CHAPTER 28
Now
if
you faithfully obey
the voice of
the LORD
your God
and are careful
to follow
all
His commandments
I
am giving you today,
the LORD
your God
will set you
high above
all
the nations
of the earth.
All
these
blessings
will come
upon you
and overtake you,
if
you will obey
the voice of
the LORD
your God:
The fruit of
your womb
will be blessed,
and the produce
of your land,
the offspring
of your livestock,
the calves
of your herds,
and the lambs
of your flocks.
The LORD
will cause
the enemies
who rise up
against you
to be defeated
before you.
They will march out
against
you in one
direction
but flee
from you
in seven.
The LORD
will decree
a blessing
on your barns
and on everything
to which you put
your hand;
the LORD
your God
will bless you
in the land
He is giving
you.
The LORD
will establish you
as His holy
people,
just as
He has sworn
to you,
if
you keep
the commandments
of the LORD
your God
and walk
in His ways.
Then all
the peoples
of the earth
will see
that
you are called
by the name of
the LORD,
and they will stand in awe
of you.
The LORD
will make you prosper
abundantly
in the fruit of
your womb,
the offspring
of your livestock,
and the produce
of your land,
in
the land
the LORD
swore
to your fathers
to give
you.
The LORD
will open
the heavens,
His abundant
storehouse,
to send
rain
to your land
in season
and to bless
all
the work
of your hands.
You will lend
to many
nations,
but
borrow
from none.
The LORD
will make
you the head
and not
the tail;
you will only
move upward
and never
downward,
if
you hear
and carefully
follow
the commandments
of the LORD
your God,
which
I
am giving
you today.
Do not
turn aside
to the right
or to the left
from any of
the words
I
command
you
today,
and do not go
after
other
gods
to serve them.
If, however,
you do not
obey
the LORD
your God
by carefully
following
all
His commandments
and statutes
I
am giving you today,
all
these
curses
will come
upon you
and overtake you:
The fruit
of your womb
will be cursed,
and the produce
of your land,
the calves
of your herds,
and the lambs
of your flocks.
The LORD
will send
curses
upon you,
confusion
and
rebuke
in all
to which you put
your hand,
until
you are destroyed
and quickly
perish
because of
the wickedness
you have committed
in forsaking Him.
The LORD
will make the pestilence
cling
to you
until
He has exterminated
you
from
the land
you
are entering
to possess.
The LORD
will strike you
with wasting disease,
with fever
and inflammation,
with severe heat
and drought,
with blight
and mildew;
these will pursue
you until
you perish.
The LORD
will turn
the rain
of your land
into dust
and powder;
it will descend
on you
from
the sky
until
you are destroyed.
The LORD
will cause
you to be defeated
before
your enemies.
You will march out
against them
in one
direction
but flee
from them
in seven.
You will be
an object of horror
to all
the kingdoms
of the earth.
Your corpses
will be
food
for all
the birds
of the air
and beasts of
the earth,
with no
one to scare them away.
The LORD
will afflict
you with the boils
of Egypt,
with tumors
and scabs
and itch,
from which
you cannot
be cured.
so that at noon
you will
grope about
like
a blind man
in the darkness.
You will not
prosper
in your ways.
Day after day
you will be
oppressed
and plundered,
with no one
to save you.
You will be pledged in marriage
to a woman,
but another
man
will violate her.
You will build
a house
but not
live in it.
You will plant
a vineyard
but not
enjoy its fruit.
Your ox
will be slaughtered
before your eyes,
but you will not
eat
any of it.
Your donkey
will be taken away
and not
returned to you.
Your flock
will be given
to your enemies,
and no
one will help you.
Your sons
and daughters
will be given
to another
nation,
while your eyes
grow weary
looking
for them
day after day,
with no
power in
your hand.
A people
you do not
know
will eat
the produce
of your land
and of all
your toil.
All
your days
you will be
oppressed
and crushed.
The LORD
will afflict you
with painful,
incurable
boils
on
your knees
and thighs,
from the soles
of your feet
to
the top of your head.
The LORD
will bring
you
and
the king
you appoint
to
a nation
neither you
nor
your fathers
have known,
and there
you will worship
other
gods,
gods of wood
and stone.
