Deuteronomy 28

¹“So then, if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, so as to keep and do all of his commandments, which I instruct to you this day, the Lord your God will cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which exist upon the earth.

²And all these blessings shall come to you and take hold of you, but only if you listen to his precepts.

³Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed in the field.

⁴Blessed shall be the fruit of your loins, and the fruit of your land, and the fruit of your cattle, the droves of your herds, and the folds of your sheep.

⁵Blessed shall be your barns, and blessed your storehouses.

⁶Blessed shall you be entering and departing.

⁷The Lord will grant that your enemies, who rise up against you, will fall down in your sight. They will come against you by one way, and they will flee from your face by seven ways.

⁸The Lord will send forth a blessing upon your cellars, and upon all the works of your hands. And he will bless you in the land that you shall receive.

⁹The Lord will raise you up as a holy people for himself, just as he swore to you, if you will keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in his ways.

¹⁰And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord has been invoked over you, and they shall fear you.

¹¹The Lord will cause you to be abundant in every good thing: in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your land, which the Lord swore to your fathers that he would give to you.

¹²The Lord will open his excellent treasury, the heavens, so that it may distribute rain in due time. And he will bless all the works of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you yourself will borrow nothing from anyone.

¹³And the Lord will appoint you as the head, and not as the tail. And you shall be always above, and not beneath. But only if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I entrust to you this day, and will keep and do them,

¹⁴and will not turn aside from them, neither to the right, nor to the left, nor follow strange gods, nor worship them.

¹⁵But if you are not willing to listen to the voice of the Lord your God, so as to keep and do all his commandments and ceremonies, which I instruct to you this day, all these curses shall come to you, and take hold of you.

¹⁶Cursed shall you be in the city, cursed in the field.

¹⁷Cursed shall be your barn, and cursed your storehouses.

¹⁸Cursed shall be the fruit of your loins, and the fruit of your land, the herds of your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep.

¹⁹Cursed shall you be entering, and cursed departing.

²⁰The Lord will send famine and hunger upon you, and a rebuke upon all the works that you do, until he quickly crushes and perishes you, because of your very wicked innovations, by which you have forsaken me.

²¹May the Lord join a pestilence to you, until he consumes you from the land, which you shall enter so as to possess.

²²May the Lord strike you with destitution, with fever and cold, with burning and heat, and with polluted air and rot, and may he pursue you until you perish.

²³May the heavens which are above you be of brass, and may the ground upon which you tread be of iron.

²⁴May the Lord give you dust instead of rain upon your land, and may ashes descend from heaven over you, until you have been wiped away.

²⁵May the Lord hand you over to fall before your enemies. May you go forth against them by one way, and flee by seven ways, and may you be scattered across all the kingdoms of the earth.

²⁶And may your carcass be food for all the flying things of the air and the wild beasts of the land, and may there be no one to drive them away.

²⁷May the Lord strike you with the ulcer of Egypt, and may he strike the part of your body, through which the dung goes out, with disease as well as itch, so much so that you are unable to be cured.

²⁸May the Lord strike you with frenzy and blindness and a madness of the mind.

²⁹And may you grope at midday, just as a blind man is accustomed to grope in darkness, and may your paths not be straight. And at all times may you suffer slander and be oppressed with violence, and may you have no one who may free you.

³⁰May you take a wife, though another sleeps with her. May you build a house, but not live within it. May you plant a vineyard, and not gather its vintage.

³¹May your ox be immolated before you, though you do not eat from it. May your donkey be seized in your sight, and not restored to you. May your sheep be given to your enemies, and may there be no one who may help you.

³²May your sons and your daughters be handed over to another people, as your eyes watch and languish at the sight of them throughout the day, and may there be no strength in your hand.

³³May a people you do not know eat the fruits of your land and of all your labors. And may you continually suffer from slander and oppression every day.

³⁴And may you be stupefied at the terror of the things your eyes will see.

