Deuteronomy 28
International Standard Version
Rewards for Obedience
28 “Indeed, if you diligently obey[a] the Lord your God to carry out all his commands that I’m giving you today, then the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 Moreover, all these blessings will come upon you in abundance,[b] if you obey the Lord your God:
3 “Blessed will you be in the city and blessed will you be in the country.
4 “Blessed will your children[c] be, as well as the produce of your land, the offspring of your beasts and cattle, and the offspring of your flock.
5 “Blessed will be your grain[d] basket and your kneading bowl.
6 “Blessed will you be in your comings and goings.
7 “The Lord will make your enemies, who rise against you and attack from one direction, to flee from you in seven directions.
8 “The Lord will send blessings for you with regard to your barns and everything you undertake. Indeed, he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is about to give you.
9 “The Lord will assign you to be a holy people[e] for himself, just as he promised you, as long as you keep his[f] commands and walk in his ways.
10 “Then all the people of the earth will observe that the name of the Lord is proclaimed[g] among you, and they will fear you.
11 “The Lord will show his abundant goodness with respect to your children,[h] the offspring of your animals, and the produce of your farmland that he[i] promised your ancestors he would give you.
12 “The Lord will open his rich[j] treasury, the heavens, to release rain upon your land in season and bless everything you undertake so that you’ll lend to many nations but won’t borrow.
13 “The Lord your God will make you the head and not the tail—placing you above and not beneath—if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I’m giving you today to keep and observe. 14 Do not deviate from any of his commands that I’m giving you today—neither to the right nor the left—to follow and serve other gods.”
Reversal of Blessings
15 “But if you don’t obey the Lord your God and faithfully carry out all his commands and statutes that I’m giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you:
16 “Cursed will you be in the city and cursed will you be in the country.
17 “Cursed will be your grain[k] basket and your kneading bowl.
18 “Cursed will your children[l] be, as well as the produce of your land, the offspring of your beasts and cattle, and the offspring of your flock.
19 “Cursed will you be in your comings and goings.”
Diseases and Drought
20 “The Lord will send the curse among you, will confuse you, and will rebuke you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and perish quickly because of your evil deeds, since you will have forsaken him.[m] 21 The Lord will cause you to be ill with long-lasting diseases until you are wiped out from the land that you are entering to possess. 22 The Lord will afflict you with tuberculosis, fever, inflammation, high fever, drought, blight, and mildew. These will attack you until you are completely destroyed. 23 The sky above your head will become bronze while the ground beneath you will become iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain on your land to powder and dust. It will come down from the sky until you are exterminated.”
From Defeat to Exile
25 “The Lord will cause you to be defeated[n] by your enemies. You’ll go out against them in one direction, but you’ll flee from them in seven directions. Consequently, you’ll be in a state of great terror throughout all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, with no one to chase them away.
27 “The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, skin disease, and festering rashes, and none of them will be curable. 28 The Lord will afflict you with insanity, blindness, and mental confusion.[o] 29 As a result, you’ll wander aimlessly in broad daylight just as a blind person wanders in darkness. You won’t prosper in life.[p] Instead, you’ll be oppressed and plundered all day long, with no deliverer.
30 “You’ll be engaged to a woman, but another man will rape[q] her. You’ll build a house, but you won’t live in it. You’ll plant a vineyard, but you won’t harvest[r] it. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered in front of you, and you won’t be able to eat it. Your donkey will be stolen from you while you watch and won’t be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be handed to your enemies, and there will be no deliverer. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you watch. You won’t be able to approach them at all,[s] and you’ll be powerless to help.[t]
33 “A people whom you don’t know will devour what your land and labor produces. You’ll be only oppressed and discouraged continuously 34 until you are driven insane from what your eyes will see.
35 “The Lord will afflict you with incurable boils on your knees and legs, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 “The Lord will banish you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you’ll serve other gods of wood and stone. 37 You’ll become a desolation and a proverb, and you’ll be mocked among the people where the Lord will drive you.”
Complete Reversal
38 “You’ll plant many seeds in a field, but your harvest will be small because the locust will consume it. 39 You’ll plant a vineyard, but you won’t drink wine or harvest any grapes because worms will consume it. 40 You’ll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won’t be able to anoint yourself with oil because the olives will drop off the trees. 41 You’ll bear sons and daughters, but they won’t belong to you because they’ll go into captivity. 42 Whirling locusts will consume every tree and the produce of your land. 43 The foreigner in your midst will be elevated higher and higher over you, while you are brought low little by little. 44 He will lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He’ll be the head, but you’ll be the tail. 45 All these curses will come upon you and will overwhelm you until you are exterminated, because you didn’t obey[u] the Lord your God to keep his commands and statutes, which he had commanded you. 46 These curses[v] will serve as a sign and wonder for you and your descendants[w] as long as you live.”[x]
Servitude and Bondage
47 “Because you didn’t serve the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly,[y] despite the abundance of everything you have, 48 you’ll serve your enemies whom the Lord your God will send against you. You will serve in famine and in drought,[z] in nakedness, and in lack of everything. They’ll[aa] set a yoke of iron upon your neck until they[ab] have exterminated you.
49 “The Lord will raise a distant nation against you from the other side of the earth. Swooping down like a vulture, 50 it will be a nation whose language you don’t understand, whose[ac] stern appearance[ad] neither shows regard[ae] nor extends grace to anyone whether old or young. 51 Its army[af] will consume the offspring of your animals and the produce of your soil until you are exterminated. They[ag] will leave you without your grain, wine, oil, the increase of your cattle, and the lamb of your flock, until you are completely destroyed. 52 They’ll[ah] besiege all your cities until your high and fortified walls in which you have trusted collapse throughout the land. Indeed, they will besiege all your cities, which the Lord your God gave you.”
