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 has been, if you listen diligently to the voice of your God YHWH, to observe to do all His commands which I am commanding you today, that your God YHWH has made you highest above all the nations of the earth,
2 If you obey Yahweh, this is what he will do to bless you:
and all these blessings have come on you and overtaken you, because you listen to the voice of your God YHWH:
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 [are] you in the city, and blessed [are] you 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 [is] the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, the increase of your oxen, and the wealth of your flock.
5 He will bless you by causing you to have good harvests with plenty of grain [MTY] to make bread.
Blessed [is] your basket and your kneading-trough.
6 He will bless you [everywhere]—when you go out [of your houses] and when you come into [your houses].
Blessed [are] you in your coming in, and blessed [are] you in your 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.
YHWH makes your enemies, who are rising up against you, to be struck before your face; in one way they come out to you, and in seven ways they flee before you.
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.
YHWH commands the blessing with you in your storehouses, and in every putting forth of your hand, and has blessed you in the land which your God YHWH is giving to you.
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.
YHWH establishes you to Himself for a holy people, as He has sworn to you, when you keep the commands of your God YHWH and have walked 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 peoples of the land have seen that the Name of YHWH is called by you, and they have been afraid of you.
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 YHWH has made you abundant in good, in the fruit of the womb, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, on the ground which YHWH has sworn to your fathers to give to you.
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].
YHWH opens his good treasure to you—the heavens—to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand, and you have lent to many nations, and you do 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 YHWH has set you for head and not for tail; and you have been only above, and are not beneath, for you listen to the commands of your God YHWH, which I am commanding you today, to keep 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 you do not turn aside from all the words which I am commanding you today [to] the right or left, to go after other 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:
And it has been, if you do not listen to the voice of your God YHWH, to observe to do all His commands and His statutes which I am commanding you today, that all these revilings have come on you and overtaken you:
16 He will curse you when you are in the cities and he will curse you when you are [working] in the fields.
Cursed [are] you in the city, and cursed [are] you 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 [is] your basket and your 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 [is] the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your land, the increase of your oxen, and the wealth of your flock.
19 He will curse you [everywhere]—when you go out [of your houses] and when you come into [your houses].
Cursed [are] you in your coming in, and cursed [are] you in your 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}.
YHWH sends the curse, the trouble, and the rebuke on you, in every putting forth of your hand which you do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your doings [by] which you have 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.
YHWH causes the pestilence to cleave to you until He consumes you from off the ground to where you are going in 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.
YHWH strikes you with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with extreme burning, and with sword, and with blasting, and with mildew, and they have pursued you until you perish
23 There will be no rain [MET], [with the result that] the ground will be [as hard as] iron [MET].
And your heavens which [are] over your head have been bronze, and the earth which [is] under you iron;
24 Instead of sending rain, Yahweh will send strong winds to blow sand and dust over your land, until your land is ruined.
YHWH gives dust and ashes [for] the rain of your land; it comes down on you from the heavens until you are 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.
YHWH makes you struck before your enemies; in one way you go out to them, and in seven ways you flee before them, and you have been for a trembling to all 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 your carcass has been for food for every bird of the heavens and for the beast of the earth, and there is none causing [them] to tremble.
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.
YHWH strikes you with the ulcer of Egypt, and with lumps, and with scurvy, and with itch, of which you are not 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.
YHWH strikes you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment 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 you have been groping at noon, as the blind gropes in darkness; and you do not cause your ways to prosper; and you have been only oppressed and plundered [for] all the days, and there is no savior.
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].
You betroth a woman, and another man lies with her; you build a house, and do not dwell in it; you plant a vineyard, and do not make it common;
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].
your ox [is] slaughtered before your eyes, and you do not eat of it; your donkey [is] violently taken away from before you, and it is not given back to you; your sheep [are] given to your enemies, and there is no savior for you.
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).
Your sons and your daughters [are] given to another people, and your eyes are looking and consumed for them all the day, but your hand is not to God!
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].
A people whom you have not known eat the fruit of your ground and all your labor; and you have been only oppressed and bruised [for] all the days;
34 The result will be that all these terrible things that you see/experience will cause you to become insane.
and you have been mad because of the sight of your eyes which you 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.
YHWH strikes you with a severe ulcer on the knees and on the legs (of which you are not able to be healed), from the sole of your foot even to your crown.
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.
YHWH causes you and your king whom you raise up over you to go to a nation which you have not known, you and your fathers, and you have served other gods there—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 you have been for an astonishment, for an allegory, and for a byword among all the peoples to where YHWH leads you.
