28 Today I am giving you the commands of the Lord your God. You must be careful to obey all of them completely. If you do that, he will make you greater than any other nation of people in the world.
2 If you obey the Lord your God, he will bless you in very many ways.
3 God will bless you in your cities and in your fields.
4 God will bless your children and the crops that you grow. Your cows and your sheep will have many babies.
5 God will bless you with lots of grain to make bread.
6 God will bless you in your homes and when you go outside.
7 When your enemies attack you, the Lord will knock them down. They will come from one direction to attack you, but they will run away from you in seven different directions!
8 The Lord will bless you with lots of food to store. He will bless all the work that you do. He will bless you very much in the land that he is giving to you.
9 The Lord will continue to help you as his special people, as he has promised to do. But you must obey his commands. You must live in a way that pleases him. 10 If you do that, everyone in the world will see that you belong to the Lord . They will respect you with fear. 11 The Lord will give you many children. Your animals will have many babies. Your fields will give you a lot of food. The Lord will do this in the land that he promised your ancestors he would give you.
12 The Lord will send rain from the clouds where he stores it. He will cause the rain to fall at the time when the land needs it. He will bless all the work that you do. You will lend money to the people of many nations. But you will not need anyone to lend money to you. 13 The Lord will make you the leaders of other people. You will not have to follow at the back. You will become more powerful, not weaker. But you must obey the commands of the Lord your God. I am telling you today, you must be very careful to do that. 14 You must continue to obey all the commands that I am giving you today. Do not turn away from them to do anything else. Do not try to worship other gods.
15 But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God, all these curses will happen to you. So be careful to obey all his commands and rules that I am giving you today. If you do not obey the Lord , these curses will happen to you:
16 God will curse you in your cities and in your fields.
17 God will curse you so that you have no grain to make bread.
18 God will curse your children and the crops that you grow. Your cows and your sheep will not give birth to healthy babies.
19 God will curse you in your homes and when you go outside.
20 If you do evil things and you turn away from the Lord , he will curse you. He will confuse your thoughts in everything that you do. He will turn against you so that you quickly come to an end. 21 The Lord will make you very ill so that you do not get better again. He will completely remove you from the land that you are now going into. 22 The Lord will give you many kinds of disease. Your bodies will become weak and very hot. They will grow big and have a lot of pain. He will send great heat and there will be no rain. Your crops will all become spoiled. You will have all this pain until you die. 23 There will be no clouds in the sky above to give any rain. The ground under your feet will be as hard as iron. 24 There will be clouds of dust instead of rain. Dirt will come down from the sky until it has destroyed you.
25 The Lord will let your enemies knock you down. You will attack them from one direction, but you will run away from them in seven directions. When the people of other nations see what has happened to you, they will see it is a terrible thing. 26 Your dead bodies will be food for all the birds and the wild animals. No one will be there to chase them away. 27 The Lord will cause you to have boils on your bodies. That is what he did to the Egyptians. He will also cause you to have tumours and other bad diseases on your skin. [ a ] You will not be able to get well again. 28 The Lord will make you crazy and blind. He will confuse your thoughts. 29 Even at midday, you will not see your way. You will be in the dark, like a blind person. You will not be able to go anywhere, whatever you do. Every day, people will be cruel to you. People will rob you. No one will be there to save you.
30 A woman will promise to marry you. But another man will take her and have sex with her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a garden, but you will never eat the fruit that grows in it. 31 Someone will kill your bull while you watch. But you will not eat any of the meat. As you watch, someone will take your donkey from you. He will never give it back to you. Your enemies will take your sheep for themselves. There will be no one there to help you.
32 Foreign people will take your children away to be their slaves. Every day, you will look for them to come back to you. But you will have no power to do anything. 33 Strangers will eat the food that you have worked hard to grow in your fields. People will be cruel to you for the rest of your lives. 34 When you see what is happening to you, you will become crazy. 35 The Lord will cause you to have boils on your knees and on your legs. They will give you much pain and they will never get better. They will soon cover your whole body, from your toes to the top of your head.
