Deuteronomy 28
1 If you truly obey what the Lord your God tells you, and carefully follow all his commandments that I'm giving you today, then the Lord your God will place you high above all the nations of the earth.
It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you this day, that the LORD your God will set you on high above all the nations of the earth:
2 You will have all the following blessings and even more, if you do what the Lord your God says.
and all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall listen to the voice of the LORD your God.
3 You will be blessed when you're in the town; you will be blessed when you're in the countryside.
You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field.
4 You will be blessed with many children. You will be blessed with good harvests. You will be blessed with livestock—your cattle will have many calves, and your sheep will have many lambs.
You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock.
5 You will be blessed with plenty of bread.
Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed.
6 You will be blessed wherever you go and in everything you do.
You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out.
7 The Lord will defeat the enemies who come to attack you. They will come at you from one direction, but they will scatter seven different ways.
The LORD will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways.
8 The Lord will bless your income and everything you do. The Lord your God will bless you in the country he is giving you.
The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses, and in all that you put your hand to; and he will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
9 The Lord will make you his holy people, just as he promised you, if you obey the Lord your God's commandments and follow his ways.
The LORD will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you; if you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and walk in his ways.
10 Then everyone on earth will see that the Lord has chosen you to be his, and they will be afraid of you.
All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of you.
11 The Lord will make you very prosperous. You will have many children, your livestock will produce plenty of young, and your land will grow good harvests—all this in the country the Lord promised your forefathers he would give you.
The LORD will make you plenteous for good, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
12 The Lord will provide rain for your land at the right time from his heavenly storehouse to bless all your work growing crops. You will lend money to many nations but you won't need to borrow from any of them.
The LORD will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand: and you shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow.
13 The Lord will put you in first place, not the last. You will only go up, never down, as long as you listen to and follow carefully the commandments of the Lord your God that I'm giving you today.
The LORD will make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath; if you shall listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day, to observe and to do,
14 Don't deviate from any of my instructions today. Don't go and worship other gods.
and shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 But if you don't obey the Lord your God by following carefully all his commandments and regulations I'm giving you today, then you will experience all the following curses and more:
But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come on you, and overtake you.
16 You will be cursed when you're in the town; you will be cursed when you're in the countryside.
You shall be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field.
17 You will be cursed by not having bread.
Your basket and your kneading trough shall be cursed.
18 You will be cursed by not having children, and by not having good harvests, and by your cattle not having calves, and your sheep not having lambs.
The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock shall be cursed.
19 You will be cursed wherever you go and in everything you do.
You shall be cursed when you come in, and you shall be cursed when you go out.
20 The Lord will send you curses, making you confused and frustrated in everything you do, until you are brought down and die quickly because of the evil that you've done by abandoning him.
The LORD 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.
21 The Lord will give you infectious diseases until he has wiped you out from the country you are entering town.
The LORD will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it.
22 Then Lord will hit you with sickness that makes you waste away, with a severe fever and swelling like you're burning up, while your crops are damaged by drought and blight and mildew. These will attack you until you die.
The LORD will strike you with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish.
23 The sky above you will be like bronze, and the earth beneath you will be like iron.
Your sky that is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth that is under you shall be iron.
24 The Lord will change the rain of your land into dust and sand; it will fall from the sky on you until you're destroyed.
The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust: from the sky shall it come down on you, until you are destroyed.
25 The Lord will have your enemies defeat you. You will attack them from one direction, but you will scatter seven different ways. Everyone on earth will be horrified at what happens to you.
The LORD will cause you to be struck before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them, and shall flee seven ways before them: and you shall be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 Your dead bodies will be food for birds of prey and wild animals, and there won't be anyone to scare them away.
Your dead body shall be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there shall be none to frighten them away.
27 The Lord will give you boils like he did to the Egyptians, with swellings and scabs and skin rashes that can't be cured.
The LORD will strike you with the boil of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed.
28 The Lord will send you mad and make you blind and confused,
The LORD will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart;
29 so that even at noon you will be groping around like a blind man in the dark. You won't be successful in what you do. You'll be persecuted and robbed the whole time, and no one will come and save you.
and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you.
30 You will be engaged to marry a woman, but another man will sleep with her. You will build a house but you won't live in it. You will plant a vineyard but won't benefit from any harvest.
You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: you shall build a house, and you shall not dwell in it: you shall plant a vineyard, and shall not use its fruit.
31 Your ox will be slaughtered right in front of you, but you won't eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away and won't be returned to you. Your sheep will be taken by your enemies, and no one will come and save you.
Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it: your donkey shall be violently taken away from before your face, and shall not be restored to you: your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have none to save you.
32 Your sons and daughters will be taken away as slaves to other nations while you watch, and you'll wear your eyes out crying over them, but there won't be anything you can do about it.
Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people; and your eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day: and there shall be nothing in the power of your hand.
33 A foreign nation you've never heard of will eat all the crops you worked so hard to grow. You will be continually persecuted and downtrodden.
The fruit of your ground, and all your labors, shall a nation which you do not know eat up; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always;
34 What you see will drive you mad.
so that you shall be mad for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.
35 The Lord will give you painful boils that can't be cured on your knees and thighs, in fact from head to toe.
The LORD 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.
