Deuteronomy Chapter 28
Blessings for Obedience
1 “If you diligently obey the LORD your God, he’ll set you high above every nation on earth. 2 These blessings will come on you:
3 “Blessed you’ll be in the city and the country.
4 “Blessed will be your offspring,
the produce of your ground,
the offspring of your animals,
the increase of your herd,
the young of your flock.
5 “Blessed will be your basket and kneading bowl.
6 “Blessed you’ll be when you come and go.
7 “The LORD will defeat your enemies. They’ll attack you from one
direction and flee in seven.
8 “The LORD will direct his blessing on you in your barns and endeavors,
and bless you in the land he’s giving you.
9 “The LORD will establish you as a people reserved for himself.
10 “The nations will see that you’re called by the LORD’s name and be
afraid of you.
Deut 28:1-10
11 “The LORD will make you prosperous in your offspring and your
animals’ offspring, and in the produce from your ground.
12 “The LORD will open his storehouse in the sky, send you rain in its
season, and bless what you do. You’ll lend to many nations, but
you can’t borrow from them.
13 “The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. You’ll be above, not
below 14 if you don’t stray from my commandments and serve other
gods.
Curses for Disobedience
15 “If you don’t obey the LORD, these curses will come on you:
16“Accursed you’ll be in the city and the country.
17 “Accursed will be your basket and kneading bowl.
18 “Accursed will be your offspring,
the produce of your ground,
the increase of your herd,
the young in your flock.
19 “Accursed you’ll be as you come and go.
Deut 28:11-19
20 “The LORD will send curses, confusion, and rebuke on everything you
try to do, till you soon perish because you’ve done sinful things
and left him.
21 The LORD will send disease on you till none of you are left in the land.
22 The LORD will strike you with consumption, fever, inflammation,
scorching heat, sword, blight, and mildew. They’ll dog you till
you die.
23 The sky above you will be bronze, and the ground under you will be
iron.
24 The LORD will turn rain into dust. It’ll come down on you till you
suffocate.
25 The LORD will let your enemies defeat you. You’ll go out against them
one way and flee from them seven ways. You’ll be an example of
panic for the kingdoms. 26 Your corpses will feed the birds and wild
animals. There won’t be anybody to scare them off.
27 “The LORD will strike you with the boils you saw in Egypt,
with hemorrhoids, scab, and itch that won’t heal.
28 “The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and
faintheartedness.
29 You’ll grope at noon like a blind man in the dark;
you won’t prosper.
You’ll be oppressed and robbed continually, and nobody will be there to save you.
Deut 28:20-29
30 “You’ll be engaged to a wife, but another man will rape her.
You’ll build a house, but not live in it.
You’ll plant a vineyard, but not eat its fruit.
31 “Your ox will be butchered in front of you, and you won’t eat any of it.
Your donkey will be torn away from you and not returned.
Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and nobody will save you.
32 “Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation while you
watch and yearn for them. But you won’t be able to do anything
about it.
33 “A people you don’t know will eat the produce you’ve labored on.
You’ll be oppressed and crushed all the time.
34 “You’ll be driven mad by what you see.
35 “The LORD will strike your knees and legs with sore boils that won’t
heal from the crown of your head to the sole of your feet.
36 “You and the king you’ll appoint, God will take to a nation you and your
ancestors never heard of. You’ll serve wooden and stone gods
there. 37 You’ll become something to abhor, a proverb, a taunt in the nation where the LORD drives you.
38 “You’ll take lots of seed to the field, but bring little in. Locusts will eat
it.
39 “You’ll cultivate vineyards, but you won’t drink any wine or gather any
grapes. Worms will eat them.
40 “You’ll have olive trees everywhere, but you won’t anoint yourself with
the oil. Your olives will fall off.
41 “You’ll have sons and daughters, but they won’t be yours. They’ll go
into captivity.
42 “Locusts will overtake your trees and produce.
43 “Foreigners among you will rise higher and higher above you, and
you’ll sink lower and lower. 44 He’ll lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He’ll be the head; you’ll be the tail.
Deut 28:30-44
45 “These curses will come on you till they destroy you, because you wouldn’t obey the LORD. 46 They’ll become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever. 47 Since you didn’t serve him with joy and happiness for the abundance of everything, 48 you’ll serve the enemies he sends against you, and you’ll do so in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and the lack of everything. He’ll put an iron yoke on your neck till he’s destroyed you.
49 “The LORD will bring a nation against you from the end of the earth like a swooping eagle, a nation whose language you can’t understand. 50 It’ll be a nation that doesn’t respect the old or favor the young. 51 It’ll eat the offspring of your herd and the produce from your ground. It won’t leave you any grain, new wine, olive oil, increase in your herd, or the young in your flock till its people wipe you out. 52 It will besiege you in your towns till your high, fortified walls you trusted come down all over your land. 53 In the sieges you’ll be so oppressed you’ll eat the offspring of your own body, the sons and daughters the LORD gave you. 54 Your refined, cultured gentleman will be hostile toward his brother, the wife he cherishes, his children that remain. 55 He won’t give a one of them any of his children’s flesh he’s eating, because he won’t have anything left during the oppressive siege. 56 Your refined, cultured lady that wouldn’t walk on the ground barefoot, will be hostile toward the husband she cherishes, her son and daughter, 57 the afterbirth from between her legs, the children she bears. She’ll eat them secretly for lack of anything else during the oppressive siege.
Deut 28:45-57
58 “If you don’t observe the laws in this scroll and respect this honored and awesome name, ‘The LORD Your God’ [Yahveh-Elohekha], 59 he’ll bring severe plagues, miserable chronic diseases on you and your descendants. 60 He’ll bring on you Egypt’s diseases that you feared and still cling to you. 61 He’ll even bring on you sicknesses and plagues that aren’t in this scroll.
62 “Although you were like stars in the sky, you’ll end up being few. 63 As the LORD delighted in prospering you, he’ll delight in destroying you. He’ll tear you from the land you’re entering 64 and scatter you among the nations from one end of the world to the other. You’ll serve wooden and stone gods there. 65 You won’t find anywhere to rest your feet. He’ll give you a cringing heart, failing eyes, despairing souls. 66 Your life will hang uncertain in front of you, and you’ll dread night and day with no assurance that you’ll live. 67 In the morning you’ll say, ‘Oh that it was evening!’ In the evening you’ll say, ‘Oh that it was morning!’ 68 The LORD will take you back to Egypt in ships. You’ll never see your country again. You’ll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but nobody will buy you.”
Deut 28:58-68