Deuteronomy 28
1 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.
And it shall come to pass, if you will indeed hear the voice of the Lord your God, to observe and do all these commands, which I charge you this day, that the Lord your God shall set you on high above all the nations of the earth;
2 You will have all the following blessings and even more, if you do what the Lord your God says.
and all these blessings shall come upon you, and shall find you. If you will indeed hear the voice of the Lord your God,
3 You will be blessed when you're in the town; you will be blessed when you're in the countryside.
blessed [shall] you [be] in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
4 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.
Blessed shall be the offspring of your body, and the fruits of your land, and the herds of your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep.
5 You will be blessed with plenty of bread.
Blessed shall be your barns, and your stores.
6 You will be blessed wherever you go and in everything you do.
Blessed shall you be in your coming in, and blessed shall you be in your going out.
7 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.
The Lord deliver your enemies that withstand you utterly broken before your face: they shall come out against you one way, and they shall flee seven ways from before you.
8 The Lord will bless your income and everything you do. The Lord your God will bless you in the country he is giving you.
The Lord send upon you his blessing in your barns, and on all on which you shall put your hand, in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
9 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.
The Lord raise you up for himself a holy people, as he sware to your fathers; if you will hear the voice of the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways.
10 Then everyone on earth will see that the Lord has chosen you to be his, and they will be afraid of you.
And all the nations of the earth shall see you, that the name of the Lord is called upon you, and they shall stand in awe of you.
11 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.
And the Lord your God shall multiply you for good in the offspring of your body, and in the offspring of your cattle, and in the fruits of your land, on your land which the Lord sware to your fathers to give to you.
12 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.
May the Lord open to you his good treasure, the heaven, to give rain to your land in season: may he bless all the works of your hands: so shall you lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.
13 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.
The Lord your God make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall then be above and you shall not be below, if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, in all things that I charge you this day to observe.
14 Don't deviate from any of my instructions today. Don't go and worship other gods.
You shall not turn aside from any of the commandments, which I charge you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 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:
But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe all his commandments, as many as I charge you this day, then all these curses shall come on you, and overtake you.
16 You will be cursed when you're in the town; you will be cursed when you're in the countryside.
Cursed [shall] you [be] in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
17 You will be cursed by not having bread.
Cursed shall be your barns and your stores.
18 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.
Cursed shall be the offspring of your body, and the fruits of your land, the herds of your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep.
19 You will be cursed wherever you go and in everything you do.
Cursed shall you be in your coming in, and cursed shall you be in your going out.
20 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.
The Lord send upon you lack, and famine, and consumption of all things on which you shall put your hand, until he shall have utterly destroyed you, and until he shall have consumed you quickly because of your evil devices, because you have forsaken me.
21 The Lord will give you infectious diseases until he has wiped you out from the country you are entering town.
The Lord cause the pestilence to cleave to you, until he shall have consumed you off the land into which you go to inherit it.
22 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.
The Lord strike you with distress, and fever, and cold, and inflammation, and blighting, and paleness, and they shall pursue you until they have destroyed you.
23 The sky above you will be like bronze, and the earth beneath you will be like iron.
And you shall have over your head a sky of brass, and the earth under you shall be iron.
24 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.
The Lord your God make the rain of your land dust; and dust shall come down from heaven, until it shall have destroyed you, and until it shall have quickly consumed you.
25 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.
The Lord give you up for slaughter before your enemies: you shall go out against them one way, and flee from their face seven ways; and you shall be a dispersion in all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 Your dead bodies will be food for birds of prey and wild animals, and there won't be anyone to scare them away.
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.
27 The Lord will give you boils like he did to the Egyptians, with swellings and scabs and skin rashes that can't be cured.
The Lord strike you with the botch of Egypt in the seat, and with a malignant scab, and itch, so that you can not be healed.
28 The Lord will send you mad and make you blind and confused,
The Lord strike you with insanity, and blindness, and astonishment of mind.
29 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.
And you shall grope at mid-day, as a blind man would grope in the darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways; and then you shall be unjustly treated, and plundered continually, and there shall be no helper.
30 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.
you shall take a wife, and another man shall have her; you shall build a house, and you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, and shall not gather the grapes of it.
31 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.
Your calf [shall be] slain before you, and you shall not eat of it; your ass shall be violently taken away from you, and shall not be restored to you: your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no helper.
32 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.
Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another nation, and your eyes wasting away shall look for them: your hand shall have no strength.
33 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.
A nation which you know not shall eat the produce of your land, and all your labours; and you shall be injured and crushed always.
34 What you see will drive you mad.
And you shall be distracted, because of the sights of your eyes which you shall see.