36 The Lord will exile you and your chosen king you to a foreign nation that neither you nor your forefathers had ever heard of. There you will worship other gods, idols made of wood and stone.
The LORD will bring you, and your king whom you shall set over you, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone.
37 You will be something that horrifies all the nations where you've been exiled by the Lord. They will laugh at you and ridicule you.
You shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples where the LORD shall lead you away.
38 You will sow a lot of seed in the field, but harvest very little because the locusts will destroy it.
You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather little in; for the locust shall consume it.
39 You will plant and vineyards and care for them, but you won't harvest the grapes or drink the wine, because they'll be eaten by maggots.
You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine, nor harvest; for the worm shall eat them.
40 You will have olive trees all over the country but you won't have any olive oil to use, because the olives will drop early from the trees.
You shall have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off.
41 You will have sons and daughters, but you won't have them for long, because they will be taken off into captivity as slaves.
You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity.
42 Locust swarms will destroy all your trees and crops.
All your trees and the fruit of your ground shall the locust possess.
43 Foreigners who live with you will rise higher and higher in status above you, while you sink lower and lower.
The foreigner who is in the midst of you shall mount up above you higher and higher; and you shall come down lower and lower.
44 They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the first, and you will be the last.
He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him: he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45 All these curses will come down on you. They will chase after you and attack you until you die because you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commandments and regulations he gave you.
All these curses shall come on you, and shall pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you:
46 They will be lasting evidence, visible signs of what happened to you and your descendants.
and they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your descendants forever.
47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with happiness and with a joyful attitude,
Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;
48 you will serve your enemies that the Lord sends to attack you with hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty. He will tie an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron on your neck, until he has destroyed you.
49 The Lord will bring a nation to attack you from a long way off, from the ends of the earth. They will swoop down upon you like an eagle, this nation whose language you won't understand.
The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from a distant land, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you shall not understand;
50 They are a ruthless nation who don't respect for the old and have no mercy on the young.
a nation of fierce facial expressions, that shall not respect the person of the old, nor show favor to the young,
51 They will eat your lambs and calves and the crops you've grown until you are destroyed. They won't leave you any grain or new wine or olive oil, no calves from your herds or lambs from your flocks, so you'll die of starvation.
and shall eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; that also shall not 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.
52 They will besiege all the towns in your country, until the high, fortified walls that you trust in have fallen. They will besiege all your towns in your country that the Lord your God has given you.
They shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given you.
53 You'll end up eating your children, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God gave you, because of the siege and the suffering that your enemy will cause you.
You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.
54 The kindest and most sensitive man among you will refuse to share his food with his brother, the wife he loves, and those of his own children who are left.
The man who 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 whom he has remaining;
55 He will refuse to share with any of them the flesh of his children that he's forced to eat because he doesn't have anything else because of the siege and suffering your enemy has caused you in all your towns.
so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your gates.
56 The kindest and most sensitive woman among you, so kind and sensitive she wouldn't ever go barefoot on the ground, will refuse to share her food, a baby and its afterbirth, with the husband she loves and her own son and daughter.
The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot on 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 She will even secretly eat her the babies she gives birth to and the afterbirth, since she doesn't have anything else because of the siege and suffering your enemy has caused you in all your towns,
and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your gates.
58 If you don't carefully observe all these laws written down in this book so that you may show respect for this glorious and awesome Lord your God,
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, The LORD your God;
59 he will bring down on you and your descendants unbelievable disasters, intense and long-lasting diseases, and terrible and incurable sicknesses.
then the LORD will make your plagues extraordinary, and the plagues of your descendants, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and severe sicknesses, and of long continuance.
60 He will give you all the diseases you were terrified of in Egypt, and they will stay with you.
He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they shall cling to you.
61 The Lord will also give you every sickness and disease, even those not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed.
Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring them on you, until you are destroyed.
62 You who grew as numerous as the stars in the sky will end up as only a few, because you would not obey what Lord your God told you.
You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.
63 In the same way as he wanted to make you prosperous and increase in number, so now he will wipe you out and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the country you are going in to own.
It shall happen that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and you shall be plucked from off the land where you go in to possess it.
64 The Lord will scatter you among the nations all over the earth, and there you will worship other gods, gods made of wood and stone, which you and your fathers had never heard of.
The LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone.
65 You won't find any place to rest among those nations, no place of your own. The Lord will make you anxious, with failing eyesight and a mind full of despair.
Among these nations you shall find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot: but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul;
66 You will see your life hanging in the balance as you doubt. You will be afraid day and night, terrified you won't survive.
and your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life.
67 In the morning you'll say, “I wish it was evening!” and in the evening you'll say, “I wish it was morning!” because you're so frightened by the terrifying things you see.
In the morning you shall say, "I wish it were evening." and at evening you shall say, "I wish it were morning." for the fear of your heart which you shall fear, and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.
68 The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships to a place that I said you weren't ever meant to see again. You will put yourselves on sale there to your enemies as male and female slaves, but nobody will want to buy you.
The LORD will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I said to you, You shall see it no more again: and there you shall sell yourselves to your enemies for bondservants and for bondmaids, and no man shall buy you.