36 When you choose a king for yourselves, the Lord will send you and him away to a foreign country. It will be a place that neither you nor your ancestors have ever heard about. There you will serve gods that people have made from stone and wood. 37 The Lord will send you away to live among foreign people. When they see what has happened to you, they will all see that it is terrible. They will tell stories about you and they will laugh at you.
38 You will plant many seeds in your fields, but you will not have much food at harvest time. Instead, locusts will eat your crops. 39 You will plant vineyards to grow grapes. You will take care of the plants. But you will not drink any wine or bring in any grapes. Instead, worms will eat them. 40 Olive trees will grow everywhere in your land, but you will never use any oil from them. The olives will drop off the trees before they are ready to pick.
41 You will give birth to sons and daughters, but you will lose them. Enemies will take them away as prisoners. 42 Crowds of locusts will eat all your trees and the food from your fields.
43 Foreign people who live among you will become stronger and stronger. They will have more and more power over you, as you become weaker. 44 They will lend money to you, but you will not lend money to them. They will become your leaders. You will have to follow behind them.
45 All these curses will happen to you. They will be like an enemy that chases after you, catches you, and destroys you. That will happen to you, if you refuse to obey the Lord your God. If you do not obey his commands and his rules that he has given to you, these troubles will happen to you. 46 They will show that God is very angry with you. You and your descendants will know that for ever.
47 The Lord has given you many good things. But you have not agreed to serve the Lord your God with joy. 48 So you will serve your enemies that the Lord will send to attack you. You will be hungry and thirsty. You will be so poor that you do not even have clothes to wear. Your enemies will make you work so hard that they will destroy you.
49 The Lord will bring a nation from far away in the world to attack you. You will not understand their language. They will come quickly to attack you, like an eagle that comes down from the sky. 50 They will have angry faces. They will not be kind to anyone, even old people and young children. 51 They will eat your young animals and the crops from your fields, until they have destroyed you. They will not leave any food for you. You will have no grain, no wine, no olive oil, no young cows, no lambs. They will take everything from you until they destroy you.
52 They will attack all your towns, everywhere in the land that the Lord your God has given to you. They will knock down the strong walls that you thought would keep you safe. They will make their camps around your towns until they can take the towns for themselves. 53 When that happens, you will have no food, because your enemy's soldiers are all around your town. You will be so hungry that you eat your own children. Those are the sons and daughters that the Lord your God has given to you. 54 Even the best and kindest man among you will turn against his brother. He will turn against the wife that he loves and against his children who are still alive. 55 He will be so hungry that he eats meat from his own child, because there is no other food. He will not share it with any of his own family. He will do that because your enemy is so strong. The soldiers will stop any food from coming into your towns. 56 Even the best and kindest woman among you will turn against the husband that she loves. She will turn against her sons and daughters. She has been rich enough to have everything that she needs. 57 But now she will be so hungry that she will eat her new baby and the afterbirth. [ b ] She will eat them secretly because there is nothing else for her to eat. She will not share anything with her family because your enemy will be too strong. The soldiers will stop any food from coming into your towns.
58 Be careful to obey all the words of this law that I have written in this scroll. Always respect the Lord your God. Give him the honour that his great name deserves. 59 If you refuse to do that, the Lord will punish you and your descendants more and more. You will have lots of pain and many kinds of terrible disease that will not get better. 60 He will cause you to have all the same diseases that hurt the Egyptians and that made you very afraid. Those diseases will never leave you alone. 61 The Lord will also cause you to have many other terrible diseases. This scroll of God's Law does not say anything about those diseases, but they will destroy you completely.
62 At one time, you were as many people as the stars in the sky. But if you do not obey the Lord your God, only a few of you will remain alive. 63 At one time, the Lord was happy to help you with good things. He gave you many children. But if you do not obey him, he will be happy to destroy you. He will remove you from the land that will soon become your new home.
