the right time, blessing all the work of your hands: other nations will make use of your wealth, and you will have no need of theirs.

The Lord will open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven, to give the rain of thy land in its season, and to bless all the work of thy hand; and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow.

13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; and you will ever have the highest place, if you give ear to the orders of the Lord your God which I give you today, to keep and to do them;

And the Lord will constitute thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt only be uppermost, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou wilt hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and to do;

14 Not turning away from any of the orders which I give you today, to the right hand or to the left, or going after any other gods to give them worship.

And thou wilt not go aside from all the words which I command thee this day, to the right, or to the left, to go after strange gods, to serve them.

15 But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to do all his orders and his laws which I give you today, then all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day: that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.

16 You will be cursed in the town and cursed in the field.

Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

17 A curse will be on your basket and on your bread-basin.

Cursed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-trough.

18 A curse will be on the fruit of your body, and on the fruit of your land, on the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.

Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy cattle, and the young of the flocks.

19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

Cursed shalt thou be at thy coming in, and cursed shalt thou be at thy going out.

20 The Lord will send on you cursing and trouble and punishment in everything to which you put your hand, till sudden destruction overtakes you; because of your evil ways in which you have been false to me.

The Lord will send out against thee misfortune, confusion, and failure, in all the occupation of thy hand which thou mayest engage in; until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, that thou hast forsaken me.

21 The Lord will send disease after disease on you, till you have been cut off by death from the land to which you are going.

The Lord will cause the pestilence to cleave unto thee, until it have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.

22 The Lord will send wasting disease, and burning pain, and flaming heat against you, keeping back the rain till your land is waste and dead; so will it be till your destruction is complete.

The Lord will smite thee with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with extreme burning, and with drought, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou be lost.

23 And the heaven over your heads will be brass, and the earth under you hard as iron.

And thy heavens that are over thy head shall be copper, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust, sending it down on you from heaven till your destruction is complete.

The Lord will give as the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

25 The Lord will let you be overcome by your haters: you will go out against them one way, and you will go in flight before them seven ways: you will be the cause of fear among all the kingdoms of the earth.

The Lord will cause thee to be smitten before thy enemies: on one way shalt thou go out against them, and on seven ways shalt thou flee before them; and thou shalt become a horror unto all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 Your bodies will be meat for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth; there will be no one to send them away.

And thy carcass shall become food unto all the fowls of the heavens, and unto the beasts of the earth, but with no one to scare them away.

27 The Lord will send on you the disease of Egypt, and other sorts of skin diseases which nothing will make well.

The Lord will smite thee with the inflammatory disease of Egypt, and with the hemorrhoids, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou shalt not be able to be healed.

28 He will make your minds diseased, and your eyes blind, and your hearts wasted with fear:

The Lord will sinite thee with madness, and with blindness, and with confusion of heart;

29 You will go feeling your way when the sun is high, like a blind man for whom all is dark, and nothing will go well for you: you will be crushed and made poor for ever, and you will have no saviour.

And thou shalt grope about at noonday, as the blind gropeth about in the darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways; and thou shalt be only oppressed and robbed all the days, but with no one to help.

30 You will take a wife, but another man will have the use of her: the house which your hands have made will never be your resting-place: you will make a vine-garden, and never take the fruit of it.

A wife wilt thou betroth, and another man shall lie with her; a house wilt thou build, and thou shalt not dwell therein; a vineyard wilt thou plant, and thou shalt not redeem it.

31 Your ox will be put to death before your eyes, but its flesh will not be your food: your ass will be violently taken away before your face, and will not be given back to you: your sheep will be given to your haters, and there will be no saviour for you.

Thy ox shall be slain before thy eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof; thy ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be brought back to thee; thy sheep shall be given unto thy enemies, without any one to help thee.

32 Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, and your eyes will be wasted away with looking and weeping for them all the day: and you will have no power to do anything.

Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thy eyes shall look on, and fail with longing for them all the day long; but without any power in thy hand.

