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 hath been, if thou dost hearken diligently to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to observe to do all His commands which I am commanding thee to-day, that Jehovah thy God hath made thee uppermost 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 upon thee, and overtaken thee, because thou dost hearken to the voice of Jehovah 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 [art] thou in the city, and blessed [art] thou 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 thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, increase of thine oxen, and wealth of thy flock.
5 He will bless you by causing you to have good harvests with plenty of grain [MTY] to make bread.
'Blessed [is] thy basket and thy kneading-trough.
6 He will bless you [everywhere]—when you go out [of your houses] and when you come into [your houses].
'Blessed [art] thou in thy coming in, and blessed [art] thou in 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.
'Jehovah giveth thine enemies, who are rising up against thee — smitten before thy face; in one way they come out unto thee, and in seven ways 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.
'Jehovah commandeth with thee the blessing in thy storehouses, and in every putting forth of thy hand, and hath blessed thee in the land which Jehovah thy God is giving to 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.
'Jehovah doth establish thee to Himself for a holy people, as He hath sworn to thee, when thou keepest the commands of Jehovah thy God, and hast 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 Jehovah is called upon thee, and they have been 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 Jehovah hath made thee abundant in good, in the fruit of the womb, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, on the ground which Jehovah hath sworn to thy fathers to give to 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].
'Jehovah doth open to thee his good treasure — the heavens — to give the rain of thy land in its season, and to bless all the work of thy hand, and thou hast lent to many nations, and thou — thou dost 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 Jehovah hath given thee for head, and not for tail; and thou hast been only above, and art not beneath, for thou dost hearken unto the commands of Jehovah thy God, which I am commanding thee to-day, 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 thou dost not turn aside from all the words which I am commanding you to-day — 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 hath been, if thou dost not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God to observe to do all His commands, and His statutes, which I am commanding thee to-day, that all these revilings have come upon thee, and overtaken 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 [art] thou in the city, and cursed [art] thou 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] 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 [is] the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, increase of thine oxen, and wealth of thy flock.
19 He will curse you [everywhere]—when you go out [of your houses] and when you come into [your houses].
'Cursed [art] thou in thy coming in, and cursed [art] thou in 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}.
'Jehovah doth send on thee the curse, the trouble, and the rebuke, in every putting forth of thy hand which thou dost, till thou art destroyed, and till thou perish hastily, because of the evil of thy doings [by] which 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.
'Jehovah doth cause to cleave to thee the pestilence, till He consume thee from off the ground whither thou art 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.
'Jehovah doth smite thee 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 thee till thou perish
23 There will be no rain [MET], [with the result that] the ground will be [as hard as] iron [MET].
'And thy heavens which [are] over thy head have been brass, and the earth which [is] under thee iron;
24 Instead of sending rain, Yahweh will send strong winds to blow sand and dust over your land, until your land is ruined.
Jehovah giveth the rain of thy land — dust and ashes; from the heavens it cometh down on thee till thou art 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.
'Jehovah giveth thee smitten before thine enemies; in one way thou goest out unto them, and in seven ways dost flee before them, and thou hast 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 thy carcase hath been for food to every fowl of the heavens, and to the beast of the earth, and there is none causing trembling.
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.
'Jehovah doth smite thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and with emerods, and with scurvy, and with itch, of which thou art 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.
'Jehovah doth smite thee 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 thou hast been gropling at noon, as the blind gropeth in darkness; and thou dost not cause thy ways to prosper; and thou hast been only oppressed and plundered all the days, and there is no saviour.
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 woman thou dost betroth, and another man doth lie with her; a house thou dost build, and dost not dwell in it; a vineyard thou dost plant, and dost 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].
thine ox [is] slaughtered before thine eyes, and thou dost not eat of it; thine ass [is] taken violently away from before thee, and it is not given back to thee; thy sheep [are] given to thine enemies, and there is no saviour for 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 [are] given to another people, and thine eyes are looking and consuming for them all the day, and thy 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].
The fruit of thy ground, and all thy labour, eat up doth a people whom thou hast not known; and thou hast been only oppressed and bruised 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 hast been mad, because of the sight of thine eyes which thou dost 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.