64 If that happens, the Lord will send you away to live among many other nations, all over the world. There you will worship other gods. They are gods that people have made from wood and from stone. Neither you nor your ancestors have ever known those gods before. 65 When you live among those nations, you will not be happy. You will not find a home where you can live safely in peace. The Lord will cause you to have troubles in your mind. Your eyes will not see well. You will be sad and upset. 66 You will be in danger of death all the time. You will be afraid in the day and at night. You will never know if you will live for one more day. 67 Every morning you will say, ‘I want the night to come quickly!’ And every evening you will say, ‘I want the morning to come quickly!’ You will say that because of all the terrible things that you see. 68 The Lord told you that you must never travel on the road back to Egypt. But he will send you back to Egypt in ships. In Egypt, you will try to sell yourselves to your enemies, as slaves. But no one will agree to buy you.
28 “Now, if you will be careful to obey the Lord your God and follow all his commands that I tell you today, the Lord your God will put you high above all the nations on earth. 2 If you will obey the Lord your God, all these blessings will come to you and be yours:
3 “He will bless you
in the city and in the field.
4 He will bless you
and give you many children.
He will bless your land
and give you good crops.
He will bless your animals
and let them have many babies.
He will bless you with calves and lambs.
5 He will bless your baskets and pans
and fill them with food.
6 He will bless you at all times
in everything you do.
7 “The Lord will help you defeat your enemies who come to fight against you. Your enemies will come against you one way, but they will run away from you seven different ways!
8 “The Lord will bless you and fill your barns. He will bless everything you do. The Lord your God will bless you in the land that he is giving you. 9 If you follow the Lord your God and obey his commands, he will do what he promised. The Lord will make you his own special people. 10 Then all the people in that land will see that you are called to be the Lord ’s people, and they will be afraid of you.
11 “And the Lord will give you many good things. He will give you many children. He will give your cows many calves. He will give you a good harvest in the land that the Lord promised your ancestors to give you. 12 The Lord will open his storehouse where he keeps his rich blessings. He will send rain at the right time for your land. He will bless everything you do. You will have money to lend to many nations. And you will not need to borrow anything from them. 13 The Lord will make you be like the head, not the tail. You will be on top, not on the bottom. This will happen if you listen to the commands of the Lord your God that I tell you today. You must carefully obey these commands. 14 You must not turn away from any of the teachings that I give you today. You must not turn away to the right or to the left. You must not follow other gods to serve them.
15 “But if you don’t listen to what the Lord your God tells you—if you don’t obey all his commands and laws that I tell you today—then all these bad things will happen to you:
16 “The Lord will curse you
in the city and in the field.
17 He will curse you
with empty baskets and pans.
18 He will curse you,
and you will not have many children.
He will curse your land,
and you will not have good crops.
He will curse your animals,
and they will not have many babies.
He will curse your calves and lambs.
19 He will curse you at all times
in everything you do.
20 “If you do evil and turn away from the Lord , he will make bad things happen to you. You will have frustration and trouble in everything you do. He will continue to do this until you are quickly and completely destroyed. He will do this because you turned away from him and left him. 21 The Lord will send you terrible diseases until you no longer exist, until you are completely gone from the land. 22 The Lord will punish you with diseases, fever, and swelling. He will send you terrible heat and you will have no rain. Your crops will die from the heat and disease. [ a ] All these bad things will happen until you are destroyed! 23 There will be no clouds in the sky—the sky will look like polished brass. And the ground under you will be hard like iron. 24 The Lord will not send rain—only sand and dust will fall from the sky. It will come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 “The Lord will let your enemies defeat you. You will go to fight against your enemies one way, but you will run away from them seven different ways. The bad things that happen to you will make all the people on earth afraid. 26 Your dead bodies will be food for the wild birds and animals. There will be no one to scare them away from your dead bodies.
27 “The Lord will punish you with boils, like those he sent on the Egyptians. He will punish you with tumors, sores that run, and an itch that cannot be cured. 28 The Lord will punish you by making you crazy. He will make you blind and confused. 29 In daylight you will have to feel your way like a blind man. You will fail in everything you do. Again and again people will hurt you and steal from you. And there will be no one to save you.
30 “You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will have sexual relations with her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not gather anything from it. 31 People will kill your cattle in front of you, but you will not eat any of the meat. People will take your donkeys, and they will not give them back to you. Your enemies will get your sheep, and there will be no one to help you.
