Chapter 28

Blessings for Obedience. ¹ Now,^(A)(B) if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord, your God, carefully observing all his commandments which I give you today, the Lord, your God, will set you high above all the nations of the earth.^{(C) 2} All these blessings will come upon you and overwhelm you when you obey the voice of the Lord, your God:

Victory and Prosperity. ⁷ The Lord will beat down before you the enemies that rise up against you; they will come out against you from one direction, and flee before you in seven.^{[b](G) 8} The Lord will affirm the blessing upon you, on your barns and on all your undertakings; 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, as he swore to you,^(H) if you keep the commandments 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 proclaimed over you,^[c] and they will be afraid of you.^{(I) 11} The Lord will generously increase the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil, upon the land which the Lord swore to your ancestors he would give you.^{(J) 12} The Lord will open up for you his rich storehouse, the heavens, to give your land rain in due season and to bless all the works of your hands. You will lend to many nations but borrow from none.^{(K) 13} The Lord will make you the head not the tail, the top not the bottom, if you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I am giving you today, observing them carefully, ¹⁴ not turning aside, either to the right or to the left, from any of the words which I am giving you today, following other gods and serving them.^(L)

Curses for Disobedience. ¹⁵ But if you do not obey the voice of the Lord, your God,^(M) carefully observing all his commandments and statutes which I give you today, all these curses shall come upon you and overwhelm you:

^16 (N)May you be cursed in the city, and cursed in the country! ¹⁷ Cursed be your grain basket and your kneading bowl! ¹⁸ Cursed be the fruit of your womb, the produce of your soil and the offspring of your livestock, the issue of your herds and the young of your flocks! ¹⁹ May you be cursed in your coming in, and cursed in your going out!

Sickness and Defeat. ²⁰ The Lord will send on you a curse, panic, and frustration in everything you set your hand to, until you are speedily destroyed and perish for the evil you have done in forsaking me. ^21 (O)The Lord will make disease cling to you until he has made an end of you from the land you are entering to possess. ²² The Lord will strike you with consumption, fever, and inflammation, with fiery heat and drought, with blight and mildew, that will pursue you until you perish. ²³ The heavens over your heads will be like bronze and the earth under your feet like iron.^{(P) 24} For rain the Lord will give your land powdery dust, which will come down upon you from the heavens until you are destroyed. ²⁵ The Lord will let you be beaten down before your enemies; though you advance against them from one direction, you will flee before them in seven,^[d] so that you will become an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.^{(Q) 26} Your corpses will become food for all the birds of the air and for the beasts of the field, with no one to frighten them off.^{(R) 27} The Lord will strike you with Egyptian boils^(S) and with tumors, skin diseases and the itch, from none of which you can be cured. ^28 (T)And the Lord will strike you with madness, blindness and panic, ²⁹ so that even at midday you will grope in the dark as though blind, unable to find your way.

Despoilment. You will be oppressed and robbed continually, with no one to come to your aid. ³⁰ Though you betroth a wife, another will have her. Though you build a house, you will not live in it. Though you plant a vineyard, you will not pluck its fruits.^{(U) 31 (V)}Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat its flesh. Your donkey will be stolen in your presence, but you will never get it back. Your flocks will be given to your enemies, with no one to come to your aid. ³² Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you strain your eyes looking for them every day, having no power to do anything. ³³ A people you do not know will consume the fruit of your soil and of all your labor, and you will be thoroughly oppressed and continually crushed, ³⁴ until you are driven mad by what your eyes must look upon. ³⁵ The Lord will strike you with malignant boils of which you cannot be cured, on your knees and legs, and from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head.

Exile. ^36 (W)The Lord will bring you, and your king whom you have set over you, to a nation which you and your ancestors have not known, and there you will serve other gods, of wood and stone, ³⁷ and you will be a horror, a byword, a taunt among all the peoples to which the Lord will drive you.

Fruitless Labors. ^38 (X)Though you take out seed to your field, you will harvest but little, for the locusts will devour it. ³⁹ Though you plant and cultivate vineyards, you will not drink or store up the wine, for the worms will eat them. ⁴⁰ Though you have olive trees throughout your country, you will have no oil for ointment, for your olives will drop off. ⁴¹ Though you beget sons and daughters, they will not remain with you, for they will go into captivity. ⁴² Buzzing insects will take possession of all your trees and the crops of your soil. ^43 (Y)The resident aliens among you will rise above you higher and higher, while you sink lower and lower. ⁴⁴ They will lend to you, not you to them. They will become the head, you the tail.