33 The fruit of your land and all the work of your hands will be food for a nation which is strange to you and to your fathers; you will only be crushed down and kept under for ever:

The fruit of thy soil, and all thy exertion, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt only be oppressed and crushed all the days.

34 So that the things which your eyes have to see will send you out of your minds.

And thou shalt become mad from the sight of thy eyes which thou wilt see.

35 The Lord will send a skin disease, attacking your knees and your legs, bursting out from your feet to the top of your head, so that nothing will make you well.

The Lord will smite thee with a sore inflammation upon the knees, and upon the legs, of which thou shalt not be able to be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.

36 And you, and the king whom you have put over you, will the Lord take away to a nation strange to you and to your fathers; there you will be servants to other gods of wood and stone.

The Lord will drive thee, and thy king whom thou wilt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and thou wilt serve there strange gods, of wood and stone.

37 And you will become a wonder and a name of shame among all the nations where the Lord will take you.

And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all the nations whither the Lord will lead thee.

38 You will take much seed out into the field, and get little in; for the locust will get it.

Much seed wilt thou carry out into the field, yet but little shalt thou gather in; for the locust shall consume it.

39 You will put in vines and take care of them, but you will get no wine or grapes from them; for they will be food for worms.

Vineyards wilt thou plant and dress; but wine shalt thou not drink nor lay up; for the worms shall eat them.

40 Your land will be full of olive-trees, but there will be no oil for the comfort of your body; for your olive-tree will give no fruit.

Olive-trees wilt thou have throughout all thy borders; but with the oil shalt thou not anoint thyself; for thy olive shall cast the fruit.

41 You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be yours; for they will go away prisoners into a strange land.

Sons and daughters wilt thou beget; but they shall not remain thine: for they shall go into captivity.

42 All your trees and the fruit of your land will be the locust's.

All thy trees and the fruit of thy land shall the cricket strip bare.

43 The man from a strange land who is living among you will be lifted up higher and higher over you, while you go down lower and lower.

The stranger that is in the midst of thee shall get up above thee higher and higher; but thou shalt come down lower and lower;

44 He will let you have his wealth at interest, and will have no need of yours: he will be the head and you the tail.

He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him; he shall become the head, and thou shalt become the tail.

45 And all these curses will come after you and overtake you, till your destruction is complete; because you did not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, or keep his laws and his orders which he gave you:

And there shall come upon thee all these curses, and they shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou didst not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he hath commanded thee;

46 These things will come on you and on your seed, to be a sign and a wonder for ever;

And they shall remain on thee for a sign and for a token, and on thy seed, for ever.

47 Because you did not give honour to the Lord your God, worshipping him gladly, with joy in your hearts on account of all your wealth of good things;

For the reason that thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, while there was an abundance of all things;

48 For this cause you will become servants to those whom the Lord your God will send against you, without food and drink and clothing, and in need of all things: and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck till he has put an end to you.

Therefore shalt thou serve thy enemies whom the Lord will send out against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of every thing; and they will put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until they have destroyed thee.

49 The Lord will send a nation against you from the farthest ends of the earth, coming with the flight of an eagle; a nation whose language is strange to you;

The Lord will bring up against thee a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle rusheth down; a nation whose tongue thou wilt not understand;

50 A hard-faced nation, who will have no respect for the old or mercy for the young:

A nation of a fierce countenance, that will not have respect for the old, nor show favor to the young;

51 He will take the fruit of your cattle and of your land till death puts an end to you: he will let you have nothing of your grain or wine or oil or any of the increase of your cattle or the young of your flock, till he has made your destruction complete.

And it will eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy soil, until thou be destroyed; so that it will not leave unto thee corn, wine, or oil, the increase of thy cattle, or the young of thy flocks, until it have ruined thee.

52 Your towns will be shut in by his armies, till your high walls, in which you put your faith, have come down: his armies will be round your towns, through all your land which the Lord your God has given you.