32 “Other people will be allowed to take your sons and your daughters. Day after day you will look for your children. You will look for them until your eyes become weak and blind—but you will not find them. And God will not help you.
33 “A nation that you don’t know will take all your crops and everything you worked for. People will treat you badly and abuse you. 34 The things you see will make you go crazy. 35 The Lord will punish you with sore boils that cannot be healed. These boils will be on your knees and legs. The boils will be on every part of your body—from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head.
36 “The Lord will send you and your king away to a nation you don’t know. You and your ancestors have never seen that nation. There you will serve false gods made of wood and stone. 37 In the countries where the Lord will send you, the people will be shocked at the terrible things that happen to you. They will laugh at you and say bad things about you.
38 “Your fields will produce plenty of grain. But your harvest will be small, because the locusts will eat your harvest. 39 You will plant vineyards and work hard in them. But you will not gather the grapes or drink the wine from them, because the worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees everywhere on your land. But you will not have any of the oil to use, because the olives will drop to the ground and rot. 41 You will have sons and daughters. But you will not be able to keep them, because they will be captured and taken away. 42 Locusts will destroy all your trees and the crops in your fields. 43 The foreigners living among you will get more and more power, and you will lose the power you had. 44 The foreigners will have money to loan you, but you will not have any money to loan them. They will control you the way the head controls the body. You will be like the tail.
45 “All these curses will come on you. They will keep chasing you and catching you, until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to what the Lord your God told you. You did not obey the commands and laws that he gave you. 46 These curses will show people that God judged you and your descendants forever. People will be amazed at the terrible things that happen to you.
47 “The Lord your God gave you many blessings. But you did not serve him with joy and a glad heart. 48 So you will serve the enemies the Lord will send against you. You will be hungry, thirsty, naked, and poor. He will put a load on you that cannot be removed. You will carry that load until he destroys you. [ b ]
49 “The Lord will bring a nation from far away to fight you. You will not understand their language. They will come quickly, like an eagle coming down from the sky. 50 These people will be cruel. They will not care about old people or show mercy to young children. 51 They will take your animals and the food you grow. They will take everything until they destroy you. They will not leave you any grain, wine, oil, cattle, sheep, or goats. They will take everything, until they destroy you.
52 “That nation will surround and attack your cities. You think that the tall, strong walls around your cities will protect you. But those walls will fall down. The enemy will surround all your cities everywhere in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 53 You will suffer very much. The enemy will surround your cities. They will not let you have any food. You will get very hungry. You will be so hungry that you will eat your own sons and daughters—you will eat the bodies of the children the Lord your God gave you.
54 “Even the most kind and gentle man among you will become cruel. He will be cruel to his family, and he will be cruel to his wife he loves so much. And he will be cruel to his children who are still alive. 55 He will have nothing left to eat, so he will eat his own children. And he will not share that meat with anyone—not even the other people in his own family. All these bad things will happen when your enemy comes to surround your cities and make you suffer.
56 “Even the most kind and gentle woman among you will become cruel. She might be a lady so gentle and delicate that she never put her feet on the ground to walk anywhere. But she will become cruel to her husband she loves so much. And she will be cruel to her own son and daughter. 57 She will hide and give birth to a baby. And she will eat the baby and everything that comes out of her body with it. All these bad things will happen when your enemy comes to surround your cities and make you suffer.
58 “You must obey all the commands and teachings that are written in this book. And you must respect the wonderful and awesome name of the Lord your God. If you don’t obey, 59 the Lord will punish you and your descendants with terrible diseases. He will cause you to suffer illnesses that have no cure. And you will find no relief for your misery! 60 He will bring on you all the diseases you saw in Egypt that filled you with fear, and you will not be able to avoid them. 61 The Lord will even bring troubles and diseases that are not written in this Book of Teachings . He will continue to do this until you are destroyed. 62 You might have as many people as the stars in the sky. But only a few of you will be left, because you did not listen to the Lord your God.
