Deuteronomy 28
1 And it shall come to pass, if thou wilt indeed hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and do all these commands, which I charge thee this day, that the Lord thy God shall set thee on high above all the nations of the earth;
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:
2 and all these blessings shall come upon thee, and shall find thee. If thou wilt indeed hear the voice of the Lord thy God,
And all these blessings will come on you and overtake you, if your ears are open to the voice of the Lord your God.
3 blessed [shalt] thou [be] in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
A blessing will be on you in the town, and a blessing in the field.
4 Blessed shall be the offspring of thy body, and the fruits of thy land, and the herds of thy oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep.
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.
5 Blessed shall be thy barns, and thy stores.
A blessing will be on your basket and on your bread-basin.
6 Blessed shalt thou be in thy coming in, and blessed shalt thou be in thy going out.
A blessing will be on your coming in and on your going out.
7 The Lord deliver thine enemies that withstand thee utterly broken before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and they shall flee seven ways from before thee.
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.
8 The Lord send upon thee his blessing in thy barns, and on all on which thou shalt put thine hand, in the land which the Lord thy God gives thee.
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.
9 The Lord raise thee up for himself a holy people, as he sware to thy fathers; if thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and walk in all his ways.
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.
10 And all the nations of the earth shall see thee, that the name of the Lord is called upon thee, and they shall stand in awe of thee.
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.
11 And the Lord thy God shall multiply thee for good in the offspring of thy body, and in the offspring of thy cattle, and in the fruits of thy land, on thy land which the Lord sware to thy fathers to give to thee.
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.
12 May the Lord open to thee his good treasure, the heaven, to give rain to thy land in season: may he bless all the works of thy hands: so shalt thou lend to many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over thee.
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.
13 The Lord thy God make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt then be above and thou shalt not be below, if thou wilt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, in all things that I charge thee this day to observe.
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;
14 Thou shalt not turn aside from any of the commandments, which I charge thee this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
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.
15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe all his commandments, as many as I charge thee this day, then all these curses shall come on thee, and overtake thee.
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:
16 Cursed [shalt] thou [be] in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
You will be cursed in the town and cursed in the field.
17 Cursed shall be thy barns and thy stores.
A curse will be on your basket and on your bread-basin.
18 Cursed shall be the offspring of thy body, and the fruits of thy land, the herds of thine oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep.
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.
19 Cursed shalt thou be in thy coming in, and cursed shalt thou be in thy going out.
You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
20 The Lord send upon thee want, and famine, and consumption of all things on which thou shalt put thy hand, until he shall have utterly destroyed thee, and until he shall have consumed thee quickly because of thine evil devices, because thou hast forsaken me.
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.
21 The Lord cause the pestilence to cleave to thee, until he shall have consumed thee off the land into which thou goest to inherit it.
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.
22 The Lord smite thee with distress, and fever, and cold, and inflammation, and blighting, and paleness, and they shall pursue thee until they have destroyed thee.
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.
23 And thou shalt have over thine head a sky of brass, and the earth under thee shall be iron.
And the heaven over your heads will be brass, and the earth under you hard as iron.
24 The Lord thy God make the rain of thy land dust; and dust shall come down from heaven, until it shall have destroyed thee, and until it shall have quickly consumed thee.
The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust, sending it down on you from heaven till your destruction is complete.
25 The Lord give thee up for slaughter before thine enemies: thou shalt go out against them one way, and flee from their face seven ways; and thou shalt be a dispersion in all the kingdoms of the earth.
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.
26 And your dead men shall be food to the birds of the sky, and to the beasts of the earth; and there shall be none to scare them away.
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.
27 The Lord smite thee with the botch of Egypt in the seat, and with a malignant scab, and itch, so that thou canst not be healed.
The Lord will send on you the disease of Egypt, and other sorts of skin diseases which nothing will make well.
28 The Lord smite thee with insanity, and blindness, and astonishment of mind.
He will make your minds diseased, and your eyes blind, and your hearts wasted with fear:
29 And thou shalt grope at mid-day, as a blind man would grope in the darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways; and then thou shalt be unjustly treated, and plundered continually, and there shall be no helper.
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.
30 thou shalt take a wife, and another man shall have her; thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell in it; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes of it.
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.
31 Thy calf [shall be] slain before thee, and thou shalt not eat of it; thine ass shall be violently taken away from thee, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given to thine enemies, and thou shalt have no helper.
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.
32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given to another nation, and thine eyes wasting away shall look for them: thine hand shall have no strength.
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.
33 A nation which thou knowest not shall eat the produce of thy land, and all thy labours; and thou shalt be injured and crushed always.
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:
34 And thou shalt be distracted, because of the sights of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
So that the things which your eyes have to see will send you out of your minds.
