Deuteronomy 28

1 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you today, that Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

“If you do what Yahweh our God tells you to do and faithfully obey everything that I am today commanding you to do, he will cause you to become greater than any other nation on the earth.

2 All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to Yahweh your God’s voice.

If you obey Yahweh, this is what he will do to bless you:

3 You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field.

He will bless everything that you do when you are in the cities and he will bless everything that you do when you are [working] in the fields.

4 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.

He will bless you by giving you many children [IDM] and by giving you abundant crops, and plenty of cattle and sheep.

5 Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed.

He will bless you by causing you to have good harvests with plenty of grain [MTY] to make bread.

6 You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out.

He will bless you [everywhere]—when you go out [of your houses] and when you come into [your houses].

7 Yahweh 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.

Yahweh will enable you to defeat [the armies of] your enemies; they will attack you from one direction, but they will run away from you in seven/many directions.

8 Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

Yahweh will bless you [by filling] your barns [with grain], and he will bless all the work that you do; he will bless you in the land that he is giving to you.

9 Yahweh will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and walk in his ways.

“If you obey all the commandments that Yahweh our God [has given to you] and if you conduct your lives as he wants you to do, you will continue to be his people, which is what he promised.

10 All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by Yahweh’s name, and they will be afraid of you.

“When all the people-groups on the earth will realize that you belong to [MTY] Yahweh, and they will be afraid of you.

11 Yahweh will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you.

“And Yahweh will cause you to prosper very much. He will give you many children [IDM], many cattle, and abundant crops in the land that he vowed to our ancestors that he would give to you.

12 Yahweh 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. You will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow.

“When rain is needed, Yahweh will send it from where he stores it in the sky, and he will bless all your work, with the result that you [will be able to] lend money to many other nations, but you will not need to borrow [money from them].

13 Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail. You will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you today, to observe and to do,

If you faithfully obey all of the commands of Yahweh our God that I am giving you today, Yahweh will cause your nation to be a leader among the nations, not inferior to them; you will always be prosperous and never be needy/poor [IDM].

14 and shall not turn away from any of the words which I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

[Yahweh will do all these things for you] if you do not turn away from [obeying] what I am commanding you today, and if you never worship or serve other gods.

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.

But if you do not do what Yahweh our God is telling you to do, and if you do not faithfully obey all his rules and regulations that I am giving to you today, this is what he will do to curse you:

16 You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the field.

He will curse you when you are in the cities and he will curse you when you are [working] in the fields.

17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.

He will curse you by not allowing you to have good harvests with plenty of grain [MTY] to make bread.

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.

He will curse you by giving you only a few children [IDM], by causing you to have poor crops, and by not enabling you to have many cattle and sheep.

19 You will be cursed when you come in, and you will be cursed when you go out.

He will curse you [everywhere]—when you go out [of your houses] and when you come into [your houses].

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.

If you do evil things and reject Yahweh, he will curse you by causing you to (be confused/not know what to do), and to be frustrated in everything that you do, until [your enemies] quickly and completely destroy you {you will be quickly and completely destroyed}.

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.

Yahweh will cause you to experience terrible diseases, until not one of you remains alive in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.

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.

Yahweh will strike/afflict you with diseases that shrivel your bodies, with fever, with inflammation/swelling. It will be extremely hot, and it will not rain. There will be scorching winds, and [Yahweh will cause] your crops to rot. All these things will strike you until you die.

23 Your sky that is over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron.

There will be no rain [MET], [with the result that] the ground will be [as hard as] iron [MET].

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.

Instead of sending rain, Yahweh will send strong winds to blow sand and dust over your land, until your land is ruined.

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.

Yahweh will enable your enemies to defeat you; your soldiers will attack your enemies from one direction, but they will run away from your enemies in seven/many directions, and when the people of other nations see what is happening to you, they will say that it is horrible.

26 Your dead bodies 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.

[You will die], and birds and wild animals will come and eat your corpses, and there will not be anyone to scare/shoo them away.

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.

Yahweh will cause you to have boils on your skin, like he caused the people of Egypt to have [many years ago]. He will cause you to have tumors, open sores, and your skin will itch, and there will be nothing that will cure those diseases.

28 Yahweh will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of heart.

Yahweh will cause [some of] you to become insane; he will cause some of you to become blind, and he will cause [some of] your minds to become confused.

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.

[Because you will not be able to see where you are going], at midday you will (grope/feel your way) around with your hands, like people do in the darkness. You will continually be oppressed and robbed, and no one will help you.

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.

Some of you men will be engaged/promised to marry a young woman, but someone else will rape her. You will build houses, but you will never live in them. You will plant grapevines, but you will not eat the grapes; [someone else will eat them].

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.

Your enemies will butcher your cattle while you watch them, and you will not get any of the meat to eat. They will drag away your donkeys while you watch them do it, and they will not give them back to you. They will take away your sheep; and no one will help you [rescue them].

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.

While you watch, your sons and daughters will be given to foreigners to become their slaves. Every day you will very sadly watch for your children to return, but (you will watch in vain/they will never return).

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,

People from a foreign nation will take all the crops that you worked hard to produce, and they will constantly treat you harshly and cruelly [DOU].

34 so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad.

The result will be that all these terrible things that you see/experience will cause you to become insane.