63 “The Lord was happy to be good to you and to make your nation grow. In the same way the Lord will be happy to ruin and destroy you. You are going to take that land to be yours. But people will take you out of that land! 64 The Lord will scatter you among all the people in the world. He will scatter you from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve false gods made of wood and stone. They are false gods that you or your ancestors never worshiped.
65 “You will not have any peace among these nations. You will have no place to rest. The Lord will fill your mind with worry. Your eyes will feel tired. You will be very upset. 66 You will live with danger and always be afraid. You will be afraid night and day. You will never feel sure about your life. 67 In the morning you will say, ‘I wish it were evening!’ In the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’ This will happen because of the fear in your heart and the terrible things you will see. 68 The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships. I said you would never have to go to that place again, but he will send you there. In Egypt you will try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies, but no one will buy you.”
28 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
7 The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
8 The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
9 The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.
10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord ; and they shall be afraid of thee.
11 And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, 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 sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
12 The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:
14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 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 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
20 The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
21 The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
22 The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
24 The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
25 The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.
27 The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
28 The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:
29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.
31 Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.
32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thine hand.
33 The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:
34 So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
35 The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.
36 The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.
37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.
38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.
39 Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.
40 Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.
41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.
42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.
43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.
44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:
46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.
47 Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;
48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
49 The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:
51 And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.
52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.
53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:
54 So that the man that 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 which he shall leave:
55 So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
56 The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon 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,
57 And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
58 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, The Lord Thy God ;
59 Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.
60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.
61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
62 And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God.
63 And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
64 And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:
67 In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
68 And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.
28 “ ( A ) Now it shall be, if you diligently [ a ] obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, that the Lord your God ( B ) will put you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings will come to you and ( C ) reach you if you [ b ] obey the Lord your God:
3 “Blessed will you be in the city, and blessed will you be ( D ) in the [ c ] country.
4 “Blessed will be the [ d ] children of your womb, the [ e ] produce of your ground, and the [ f ] offspring of your animals: the newborn of your herd and the young of your flock.
5 “Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 “Blessed will you be ( E ) when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.
7 “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be [ g ] defeated by you; they will go out against you one way and will flee at your presence seven ways. 8 The Lord will command the blessing for you in your [ h ] barns and in ( F ) everything that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 9 ( G ) The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 So all the peoples of the earth will see that [ i ] ( H ) you are called by the name of the Lord , and they will be afraid of you. 11 ( I ) And the Lord will give you more than enough prosperity, in the [ j ] children of your womb, in the [ k ] offspring of your livestock, and in the [ l ] produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless every work of your hand; and ( J ) you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. 13 ( K ) And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will only be above, and not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you today, to [ m ] follow them carefully, 14 and ( L ) do not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right or the left, to pursue other gods to serve them.
15 “ ( M ) But it shall come about, if you do not [ n ] obey the Lord your God, to be careful to [ o ] follow all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 “ ( N ) Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the [ p ] country.
17 “ ( O ) Cursed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 “ ( P ) Cursed will be the [ q ] children of your womb, the [ r ] produce of your ground, the newborn of your herd, and the offspring of your flock.
19 “ ( Q ) Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go out.
20 “ ( R ) The Lord will send against you curses, panic, and ( S ) rebuke, in [ s ] everything you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until ( T ) you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have abandoned Me. 21 ( U ) The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has eliminated you from the land where you are entering to take possession of it. 22 ( V ) The Lord will strike you with consumption, inflammation, fever, feverish heat, and with [ t ] the sword, ( W ) with blight, and with mildew, and they will pursue you until ( X ) you perish. 23 [ u ] The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. 24 ( Y ) The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 “ ( Z ) The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways from their presence, and you will ( AA ) be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 ( AB ) Your dead bodies will [ v ] serve as food for all birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away .
