Deuteronomy 28

Blessings on Obedience

“Now it shall come to pass, ^aif you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God ^bwill set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and ^aovertake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:
3 ^a“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be ^bin the country.
4 “Blessed shall be ^athe ¹fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 ^a“Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7 “The Lord ^awill cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8 “The Lord will ^acommand the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you ^bset your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
9 ^a“The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are ^acalled by the name of the Lord, and they shall be ^bafraid of you. 11 And ^athe Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord ¹swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you His good ¹treasure, the heavens, ^ato give the rain to your land in its season, and ^bto bless all the work of your hand. ^cYou shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make ^ayou the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you ¹heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. 14 ^aSo you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Curses on Disobedience

15 “But it shall come to pass, ^aif you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 “Cursed shall be the ¹fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 “The Lord will send on you ^acursing, ^bconfusion, and ^crebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21 The Lord will make the ¹plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. 22 ^aThe Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with ^bscorching,¹ and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And ^ayour heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 ^a“The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become ¹troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 ^aYour carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. 27 The Lord will strike you with ^athe boils of Egypt, with ^btumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and ^aconfusion of heart. 29 And you shall ^agrope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
30 ^a“You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; ^byou shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; ^cyou shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to ^aanother people, and your eyes shall look and ^bfail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be ¹no strength in your ^chand. 33 A nation whom you have not known shall eat ^athe fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. 34 So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. 35 The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 “The Lord will ^abring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and ^bthere you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And you shall become ^aan¹ astonishment, a proverb, ^band a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.
38 ^a“You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for ^bthe locust shall ¹consume it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the ^awine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for ^athey shall go into captivity. 42 Locusts shall ¹consume all your trees and the produce of your land.
43 “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45 “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you ¹did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And they shall be upon ^ayou for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.
47 ^a“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, ^bfor the abundance of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in ^ahunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He ^bwill put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 ^aThe Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, ^bas swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance, ^awhich does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. 51 And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
52 “They shall ^abesiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53 ^aYou shall eat the ¹fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. 54 The ¹sensitive and very refined man among you ^awill² be hostile toward his brother, toward ^bthe wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, 55 so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. 56 The ¹tender and ²delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, ³will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, 57 her ¹placenta which comes out ^afrom between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.
58 “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear ^athis glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, 59 then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants ^aextraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. 60 Moreover He will bring back on you all ^athe diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. 62 You ^ashall be left few in number, whereas you were ^bas the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. 63 And it shall be, that just as the Lord ^arejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord ^bwill rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be ^cplucked¹ from off the land which you go to possess.
64 “Then the Lord ^awill scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and ^bthere you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. 65 And ^aamong those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; ^bbut there the Lord will give you a ¹trembling heart, failing eyes, and ^canguish of soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. 67 ^aIn the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and ^bbecause of the sight which your eyes see.
68 “And the Lord ^awill take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, ^b‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

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