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.
If you listen carefully to the voice of Yahweh your God so as to keep all his commandments that I am commanding you today, Yahweh your God will set you above all the other nations of the earth.
2 You will have all the following blessings and even more, if you do what the Lord your God says.
All these blessings will come on you and overtake you, if you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.
3 You will be blessed when you're in the town; you will be blessed when you're in the countryside.
Blessed will you be in the city, and blessed will 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 will be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.
5 You will be blessed with plenty of bread.
Blessed will be your basket and your kneading trough.
6 You will be blessed wherever you go and in everything you do.
Blessed will you be when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go 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.
Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck down before you; they will come out against you one way but will flee before you seven ways.
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.
Yahweh will command the blessing to come on you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to; he will bless you in the land that he is giving 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.
Yahweh will establish you as a people that is set apart for himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and walk in 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.
All the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of Yahweh, and they will be afraid 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.
Yahweh will make you very prosperous in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your cattle, in the fruit of your ground, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give 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.
Yahweh will open to you his storehouse of the heavens to give the rain for your land at the right time, and to bless all the work of your hand; you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.
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.
Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail; you will be only above, and you will never be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God that I am commanding you today, so as to observe and to do them,
14 Don't deviate from any of my instructions today. Don't go and worship other gods.
and if you do not turn away from any of the words that I am commanding you today, to the right hand or to the left, so as 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 if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, so as to keep all his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today, then all these curses will 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 will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the field.
17 You will be cursed by not having bread.
Cursed will be your basket and your kneading trough.
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 will be the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.
19 You will be cursed wherever you go and in everything you do.
Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go 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.
Yahweh will send on you curses, confusion, and rebukes in all that you put your hand to, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly because of your wicked actions by which you will have forsaken me.
21 The Lord will give you infectious diseases until he has wiped you out from the country you are entering town.
Yahweh will make the plague cling to you until he destroys you from off the land that you are going in to possess.
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.
Yahweh will attack you with infectious diseases, with fever, with inflammation, and with drought and blistering heat, and with scorching winds and mildew. These will pursue you until you perish.
23 The sky above you will be like bronze, and the earth beneath you will be like iron.
Your skies that are over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will 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.
Yahweh will make the rain of your land into powder and dust; from the heavens will it come down on you, until you are destroyed.
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.
Yahweh will cause you to be struck down before your enemies; you will go out one way against them but will flee before them seven ways. You will be tossed to and fro among 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.
Your dead body will be food to all the birds of the heavens and to the beasts of the earth; there will be no one to frighten 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.
Yahweh will attack you with the boils of Egypt and with ulcers, scurvy, and itch, from which you cannot be healed.
28 The Lord will send you mad and make you blind and confused,
Yahweh will attack you with madness, with blindness, and with mental confusion.
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.
You will grope about at noonday like the blind grope in the darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways; you will be always oppressed and robbed, and there will be no one to save you.
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 will become engaged to a woman, but another man will seize her and rape her. You will build a house but not live in it; you will plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit.
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 ox will be slain before your eyes, but you will not eat its meat; your donkey will be forcibly taken away from before you and will not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to aid you.
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 will be given to other peoples; your eyes will look for them the entire day, but will fail with longing for them. There will be no strength in your hand.
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.
The harvest of your land and of all your labors—a nation that you do not know will eat it up; you will always be oppressed and crushed,
34 What you see will drive you mad.
so that you will become insane by what you have to see happen.
35 The Lord will give you painful boils that can't be cured on your knees and thighs, in fact from head to toe.
Yahweh will attack you in the knees and legs with severe boils from which you cannot be cured, from the bottom of your feet to the top 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.
Yahweh will take you and the king whom you will place over yourself to a nation that you have not known, neither you nor your ancestors; there you will worship other gods of 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.
You will become a source of horror, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away.
38 You will sow a lot of seed in the field, but harvest very little because the locusts will destroy it.
You will take much seed out into the field, but will gather little seed in, for the locusts will consume 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 will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will neither drink any of the wine, nor even gather in the grapes, for worms will eat them.
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 will have olive trees within all your territory, but you will not rub any of the oil on yourself, for your olive trees will drop their 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 will have sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, for they will go into captivity.
42 Locust swarms will destroy all your trees and crops.
All your trees and the fruit of your ground—the locusts will take them over.
43 Foreigners who live with you will rise higher and higher in status above you, while you sink lower and lower.
The foreigner who is among you will rise up above you higher and higher; you yourself will come down lower and lower.
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 will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he will be the head, and you will 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.
All these curses will come on you and will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed. This will happen because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, so as to keep his commandments and his regulations that he commanded you.
46 They will be lasting evidence, visible signs of what happened to you and your descendants.
These curses will be on you as signs and wonders, and on your descendants forever.
47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with happiness and with a joyful attitude,
Because you did not worship Yahweh your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart when you were in prosperity,
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.
therefore will you serve the enemies that Yahweh will send against you; you will serve them in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in poverty. He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he destroys 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.
Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle flies to its victim, a nation whose language you do not understand;
50 They are a ruthless nation who don't respect for the old and have no mercy on the young.
a nation with a fierce face that does not respect the aged and does not show favor to 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.
They will eat the young of your cattle and the fruit of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave for you no grain, new wine, or oil, no young of your cattle or of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
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.
They will besiege you in all your city gates, until your high and fortified walls come down everywhere in your land, walls in which you had trusted. They will besiege you within all your city gates throughout all the land that Yahweh your God had given 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.
You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God gave you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will put upon 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.
The man who is tender and very delicate among you—he will be envious of his brother and his own dear wife, and of whatever children he has left.
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 he will not give to any of them the flesh of his own children that he is going to eat, because he will have nothing left for himself in the siege and in the distress which your enemy will put upon you within all your city gates.
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.
The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to put the bottom of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness—she will be envious of her own dear husband, of her son, and of 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 of her own newborn that comes out from between her legs, and of the children whom she will bear. She will eat them in private for lack of anything else, during the siege and in the distress which your enemy will put upon you within your city gates.
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 do not keep all the words of this law that are written in this book, so as to honor this glorious and fearful name, Yahweh 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 Yahweh will make your plagues terrible, and those of your descendants; they will be great plagues, of long duration, and severe diseases, of long duration.
60 He will give you all the diseases you were terrified of in Egypt, and they will stay with you.
He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt that you were afraid of; they will cling 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.
Also every sickness and plague that is not written in the book of this law, those also Yahweh will bring on you until you are destroyed.
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.
You will be left few in number, although you were like the stars of the heavens in number, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh 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.
As Yahweh once rejoiced over you in doing you good, and in multiplying you, so he will rejoice over you in making you perish and in destroying you. You will be plucked off the land that you are going into to possess.
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.
Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples from the one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; there you will worship other gods that you have not known, neither you nor your ancestors, gods of wood and stone.
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.
Among these nations will you find no ease, and there will be no rest for the bottoms of your feet; instead, Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a soul that mourns.
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.
Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will fear every night and day and will have no certainty at all in 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 will say, 'I wish it were evening!' and in the evening you will say, 'I wish it were morning!' because of the fear in your hearts and the things your eyes will have to 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.
Yahweh will bring you into Egypt again by ships, by the route about which I had said to you, 'You will not see Egypt again.' There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will purchase you.”