27 “ ( AC ) The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with ( AD ) tumors, the festering rash, and with scabies, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will strike you with insanity, blindness, and with confusion of [ w ] mind; 29 and you will be ( AE ) groping about at noon, just as a person who is blind gropes in the darkness, and you will not be successful in your ways; but you will only be [ x ] oppressed and robbed all the time, with no one to save you. 30 ( AF ) You will [ y ] betroth a woman, but another man will [ z ] violate her; ( AG ) you will build a house, but you will not live in it; you will plant a vineyard, but you will not make use of its fruit. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey will be snatched away from you, and will not [ aa ] be restored to you; your [ ab ] sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you. 32 ( AH ) Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes look on and long for them constantly; but there will be nothing [ ac ] you can do. 33 ( AI ) A people whom you do not know will eat the produce of your ground and every product of your labor, and you will never be anything but oppressed and mistreated continually. 34 You will also be driven insane by the sight of [ ad ] what you see. 35 ( AJ ) The Lord will strike you on the knees and thighs with severe boils from which you cannot be healed, and strike you from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. 36 ( AK ) The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you appoint over you, to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, made of ( AL ) wood and stone. 37 And ( AM ) you will become an object of horror, a song of mockery, and an object of taunting among all the peoples where the Lord drives you.
38 “ ( AN ) You will bring out a great amount of seed to the field, but you will gather in little, because ( AO ) the locust will devour it. 39 ( AP ) You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor bring in the harvest , because the worm will eat it. 40 ( AQ ) You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, because your olives will drop off prematurely . 41 ( AR ) You will father sons and daughters but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity. 42 ( AS ) The cricket will take possession of all your trees and the produce of your ground. 43 ( AT ) The stranger who is among you will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower. 44 ( AU ) He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; ( AV ) he will be the head, and you will be the tail.
45 “So all these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you ( AW ) until you are destroyed, because you would not [ ae ] obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And they will become ( AX ) a sign and a wonder [ af ] against you and your [ ag ] descendants forever.
47 “ ( AY ) Since you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, in gratitude for the abundance of all things , 48 you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, ( AZ ) in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and devoid of all things ; and He ( BA ) will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.
49 “ ( BB ) The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, ( BC ) as the eagle swoops down; a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation [ ah ] with a defiant attitude, who will ( BD ) have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. 51 Furthermore, it will eat the [ ai ] offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed; a nation that will leave you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the newborn of your cattle or the young of your flock, until they have eliminated you. 52 ( BE ) And it will besiege you in all your [ aj ] towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it will besiege you in all your [ ak ] towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53 ( BF ) Then you will eat the [ al ] offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the hardship by which your enemy will [ am ] oppress you. 54 The man who is [ an ] refined and very delicate among you [ ao ] will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife [ ap ] he cherishes, and toward the rest of his children who are left, 55 so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else left, during the siege and the hardship by which your enemy will [ aq ] oppress you in all your [ ar ] towns. 56 ( BG ) The [ as ] refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and tenderness, [ at ] will be hostile toward the husband [ au ] she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, 57 and toward her afterbirth that comes from between her [ av ] legs, and toward her children to whom she gives birth, because ( BH ) she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else , during the siege and the hardship with which your enemy will [ aw ] oppress you in your [ ax ] towns.
58 “If you are not careful to [ ay ] follow all the words of this Law that are written in this book, to [ az ] ( BI ) fear this honored and awesome ( BJ ) name, [ ba ] the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and [ bb ] your descendants, [ bc ] severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. 60 ( BK ) And He will bring back on you every disease of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which are not written in the book of this Law, the Lord will bring on you ( BL ) until you are destroyed. 62 Then you will be left few in [ bd ] number, ( BM ) whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not [ be ] obey the Lord your God. 63 And it will come about that, just as the Lord ( BN ) rejoiced over you to be good to you, and make you numerous, so will the Lord ( BO ) rejoice over you to wipe you out and destroy you; and you will be ( BP ) torn away from the land which you are entering to possess. 64 Furthermore, the Lord will ( BQ ) scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to [ bf ] the other; and there you will ( BR ) serve other gods, made of wood and stone, which you and your fathers have not known. 65 ( BS ) Among those nations you will find no peace, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there ( BT ) the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 So your lives will be [ bg ] hanging in doubt before you; and you will be terrified night and day, and have no assurance of your life. 67 ( BU ) In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And at evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the terror of your heart which you fear, and the sight of your eyes which you will see. 68 And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I said to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”
28 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow ( A ) all his commands ( B ) I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. ( C ) 2 All these blessings will come on you ( D ) and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed ( E ) in the city and blessed in the country. ( F )
4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. ( G )
5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. ( H )
7 The Lord will grant that the enemies ( I ) who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. ( J )
8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless ( K ) you in the land he is giving you.