35 The Lord smite thee with an evil sore, on the knees and the legs, so that thou shalt not be able to be healed from the sole of thy foot to the crown of thy head.
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.
36 The Lord carry away thee and thy princes, whom thou shalt set over thee, to a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers know; and thou shalt there serve other gods, wood and stone.
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.
37 An thou shalt be there for a wonder, and a parable, and a tale, among all the nations, to which the Lord thy God shall carry thee away.
And you will become a wonder and a name of shame among all the nations where the Lord will take you.
38 Thou shalt carry forth much seed into the field, and thou shalt bring in little, because the locust shall devour it.
You will take much seed out into the field, and get little in; for the locust will get it.
39 Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and dress it, and shalt not drink the wine, neither shalt thou delight thyself with it, because the worm shall devour it.
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.
40 Thou shalt have olive trees in all thy borders, and thou shalt not anoint thee with oil, because thine olive shall utterly cast [its fruit].
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.
41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, and they shall not be [thine], for they shall depart into captivity.
You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be yours; for they will go away prisoners into a strange land.
42 All thy trees and the fruits of thy land shall the blight consume.
All your trees and the fruit of your land will be the locust's.
43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up very high, and thou shalt come down very low.
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.
44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
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.
45 And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and shall overtake thee, until he shall have consumed thee, and until he shall have destroyed thee; because thou didst not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commands, and his ordinances which he has commanded thee.
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:
46 And [these things] shall be signs in thee, and wonders among thy seed for ever;
These things will come on you and on your seed, to be a sign and a wonder for ever;
47 because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with gladness and a good heart, because of the abundance of all things.
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;
48 And thou shalt serve thine enemies, which the Lord will send forth against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in the want of all things; and thou shalt wear upon thy neck a yoke of iron until he shall have destroyed thee.
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.
49 The Lord shall bring upon thee a nation from the extremity of the earth, like the swift flying of an eagle, a nation whose voice thou shalt not understand;
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;
50 a nation bold in countenance, which shall not respect the person of the aged and shall not pity the young.
A hard-faced nation, who will have no respect for the old or mercy for the young:
51 And it shall eat up the young of thy cattle, and the fruits of thy land, so as not to leave to thee corn, wine, oil, the herds of thine oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep, until it shall have destroyed thee;
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.
52 and have utterly crushed thee in thy cities, until the high and strong walls be destroyed, in which thou trustest, in all thy land; and it shall afflict thee in thy cities, which he has given to thee.
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.
53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, all that he has given thee, in thy straitness and thy affliction, with which thine enemy shall afflict thee.
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.
54 He that is tender and very delicate within thee shall look with an evil eye upon his brother, and the wife in his bosom, and the children that are left, which may have been left to him;
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;
55 so as [not] to give to one of them of the flesh of his children, whom he shall eat, because of his having nothing left him in thy straitness, and in thy affliction, with which thine enemies shall afflict thee in all thy cities.
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.
56 And she that is tender and delicate among you, whose foot has not assayed to go upon the earth for delicacy and tenderness, shall look with an evil eye on her husband in her bosom, and her son and her daughter,
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;
57 and her offspring that comes out between her feet, and the child which she shall bear; for she shall eat them because of the want of all things, secretly in thy straitness, and in thy affliction, with which thine enemy shall afflict thee in thy cities.
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.
58 If thou wilt not hearken to do all the words of this law, which have been written in this book, to fear this glorious and wonderful name, the Lord thy God;
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;
59 then the Lord shall magnify thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed, great and wonderful plagues, and evil and abiding diseases.
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.
60 And he shall bring upon thee all the evil pain of Egypt, of which thou wast afraid, and they shall cleave to thee.
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.
61 And the Lord shall bring upon thee every sickness, and every plague that is not written, and every one that is written in the book of this law, until he shall have destroyed thee.
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.
62 And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of the sky in multitude; because thou didst not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God.
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.
63 And it shall come to pass that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you; and ye shall be quickly removed from the land, into which ye go to inherit it.
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.
64 And the Lord thy God shall scatter thee among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other; and thou shalt there serve other gods, wood and stone, which thou hast not known, nor thy fathers.
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.
65 Moreover among those nations he will not give thee quiet, neither by any means shall the sole of thy foot have rest; and the Lord shall give thee there another and a misgiving heart, and failing eyes, and a wasting soul.
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:
66 And thy life shall be in suspense before thine eyes; and thou shalt be afraid by day and by night, and thou shalt have no assurance of thy life.
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:
67 In the morning thou shalt say, Would it were evening! and in the evening thou shalt say, Would it were morning! for the fear of thine heart with which thou shalt fear, and for the sights of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
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.
68 And the Lord shall bring thee back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said, Thou shalt not see it again; and ye shall be sold there to your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and none shall buy you.
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.
