Deuteronomy 28
1 “If you truly listen to the voice of the LORD your God, carefully carrying out all his commands that I am giving you today, then the LORD 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 the voice of the LORD your God.
3 You will be blessed in the city, and blessed in the countryside.
4 Blessed will be the fruit of your womb, the produce of your soil, and the offspring of your livestock: the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
5 Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 You will be blessed when you come in, and blessed when you go out.
7 The LORD will cause the enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They will come out against you by one road and flee before you by seven.
8 The LORD will command the blessing to be with you in your storehouses and in everything you undertake, and he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
9 The LORD will establish you as a holy people for himself, as he swore to you, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.
10 All the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the LORD is called upon you, and they will be afraid of you.
11 The LORD will make you prosper greatly in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil, in the land that the LORD swore to your ancestors he would give you.
12 The LORD will open his good treasury, the heavens, to give rain to your land at the proper time and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations and will not borrow.”
13 “The LORD will make you the head and not the tail. You will always be above and never below, if you listen to the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, to keep and carry out.
14 Do not turn aside from any of the words I am commanding you today, to the right or to the left, by following other gods and serving them.
15 But if you do not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, carefully carrying out all his commands and decrees that I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
16 You will be cursed in the city, and cursed in the countryside.
17 Cursed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 Cursed will be the fruit of your womb and the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in, and cursed when you go out.
20 The LORD will send against you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you undertake, until you are destroyed and perish quickly because of the evil of your deeds, because you abandoned me.
21 The LORD will make plague cling to you until it has consumed you from the land you are entering to take possession of.
22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, fever, inflammation, burning heat, sword, blight, and mildew. These will pursue you until you perish.
23 The sky above your head will be bronze, and the ground beneath you iron.”
24 “The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder. It will come down from the sky on you until you are destroyed.
25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will go out against them by one road and flee before them by seven, and you will become a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 Your corpse will become food for all the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth, and no one will scare them away.
27 The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, scabs, and itching, from which you will not be able to recover.
28 The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind.
29 At midday you will grope around as a blind person gropes in darkness. You will not succeed in anything you do; you will be oppressed and robbed every day, with no one to rescue you.
30 You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit.
31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken right in front of you and will not return to you. Your sheep will be handed over to your enemies, and no one will rescue you.
32 Your sons and daughters will be handed over to another people. Your eyes will watch and yearn for them all day long, but you will be powerless to do anything.
33 A people you do not know will eat the produce of your soil and all your labor. You will be oppressed and crushed every day.
34 You will go mad at the sight of what your eyes see.
35 The LORD will strike you with painful boils on your knees and legs, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head, from which you will not be able to recover.”
36 “The LORD will take you and the king you set over yourself to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors. There you will serve other gods, made of wood and stone.
37 You will become an object of horror, a proverb, and a joke among all the peoples to whom the LORD leads you.
38 You will take much seed out to the field but gather little, because locusts will devour it.
39 You will plant vineyards and tend them, but you will not drink the wine or store it, because worms will eat the vines.
40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with oil, because your olives will fall off.
41 You will have sons and daughters, but they will not remain with you, because they will go into captivity.
42 Locusts will take all your trees and the produce of your soil.
43 The foreigner living among you will rise higher and higher, while you sink lower and lower.
44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
45 All these curses will come upon you, pursue you, and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God or keep the commands and decrees he gave you.
46 They will be a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants forever.”
47 “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a willing heart when you had plenty,
48 you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you, in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and utter need. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49 The LORD will bring against you a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, swooping down like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand.
50 It is a fierce nation that will show no regard for the old and no mercy to the young.
51 It will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. It will leave you no grain, new wine, or oil, no calves from your herds or lambs from your flocks, until it has finished you off.
52 It will besiege you in all your towns until the high, fortified walls you trust in throughout your land come down. It will besiege you in all your towns throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you.
53 You will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you, during the siege and distress your enemy will bring upon you.
54 The most refined and pampered man among you will look with ill will on his brother, the wife he holds close, and the children he still has left.
55 He will not share with any of them the flesh of his children that he is eating, because he has nothing left. This will happen during the siege and distress your enemy will bring upon you in all your towns.
56 The most refined and pampered woman among you, who would never even set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so pampered and refined, will look with ill will on the husband she holds close, and on her son and daughter.
57 She will look with ill will at the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and at the children she bears, because in utter need she will secretly eat them during the siege and distress your enemy will bring upon you in your towns.
58 If you do not carefully carry out all the words of this law written in this book, and fear this glorious and awesome Name—the LORD your God,”
59 “the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues upon you and your descendants: great, lasting plagues and severe, persistent illnesses.
60 He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt that filled you with dread, and they will cling to you.
61 The LORD will also bring upon you every illness and every plague not written in this book of the law, until you are destroyed.
62 You, who were as numerous as the stars of the sky, will be left few in number, because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.
63 Just as the LORD once took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so he will take delight in bringing you to ruin and destroying you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to take possession of.
64 The LORD will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve other gods, made of wood and stone, unknown to you and your ancestors.
65 Among those nations you will find no peace, and no rest for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing spirit.
66 Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, with no certainty that you will live.
67 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 fear filling your heart and the sights your eyes will see.
68 The LORD will send you back to Egypt in ships, by the route I told you, ‘You will never see it again.’ There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
69 These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he made with them at Horeb.
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