³⁵May the Lord strike you with a very grievous ulcer in the knees and in the legs, and may you be unable to attain health, from the sole of the foot to the top of the head.

³⁶May the Lord lead you and your king, whom you will have appointed over yourself, into a nation which you and your fathers have not known. And there you will serve foreign gods, of wood and of stone.

³⁷And you will become nothing but a proverb and a fable to all the peoples to whom the Lord will lead you.

³⁸You will sow much seed upon the ground, but you will harvest little. For the locusts will devour everything.

³⁹You will dig and plant a vineyard, but you will not drink the wine, nor gather anything at all from it. For it will be devastated by worms.

⁴⁰You will have olive trees in all your borders, but you will not be anointed with the oil. For the olives will fall off and perish.

⁴¹You will conceive sons and daughters, and you will not enjoy them. For they will be led into captivity.

⁴²Rot will consume all the trees, as well as the fruits of your land.

⁴³The new arrival who lives with you in the land will ascend over you, and be higher. But you will descend, and be lower.

⁴⁴He will lend to you, and you will not lend to him. He will be as the head, and you will be as the tail.

⁴⁵And all these curses shall come to you, and shall pursue you, and shall take hold of you, until you pass away, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and you would not serve his commandments and ceremonies, which he has instructed to you.

⁴⁶And there will be the signs and portents with you, and with your offspring, forever.

⁴⁷Because you did not serve the Lord your God, with gladness and a joyful heart, over the abundance of all things.

⁴⁸You will serve your enemy, whom the Lord will send to you, in hunger and thirst and nakedness, and in destitution of all things. And he will place an iron yoke upon your neck, until he has crushed you.

⁴⁹The Lord will lead over you a nation from far away, even from the furthest parts of the earth, like an eagle flying with great force, whose language you are not able to understand:

⁵⁰a very insolent nation, which will show no deference to elders, nor take pity on little ones.

⁵¹And he will devour the fruit of your cattle, and the fruits of your land, until you have passed away, without leaving behind you wheat, or wine, or oil, or herds of oxen, or flocks of sheep: until he utterly destroys you.

⁵²And he will crush you in all your cities. And your strong and lofty walls, in which you trusted, will be destroyed throughout all your land. You will be besieged within your gates throughout all your land, which the Lord your God will give to you.

⁵³And you will eat the fruit of your womb, and the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, which the Lord your God will give to you, due to the anguish and devastation with which your enemy will oppress you.

⁵⁴The man who is pampered and very self-indulgent among you will vie with his own brother, and with the wife who lies at his bosom,

⁵⁵lest he give to them from the flesh of his sons, which he will eat. For he has nothing else due to the siege and the destitution, with which your enemies will devastate you within all your gates.

⁵⁶The tender and pampered woman, who would not walk upon the soil, nor step firmly with her foot due to her very great softness and tenderness, will vie with her husband, who lies at her bosom, over the flesh of son and of daughter,

⁵⁷and over the filth of the afterbirth, which goes forth from between her thighs, and over the children who are born in the same hour. For they will eat them secretly, due to the scarcity of all things during the siege and the devastation, with which your enemy will oppress you within your gates.

⁵⁸If you will not keep and do all the words of this law, which have been written in this volume, and fear his glorious and terrible name, that is, the Lord your God,

⁵⁹then the Lord will increase your plagues, and the plagues of your offspring, plagues great and long-lasting, infirmities very grievous and continuous.

⁶⁰And he will turn back upon you all the afflictions of Egypt, which you fear, and these will cling to you.

⁶¹In addition, the Lord will lead over you all the diseases and plagues that are not written in the volume of this law, until he crushes you.

⁶²And you will remain few in number, though you were before like the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.

⁶³And just as before, when the Lord rejoiced over you, doing good for you and multiplying you, so shall he rejoice, scattering and overturning you, so as to take you away from the land, which you shall enter in order to possess.

