The Blessings at Mount Gerizim

28 (A)Now it shall be, if you diligently [a]obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, that the Lord your God (B)will put you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings will come to you and (C)reach you if you [b]obey the Lord your God:

“Blessed will you be in the city, and blessed will you be (D)in the [c]country.

“Blessed will be the [d]children of your womb, the [e]produce of your ground, and the [f]offspring of your animals: the newborn of your herd and the young of your flock.

“Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.

“Blessed will you be (E)when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.

“The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be [g]defeated by you; they will go out against you one way and will flee at your presence seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing for you in your [h]barns and in (F)everything that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. (G)The 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. 10 So all the peoples of the earth will see that [i](H)you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will be afraid of you. 11 (I)And the Lord will give you more than enough prosperity, in the [j]children of your womb, in the [k]offspring of your livestock, and in the [l]produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The 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 (J)you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. 13 (K)And 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 [m]follow them carefully, 14 and (L)do 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 (M)But it shall come about, if you do not [n]obey the Lord your God, to be careful to [o]follow all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

16 (N)Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the [p]country.

17 (O)Cursed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.

18 (P)Cursed will be the [q]children of your womb, the [r]produce of your ground, the newborn of your herd, and the offspring of your flock.

19 (Q)Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go out.

20 (R)The Lord will send against you curses, panic, and (S)rebuke, in [s]everything you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until (T)you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have abandoned Me. 21 (U)The 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. 22 (V)The Lord will strike you with consumption, inflammation, fever, feverish heat, and with [t]the sword, (W)with blight, and with mildew, and they will pursue you until (X)you perish. 23 [u]The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. 24 (Y)The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

25 (Z)The 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 (AA)be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 (AB)Your dead bodies will [v]serve 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 (AC)The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with (AD)tumors, the festering rash, and with scabies, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will strike you with insanity, blindness, and with confusion of [w]mind; 29 and you will be (AE)groping 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 [x]oppressed and robbed all the time, with no one to save you. 30 (AF)You will [y]betroth a woman, but another man will [z]violate her; (AG)you 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. 31 Your 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 [aa]be restored to you; your [ab]sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you. 32 (AH)Your 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 [ac]you can do. 33 (AI)A 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. 34 You will also be driven insane by the sight of [ad]what you see. 35 (AJ)The 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. 36 (AK)The 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 (AL)wood and stone. 37 And (AM)you 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 (AN)You will bring out a great amount of seed to the field, but you will gather in little, because (AO)the locust will devour it. 39 (AP)You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor bring in the harvest, because the worm will eat it. 40 (AQ)You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, because your olives will drop off prematurely. 41 (AR)You will father sons and daughters but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity. 42 (AS)The cricket will take possession of all your trees and the produce of your ground. 43 (AT)The stranger who is among you will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower. 44 (AU)He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; (AV)he 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 (AW)until you are destroyed, because you would not [ae]obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And they will become (AX)a sign and a wonder [af]against you and your [ag]descendants forever.

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

49 (BB)The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, (BC)as the eagle swoops down; a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation [ah]with a defiant attitude, who will (BD)have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. 51 Furthermore, it will eat the [ai]offspring 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. 52 (BE)And it will besiege you in all your [aj]towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it will besiege you in all your [ak]towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53 (BF)Then you will eat the [al]offspring 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 [am]oppress you. 54 The man who is [an]refined and very delicate among you [ao]will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife [ap]he cherishes, and toward the rest of his children who are left, 55 so 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 [aq]oppress you in all your [ar]towns. 56 (BG)The [as]refined 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, [at]will be hostile toward the husband [au]she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, 57 and toward her afterbirth that comes from between her [av]legs, and toward her children to whom she gives birth, because (BH)she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the hardship with which your enemy will [aw]oppress you in your [ax]towns.

58 “If you are not careful to [ay]follow all the words of this Law that are written in this book, to [az](BI)fear this honored and awesome (BJ)name, [ba]the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and [bb]your descendants, [bc]severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. 60 (BK)And He will bring back on you every disease of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which are not written in the book of this Law, the Lord will bring on you (BL)until you are destroyed. 62 Then you will be left few in [bd]number, (BM)whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not [be]obey the Lord your God. 63 And it will come about that, just as the Lord (BN)rejoiced over you to be good to you, and make you numerous, so will the Lord (BO)rejoice over you to wipe you out and destroy you; and you will be (BP)torn away from the land which you are entering to possess. 64 Furthermore, the Lord will (BQ)scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to [bf]the other; and there you will (BR)serve other gods, made of wood and stone, which you and your fathers have not known. 65 (BS)Among those nations you will find no peace, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there (BT)the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 So your lives will be [bg]hanging in doubt before you; and you will be terrified night and day, and have no assurance of your life. 67 (BU)In 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. 68 And 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.”

