The In-Dept Study of the Bible
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.
2 All these blessings will come upon you,
and overtake you, if you listen to Yahweh
your God’s voice.
3You shall be blessed in the city, and you
shall be blessed in the field.
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.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough
shall be blessed.
6 You shall be blessed when you come in,
and you shall be blessed when you go out.
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.
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.
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.
10 All the peoples of the earth shall see
that you are called by Yahweh’s name, 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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
16 You will be cursed in the city, and you
will be cursed in the field.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough
will be cursed.
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.
19 You will be cursed when you come in,
and you will be cursed when you go out.
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.
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.
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.
23 Your sky that is over your head will be
bronze, andthe earththatisunder you will
be iron.
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.
25 Yahweh will cause you to be struck
before your enemies. You will go out one
way againstthem, and will flee seven ways
before them. You will be tossed back and
forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.
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.
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.
28 Yahweh will strike you with madness,
with blindness, and with astonishment of
heart.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
34 so that the sights that you see with
your eyes will drive you mad.
35 Yahweh will strike you in the knees
and in the legs with a sore boil, of which
youcannot behealed,from the sole of your
foot to the crown of your head.
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.
37 You will become an astonishment, a
proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away.
38 You will carry much seed out into the
field, and will gather little in, for the locust
will consume it.
39 You will plant vineyards and dress
them, but you will neither drink of the
wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat
them.
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.
41 You will father sons and daughters,
but they will not be yours, for they will go
into captivity.
42 Locusts will consume all of your trees
and the fruit of your ground.
43 The foreigner who is among you will
mount up above you higher and higher,
and you will come down lower and lower.
44 He will lend to you, and you won’tlend
to him. He will be the head, and you will be
the tail.
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.
46 They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your offspring forever.
47 Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your
God with joyfulness and with gladness of
heart, by reason of the abundance of all
things;
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.
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,
50 a nation of fierce facial expressions,
that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show
favor to the young.
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.
52 They will besiege you in all your gates
until yourhighand 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.
53 You will eatthe 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.
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,
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,
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,
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.
60 He will bring on you again all the
diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid
of; and they will cling to you.
61 Also every sickness and every plague
which is not written in the book ofthis law,
Yahweh will bring them on you until you
are destroyed.
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.
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 youto perishand to destroy you. You
will be plucked from the land that you are
going in 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.
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 tremblingheart,failing of eyes, and
pining of soul.
66 Your life willhang indoubtbefore you.
You will be afraid night and day, and will
have no assurance of your life.
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.
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.