35 The Lord will give you painful boils that can't be cured on your knees and thighs, in fact from head to toe.
The Lord strike you with an evil sore, on the knees and the legs, so that you shall not be able to be healed from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
36 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.
The Lord carry away you and your princes, whom you shall set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers know; and you shall there serve other gods, wood and stone.
37 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.
An you shall be there for a wonder, and a parable, and a tale, amongst all the nations, to which the Lord your God shall carry you away.
38 You will sow a lot of seed in the field, but harvest very little because the locusts will destroy it.
You shall carry forth much seed into the field, and you shall bring in little, because the locust shall devour it.
39 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.
You shall plant a vineyard, and dress it, and shall not drink the wine, neither shall you delight yourself with it, because the worm shall devour it.
40 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.
You shall have olive trees in all your borders, and you shall not anoint you with oil, because your olive shall utterly cast [its fruit].
41 You will have sons and daughters, but you won't have them for long, because they will be taken off into captivity as slaves.
You shall beget sons and daughters, and they shall not be [your], for they shall depart into captivity.
42 Locust swarms will destroy all your trees and crops.
All your trees and the fruits of your land shall the blight consume.
43 Foreigners who live with you will rise higher and higher in status above you, while you sink lower and lower.
The stranger that is within you shall get up very high, and you shall come down very low.
44 They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the first, and you will be the last.
He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him: he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45 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.
And all these curses shall come upon you, and shall pursue you, and shall overtake you, until he shall have consumed you, and until he shall have destroyed you; because you did not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commands, and his ordinances which he has commanded you.
46 They will be lasting evidence, visible signs of what happened to you and your descendants.
And [these things] shall be signs in you, and wonders amongst your seed for ever;
47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with happiness and with a joyful attitude,
because you did not serve the Lord your God with gladness and a good heart, because of the abundance of all things.
48 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.
And you shall serve your enemies, which the Lord will send forth against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and you shall wear upon your neck a yoke of iron until he shall have destroyed you.
49 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.
The Lord shall bring upon you a nation from the extremity of the earth, like the swift flying of an eagle, a nation whose voice you shall not understand;
50 They are a ruthless nation who don't respect for the old and have no mercy on the young.
a nation bold in countenance, which shall not respect the person of the aged and shall not pity the young.
51 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.
And it shall eat up the young of your cattle, and the fruits of your land, so as not to leave to you corn, wine, oil, the herds of your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep, until it shall have destroyed you;
52 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.
and have utterly crushed you in your cities, until the high and strong walls be destroyed, in which you trust, in all your land; and it shall afflict you in your cities, which he has given to you.
53 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.
And you shall eat the fruit of your body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, all that he has given you, in your straitness and your affliction, with which your enemy shall afflict you.
54 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.
He that is tender and very delicate within you 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;
55 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.
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 your straitness, and in your affliction, with which your enemies shall afflict you in all your cities.
56 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.
And she that is tender and delicate amongst 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,
57 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,
and her offspring that comes out between her feet, and the child which she shall bear; for she shall eat them because of the lack of all things, secretly in your straitness, and in your affliction, with which your enemy shall afflict you in your cities.
58 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,
If you will not listen to do all the words of this law, which have been written in this book, to fear this glorious and wonderful name, the Lord your God;
59 he will bring down on you and your descendants unbelievable disasters, intense and long-lasting diseases, and terrible and incurable sicknesses.
then the Lord shall magnify your plagues, and the plagues of your seed, great and wonderful plagues, and evil and dwelling diseases.
60 He will give you all the diseases you were terrified of in Egypt, and they will stay with you.
And he shall bring upon you all the evil pain of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cleave to you.
61 The Lord will also give you every sickness and disease, even those not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed.
And the Lord shall bring upon you 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 you.
62 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.
And you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the sky in multitude; because you did not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.
63 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.
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 you shall be quickly removed from the land, into which you go to inherit it.
64 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.
And the Lord your God shall scatter you amongst all nations, from one end of the earth to the other; and you shall there serve other gods, wood and stone, which you have not known, nor your fathers.
65 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.
Moreover amongst those nations he will not give you quiet, neither by any means shall the sole of your foot have rest; and the Lord shall give you there another and a misgiving heart, and failing eyes, and a wasting soul.
66 You will see your life hanging in the balance as you doubt. You will be afraid day and night, terrified you won't survive.
And your life shall be in suspense before your eyes; and you shall be afraid by day and by night, and you shall have no assurance of your life.
67 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.
In the morning you shall say, Would it were evening! and in the evening you shall say, Would it were morning! for the fear of your heart with which you shall fear, and for the sights of your eyes which you shall see.
68 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.
And the Lord shall bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said, You shall not see it again; and you shall be sold there to your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and none shall buy you.
