Deuteronomy 28
1 “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.
And it shall come to pass, if thou wilt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee highest above all nations of the earth.
2 If you obey Yahweh, this is what he will do to bless you:
And all these blessings shall come upon thee, and overtake thee; because thou wilt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
3 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.
Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
4 He will bless you by giving you many children [IDM] and by giving you abundant crops, and plenty of cattle and sheep.
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy cattle, and the young of thy flocks.
5 He will bless you by causing you to have good harvests with plenty of grain [MTY] to make bread.
Blessed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-through.
6 He will bless you [everywhere]—when you go out [of your houses] and when you come into [your houses].
Blessed shalt thou be at thy coming in, and blessed shalt thou be at thy going out.
7 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.
The Lord will cause thy enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: on one way shall they come out against thee, and on seven ways shall they flee before thee.
8 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.
The Lord will command upon thee the blessing in thy storehouse, and in all the acquisitions of thy hand; and he trill bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
9 “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.
The Lord will raise thee up unto himself as a holy people, as he hath sworn unto thee; if thou wilt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.
10 “When all the people-groups on the earth will realize that you belong to [MTY] Yahweh, and they will be afraid of you.
And all the nations of the earth shall see, that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.
11 “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.
And the Lord will make thee pre-eminent for good, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord swore unto thy fathers to give unto thee.
12 “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].
The Lord will open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven, to give the rain of 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.
13 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].
And the Lord will constitute thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt only be uppermost, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou wilt hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and to do;
14 [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.
And thou wilt not go aside from all the words which I command thee this day, to the right, or to the left, to go after strange gods, to serve them.
15 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:
But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe 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.
16 He will curse you when you are in the cities and he will curse you when you are [working] in the fields.
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
17 He will curse you by not allowing you to have good harvests with plenty of grain [MTY] to make bread.
Cursed shall be thy basket and thy kneading-trough.
18 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.
Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy cattle, and the young of the flocks.
19 He will curse you [everywhere]—when you go out [of your houses] and when you come into [your houses].
Cursed shalt thou be at thy coming in, and cursed shalt thou be at thy going out.
20 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}.
The Lord will send out against thee misfortune, confusion, and failure, in all the occupation of thy hand which thou mayest engage in; until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, that thou hast forsaken me.
21 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.
The Lord will cause the pestilence to cleave unto thee, until it have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
22 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.
The Lord will smite thee with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with extreme burning, and with drought, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou be lost.
23 There will be no rain [MET], [with the result that] the ground will be [as hard as] iron [MET].
And thy heavens that are over thy head shall be copper, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
24 Instead of sending rain, Yahweh will send strong winds to blow sand and dust over your land, until your land is ruined.
The Lord will give as the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
25 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.
The Lord will cause thee to be smitten before thy enemies: on one way shalt thou go out against them, and on seven ways shalt thou flee before them; and thou shalt become a horror unto all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 [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.
And thy carcass shall become food unto all the fowls of the heavens, and unto the beasts of the earth, but with no one to scare them away.
27 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.
The Lord will smite thee with the inflammatory disease of Egypt, and with the hemorrhoids, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou shalt not be able to be healed.
28 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.
The Lord will sinite thee with madness, and with blindness, and with confusion of heart;
29 [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.
And thou shalt grope about at noonday, as the blind gropeth about in the darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways; and thou shalt be only oppressed and robbed all the days, but with no one to help.
30 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].
A wife wilt thou betroth, and another man shall lie with her; a house wilt thou build, and thou shalt not dwell therein; a vineyard wilt thou plant, and thou shalt not redeem it.
31 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].
Thy ox shall be slain before thy eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof; thy ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be brought back to thee; thy sheep shall be given unto thy enemies, without any one to help thee.
32 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).
Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thy eyes shall look on, and fail with longing for them all the day long; but without any power in thy hand.
33 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].
The fruit of thy soil, and all thy exertion, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt only be oppressed and crushed all the days.
34 The result will be that all these terrible things that you see/experience will cause you to become insane.
And thou shalt become mad from the sight of thy eyes which thou wilt see.
35 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.
The Lord will smite thee with a sore inflammation upon the knees, and upon the legs, of which thou shalt not be able to be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.
36 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.
The Lord will drive thee, and thy king whom thou wilt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and thou wilt serve there strange gods, of wood and stone.
37 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.
And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all the nations whither the Lord will lead thee.
