Deuteronomy 28

The AIT Bible

Blessings for Obedience

1And it will be, if you truly listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I am commanding you today, that Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

2And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, because you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

3Blessed will you be in the city, and blessed will you be in the field.

4Blessed will be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock — the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock.

5Blessed will be your basket and your kneading trough.

6Blessed will you be when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.

7Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck down before you; by one road they will come out against you, and by seven roads they will flee before you.

8Yahweh will command the blessing to be with you in your storehouses and in all that you put your hand to, and he will bless you in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you.

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

10And all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of Yahweh is called over you, and they will be afraid of you.

11And Yahweh will make you overflow with prosperity in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, on the land that Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you.

12Yahweh will open for you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you will lend to many nations, but you yourself will not borrow.

13And Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail, and you will be only upward and not downward, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God that I am commanding you today, to keep and to do them.

14And you shall not turn aside from any of the words that I am commanding you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Curses for Disobedience

15But it will be, if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, being careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.

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

17Cursed will be your basket and your kneading trough.

18Cursed will be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock.

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

20Yahweh will send upon you the curse, the panic, and the rebuke in everything you put your hand to and do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me.

21Yahweh will make the plague cling to you until he has finished you off from upon the land that you are entering to possess.

22Yahweh will strike you with wasting disease, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with drought, with blight, and with mildew; and they will pursue you until you perish.

23And your heavens that are over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is beneath you, iron.

24Yahweh will make the rain of your land dust and powder; from the heavens it will come down upon you until you are destroyed.

25Yahweh will give you struck down before your enemies; by one road you will go out against them, and by seven roads you will flee before them; and you will become an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

26And your corpse will be food for every bird of the heavens and for the beast of the earth, with no one to frighten them away.

27Yahweh will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with scabs, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed.

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

29And you will grope at noon as the blind man gropes in the darkness, and you will not make your ways prosper; you will be only oppressed and robbed all the days, with no one to save you.

30You will betroth a wife, but another man will lie with her; you will build a house, but you will not dwell in it; you will plant a vineyard, but you will not enjoy its fruit.

31Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat from it; your donkey will be seized from before you and will not be returned to you; your flock will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you.

32Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all the day long, and your hand will be powerless.

33A people you do not know will eat the fruit of your ground and all your labor, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed all the days.

34And you will be driven mad by the sight your eyes see.

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

36Yahweh will drive you and your king, whom you set over yourself, to a nation you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, and there you will serve other gods, wood and stone.

37And you will become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you.

38You will carry much seed out to the field but gather little, for the locust will devour it.

39You will plant vineyards and tend them, but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, for the worm will eat it.

40You will have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with oil, for your olives will drop off.

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

42The cricket will take possession of all your trees and the fruit of your ground.

43The sojourner who is in your midst will rise above you higher and higher, while you go down lower and lower.

44He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he will be the head, and you will be the tail.

45All these curses will come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.

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

47Because you did not serve Yahweh your God with joy and gladness of heart out of the abundance of everything,

48you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger and thirst and nakedness and lack of everything; and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

49Yahweh will bring against you a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping like an eagle — a nation whose language you do not understand,

50a nation fierce of face, who will show no respect to the old and no favor to the young.

51They will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, and they will leave you no grain, new wine, or fresh oil, no offspring of your cattle or young of your flock, until they have made you perish.

52They will besiege you within all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; they will besiege you within all your gates throughout all your land that Yahweh your God has given you.

53You will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and distress with which your enemy distresses you.

54The man among you who is tender and very delicate will begrudge his brother and the wife of his embrace and the rest of his children whom he has left,

55so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children that he eats, because nothing is left to him, in the siege and distress with which your enemy distresses you within all your gates.

56The woman among you who is tender and delicate, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground out of delicateness and tenderness, will begrudge the husband of her embrace and her son and her daughter,

57even her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet, and her children whom she bears, for she will eat them secretly in lack of everything, in the siege and distress with which your enemy distresses you within your gates.

58If you do not take care to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, Yahweh your God,

59then Yahweh will make your plagues extraordinary, and the plagues of your offspring — great and lasting plagues, and severe and lasting illnesses.

60He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you.

61Also every sickness and every plague that is not written in the book of this law, Yahweh will bring them upon you until you are destroyed.

62And you will be left few in number, whereas you had been like the stars of the heavens for multitude, because you did not obey the voice of Yahweh your God.

63And it will be that just as Yahweh delighted over you to do you good and to multiply you, so Yahweh will delight over you to make you perish and to destroy you; and you will be torn away from the land that you are entering to possess.

64And Yahweh will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, and there you will serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known — wood and stone.

65And among those nations you will find no ease, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot. There Yahweh will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a languishing spirit.

66And your life will hang in doubt before you; you will dread night and day, and you will have no assurance of your life.

67In 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 of your heart that you will feel and because of the sight your eyes will see.

68And Yahweh will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, ‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.

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