Deuteronomy 28
1 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you this day, that the LORD your God will set you on high above all the nations of the earth:
“If you do what Yahweh our God tells you to do and faithfully obey everything that I am today commanding you to do, he will cause you to become greater than any other nation on the earth.
2 and all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall listen to the voice of the LORD your God.
If you obey Yahweh, this is what he will do to bless you:
3 You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field.
He will bless everything that you do when you are in the cities and he will bless everything that you do when you are [working] in the fields.
4 You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock.
He will bless you by giving you many children [IDM] and by giving you abundant crops, and plenty of cattle and sheep.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed.
He will bless you by causing you to have good harvests with plenty of grain [MTY] to make bread.
6 You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out.
He will bless you [everywhere]—when you go out [of your houses] and when you come into [your houses].
7 The LORD will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways.
Yahweh will enable you to defeat [the armies of] your enemies; they will attack you from one direction, but they will run away from you in seven/many directions.
8 The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses, and in all that you put your hand to; and he will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
Yahweh will bless you [by filling] your barns [with grain], and he will bless all the work that you do; he will bless you in the land that he is giving to you.
9 The LORD will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you; if you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and walk in his ways.
“If you obey all the commandments that Yahweh our God [has given to you] and if you conduct your lives as he wants you to do, you will continue to be his people, which is what he promised.
10 All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of you.
“When all the people-groups on the earth will realize that you belong to [MTY] Yahweh, and they will be afraid of you.
11 The LORD will make you plenteous for good, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
“And Yahweh will cause you to prosper very much. He will give you many children [IDM], many cattle, and abundant crops in the land that he vowed to our ancestors that he would give to you.
12 The LORD will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand: and you shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow.
“When rain is needed, Yahweh will send it from where he stores it in the sky, and he will bless all your work, with the result that you [will be able to] lend money to many other nations, but you will not need to borrow [money from them].
13 The LORD will make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath; if you shall listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day, to observe and to do,
If you faithfully obey all of the commands of Yahweh our God that I am giving you today, Yahweh will cause your nation to be a leader among the nations, not inferior to them; you will always be prosperous and never be needy/poor [IDM].
14 and shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
[Yahweh will do all these things for you] if you do not turn away from [obeying] what I am commanding you today, and if you never worship or serve other gods.
15 But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come on you, and overtake you.
But if you do not do what Yahweh our God is telling you to do, and if you do not faithfully obey all his rules and regulations that I am giving to you today, this is what he will do to curse you:
16 You shall be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field.
He will curse you when you are in the cities and he will curse you when you are [working] in the fields.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough shall be cursed.
He will curse you by not allowing you to have good harvests with plenty of grain [MTY] to make bread.
18 The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock shall be cursed.
He will curse you by giving you only a few children [IDM], by causing you to have poor crops, and by not enabling you to have many cattle and sheep.
19 You shall be cursed when you come in, and you shall be cursed when you go out.
He will curse you [everywhere]—when you go out [of your houses] and when you come into [your houses].
20 The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me.
If you do evil things and reject Yahweh, he will curse you by causing you to (be confused/not know what to do), and to be frustrated in everything that you do, until [your enemies] quickly and completely destroy you {you will be quickly and completely destroyed}.
21 The LORD will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it.
Yahweh will cause you to experience terrible diseases, until not one of you remains alive in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.
22 The LORD will strike you with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish.
Yahweh will strike/afflict you with diseases that shrivel your bodies, with fever, with inflammation/swelling. It will be extremely hot, and it will not rain. There will be scorching winds, and [Yahweh will cause] your crops to rot. All these things will strike you until you die.
23 Your sky that is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth that is under you shall be iron.
There will be no rain [MET], [with the result that] the ground will be [as hard as] iron [MET].
24 The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust: from the sky shall it come down on you, until you are destroyed.
Instead of sending rain, Yahweh will send strong winds to blow sand and dust over your land, until your land is ruined.
25 The LORD will cause you to be struck before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them, and shall flee seven ways before them: and you shall be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.
Yahweh will enable your enemies to defeat you; your soldiers will attack your enemies from one direction, but they will run away from your enemies in seven/many directions, and when the people of other nations see what is happening to you, they will say that it is horrible.