You will become
an object of horror,
scorn,
and ridicule
among all
the nations
to which
the LORD
will drive you.
You will plant
and cultivate
vineyards,
but will neither
drink
the wine
nor
gather the grapes,
because
worms
will eat them.
You will have
olive trees
throughout
your territory,
but you will never
anoint
yourself with oil,
because
the olives
will drop off.
You will father
sons
and daughters,
but they will not
remain
yours,
because
they will go
into captivity.
The foreigner living
among you
will rise
higher
and higher
above you,
while you
sink down
lower
and lower.
He
will lend to you,
but you
will not
lend to him.
He
will be
the head,
and you
will be
the tail.
All
these
curses
will come
upon you.
They will pursue you
and overtake you
until
you are destroyed,
since
you did not
obey
the LORD
your God
and keep
the commandments
and statutes
He gave you.
Because
you did not
serve
the LORD
your God
with joy
and gladness
of heart
in all
your abundance,
you will serve
your enemies
the LORD
will send against you
in famine,
thirst,
nakedness,
and destitution.
He will place
an iron
yoke
on
your neck
until
He has destroyed
you.
The LORD
will bring
a nation
from afar,
from the ends of
the earth,
to swoop down
upon you
like
an eagle,
a nation
whose
language
you will not
understand,
They will eat
the offspring
of your livestock
and the produce
of your land
until
you are destroyed.
They will leave
you
no
grain
or new wine
or oil,
no calves
of your herds
or lambs
of your flocks,
until
they have caused you to perish.
They will besiege
all
your cities,
until
the high
and fortified
walls
in which
you
trust
have fallen
in all
the land.
They will besiege
all
your cities
throughout
the land
the LORD
your God
has given you.
During the siege
and hardship
your enemy
will impose
on you,
you will eat
the fruit
of your womb,
the flesh
of your sons
and daughters
the LORD
your God
has given
you.
The most
gentle
and refined
man
among you
will begrudge
his brother,
the wife
he embraces,
and the rest
of his children
who have survived,
refusing to share
with any
of them
the flesh
of his children
that
he will eat
because he has nothing
left
in the siege
and hardship
your enemy
will impose
on all
your cities.
The most gentle
and refined woman
among you,
so gentle
and refined
she would not
venture
to set
the sole
of her foot
on
the ground,
will begrudge
the husband
she embraces
and her son
and daughter
the afterbirth
that comes
from between
her legs
and the children
she bears,
because
she will secretly
eat
them for lack
of anything else
in the siege
and dire straits
your enemy
will impose
on you
in all your cities.
If
you are not
careful
to observe
all
the words
of this
law
which are written
in this
book,
that you may fear
this glorious
and awesome
name—
the LORD
your God—
He
will bring upon you and your descendan
extraordinary
disasters,
severe
and lasting
plagues,
and terrible
and chronic
sicknesses.
He will afflict you again
with all
the diseases
you dreaded
in Egypt,
and they will cling to you.
The LORD
will also
bring
upon you
every
sickness
and plague
not
recorded
in this
Book
of the Law,
until
you are destroyed.
You who were
as numerous
as the stars
in the sky
will be left
few
in number,
because
you would not
obey
the voice of
the LORD
your God.
Just as
it pleased
the LORD
to make you prosper
and to multiply you,
so also
it will please
Him
to exterminate
you
and destroy
you.
And you will be uprooted
from
the land
you
are entering
to possess.
Then the LORD
will scatter
you among all
the nations,
from one end
of the earth
to
the other,
and there
you will worship
other
gods,
gods of wood
and stone,
which
neither you
nor
your fathers
have known.
Among those
nations
you will find no
repose,
not even
a resting place
for the sole
of your foot.
There
the LORD
will give
you a trembling
heart,
failing
eyes,
and a despairing
soul.
So your life
will hang in doubt
before you,
and you will be afraid
night
and day,
never
certain
of survival.
In the morning
you will say,
‘If only
it were evening!’
and in the evening
you will say,
‘If only
it were morning!’—
because of the dread
in your hearts
of
the terrifying
sights
you will see.
The LORD
will return you
to Egypt
in ships
by a route
that
I said
you should never
see
again.
There
you will sell
yourselves to your enemies
as male
and female slaves,
but no
one will buy you.”