35 Yahweh will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

Yahweh will cause your legs [to be covered with] painful boils that cannot be healed, and you will have boils from the bottoms of your feet to the tops of your heads.

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.

Yahweh will cause your king and the rest of you to be taken to another country, to a place in which you and your ancestors have never lived before, and there you will worship and serve gods that are made of wood or stone.

37 You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away.

When the people-groups in nearby countries see what has happened to you, they will be shocked/horrified; they will make fun [DOU] of you.

38 You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in, for the locust will consume it.

You will plant plenty of seeds in your fields, but you will reap only a small harvest, because locusts will eat the crops.

39 You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat them.

You will plant grapevines and take care of them, but you will not pick any grapes to make wine, because worms will eat the vines.

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.

Olive trees will grow everywhere in your land, but you will not get any olive oil to rub on your skin because the olives will drop [on the ground before they are ripe].

41 You will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity.

You will have sons and daughters, but they will not stay with you, because they will be captured and taken away.

42 Locusts will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground.

Swarms of locusts/insects will eat your crops and [the leaves of] all your trees.

43 The foreigner who is among you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower.

Foreigners who live in your land will become more and more [powerful], and you will become less and less [powerful].

44 He will lend to you, and you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.

They will [have money to] lend to you, but you will not [have any money to] lend to them. They will be superior [IDM] to you, and you will be inferior to them [IDM].

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.

“You will experience all these disasters, and you will continue to experience them you until you are destroyed, if you do not do what Yahweh your God told you to do, and do not obey all the rules and regulations that he gave to you.

46 They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your offspring forever.

“These disasters will warn [DOU] you and your descendants forever [about what happens to groups who disobey Yahweh].

47 Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;

“Because Yahweh blessed you abundantly in many ways, you should have served him very joyfully [DOU], but you did not do that.

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.

“Therefore, you will work for the enemies whom Yahweh will send to attack you. You will be hungry and thirsty; you will not have clothes to wear; and you will lack everything else that you need. And Yahweh will cause you to become slaves [MET] and work hard until he gets rid of you.

49 Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies: a nation whose language you will not understand,

“Yahweh will cause an army from very far away [HYP] to attack you, whose soldiers speak a language that you do not know/understand. They will swoop down on you [quickly] like an eagle [SIM] attacks its prey.

50 a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young.

They will be fierce looking. They will not act mercifully toward anyone, not even young children and old people.

51 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, oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

They will [kill and] eat your livestock, and they will eat your crops, and you will (starve/die because you do not have anything to eat). They will not leave for you any grain or wine or [olive] oil or cattle or sheep; and you will all die [from hunger].

52 They will besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which Yahweh your God has given you.

Your enemies will surround your towns throughout the land that Yahweh your God is about to give to you, and they will break down the high and strong walls [around your towns], walls which you trusted/thought would protect you.

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.

“When your enemies are surrounding [your towns], you will be extremely hungry, with the result that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters that Yahweh your God has given to you.

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,

When your enemies have surrounded your towns, even the most gentle and sensitive men among you will want food very desperately, with the result that they will [kill their own children and] eat their flesh, because they will not have anything else to eat. They will not even share any of it with their brothers or wives whom they love very much or with any of their children who are still alive.

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.

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,

Even the most gentle and sensitive/kind women among you, who are very refined/rich with the result that they have never had to walk anywhere [HYP], will do the same thing. When your enemies have surrounded your towns, those women will be extremely hungry, with the result that after they give birth to a baby, they will secretly [kill it and] eat its flesh and also eat its afterbirth. And they will not share any of it with their husbands whom they love very much or with any of their other children.

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.

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,

“If you do not faithfully obey all of the laws that I am writing, and if you do not revere Yahweh our glorious God [MTY],

59 then Yahweh will make your plagues and the plagues of your offspring fearful, even great plagues, and of long duration, and severe sicknesses, and of long duration.

he will [punish you by] causing you and your descendants to experience great afflictions and plagues which will last for many years.

60 He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they will cling to you.

He will cause you to experience the plagues that he sent on the people of Egypt, and you will never be healed.

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.

He will also cause you to experience many other sicknesses and diseases that I have not talked about in these laws, until you all will die.

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.

You became as numerous as the stars in the sky, but only a few of you will remain alive, if you do not obey Yahweh your God.

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.

Yahweh was very happy to do good things for you and to cause you to become very numerous, but now he will be happy to ruin you and get rid of you. [Those of] you [who do not die from these plagues] will be snatched away from the land that you will soon be entering to possess.

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.

“Yahweh will scatter you among many people-groups, all over the earth, and in those areas/places you will serve other gods that are made of wood or stone, gods which you and your ancestors have never known/worshiped.

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.

In those places you will be restless. Yahweh will cause you to be constantly worried/anxious, feel hopeless, and discouraged.

66 Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life.

You will always be afraid that your enemies will kill you. You will be very fearful, all day and all night.

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.

Because you will be very fearful/afraid because of the [terrible] things that you see, each morning you will say ‘I wish it were evening already!’ and each evening you will say ‘I wish it were morning already!’

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

Yahweh will send [some of] you back to Egypt in ships, even though he promised that you would never [be forced to] go there again. There in Egypt you will try to sell yourselves to become slaves of your enemies [in order to have food to eat], but no one will buy you. [All those things will happen to you if you do not obey the laws that Yahweh is giving to you].”