Deuteronomy 28
1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to take heed to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that Jehovah thy God will set thee supreme above all nations of the earth;
If you truly obey what the Lord your God tells you, and carefully follow all his commandments that I'm giving you today, then the Lord your God will place you high above all the nations of the earth.
2 and all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God.
You will have all the following blessings and even more, if you do what the Lord your God says.
3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
You will be blessed when you're in the town; you will be blessed when you're in the countryside.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the offspring of thy kine, and the increase of thy sheep.
You will be blessed with many children. You will be blessed with good harvests. You will be blessed with livestock—your cattle will have many calves, and your sheep will have many lambs.
5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-trough.
You will be blessed with plenty of bread.
6 Blessed shalt thou be in thy coming in, and blessed shalt thou be in thy going out.
You will be blessed wherever you go and in everything you do.
7 Jehovah will give up, smitten before thee, thine enemies that rise up against thee; they shall come out against thee one way, and by seven ways shall they flee before thee.
The Lord will defeat the enemies who come to attack you. They will come at you from one direction, but they will scatter seven different ways.
8 Jehovah will command blessing on thee in thy granaries, and in all the business of thy hand; and he will bless thee in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.
The Lord will bless your income and everything you do. The Lord your God will bless you in the country he is giving you.
9 Jehovah will establish thee unto himself a holy people as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou keep the commandments of Jehovah thy God, and walk in his ways.
The Lord will make you his holy people, just as he promised you, if you obey the Lord your God's commandments and follow his ways.
10 And all peoples of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of Jehovah, and they shall be afraid of thee.
Then everyone on earth will see that the Lord has chosen you to be his, and they will be afraid of you.
11 And Jehovah will give thee abundance of good, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land that Jehovah swore unto thy fathers to give thee.
The Lord will make you very prosperous. You will have many children, your livestock will produce plenty of young, and your land will grow good harvests—all this in the country the Lord promised your forefathers he would give you.
12 Jehovah will open to thee his good treasure, the heavens, to give rain unto 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.
The Lord will provide rain for your land at the right time from his heavenly storehouse to bless all your work growing crops. You will lend money to many nations but you won't need to borrow from any of them.
13 And Jehovah will make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou hearken unto the commandments of Jehovah thy God, which I command thee this day, to keep and to do them,
The Lord will put you in first place, not the last. You will only go up, never down, as long as you listen to and follow carefully the commandments of the Lord your God that I'm giving you today.
14 and if thou turn not aside from any of the words that I command thee this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
Don't deviate from any of my instructions today. Don't go and worship other gods.
15 But it shall come to pass if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to take heed 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.
But if you don't obey the Lord your God by following carefully all his commandments and regulations I'm giving you today, then you will experience all the following curses and more:
16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
You will be cursed when you're in the town; you will be cursed when you're in the countryside.
17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-trough.
You will be cursed by not having bread.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, the offspring of thy kine, and the increase of thy sheep.
You will be cursed by not having children, and by not having good harvests, and by your cattle not having calves, and your sheep not having lambs.
19 Cursed shalt thou be in thy coming in, and cursed shalt thou be in thy going out.
You will be cursed wherever you go and in everything you do.
20 Jehovah will send upon thee cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all the business of thy hand which thou doest, until thou be destroyed and until thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
The Lord will send you curses, making you confused and frustrated in everything you do, until you are brought down and die quickly because of the evil that you've done by abandoning him.
21 Jehovah will make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
The Lord will give you infectious diseases until he has wiped you out from the country you are entering town.
22 Jehovah will smite thee with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with burning ague, and with drought, and with blight, and with mildew, and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
Then Lord will hit you with sickness that makes you waste away, with a severe fever and swelling like you're burning up, while your crops are damaged by drought and blight and mildew. These will attack you until you die.
23 And thy heavens which are over thy head shall be brass, and the earth which is under thee, iron.
The sky above you will be like bronze, and the earth beneath you will be like iron.
24 Jehovah will give as the rain of thy land powder and dust; from the heavens shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed.
The Lord will change the rain of your land into dust and sand; it will fall from the sky on you until you're destroyed.
25 Jehovah will give thee up smitten before thine enemies; thou shalt go out against them one way, and by seven ways shalt thou flee before them; and thou shalt be driven hither and thither into all the kingdoms of the earth.