⁴⁵ All these curses will come upon you, pursuing you and overwhelming you, until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord, your God, by keeping his commandments and statutes which he gave you.^{(Z) 46} They will be a sign and a wonder^[e] for you and your descendants for all time. ⁴⁷ Since you would not serve the Lord, your God, with heartfelt joy for abundance of every kind, ⁴⁸ in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and utter want, you will serve the enemies whom the Lord will send against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until he destroys you.^(AA)

Invasion and Siege. ^49 (AB)The Lord will raise up against you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, that swoops down like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce appearance, that shows neither respect for the aged nor mercy for the young. ⁵¹ They will consume the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil, until you are destroyed; they will leave you no grain or wine or oil, no issue of herd, no young of flock, until they have brought about your ruin. ⁵² They will besiege you in each of your communities, until the great, fortified walls, in which you trust, come tumbling down all over your land. They will besiege you in every community throughout the land which the Lord, your God, has given you, ^53 (AC)and because of the siege and the distress to which your enemy subjects you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord, your God, has given you. ⁵⁴ The most refined and fastidious man among you will begrudge his brother and his beloved wife and his surviving children, ⁵⁵ any share in the flesh of his children that he himself is using for food because nothing else is left him—such the siege and distress to which your enemy will subject you in all your communities. ⁵⁶ The most fastidious woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, so refined and fastidious is she, will begrudge her beloved husband and her son and daughter ⁵⁷ the afterbirth that issues from her womb and the infants she brings forth because she secretly eats them for want of anything else—such the siege and distress to which your enemy will subject you in your communities.

Plagues. ⁵⁸ If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which is written in this book, and to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord, your God,^{(AD) 59 (AE)}the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants wondrous calamities, severe and constant calamities, and malignant and constant sicknesses. ⁶⁰ He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt^[f] which you dread, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ Even any sickness or calamity not written in this book of the law, that too the Lord will bring upon you until you are destroyed. ⁶² You who were numerous as the stars of the heavens^(AF) will be left few in number, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord, your God.

Exile. ^63 (AG)Just as the Lord once took delight in making you prosper and grow, so will the Lord now take delight in ruining and destroying you, and you will be plucked out of the land you are now entering to possess. ⁶⁴ The Lord will scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve other gods, of wood and stone, which you and your ancestors have not known. ⁶⁵ Among these nations you will find no rest, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot, for there the Lord will give you an anguished heart and wearied eyes^[g] and a trembling spirit. ⁶⁶ Your life will hang in suspense and you will stand in dread both day and night, never sure of your life. ⁶⁷ In the morning you will say, “Would that it were evening!” and in the evening you will say, “Would that it were morning!” because of the dread that your heart must feel and the sight that your eyes must see. ⁶⁸ The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt, by a route which I told you that you would never see again;^(AH) and there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.

Chapter 30

Compassion for the Repentant. ^1 [a](A)When all these things, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, come upon you,^(B) and you take them to heart in any of the nations where the Lord, your God, has dispersed you,

The Choice Before Israel. ¹⁵ See, I have today set before you life and good, death and evil.^{(A) 16} If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I am giving you today, loving the Lord, your God, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and ordinances, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.^{(B) 17 (C)}If, however, your heart turns away and you do not obey, but are led astray and bow down to other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I tell you today that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:^(D) I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, ²⁰ by loving the Lord, your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the Lord swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them.^(E)

^3 [a](A)If you live in accordance with my statutes and are careful to observe my commandments, ⁴ I will give you your rains in due season, so that the land will yield its crops, and the trees their fruit;^{(B) 5} your threshing will last till vintage time, and your vintage till the time for sowing, and you will eat your fill of food, and live securely in your land.^{(C) 6} I will establish peace in the land, and you will lie down to rest with no one to cause you anxiety. I will rid the country of ravenous beasts, and no sword shall sweep across your land. ⁷ You will rout your enemies, and they shall fall before your sword. ⁸ Five of you will put a hundred of your foes to flight, and a hundred of you will put to flight ten thousand, till your enemies fall before your sword.^{(D) 9} I will look with favor upon you, and make you fruitful and numerous,^(E) as I carry out my covenant with you. ¹⁰ You shall eat the oldest stored harvest, and have to discard it to make room for the new.^{(F) 11 (G)}I will set my tabernacle in your midst, and will not loathe you. ¹² Ever present in your midst, I will be your God, and you will be my people; ¹³ I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be their slaves no more, breaking the bars of your yoke and making you walk erect.^(H)

