The Bible

The Bible › Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 28

1If you diligently obey the voice of Yahweh your God, carefully carrying out all his commands that I am commanding you today, Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, because you obey 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 calves of your cattle and the young of your flocks. 5Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6Blessed will you be when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.

7Yahweh will cause your 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 roads. 8Yahweh will command the blessing upon your storehouses and everything you undertake. He will bless you in the land Yahweh your God is giving you. 9Yahweh will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he swore to you, if you keep the commands of Yahweh your God and walk in his ways. 10All the peoples of the earth will see that Yahweh’s name is proclaimed over you, and they will be afraid of you. 11Yahweh will give you abundant good in the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, on the ground Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. 12Yahweh will open for you his good treasury, the heavens, to give your land rain in its season and bless all the work of your hand. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. 13Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail. You will be only above, never below, if you obey the commands of Yahweh your God that I am commanding you today, carefully carrying them out. 14Do not turn aside from any of the words I am commanding you today, to the right or to the left, to follow other gods and serve them.

15But if you do not obey the voice of Yahweh your God, carefully carrying out all his commands and statutes that I am commanding you today, 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 bowl. 18Cursed will be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the calves of your cattle and the young of your flocks. 19Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go out.

20Yahweh will send upon you curse, confusion, and rebuke in everything you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of your evil deeds, because you have abandoned me. 21Yahweh will make pestilence cling to you until he has consumed you from the ground you are entering to possess. 22Yahweh will strike you with wasting disease, fever, inflammation, burning heat, the sword, blight, and mildew. They will pursue you until you perish. 23The heavens over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. 24Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come down upon you from heaven until you are destroyed.

25Yahweh will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will go out against them by one road and flee before them by seven roads. You will become a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26Your corpse will become food for every bird of the heavens and 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 itching from which you cannot be healed. 28Yahweh will strike you with madness, blindness, and bewilderment of heart. 29At noon you will grope as a blind person gropes in darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. You will be continually oppressed and robbed, with no one to save you. 30You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not begin to enjoy it. 31Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be seized from before you and will not be returned. Your flock will be given to your enemies, with no one to save you. 32Your sons and daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will watch and fail with longing for them all day, but your hand will have no power. 33A people you do not know will eat the fruit of your ground and all your toil. You will be continually oppressed and crushed. 34What your eyes see will drive you mad. 35Yahweh will strike you on the knees and legs with terrible boils from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

36Yahweh will lead you and the king you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. There you will serve other gods, wood and stone. 37You will become an object of horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you. 38You will take much seed out to the field but gather little, for the locust will consume it. 39You will plant vineyards and work them, but you will neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will eat them. 40You will have olive trees throughout 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 remain yours, for they will go into captivity. 42The whirring locust will take possession of all your trees and the fruit of your ground. 43The resident foreigner among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink 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, pursue you, and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of Yahweh your God by keeping his commands and statutes that he commanded you. 46They will be a sign and a wonder upon you and your descendants forever. 47Because you did not serve Yahweh your God with joy and gladness of heart in the abundance of everything, 48you will serve the enemies Yahweh sends against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lack of everything. He will put an iron yoke 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 fierce-faced nation that shows no regard for the old and no mercy to the young. 51It will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed. It will leave you no grain, new wine, or oil, no calves of your cattle or young of your flocks, until it has made you perish. 52It will besiege you in all your towns until your high, fortified walls in which you trust come down throughout your land. It will besiege you in all your towns throughout the land Yahweh your God has given you.

53In the siege and distress with which your enemy presses you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom Yahweh your God has given you. 54The most tender and pampered man among you will look grudgingly upon his brother, the wife of his embrace, and the children he still has left, 55refusing to give any of them some of his children’s flesh that he is eating, because he has nothing else left in the siege and distress with which your enemy presses you in all your towns. 56The tender and pampered woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she was so pampered and delicate, will look grudgingly upon the husband of her embrace, her son, and her daughter, 57withholding the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the children she bears. For she will eat them secretly for lack of everything, in the siege and distress with which your enemy presses you in your towns.

58If you do not carefully carry out all the words of this instruction written in this scroll, fearing this glorious and awe-inspiring name—Yahweh your God— 59Yahweh will make your plagues and the plagues of your descendants extraordinary: great and lasting plagues, terrible and lasting diseases. 60He will bring back upon you all the illnesses of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61Yahweh will also bring upon you every disease and every plague that is not written in this scroll of instruction, until you are destroyed. 62You will be left few in number, although you were as numerous as the stars of the heavens, because you did not obey the voice of Yahweh your God. 63Just as Yahweh delighted over you to do you good and make you numerous, so Yahweh will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you. You will be torn from the ground you are entering to possess. 64Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve other gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and stone. 65Among those nations you will find no ease, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There Yahweh will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a languishing life. 66Your life will hang in doubt before you. Night and day you will be afraid and have no confidence in 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 fear in your heart and what your eyes see. 68Yahweh will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by a way of which 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 there will be no buyer.

Translation notes 8

28:1–19 — Blessing and curse. The repeated forms, including city and field, womb and ground, and coming in and going out, describe the whole of Israel’s life. “Fruit of your womb” retains the bodily image for offspring. The curses deliberately reverse the blessings.

28:20 — You have abandoned me. The Hebrew changes into the first person here, presenting Yahweh’s accusation within Moses’ speech. Some ancient witnesses make the reference third person; the abrupt wording is retained.

28:22, 27 — Afflictions. Ancient disease and crop-damage terms do not always match modern diagnoses. “Sword” follows the received pointing in verse 22; the same consonants can be read “drought.” In verse 27 the written word for swellings has a traditional reading often understood as hemorrhoids. “Tumors” keeps the sense broad without claiming a precise diagnosis.

28:30 — Sexual violence. The written Hebrew uses a harsh sexual verb understood here as rape or violation. The traditional reading substitutes the more ordinary “lie with her.” The translation preserves the written form’s violent force in this context of conquest and dispossession; this is not a description of consensual courtship.

28:42 — Whirring locust. The Hebrew name evokes a buzzing or rattling sound. The exact insect meant is uncertain.

28:53–57 — Siege and cannibalism. The threatened horrors include eating children and afterbirth. These details, the bodily language, and the repeated cause of siege and distress are explicit in the Hebrew and have been retained.

28:63 — Delight in destruction. The disturbing parallel between delight in doing good and delight in destroying is stated by the Hebrew. The wording has not been softened into mere permission or reluctance.

28:68 — No buyer. The final threat reverses the exodus: return to Egypt, slavery, and even failure to find a purchaser. The reflexive form is rendered “offer yourselves for sale”; “be sold” is another understanding.