Deuteronomy 28

The Blessings at Mount Gerizim

1“1Now it shall be, if you diligently 2obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, that the Lord your God 3will put you high above all the nations of the earth. 2And all these blessings will come to you and 4reach you if you 5obey the Lord your God:

3“Blessed will you be in the city, and blessed will you be 6in the 7country.

4“Blessed will be the 8children of your womb, the 9produce of your ground, and the 10offspring of your animals: the newborn of your herd and the young of your flock.

5“Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.

6“Blessed will you be 11when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.

7“The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be 12defeated by you; they will go out against you one way and will flee at your presence seven ways. 8The Lord will command the blessing for you in your 13barns and in 14everything that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 915The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10So all the peoples of the earth will see that 1617you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will be afraid of you. 1118And the Lord will give you more than enough prosperity, in the 19children of your womb, in the 20offspring of your livestock, and in the 21produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless every work of your hand; and 22you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. 1323And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will only be above, and not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you today, to 24follow them carefully, 14and 25do not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right or the left, to pursue other gods to serve them.

Consequences of Disobedience

15“26But it shall come about, if you do not 27obey the Lord your God, to be careful to 28follow all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

16“29Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the 30country.

17“31Cursed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.

18“32Cursed will be the 33children of your womb, the 34produce of your ground, the newborn of your herd, and the offspring of your flock.

19“35Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go out.

20“36The Lord will send against you curses, panic, and 37rebuke, in 38everything you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until 39you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have abandoned Me. 2140The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has eliminated you from the land where you are entering to take possession of it. 2241The Lord will strike you with consumption, inflammation, fever, feverish heat, and with 42the sword, 43with blight, and with mildew, and they will pursue you until 44you perish. 2345The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. 2446The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

25“47The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways from their presence, and you will 48be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 2649Your dead bodies will 50serve as food for all birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

27“51The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with 52tumors, the festering rash, and with scabies, from which you cannot be healed. 28The Lord will strike you with insanity, blindness, and with confusion of 53mind; 29and you will be 54groping about at noon, just as a person who is blind gropes in the darkness, and you will not be successful in your ways; but you will only be 55oppressed and robbed all the time, with no one to save you. 3056You will 57betroth a woman, but another man will 58violate her; 59you will build a house, but you will not live in it; you will plant a vineyard, but you will not make use of its fruit. 31Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey will be snatched away from you, and will not 60be restored to you; your 61sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you. 3262Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes look on and long for them constantly; but there will be nothing 63you can do. 3364A people whom you do not know will eat the produce of your ground and every product of your labor, and you will never be anything but oppressed and mistreated continually. 34You will also be driven insane by the sight of 65what you see. 3566The Lord will strike you on the knees and thighs with severe boils from which you cannot be healed, and strike you from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. 3667The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you appoint over you, to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, made of 68wood and stone. 37And 69you will become an object of horror, a song of mockery, and an object of taunting among all the peoples where the Lord drives you.

38“70You will bring out a great amount of seed to the field, but you will gather in little, because 71the locust will devour it. 3972You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor bring in the harvest, because the worm will eat it. 4073You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, because your olives will drop off prematurely. 4174You will father sons and daughters but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity. 4275The cricket will take possession of all your trees and the produce of your ground. 4376The stranger who is among you will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower. 4477He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; 78he will be the head, and you will be the tail.

45“So all these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you 79until you are destroyed, because you would not 80obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46And they will become 81a sign and a wonder 82against you and your 83descendants forever.

47“84Since you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, in gratitude for the abundance of all things, 48you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, 85in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and devoid of all things; and He 86will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

49“87The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, 88as the eagle swoops down; a nation whose language you will not understand, 50a nation 89with a defiant attitude, who will 90have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. 51Furthermore, it will eat the 91offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed; a nation that will leave you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the newborn of your cattle or the young of your flock, until they have eliminated you. 5292And it will besiege you in all your 93towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it will besiege you in all your 94towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you. 5395Then you will eat the 96offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the hardship by which your enemy will 97oppress you. 54The man who is 98refined and very delicate among you 99will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife 100he cherishes, and toward the rest of his children who are left, 55so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else left, during the siege and the hardship by which your enemy will 101oppress you in all your 102towns. 56103The 104refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and tenderness, 105will be hostile toward the husband 106she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, 57and toward her afterbirth that comes from between her 107legs, and toward her children to whom she gives birth, because 108she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the hardship with which your enemy will 109oppress you in your 110towns.

58“If you are not careful to 111follow all the words of this Law that are written in this book, to 112113fear this honored and awesome 114name, 115the Lord your God, 59then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and 116your descendants, 117severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. 60118And He will bring back on you every disease of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. 61Also every sickness and every plague, which are not written in the book of this Law, the Lord will bring on you 119until you are destroyed. 62Then you will be left few in 120number, 121whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not 122obey the Lord your God. 63And it will come about that, just as the Lord 123rejoiced over you to be good to you, and make you numerous, so will the Lord 124rejoice over you to wipe you out and destroy you; and you will be 125torn away from the land which you are entering to possess. 64Furthermore, the Lord will 126scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to 127the other; and there you will 128serve other gods, made of wood and stone, which you and your fathers have not known. 65129Among those nations you will find no peace, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there 130the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66So your lives will be 131hanging in doubt before you; and you will be terrified night and day, and have no assurance of your life. 67132In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And at evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the terror of your heart which you fear, and the sight of your eyes which you will see. 68And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I said to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”