The Punishment of Disobedience.^{[b] 14 (I)}But if you do not heed me and do not keep all these commandments, ¹⁵ if you reject my statutes and loathe my decrees, refusing to obey all my commandments and breaking my covenant, ¹⁶ then I, in turn, will do this to you: I will bring terror upon you—with consumption and fever to dim the eyes and sap the life. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will consume the crop. ¹⁷ I will turn against you, and you will be beaten down before your enemies^(J) and your foes will lord it over you. You will flee though no one pursues you.

¹⁸ If even after this you do not obey me, I will increase the chastisement for your sins sevenfold,^{(K) 19} to break your proud strength. I will make the sky above you as hard as iron, and your soil as hard as bronze, ²⁰ so that your strength will be spent in vain; your land will bear no crops, and its trees no fruit.

²¹ If then you continue hostile, unwilling to obey me, I will multiply my blows sevenfold, as your sins deserve. ²² I will unleash wild beasts against you, to rob you of your children and wipe out your livestock, till your population dwindles away and your roads become deserted.

²³ If, with all this, you still do not accept my discipline and continue hostile to me, ^24 (L)I, too, will continue to be hostile to you and I, for my part, will smite you for your sins sevenfold. ²⁵ I will bring against you the sword, the avenger of my covenant. Though you then huddle together in your cities, I will send pestilence among you, till you are delivered to the enemy. ²⁶ When I break your staff of bread, ten women will need but one oven for baking your bread, and they shall dole it out to you by weight;^(M) and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied.

²⁷ If, despite all this, you disobey and continue hostile to me, ²⁸ I will continue in my hostile rage toward you, and I myself will discipline you for your sins sevenfold, ²⁹ till you begin to eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.^{(N) 30} I will demolish your high places, overthrow your incense stands, and cast your corpses upon the corpses of your idols.^(O) In my loathing of you, ³¹ I will lay waste your cities and desolate your sanctuaries, refusing your sweet-smelling offerings. ³² So devastated will I leave the land that your enemies who come to live there will stand aghast at the sight of it.^{(P) 33} And you I will scatter among the nations^(Q) at the point of my drawn sword, leaving your countryside desolate and your cities deserted. ³⁴ Then shall the land, during the time it lies waste, make up its lost sabbaths, while you are in the land of your enemies; then shall the land have rest and make up for its sabbaths^{(R) 35} during all the time that it lies desolate, enjoying the rest that you would not let it have on your sabbaths when you lived there.

³⁶ Those of you who survive in the lands of their enemies, I will make so fainthearted that the sound of a driven leaf will pursue them, and they shall run as if from the sword, and fall though no one pursues them; ³⁷ stumbling over one another as if to escape a sword, while no one is after them—so helpless will you be to take a stand against your foes! ³⁸ You shall perish among the nations, swallowed up in your enemies’ country. ³⁹ Those of you who survive will waste away in the lands of their enemies, for their own and their ancestors’ guilt.^(S)

^40 [c]They will confess^(T) their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors in their treachery against me and in their continued hostility toward me, ⁴¹ so that I, too, had to be hostile to them and bring them into their enemies’ land. Then, when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, ⁴² I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac; and also my covenant with Abraham I will remember.^(U) The land, too, I will remember. ⁴³ The land will be forsaken by them, that in its desolation without them, it may make up its sabbaths, and that they, too, may make good the debt of their guilt for having spurned my decrees and loathed my statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet even so, even while they are in their enemies’ land, I will not reject or loathe them to the point of wiping them out, thus making void my covenant with them; for I, the Lord, am their God. ⁴⁵ I will remember for them the covenant I made with their forebears, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations,^(V) that I might be their God. I am the Lord.