Cannibalism
53 “You’ll eat your own children[ai]—the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God gave you—on account of the siege and the distress with which your enemy will oppress you. 54 Even the compassionate man among you—the very sensitive one—will look with evil in his eyes toward his brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving sons, whom he spared. 55 He will withhold from each of them the flesh of his sons that he is eating—since there will be nothing left—on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in all your cities. 56 The most tender and sensitive lady among you, who doesn’t venture to touch the soles of her feet to the ground on account of her daintiness, will look with hostility in her eyes against her beloved husband, her sons, and her daughters. 57 She will eat her afterbirth[aj] and her newborn children[ak] secretly—since there will be nothing left—on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in your cities.”
Reduction in Population
58 “If you aren’t careful to observe all the words of this Law that have been written in this book, instructing you[al] to fear this glorious and awesome name of the Lord your God, 59 then he[am] will inflict extraordinary plagues on you and your children, great and lasting plagues, and severe and lasting illnesses. 60 He will inflict[an] on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they won’t be curable.[ao] 61 Moreover, the Lord will inflict you with illnesses and plagues that were not written in this Book of the Law, until you are exterminated. 62 Because you will not have obeyed[ap] the Lord your God, very few of you will be left—instead of you being as numerous as the stars in the heavens. 63 Just as the Lord delighted to prosper and increase you, so now the Lord will delight to destroy, exterminate, and banish you from the land that you are about to enter to possess.”
Scattering among the Nations
64 “He’ll[aq] scatter you among the nations[ar] from one end of the earth to the other,[as] and there you’ll serve other gods made of wood and stones, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. 65 Among those nations you’ll have no rest. There’ll be no resting place for the soles of your feet. Instead, the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a despairing spirit. 66 You’ll cling to life, being fearful by both night and day, with no assurance of survival. 67 In the morning you’ll say, ‘I wish it were evening.’ Yet in the evening you’ll say, “I wish it were morning,” on account of what you’ll dread[at] and what you’ll see.[au] 68 Finally, the Lord will bring you back to Egypt by ship, a place that I said you’ll never see again. There you’ll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 28:1 Or listen to
- Deuteronomy 28:2 Lit. and will overtake you
- Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit. shall the fruit of your womb
- Deuteronomy 28:5 The Heb. lacks grain
- Deuteronomy 28:9 Or nation
- Deuteronomy 28:9 Lit. of the Lord your God
- Deuteronomy 28:10 Lit. called
- Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit. the fruit of your womb
- Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit. the Lord
- Deuteronomy 28:12 Or good
- Deuteronomy 28:17 The Heb. lacks grain
- Deuteronomy 28:18 Lit. shall the fruit of your womb
- Deuteronomy 28:20 Lit. me
- Deuteronomy 28:25 Lit. be struck down
- Deuteronomy 28:28 Lit. and confusion of the heart
- Deuteronomy 28:29 Lit. in your ways
- Deuteronomy 28:30 Lit. violate
- Deuteronomy 28:30 Or enjoy
- Deuteronomy 28:32 Lit. all the day
- Deuteronomy 28:32 Lit. and there will be no power in your hand
- Deuteronomy 28:45 Lit. listen to the voice
- Deuteronomy 28:46 Heb. lacks curses
- Deuteronomy 28:46 Lit. seed
- Deuteronomy 28:46 Lit. until eternity
- Deuteronomy 28:47 Lit. and with gladness of heart
- Deuteronomy 28:48 Or in hunger and thirst
- Deuteronomy 28:48 Lit. he
- Deuteronomy 28:48 Lit. he
- Deuteronomy 28:50 Lit. a nation
- Deuteronomy 28:50 Or face
- Deuteronomy 28:50 Lit. who does not lift faces
- Deuteronomy 28:51 Heb. lacks army
- Deuteronomy 28:51 Lit. it
- Deuteronomy 28:52 Lit. it
- Deuteronomy 28:53 Lit. eat the fruit of your womb
- Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit. will begrudge that which comes out from between her feet
- Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit. sons whom she will bear
- Deuteronomy 28:58 The Heb. lacks instructing you
- Deuteronomy 28:59 Lit. the Lord
- Deuteronomy 28:60 Lit. will return
- Deuteronomy 28:60 Lit. they will cling to you
- Deuteronomy 28:62 Lit. listen to the voice of
- Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit. the Lord
- Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit. peoples
- Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit. end of the earth
- Deuteronomy 28:67 Lit. the dread of your heart that you will dread
- Deuteronomy 28:67 Lit. the vision of your eyes that you will see
Deuteronomy 28
King James Version
28 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
7 The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
8 The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
9 The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.
10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.
11 And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
12 The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:
14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
20 The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
21 The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
22 The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
24 The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
25 The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.
27 The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
28 The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:
29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.
31 Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.
32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thine hand.
33 The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:
34 So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
35 The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.
36 The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.
37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.
38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.
39 Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.
40 Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.
41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.
42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.
43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.
44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:
46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.
47 Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;
48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
49 The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:
51 And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.
52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.
53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:
54 So that the man that 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 which he shall leave:
55 So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
56 The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon 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 And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
58 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, The Lord Thy God;
59 Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.
60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.
61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
62 And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God.
63 And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
64 And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:
67 In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
68 And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.
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