38 You will plant plenty of seeds in your fields, but you will reap only a small harvest, because locusts will eat the crops.
You take much seed out into the field, and you gather little in, for the locust consumes 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.
you plant vineyards and have labored, but you do not drink wine, nor gather [grapes], for the worm consumes it;
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].
olives are yours in all your border, but you do not pour out oil, for your olive falls off.
41 You will have sons and daughters, but they will not stay with you, because they will be captured and taken away.
You beget sons and daughters, but they are not with you, for they go into captivity;
42 Swarms of locusts/insects will eat your crops and [the leaves of] all your trees.
the locust possesses all your trees and the fruit of your ground;
43 Foreigners who live in your land will become more and more [powerful], and you will become less and less [powerful].
the sojourner who [is] in your midst goes up very high above you, and you go down very low;
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 lends [to] you, and you do not lend [to] him; he is for head and you are for 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 all these curses have come on you, and pursued you, and overtaken you, until you are destroyed, because you have not listened to the voice of your God YHWH, to keep His commands and His statutes which he has commanded you;
46 “These disasters will warn [DOU] you and your descendants forever [about what happens to groups who disobey Yahweh].
and they have been on you for a sign and for a wonder, also on your seed—for all time.
47 “Because Yahweh blessed you abundantly in many ways, you should have served him very joyfully [DOU], but you did not do that.
Because that you have not served your God YHWH with joy and with gladness of heart, because of the 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.
you have served your enemies, whom YHWH sends against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in lack of all things; and He has put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.
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.
YHWH lifts up a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth—it flies as the eagle—a nation whose tongue you have not heard,
50 They will be fierce looking. They will not act mercifully toward anyone, not even young children and old people.
a nation of fierce countenance, which does not accept the face of the aged and does not favor 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 has eaten the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; which does not leave to you grain, new wine, and oil, the increase of your oxen, and the wealth of your flock, until it has destroyed you.
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 has laid siege to you in all your gates until your walls come down—the high and the fortified ones in which you are trusting, in all your land; indeed, it has laid siege to you in all your gates, in all your land which your God YHWH has given to you.
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 you have eaten the fruit of your body, [the] flesh of your sons and your daughters (whom your God YHWH has given to you), in the siege and in the constriction with which your enemies constrict you.
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 who is tender in you, and who [is] very delicate—his eye is evil against his brother, and against the wife of his bosom, and against the remnant of his sons whom he leaves,
against giving to one of them of the flesh of his sons whom he eats, because he has nothing left for himself in the siege and in the constriction with which your enemy constricts you in all your 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 tender woman in you, and the delicate, who has not tried the sole of her foot to place on the ground because of delicateness and because of tenderness—her eye is evil against the husband of her bosom, and against her son, and against her daughter,
and against her seed which comes out from between her feet, even against her sons whom she bears, for she eats them in secret, in the lacking of everything, in the siege and in the constriction with which your enemy constricts you within your 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 you do not observe to do all the words of this law which are written in this scroll, to fear this honored and fearful Name—your God YHWH—
59 he will [punish you by] causing you and your descendants to experience great afflictions and plagues which will last for many years.
then YHWH has made your strokes extraordinary, and the strokes [against] your seed [are] great strokes that are persisting and severe sicknesses that are persisting.
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 has brought back all the diseases of Egypt on you, from the presence of which you have been afraid, and they have cleaved to you.
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 stroke which is not written in the scroll of this law—YHWH causes them to go up on you until you are 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 you have been left with few men, whereas that you would have been as stars of the heavens for multitude, for you have not listened to the voice of your God YHWH.
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 has been, as YHWH has rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so YHWH rejoices over you to destroy you and to lay you waste; and you have been pulled away from off the ground to where you are going in 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 YHWH has scattered you among all the peoples, from the end of the earth even to the [other] end of the earth; and you have served other gods there which you have not known, you and your fathers—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 you do not rest among those nations, indeed, there is no resting place for the sole of your foot, and YHWH has given to you a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and grief of soul there;
66 You will always be afraid that your enemies will kill you. You will be very fearful, all day and all night.
and your life has been hanging in suspense before you, and you have been afraid by night and by day, and you do not have assurance in your 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 you say, O that it were evening! And in the evening you say, O that it were morning! (From the fear of your heart, with which you are afraid, and from the sight of your eyes which you 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 YHWH has brought you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, You do not add to see it anymore; and you have sold yourselves to your enemies there, for menservants and for maidservants, and there is no buyer.”