26 Your dead body shall be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there shall be none to frighten them away.
[You will die], and birds and wild animals will come and eat your corpses, and there will not be anyone to scare/shoo them away.
27 The LORD will strike you with the boil of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed.
Yahweh will cause you to have boils on your skin, like he caused the people of Egypt to have [many years ago]. He will cause you to have tumors, open sores, and your skin will itch, and there will be nothing that will cure those diseases.
28 The LORD will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart;
Yahweh will cause [some of] you to become insane; he will cause some of you to become blind, and he will cause [some of] your minds to become confused.
29 and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you.
[Because you will not be able to see where you are going], at midday you will (grope/feel your way) around with your hands, like people do in the darkness. You will continually be oppressed and robbed, and no one will help you.
30 You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: you shall build a house, and you shall not dwell in it: you shall plant a vineyard, and shall not use its fruit.
Some of you men will be engaged/promised to marry a young woman, but someone else will rape her. You will build houses, but you will never live in them. You will plant grapevines, but you will not eat the grapes; [someone else will eat them].
31 Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it: your donkey shall be violently taken away from before your face, and shall not be restored to you: your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have none to save you.
Your enemies will butcher your cattle while you watch them, and you will not get any of the meat to eat. They will drag away your donkeys while you watch them do it, and they will not give them back to you. They will take away your sheep; and no one will help you [rescue them].
32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people; and your eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day: and there shall be nothing in the power of your hand.
While you watch, your sons and daughters will be given to foreigners to become their slaves. Every day you will very sadly watch for your children to return, but (you will watch in vain/they will never return).
33 The fruit of your ground, and all your labors, shall a nation which you do not know eat up; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always;
People from a foreign nation will take all the crops that you worked hard to produce, and they will constantly treat you harshly and cruelly [DOU].
34 so that you shall be mad for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.
The result will be that all these terrible things that you see/experience will cause you to become insane.
35 The LORD will strike you in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore boil, of which you can not be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
Yahweh will cause your legs [to be covered with] painful boils that cannot be healed, and you will have boils from the bottoms of your feet to the tops of your heads.
36 The LORD will bring you, and your king whom you shall set over you, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone.
Yahweh will cause your king and the rest of you to be taken to another country, to a place in which you and your ancestors have never lived before, and there you will worship and serve gods that are made of wood or stone.
37 You shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples where the LORD shall lead you away.
When the people-groups in nearby countries see what has happened to you, they will be shocked/horrified; they will make fun [DOU] of you.
38 You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather little in; for the locust shall consume it.
You will plant plenty of seeds in your fields, but you will reap only a small harvest, because locusts will eat the crops.
39 You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine, nor harvest; for the worm shall eat them.
You will plant grapevines and take care of them, but you will not pick any grapes to make wine, because worms will eat the vines.
40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off.
Olive trees will grow everywhere in your land, but you will not get any olive oil to rub on your skin because the olives will drop [on the ground before they are ripe].
41 You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity.
You will have sons and daughters, but they will not stay with you, because they will be captured and taken away.
42 All your trees and the fruit of your ground shall the locust possess.
Swarms of locusts/insects will eat your crops and [the leaves of] all your trees.
43 The foreigner who is in the midst of you shall mount up above you higher and higher; and you shall come down lower and lower.
Foreigners who live in your land will become more and more [powerful], and you will become less and less [powerful].
44 He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him: he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
They will [have money to] lend to you, but you will not [have any money to] lend to them. They will be superior [IDM] to you, and you will be inferior to them [IDM].
45 All these curses shall come on you, and shall pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you:
“You will experience all these disasters, and you will continue to experience them you until you are destroyed, if you do not do what Yahweh your God told you to do, and do not obey all the rules and regulations that he gave to you.
46 and they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your descendants forever.
“These disasters will warn [DOU] you and your descendants forever [about what happens to groups who disobey Yahweh].
47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;
“Because Yahweh blessed you abundantly in many ways, you should have served him very joyfully [DOU], but you did not do that.
48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron on your neck, until he has destroyed you.