'Jehovah doth smite thee with an evil ulcer, on the knees, and on the legs (of which thou art not able to be healed), from the sole of thy foot even unto thy 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.
'Jehovah doth cause thee to go, and thy king whom thou raisest up over thee, unto a nation which thou hast not known, thou and thy fathers, and thou hast served there other gods, 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 hast been for an astonishment, for a simile, and for a byword among all the peoples whither Jehovah doth 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 thou dost take out into the field, and little thou dost gather in, for the locust doth 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 thou dost plant, and hast laboured, and wine thou dost not drink nor gather, for the worm doth consume 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 to thee in all thy border, and oil thou dost not pour out, for thine olive doth fall off.
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 thou dost beget, and they are not with thee, for they 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 ground doth the locust possess;
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 thy midst goeth up above thee very high, and thou goest 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 doth lend [to] thee, and thou dost not lend [to] him; he is for head, and thou art 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 come upon thee have all these curses, and they have pursued thee, and overtaken thee, till thou art destroyed, because thou hast not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep His commands, 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 have been on thee for a sign and for a wonder, also on thy seed — to the age.
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 thou hast not served Jehovah thy God 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.
thou hast served thine enemies, whom Jehovah sendeth against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in lack of all things; and he hath put a yoke of iron on thy neck, till He hath 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.
'Jehovah doth lift up against thee a nation, from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle it flieth; a nation whose tongue thou hast not heard,
50 They will be fierce looking. They will not act mercifully toward anyone, not even young children and old people.
a nation — fierce of countenance — which accepteth not the face of the aged, and the young doth not favour;
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 hath eaten the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy ground, till thou art destroyed; which leaveth not to thee corn, new wine, and oil, increase of thine oxen, and wealth of thy flock, till it hath destroyed 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 hath laid siege to thee in all thy gates, till thy walls come down, the high and the fenced ones in which thou art trusting, in all thy land; yea, it hath laid siege to thee in all thy gates, in all thy land, which Jehovah thy God hath given to 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 hast eaten the fruit of thy body, flesh of thy sons and thy daughters (whom Jehovah thy God hath given to thee), in the siege, and in the straitness with which thine enemies do straiten 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 who is tender in thee, 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 leaveth,
against giving to one of them of the flesh of his sons whom he eateth, because he hath nothing left to him, in the siege, and in the straitness with which thine enemy doth straiten 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 tender woman in thee, and the delicate, who hath 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 cometh out from between her feet, even against her sons whom she doth bear, for she doth eat them for the lacking of all things in secret, in the siege and in the straitness with which thine enemy doth straiten thee within 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 dost not observe to do all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honoured and fearful name — Jehovah 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 hath Jehovah made wonderful thy strokes, and the strokes of thy seed — great strokes, and stedfast, and evil sicknesses, and stedfast.
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 hath brought back on thee all the diseases of Egypt, of the presence of which thou hast been afraid, and they have cleaved to 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 stroke which is not written in the book of this law; Jehovah doth cause them to go up upon thee till thou art 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 have been left with few men, instead of which ye have been as stars of the heavens for multitude, because thou hast not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah 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 hath been, as Jehovah hath rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so doth Jehovah rejoice over you to destroy you, and to lay you waste; and ye have been pulled away from off the ground whither thou art 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 Jehovah hath scattered thee among all the peoples, from the end of the earth even unto the end of the earth; and thou hast served there other gods which thou hast not known, thou and thy 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 among those nations thou dost not rest, yea, there is no resting-place for the sole of thy foot, and Jehovah hath given to thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and grief 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 hath been hanging in suspense before thee, and thou hast been afraid by night and by day, and dost not believe in 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 sayest, O that it were evening! and in the evening thou sayest, O that it were morning! from the fear of thy heart, with which thou art afraid, and from the sight of thine eyes which thou seest.
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 Jehovah hath brought thee back to Egypt with ships, by a way of which I said to thee, Thou dost not add any more to see it, and ye have sold yourselves there to thine enemies, for men-servants and for maid-servants, and there is no buyer.'