And it will besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and strong walls come down, wherein thou trustest, throughout all thy land; and it will besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.

53 And your food will be the fruit of your body, the flesh of the sons and daughters which the Lord your God has given you; because of your bitter need and the cruel grip of your haters.

And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, whom the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thy enemy will distress thee.

54 That man among you who is soft and used to comfort will be hard and cruel to his brother, and to his dear wife, and to of those his children who are still living;

The man that is the most tender among thee, and who is very delicate, —his eye shall look enviously toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he may spare;

55 And will not give to any of them the flesh of his children which will be his food because he has no other; in the cruel grip of your haters on all your towns.

So as not to give to any of them of the flesh of his children which he may eat; because there is nothing left unto him, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thy enemy will distress thee in all thy gates.

56 The most soft and delicate of your women, who would not so much as put her foot on the earth, so delicate is she, will be hard-hearted to her husband and to her son and to her daughter;

The woman, the most tender among thee, and the most delicate, who hath never adventured to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, —her eye shall look enviously toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,

57 And to her baby newly come to birth, and to the children of her body; for having no other food, she will make a meal of them secretly, because of her bitter need and the cruel grip of your haters on all your towns.

And toward her young one that is come from between her feet, and toward her children which she hath born; for she shall eat them for want of every thing secretly, in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith thy enemy will distress thee in thy gates.

58 If you will not take care to do all the words of this law, recorded in this book, honouring that name of glory and of fear, THE LORD YOUR GOD;

If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law which are written in this book; to fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God:

59 Then the Lord your God will make your punishment, and the punishment of your seed, a thing to be wondered at; great punishments and cruel diseases stretching on through long years.

Then will the Lord render peculiar thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed, plagues great, and of long continuance, and sicknesses sore, and of long continuance.

60 He will send on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which were a cause of fear to you, and they will take you in their grip.

And he will bring back upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, of which thou wast afraid; and they shall cleave unto thee.

61 And all the diseases and the pains not recorded in the book of this law will the Lord send on you till your destruction is complete.

Also every sickness, and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

62 And you will become a very small band, though your numbers were like the stars of heaven; because you did not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God.

And ye shall be left but few in number, instead of that ye once were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou didst not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.

63 And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and increasing you, so the Lord will take pleasure in cutting you off and causing your destruction, and you will be uprooted from the land which you are about to take as your heritage.

And it shall come to pass, that, as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so will the Lord rejoice over you to bring you to nought, and to destroy you; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.

64 And the Lord will send you wandering among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other: there you will be servants to other gods, of wood and stone, gods of which you and your fathers had no knowledge.

And the Lord will scatter thee among all the nations, from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; and there wilt thou serve strange gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

65 And even among these nations there will be no peace for you, and no rest for your feet: but the Lord will give you there a shaking heart and wasting eyes and weariness of soul:

And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall not be any rest for the sole of thy foot: and the Lord will give thee there a trembling heart, and a failing of eyes, and a faintness of soul.

66 Your very life will be hanging in doubt before you, and day and night will be dark with fears, and nothing in life will be certain:

And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt be in dread day and night, and thou shalt have no confidence of thy life;

67 In the morning you will say, If only it was evening! And at evening you will say, If only morning would come! Because of the fear in your hearts and the things which your eyes will see.

In the morning thou wilt say, Who would but grant that it were only evening! and at evening thou wilt say, Who would but grant that it were only morning! from the dread of thy heart which thou wilt experience, and from the sight of thy eyes which thou wilt see.

68 And the Lord will take you back to Egypt again in ships, by the way of which I said to you, You will never see it again: there you will be offering yourselves as men-servants and women-servants to your haters for a price, and no man will take you.

And the Lord will bring thee back to Egypt in ships, by the way whereof I have spoken unto thee, Thou shalt no more see it again: and there will ye offer yourselves for sale unto your enemies for bond-men and bond-women, without any one to buy you.