THE
BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY
Deuteronomy
Chapter 28
1
¶ If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, being
watchful to do all his commandments which I command you this day, the LORD your
God will set you high above all nations of the earth:
2
And all these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to
the voice of the LORD your God.
3
You shall be blessed in the city, and blessed in the country.
4
The fruit of your body shall be blessed, along with the fruit of your ground,
and the fruit of your livestock, the increase of your herds, and your flocks of
sheep.
5
You shall be blessed in your basket and your stores.
6
You shall be blessed when you come in, and blessed when you go out.
7
The LORD will cause the enemies that rise up against you to be struck down
before your face: they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you
seven ways.
8
The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your storehouses, and in all
that you set your hand to; and he will bless you in the land which the LORD
your God gives you.
9
The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to
you, if you will keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and walk in his
ways.
10
And all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the
LORD; and they shall be afraid of you.
11
And the LORD shall make you prosper abundantly in goods, in the fruit of your
body, in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land
which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
12
The LORD shall open to you his good treasury, the heavens to give the rain to
your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hands: and you shall
lend to many nations, and shall not borrow.
13
And the LORD shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall move only
upward, and never downward; if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your
God, which I command you this day, to observe and to do them:
14
And you do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to
the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15
¶ But if you will not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, being watchful
to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day; all
these curses shall come upon you, and overtake you:
16
You shall be cursed in the city, and cursed in the country.
17
You shall be cursed in your basket and your stores.
18
You shall be cursed in the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your
land, the increase of your herds, and your flocks of sheep.
19
You shall be cursed when you come in, and cursed when you go out.
20
The LORD shall send upon you cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that you set
your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because
of the wickedness of your doings, by which you have forsaken me.
21
The LORD will make the pestilence cleave to you, until he has consumed you from
off the land, which you go to possess.
22
The LORD will smite you with a consumption, and with
fever, and with inflammation, and fiery heat, and with the sword, and with
blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish.
23
And the heavens that are above your head shall be as brass, and
the earth that is under you shall be as iron.
24
The LORD shall turn the rain of your land into powder and dust: it shall come
down upon you from heaven, until you are destroyed.
25
The LORD will cause you to be struck down before your enemies: you will march
out against them in one direction, and flee before them in seven directions:
and you shall be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
26
And your dead body shall be food for all the birds of the air, and for the
beasts of the earth, and no man shall frighten them away.
27
The LORD will strike you with the boils of
28
The LORD will strike you with madness, and blindness, and dismay of mind and
heart:
29
And you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and your ways
shall not prosper: and you will only be oppressed and robbed continually, and
no man shall save you.
30
You shall betroth a wife, but another man will lie with her: you shall build a house,
but you shall not live in it: you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather
its grapes.
31
Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it:
your donkey shall be violently taken away as you watch, and shall not be
restored to you: your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you
shall not have anyone to rescue them.
32
Your sons and your daughters will be handed over to another people,
while you watch, and grow weary longing for them all day long: but will
be powerless to do anything.
33
The fruit of your land, and all your labors, shall be eaten by a nation that
you do not know; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually:
34
So that you shall be driven mad by the things that your eyes shall see.
35
The LORD shall strike you in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore boil that
cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36
The LORD shall bring you, and the king which you have
set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known; and
there you will serve other gods, of wood and stone.
37
And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a
byword, among all nations where the LORD shall lead you.
38
You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather but
little in; for the locust will consume it.
39
You shall plant vineyards, and dress them, but shall neither drink of
the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.
40
You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not
anoint yourself with the oil; for your olive trees shall drop their
fruit.
41
You shall father sons and daughters, but you shall not enjoy them; because they
will go into captivity.
42
The locust will consume all your trees and fruit of your land.
43
The stranger among you shall rise higher and higher above you; and you shall
sink lower and lower.
44
He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him: he will be the head, and
you shall be the tail.
45
¶ Moreover all these curses will come upon you, and will pursue you, and
overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you did not listen to the voice
of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he
commanded you:
46
And they shall be upon you as a sign and as a wonder, and upon your descendants
forever.
47
Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness, and with gladness
of heart, even though you had an abundance of all things;
48
Therefore you shall serve your enemies which the LORD will send against you, in
hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in need of all things: and
he will put a yoke of iron on your neck, until he has destroyed you.
49
The LORD shall bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as
swift as an eagle flies; a nation whose tongue you will not understand;
50
A nation of fierce countenance, which shows no regard for the elderly, or
kindness to the young:
51
Which shall eat the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your land, until you
are destroyed: who also will not leave you either
grain, wine, or oil, or the increase of your herds, or the young
of your sheep, until he has destroyed you.
52
And he will besiege you in all your towns, until the high and fortified walls
in which you trusted come down, throughout all your land: and he will besiege
you in all your towns throughout all the land, which the LORD your God has
given you.
53
And you shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of
your daughters, that the LORD your God has given you, in the siege, and in the
hardship, with which your enemies shall distress you:
54
So that the man who is kind among you,
and very considerate, will begin to look with evil upon his brother, and upon
the wife of his bosom, and upon his remaining children who are left to him:
55
So that he will not share with any of them the flesh of those of his
children whom he is eating: because he has nothing left in the siege, and in
the hardship, with which your enemies shall distress you in all your towns.
56
The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole
of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, shall look with
evil on the husband of her bosom, and on her son, and on her daughter,
57
Refusing to share the afterbirth which comes out from between her feet, and the
children whom she shall bear: for she will eat them secretly for want of all
else during the siege and hardship, with which your enemy shall distress you in
your towns.
58
If you will not be watchful to do all the words of this law that are written in
this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD YOUR GOD;
59
Then the LORD will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions,
great and long lasting plagues, and grievous sicknesses, that are of long
duration.
60
Moreover he will bring upon you all the diseases of
61
Also the LORD will bring upon you every sickness, and every affliction, that is
not written in this book of the law, until you are destroyed.
62
And you shall be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of
heaven for multitude; because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your
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 ruin; and you shall be plucked off the land which you go to
possess.
64
And the LORD shall scatter you among all people, from one end of the earth even
to the other; and there you will serve other gods, which neither you nor your
fathers have known, even wood and stone.
65
And among these nations you shall find no ease, nor will the sole of your foot
have rest: but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, and failing
eyes, and sorrow of mind:
66
And your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear day and night,
and will have no assurance that you will live:
67
In the morning you will say, I wish to God it were evening! and
in the evening you will say, I wish to God it were morning! Because of the fear
that you will have in your heart, and because of the things you will see with
your eyes.
68
And the LORD will bring you back to Egypt with ships, a journey which I
promised that you would never make again: and there you will be sold to your
enemies as male and female slaves, and no man shall redeem you.