The Lord will have your enemies defeat you. You will attack them from one direction, but you will scatter seven different ways. Everyone on earth will be horrified at what happens to you.
26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all the fowl of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no man to scare them away.
Your dead bodies will be food for birds of prey and wild animals, and there won't be anyone to scare them away.
27 Jehovah will smite thee with the ulcers of Egypt, and with boils, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
The Lord will give you boils like he did to the Egyptians, with swellings and scabs and skin rashes that can't be cured.
28 Jehovah will smite thee with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart;
The Lord will send you mad and make you blind and confused,
29 and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways; and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled continually, and there shall be none to save.
so that even at noon you will be groping around like a blind man in the dark. You won't be successful in what you do. You'll be persecuted and robbed the whole time, and no one will come and save you.
30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her; thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not eat of it.
You will be engaged to marry a woman, but another man will sleep with her. You will build a house but you won't live in it. You will plant a vineyard but won't benefit from any harvest.
31 Thine ox shall be slaughtered before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof; thine ass shall be snatched away from before thy face, and shall not return to thee; thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to recover them.
Your ox will be slaughtered right in front of you, but you won't eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away and won't be returned to you. Your sheep will be taken by your enemies, and no one will come and save you.
32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and languish for them all the day long; and there shall be no power in thy hand [to help it].
Your sons and daughters will be taken away as slaves to other nations while you watch, and you'll wear your eyes out crying over them, but there won't be anything you can do about it.
33 The fruit of thy ground and all thy labour, shall a people that thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed continually.
A foreign nation you've never heard of will eat all the crops you worked so hard to grow. You will be continually persecuted and downtrodden.
34 And thou shalt be mad through the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
What you see will drive you mad.
35 Jehovah will smite thee in the knees and in the legs with evil ulcers, whereof thou canst not be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.
The Lord will give you painful boils that can't be cured on your knees and thighs, in fact from head to toe.
36 Jehovah will bring thee, and thy king whom thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation that neither thou nor thy fathers have known, and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.
The Lord will exile you and your chosen king you to a foreign nation that neither you nor your forefathers had ever heard of. There you will worship other gods, idols made of wood and stone.
37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples whither Jehovah shall lead thee.
You will be something that horrifies all the nations where you've been exiled by the Lord. They will laugh at you and ridicule you.
38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather little in; for the locust shall devour it.
You will sow a lot of seed in the field, but harvest very little because the locusts will destroy it.
39 Thou shalt plant and till vineyards, but shalt drink no wine, nor gather [the fruit]; for the worms shall eat it.
You will plant and vineyards and care for them, but you won't harvest the grapes or drink the wine, because they'll be eaten by maggots.
40 Olive-trees shalt thou have throughout all thy borders, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with oil; for thine olive-tree shall cast its fruit.
You will have olive trees all over the country but you won't have any olive oil to use, because the olives will drop early from the trees.
41 Sons and daughters shalt thou beget, but thou shalt not have them [to be with thee]; for they shall go into captivity.
You will have sons and daughters, but you won't have them for long, because they will be taken off into captivity as slaves.
42 All thy trees and the fruit of thy ground shall the locust possess.
Locust swarms will destroy all your trees and crops.
43 The sojourner that is in thy midst shall rise above thee higher and higher, and thou shalt sink down lower and lower.
Foreigners who live with you will rise higher and higher in status above you, while you sink lower and lower.
44 He shall lend to thee, but thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the first, and you will be the last.
45 And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, until thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee.
All these curses will come down on you. They will chase after you and attack you until you die because you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commandments and regulations he gave you.
46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.
They will be lasting evidence, visible signs of what happened to you and your descendants.
47 Because thou servedst not Jehovah thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything,
Because you did not serve the Lord your God with happiness and with a joyful attitude,
48 thou shalt serve thine enemies whom Jehovah will send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of everything; and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
you will serve your enemies that the Lord sends to attack you with hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty. He will tie an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49 Jehovah will bring a nation against thee from afar, from the end of the earth, like as the eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue thou understandest not;
The Lord will bring a nation to attack you from a long way off, from the ends of the earth. They will swoop down upon you like an eagle, this nation whose language you won't understand.
50 a nation of fierce countenance, which regardeth not the person of the old, nor is kind to the young;
They are a ruthless nation who don't respect for the old and have no mercy on the young.