“Therefore, you will work for the enemies whom Yahweh will send to attack you. You will be hungry and thirsty; you will not have clothes to wear; and you will lack everything else that you need. And Yahweh will cause you to become slaves [MET] and work hard until he gets rid of you.
49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from a distant land, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you shall not understand;
“Yahweh will cause an army from very far away [HYP] to attack you, whose soldiers speak a language that you do not know/understand. They will swoop down on you [quickly] like an eagle [SIM] attacks its prey.
50 a nation of fierce facial expressions, that shall not respect the person of the old, nor show favor to the young,
They will be fierce looking. They will not act mercifully toward anyone, not even young children and old people.
51 and shall eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; that also shall not leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
They will [kill and] eat your livestock, and they will eat your crops, and you will (starve/die because you do not have anything to eat). They will not leave for you any grain or wine or [olive] oil or cattle or sheep; and you will all die [from hunger].
52 They shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given you.
Your enemies will surround your towns throughout the land that Yahweh your God is about to give to you, and they will break down the high and strong walls [around your towns], walls which you trusted/thought would protect you.
53 You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.
“When your enemies are surrounding [your towns], you will be extremely hungry, with the result that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters that Yahweh your God has given to you.
54 The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining;
When your enemies have surrounded your towns, even the most gentle and sensitive men among you will want food very desperately, with the result that they will [kill their own children and] eat their flesh, because they will not have anything else to eat. They will not even share any of it with their brothers or wives whom they love very much or with any of their children who are still alive.
55 so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your gates.
56 The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
Even the most gentle and sensitive/kind women among you, who are very refined/rich with the result that they have never had to walk anywhere [HYP], will do the same thing. When your enemies have surrounded your towns, those women will be extremely hungry, with the result that after they give birth to a baby, they will secretly [kill it and] eat its flesh and also eat its afterbirth. And they will not share any of it with their husbands whom they love very much or with any of their other children.
57 and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your gates.
58 If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, The LORD your God;
“If you do not faithfully obey all of the laws that I am writing, and if you do not revere Yahweh our glorious God [MTY],
59 then the LORD will make your plagues extraordinary, and the plagues of your descendants, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and severe sicknesses, and of long continuance.
he will [punish you by] causing you and your descendants to experience great afflictions and plagues which will last for many years.
60 He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they shall cling to you.
He will cause you to experience the plagues that he sent on the people of Egypt, and you will never be healed.
61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring them on you, until you are destroyed.
He will also cause you to experience many other sicknesses and diseases that I have not talked about in these laws, until you all will die.
62 You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.
You became as numerous as the stars in the sky, but only a few of you will remain alive, if you do not obey Yahweh your God.
63 It shall happen that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and you shall be plucked from off the land where you go in to possess it.
Yahweh was very happy to do good things for you and to cause you to become very numerous, but now he will be happy to ruin you and get rid of you. [Those of] you [who do not die from these plagues] will be snatched away from the land that you will soon be entering to possess.
64 The LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone.
“Yahweh will scatter you among many people-groups, all over the earth, and in those areas/places you will serve other gods that are made of wood or stone, gods which you and your ancestors have never known/worshiped.
65 Among these nations you shall find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot: but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul;
In those places you will be restless. Yahweh will cause you to be constantly worried/anxious, feel hopeless, and discouraged.
66 and your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life.
You will always be afraid that your enemies will kill you. You will be very fearful, all day and all night.
67 In the morning you shall say, "I wish it were evening." and at evening you shall say, "I wish it were morning." for the fear of your heart which you shall fear, and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.
Because you will be very fearful/afraid because of the [terrible] things that you see, each morning you will say ‘I wish it were evening already!’ and each evening you will say ‘I wish it were morning already!’
68 The LORD will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I said to you, You shall see it no more again: and there you shall sell yourselves to your enemies for bondservants and for bondmaids, and no man shall buy you.
Yahweh will send [some of] you back to Egypt in ships, even though he promised that you would never [be forced to] go there again. There in Egypt you will try to sell yourselves to become slaves of your enemies [in order to have food to eat], but no one will buy you. [All those things will happen to you if you do not obey the laws that Yahweh is giving to you].”
