Deuteronomy 28

Curses for Disobedience Deuteronomy 28:15–29

¹⁵Verse 15. But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come on you, and overtake you. ¹⁶Verse 16. You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the field. ¹⁷Verse 17. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. ¹⁸Verse 18. The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed. ¹⁹Verse 19. You will be cursed when you come in, and you will be cursed when you go out.

²⁰Verse 20. Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me. ²¹Verse 21. Yahweh will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it. ²²Verse 22. Yahweh will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew. They will pursue you until you perish. ²³Verse 23. Your sky that is over your head will be brass, and the earth that is under you will be iron.

²⁴Verse 24. Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come down on you from the sky, until you are destroyed. ²⁵Verse 25. Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶Verse 26. Your dead body will be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there will be no one to frighten them away. ²⁷Verse 27. Yahweh will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with the tumors, with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed.

²⁸Verse 28. Yahweh will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of heart. ²⁹Verse 29. You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you.

Desolation and Oppression Deuteronomy 28:30–57

³⁰Verse 30. You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit. ³¹Verse 31. Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from before your face, and will not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you. ³²Verse 32. Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look, and fail with longing for them all day long. There will be no power in your hand.

³³Verse 33. A nation which you don’t know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always; ³⁴Verse 34. so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad. ³⁵Verse 35. Yahweh will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you can not be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. ³⁶Verse 36. Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone.

³⁷Verse 37. You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away. ³⁸Verse 38. You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in; for the locust will consume it. ³⁹Verse 39. You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat them. ⁴⁰Verse 40. You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won’t anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives will drop off. ⁴¹Verse 41. You will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours; for they will go into captivity.

⁴²Verse 42. Locusts will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground. ⁴³Verse 43. The foreigner who is among you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower. ⁴⁴Verse 44. He will lend to you, and you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail. ⁴⁵Verse 45. All these curses will come on you, and will pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you didn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you. ⁴⁶Verse 46. They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your offspring forever.

⁴⁷Verse 47. Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; ⁴⁸Verse 48. therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until he has destroyed you. ⁴⁹Verse 49. Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you will not understand; ⁵⁰Verse 50. a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young,

⁵¹Verse 51. and they will eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. ⁵²Verse 52. They will besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which Yahweh your God has given you. ⁵³Verse 53. You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you.

⁵⁴Verse 54. The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye will be evil toward his brother, toward the wife whom he loves, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining; ⁵⁵Verse 55. so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left to him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates. ⁵⁶Verse 56. The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil toward the husband that she loves, toward her son, toward her daughter,

⁵⁷Verse 57. toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your gates.

Final Warnings and Consequences Deuteronomy 28:58–68

⁵⁸Verse 58. If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, YAHWEH YOUR GOD; ⁵⁹Verse 59. then Yahweh will make your plagues fearful, and the plagues of your offspring, even great plagues, and of long duration, and severe sicknesses, and of long duration. ⁶⁰Verse 60. He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they will cling to you. ⁶¹Verse 61. Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, Yahweh will bring them on you, until you are destroyed.

⁶²Verse 62. You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you didn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice. ⁶³Verse 63. It will happen that as Yahweh rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so Yahweh will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you. You will be plucked from the land that you are going in to possess. ⁶⁴Verse 64. Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone.

⁶⁵Verse 65. Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul. ⁶⁶Verse 66. Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life. ⁶⁷Verse 67. In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening!” and at evening you will say, “I wish it were morning!” for the fear of your heart which you will fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see.

⁶⁸Verse 68. Yahweh will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I told to you that you would never see it again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies for male and female slaves, and nobody will buy you.