51 and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy ground, until thou be destroyed; for he shall not leave thee corn, new wine, or oil, offspring of thy kine, or increase of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.
They will eat your lambs and calves and the crops you've grown until you are destroyed. They won't leave you any grain or new wine or olive oil, no calves from your herds or lambs from your flocks, so you'll die of starvation.
52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and strong walls wherein thou trustedst come down, throughout all thy land; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates in all thy land, which Jehovah thy God hath given thee.
They will besiege all the towns in your country, until the high, fortified walls that you trust in have fallen. They will besiege all your towns in your country that the Lord your God has given you.
53 And in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee, thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters whom Jehovah thy God hath given thee.
You'll end up eating your children, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God gave you, because of the siege and the suffering that your enemy will cause you.
54 The eye of the man in thy midst that is tender and very luxurious shall be evil towards his brother, and the wife of his bosom, and the residue of his children which he hath left;
The kindest and most sensitive man among you will refuse to share his food with his brother, the wife he loves, and those of his own children who are left.
55 so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children that he eateth, because he hath nothing left him in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
He will refuse to share with any of them the flesh of his children that he's forced to eat because he doesn't have anything else because of the siege and suffering your enemy has caused you in all your towns.
56 The eye of the tender and luxurious woman in thy midst who would not attempt to set the sole of her foot upon the ground from luxuriousness and from tenderness, shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and her son, and her daughter,
The kindest and most sensitive woman among you, so kind and sensitive she wouldn't ever go barefoot on the ground, will refuse to share her food, a baby and its afterbirth, with the husband she loves and her own son and daughter.
57 because of her afterbirth which hath come out between her feet, and her children whom she shall bear; for she shall secretly eat them for want of everything in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
She will even secretly eat her the babies she gives birth to and the afterbirth, since she doesn't have anything else because of the siege and suffering your enemy has caused you in all your towns,
58 If thou wilt not take heed to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, to fear this glorious and fearful name, JEHOVAH THY GOD;
If you don't carefully observe all these laws written down in this book so that you may show respect for this glorious and awesome Lord your God,
59 then Jehovah will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, great and persistent plagues and evil and persistent sicknesses;
he will bring down on you and your descendants unbelievable disasters, intense and long-lasting diseases, and terrible and incurable sicknesses.
60 and he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt which thou art afraid of, and they shall cleave unto thee.
He will give you all the diseases you were terrified of in Egypt, and they will stay with you.
61 Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, them will Jehovah bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
The Lord will also give you every sickness and disease, even those not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed.
62 And ye shall be left a small company, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou hast not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah thy God.
You who grew as numerous as the stars in the sky will end up as only a few, because you would not obey what Lord your God told you.
63 And it shall come to pass, that as Jehovah rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so Jehovah will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whereunto thou goest to possess it.
In the same way as he wanted to make you prosperous and increase in number, so now he will wipe you out and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the country you are going in to own.
64 And Jehovah will scatter thee among all peoples, from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; and thou shalt there serve other gods, whom thou hast not known, neither thou nor thy fathers, wood and stone.
The Lord will scatter you among the nations all over the earth, and there you will worship other gods, gods made of wood and stone, which you and your fathers had never heard of.
65 And among these nations shalt thou have no rest, neither shall the sole of thy foot have a resting-place, and Jehovah shall give thee there a trembling heart, languishing of the eyes, and pining of the soul.
You won't find any place to rest among those nations, no place of your own. The Lord will make you anxious, with failing eyesight and a mind full of despair.
66 And thy life shall hang in suspense before thee; and thou shalt be in terror day and night and shalt be afraid of thy life.
You will see your life hanging in the balance as you doubt. You will be afraid day and night, terrified you won't survive.
67 In the morning thou shalt say, Would that it were even! and in the evening thou shalt say, Would that it were morning! through the fright of thy heart wherewith thou shalt be in terror, and through the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
In the morning you'll say, “I wish it was evening!” and in the evening you'll say, “I wish it was morning!” because you're so frightened by the terrifying things you see.
68 And Jehovah will bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I said unto thee, Thou shalt see it again no more; and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and there shall be no man to buy [you].
The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships to a place that I said you weren't ever meant to see again. You will put yourselves on sale there to your enemies as male and female slaves, but nobody will want to buy you.