38 You will plant plenty of seeds in your fields, but you will reap only a small harvest, because locusts will eat the crops.
Much seed wilt thou carry out into the field, yet but little shalt thou gather in; for the locust shall consume it.
39 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.
Vineyards wilt thou plant and dress; but wine shalt thou not drink nor lay up; for the worms shall eat them.
40 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].
Olive-trees wilt thou have throughout all thy borders; but with the oil shalt thou not anoint thyself; for thy olive shall cast the fruit.
41 You will have sons and daughters, but they will not stay with you, because they will be captured and taken away.
Sons and daughters wilt thou beget; but they shall not remain thine: for they shall go into captivity.
42 Swarms of locusts/insects will eat your crops and [the leaves of] all your trees.
All thy trees and the fruit of thy land shall the cricket strip bare.
43 Foreigners who live in your land will become more and more [powerful], and you will become less and less [powerful].
The stranger that is in the midst of thee shall get up above thee higher and higher; but thou shalt come down lower and lower;
44 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].
He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him; he shall become the head, and thou shalt become the tail.
45 “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.
And there shall come upon thee all these curses, and they shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou didst not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he hath commanded thee;
46 “These disasters will warn [DOU] you and your descendants forever [about what happens to groups who disobey Yahweh].
And they shall remain on thee for a sign and for a token, and on thy seed, for ever.
47 “Because Yahweh blessed you abundantly in many ways, you should have served him very joyfully [DOU], but you did not do that.
For the reason that thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, while there was an abundance of all things;
48 “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.
Therefore shalt thou serve thy enemies whom the Lord will send out against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of every thing; and they will put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until they have destroyed thee.
49 “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.
The Lord will bring up against thee a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle rusheth down; a nation whose tongue thou wilt not understand;
50 They will be fierce looking. They will not act mercifully toward anyone, not even young children and old people.
A nation of a fierce countenance, that will not have respect for the old, nor show favor to the young;
51 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].
And it will eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy soil, until thou be destroyed; so that it will not leave unto thee corn, wine, or oil, the increase of thy cattle, or the young of thy flocks, until it have ruined thee.
52 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.
And it will besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and strong walls come down, wherein thou trustest, throughout all thy land; and it will besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.
53 “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.
And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, whom the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thy enemy will distress thee.
54 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.
The man that is the most tender among thee, and who is very delicate, —his eye shall look enviously toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he may spare;
So as not to give to any of them of the flesh of his children which he may eat; because there is nothing left unto him, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thy enemy will distress thee in all thy gates.
56 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.
The woman, the most tender among thee, and the most delicate, who hath never adventured to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, —her eye shall look enviously toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
And toward her young one that is come from between her feet, and toward her children which she hath born; for she shall eat them for want of every thing secretly, in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith thy enemy will distress thee in thy gates.
58 “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],
If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law which are written in this book; to fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God:
59 he will [punish you by] causing you and your descendants to experience great afflictions and plagues which will last for many years.
Then will the Lord render peculiar thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed, plagues great, and of long continuance, and sicknesses sore, and of long continuance.
60 He will cause you to experience the plagues that he sent on the people of Egypt, and you will never be healed.
And he will bring back upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, of which thou wast afraid; and they shall cleave unto thee.
61 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.
Also every sickness, and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
62 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.
And ye shall be left but few in number, instead of that ye once were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou didst not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
63 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.
And it shall come to pass, that, as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so will the Lord rejoice over you to bring you to nought, and to destroy you; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
64 “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.
And the Lord will scatter thee among all the nations, from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; and there wilt thou serve strange gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
65 In those places you will be restless. Yahweh will cause you to be constantly worried/anxious, feel hopeless, and discouraged.
And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall not be any rest for the sole of thy foot: and the Lord will give thee there a trembling heart, and a failing of eyes, and a faintness of soul.
66 You will always be afraid that your enemies will kill you. You will be very fearful, all day and all night.
And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt be in dread day and night, and thou shalt have no confidence of thy life;
67 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!’
In the morning thou wilt say, Who would but grant that it were only evening! and at evening thou wilt say, Who would but grant that it were only morning! from the dread of thy heart which thou wilt experience, and from the sight of thy eyes which thou wilt see.
68 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].”
And the Lord will bring thee back to Egypt in ships, by the way whereof I have spoken unto thee, Thou shalt no more see it again: and there will ye offer yourselves for sale unto your enemies for bond-men and bond-women, without any one to buy you.