9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, ( L ) as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands ( M ) of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name ( N ) of the Lord , and they will fear you. 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock ( O ) and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you. ( P )
12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse ( Q ) of his bounty, ( R ) to send rain ( S ) on your land in season and to bless ( T ) all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. ( U ) 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow ( V ) them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. ( W ) 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, ( X ) following other gods and serving them.
15 However, if you do not obey ( Y ) the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, ( Z ) all these curses will come on you and overtake you: ( AA )
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. ( AB )
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. ( AC )
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. ( AD )
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ( AE )
20 The Lord will send on you curses, ( AF ) confusion and rebuke ( AG ) in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin ( AH ) because of the evil ( AI ) you have done in forsaking him. [ a ] 21 The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. ( AJ ) 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, ( AK ) with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, ( AL ) with blight ( AM ) and mildew, which will plague ( AN ) you until you perish. ( AO ) 23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. ( AP ) 24 The Lord will turn the rain ( AQ ) of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.
25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated ( AR ) before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, ( AS ) and you will become a thing of horror ( AT ) to all the kingdoms on earth. ( AU ) 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds ( AV ) and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. ( AW ) 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt ( AX ) and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29 At midday you will grope ( AY ) about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue ( AZ ) you.
30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. ( BA ) You will build a house, but you will not live in it. ( BB ) You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. ( BC ) 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, ( BD ) and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. 33 A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression ( BE ) all your days. ( BF ) 34 The sights you see will drive you mad. ( BG ) 35 The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils ( BH ) that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. ( BI )
36 The Lord will drive you and the king ( BJ ) you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors. ( BK ) There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. ( BL ) 37 You will become a thing of horror, ( BM ) a byword ( BN ) and an object of ridicule ( BO ) among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you. ( BP )
38 You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, ( BQ ) because locusts ( BR ) will devour ( BS ) it. 39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine ( BT ) or gather the grapes, because worms will eat ( BU ) them. ( BV ) 40 You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. ( BW ) 41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. ( BX ) 42 Swarms of locusts ( BY ) will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.
43 The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. ( BZ ) 44 They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. ( CA ) They will be the head, but you will be the tail. ( CB )
45 All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you ( CC ) until you are destroyed, ( CD ) because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. 46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. ( CE ) 47 Because you did not serve ( CF ) the Lord your God joyfully and gladly ( CG ) in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst, ( CH ) in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke ( CI ) on your neck ( CJ ) until he has destroyed you.
49 The Lord will bring a nation against you ( CK ) from far away, from the ends of the earth, ( CL ) like an eagle ( CM ) swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, ( CN ) 50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old ( CO ) or pity for the young. 51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine ( CP ) or olive oil, ( CQ ) nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. ( CR ) 52 They will lay siege ( CS ) to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you. ( CT )
53 Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you. ( CU ) 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. ( CV ) 56 The most gentle and sensitive ( CW ) woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter ( CX ) 57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them ( CY ) secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.
58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, ( CZ ) which are written in this book, and do not revere ( DA ) this glorious and awesome name ( DB ) —the Lord your God— 59 the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60 He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt ( DC ) that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, ( DD ) until you are destroyed. ( DE ) 62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky ( DF ) will be left but few ( DG ) in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63 Just as it pleased ( DH ) the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please ( DI ) him to ruin and destroy you. ( DJ ) You will be uprooted ( DK ) from the land you are entering to possess.
64 Then the Lord will scatter ( DL ) you among all nations, ( DM ) from one end of the earth to the other. ( DN ) There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. ( DO ) 65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place ( DP ) for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes ( DQ ) weary with longing, and a despairing heart. ( DR ) 66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. ( DS ) 68 The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. ( DT ) There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