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:1 Lit listen to the voice of
  2. Deuteronomy 28:2 Lit listen to the voice of
  3. Deuteronomy 28:3 Lit field
  4. Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit fruit
  5. Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit fruit
  6. Deuteronomy 28:4 Lit fruit
  7. Deuteronomy 28:7 Lit struck
  8. Deuteronomy 28:8 Or storehouses
  9. Deuteronomy 28:10 Lit the name of the Lord is called upon you
  10. Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit fruit
  11. Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit fruit
  12. Deuteronomy 28:11 Lit fruit
  13. Deuteronomy 28:13 Lit be careful and to perform
  14. Deuteronomy 28:15 Lit listen to the voice of
  15. Deuteronomy 28:15 Lit perform
  16. Deuteronomy 28:16 Lit field
  17. Deuteronomy 28:18 Lit fruit
  18. Deuteronomy 28:18 Lit fruit
  19. Deuteronomy 28:20 Lit every putting forth of your hand which you do
  20. Deuteronomy 28:22 Another reading is drought
  21. Deuteronomy 28:23 Lit Your
  22. Deuteronomy 28:26 Lit be for
  23. Deuteronomy 28:28 Lit heart
  24. Deuteronomy 28:29 Or exploited
  25. Deuteronomy 28:30 A betrothed couple was considered legally married, but did not yet live together
  26. Deuteronomy 28:30 Or be intimate with
  27. Deuteronomy 28:31 Lit return to
  28. Deuteronomy 28:31 Or flock
  29. Deuteronomy 28:32 Lit to the power of your hand
  30. Deuteronomy 28:34 Lit your eyes which you
  31. Deuteronomy 28:45 Lit listen to the voice of
  32. Deuteronomy 28:46 Or on
  33. Deuteronomy 28:46 Lit seed
  34. Deuteronomy 28:50 Lit defiant-faced
  35. Deuteronomy 28:51 Lit fruit
  36. Deuteronomy 28:52 Lit gates
  37. Deuteronomy 28:52 Lit gates
  38. Deuteronomy 28:53 Lit fruit of your womb
  39. Deuteronomy 28:53 Or torment
  40. Deuteronomy 28:54 Or spoiled and pampered
  41. Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit his eye will be evil toward
  42. Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit of his breast
  43. Deuteronomy 28:55 Or torment
  44. Deuteronomy 28:55 Lit gates
  45. Deuteronomy 28:56 Or spoiled and pampered
  46. Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit her eye shall be evil toward
  47. Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit of her breast
  48. Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit feet
  49. Deuteronomy 28:57 Or torment
  50. Deuteronomy 28:57 Lit gates
  51. Deuteronomy 28:58 Lit perform
  52. Deuteronomy 28:58 Or revere
  53. Deuteronomy 28:58 Heb YHWH
  54. Deuteronomy 28:59 Lit plagues on your seed
  55. Deuteronomy 28:59 Lit great
  56. Deuteronomy 28:62 Lit people
  57. Deuteronomy 28:62 Lit listen to the voice of
  58. Deuteronomy 28:64 Lit the end of the earth
  59. Deuteronomy 28:66 Lit be hung for you in front

Blessings for Obedience

28 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow(A) all his commands(B) I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.(C) All these blessings will come on you(D) and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:

You will be blessed(E) in the city and blessed in the country.(F)

The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.(G)

Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.(H)

The Lord will grant that the enemies(I) who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.(J)

The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless(K) you in the land he is giving you.

The Lord will establish you as his holy people,(L) as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands(M) of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name(N) of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock(O) and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.(P)

12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse(Q) of his bounty,(R) to send rain(S) on your land in season and to bless(T) all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.(U) 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow(V) them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.(W) 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left,(X) following other gods and serving them.

Curses for Disobedience

15 However, if you do not obey(Y) the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today,(Z) all these curses will come on you and overtake you:(AA)

16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.(AB)

17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.(AC)

18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.(AD)

19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.(AE)

20 The Lord will send on you curses,(AF) confusion and rebuke(AG) in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin(AH) because of the evil(AI) you have done in forsaking him.[a] 21 The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess.(AJ) 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting disease,(AK) with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought,(AL) with blight(AM) and mildew, which will plague(AN) you until you perish.(AO) 23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron.(AP) 24 The Lord will turn the rain(AQ) of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.

25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated(AR) before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven,(AS) and you will become a thing of horror(AT) to all the kingdoms on earth.(AU) 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds(AV) and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away.(AW) 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt(AX) and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29 At midday you will grope(AY) about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue(AZ) you.

30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her.(BA) You will build a house, but you will not live in it.(BB) You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.(BC) 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation,(BD) and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. 33 A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression(BE) all your days.(BF) 34 The sights you see will drive you mad.(BG) 35 The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils(BH) that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.(BI)

36 The Lord will drive you and the king(BJ) you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors.(BK) There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone.(BL) 37 You will become a thing of horror,(BM) a byword(BN) and an object of ridicule(BO) among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.(BP)

38 You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little,(BQ) because locusts(BR) will devour(BS) it. 39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine(BT) or gather the grapes, because worms will eat(BU) them.(BV) 40 You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off.(BW) 41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity.(BX) 42 Swarms of locusts(BY) will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.

43 The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower.(BZ) 44 They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them.(CA) They will be the head, but you will be the tail.(CB)

45 All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you(CC) until you are destroyed,(CD) because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. 46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.(CE) 47 Because you did not serve(CF) the Lord your God joyfully and gladly(CG) in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst,(CH) in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke(CI) on your neck(CJ) until he has destroyed you.

49 The Lord will bring a nation against you(CK) from far away, from the ends of the earth,(CL) like an eagle(CM) swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand,(CN) 50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old(CO) or pity for the young. 51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine(CP) or olive oil,(CQ) nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined.(CR) 52 They will lay siege(CS) to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.(CT)

53 Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you.(CU) 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities.(CV) 56 The most gentle and sensitive(CW) woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter(CX) 57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them(CY) secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.

58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law,(CZ) which are written in this book, and do not revere(DA) this glorious and awesome name(DB)—the Lord your God— 59 the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60 He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt(DC) that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law,(DD) until you are destroyed.(DE) 62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky(DF) will be left but few(DG) in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63 Just as it pleased(DH) the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please(DI) him to ruin and destroy you.(DJ) You will be uprooted(DK) from the land you are entering to possess.

64 Then the Lord will scatter(DL) you among all nations,(DM) from one end of the earth to the other.(DN) There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.(DO) 65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place(DP) for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes(DQ) weary with longing, and a despairing heart.(DR) 66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.(DS) 68 The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again.(DT) There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:20 Hebrew me