⁶⁴The Lord will disperse you among all the peoples, from the heights of the earth to its furthest limits. And there you will serve foreign gods of wood and of stone, which you and your fathers did not know.

⁶⁵Similarly, you will not have tranquility, even within those nations, nor will there be any rest for the steps of your feet. For the Lord will give to you in that place a fearful heart, and failing eyes, and a life consumed with grieving.

⁶⁶And your life will be as if it were hanging before you. You will be afraid night and day, and you will not have confidence in your own life.

⁶⁷In the morning you will say, ‘Who will grant evening to me?’ and at evening, ‘Who will grant morning to me?’ because of the dread of your heart, with which you will be terrified, and because of those things that you will see with your eyes.

⁶⁸The Lord will lead you back into Egypt with a fleet of ships, along the way, about which he said to you that you would not see it again. In that place, you will be put up for sale as men and women servants to your enemies, but there will be no one willing to buy you.”

Deuteronomy 28

¹Now if thou wilt hear the voice of all his commandments, which I command thee this day, the Lord thy God will make thee higher than all the nations that are on the earth.

²And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee: yet so if thou hear his precepts.

³Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed in the field.

⁴Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the droves of thy herds, and the folds of thy sheep.

⁵Blessed shall be thy barns and blessed thy stores.

⁶Blessed shalt thou be coming in and going out.

⁷The Lord shall cause thy enemies, that rise up against thee, to fall down before thy face: one way shall they come out against thee, and seven ways shall they flee before thee.

⁸The Lord will send forth a blessing upon thy storehouses, and upon all the works of thy hands: and will bless thee in the land that thou shalt receive.

⁹The Lord will raise thee up to be a holy people to himself, as he swore to thee: if thou keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.

¹⁰And all the people of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord is invocated upon thee, and they shall fear thee.

¹¹The Lord will make thee abound with all goods, with the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy cattle, with the fruit of thy land, which the Lord swore to thy fathers that he would give thee.

¹²The Lord will open his excellent treasure, the heaven, that it may give rain in due season: and he will bless all the works of thy hands. And thou shalt lend to many nations, and shalt not borrow of any one.

¹³And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail: and thou shalt be always above, and not beneath: yet so if thou wilt hear the commandments of the Lord thy God which I command thee this day, and keep and do them,

¹⁴And turn not away from them neither to the right hand, nor to the left, nor follow strange gods, nor worship them.

¹⁵But if thou wilt not hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep and to do all his commandments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day, all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.

¹⁶Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field.

¹⁷Cursed shall be thy barn, and cursed thy stores.

¹⁸Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, the herds of thy oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep.

¹⁹Cursed shalt thou be coming in, and cursed going out.

²⁰The Lord shall send upon thee famine and hunger, and a rebuke upon all the works which thou shalt do: until he consume and destroy thee quickly, for thy most wicked inventions, by which thou hast forsaken me.

²¹May the Lord set the pestilence upon thee, until he consume thee out of the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.

²²May the Lord afflict thee with miserable want, with the fever and with cold, with burning and with heat, and with corrupted air and with blasting, and pursue thee till thou perish.

²³Be the heaven, that is over thee, of brass: and the ground thou treadest on, of iron.

²⁴The Lord give thee dust for rain upon thy land, and let ashes come down from heaven upon thee, till thou be consumed.

²⁵The Lord make thee to fall down before thy enemies, one way mayst thou go out against them, and flee seven ways, and be scattered throughout all the kingdoms of the earth.

²⁶And be thy carcass meat for all the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, and be there none to drive them away.

²⁷The Lord strike thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and the part of thy body, by which the dung is cast out, with the scab and with the itch: so that thou canst not be healed.

²⁸The Lord strike thee with madness and blindness and fury of mind.

²⁹And mayst thou grope at midday as the blind is wont to grope in the dark, and not make straight thy ways. And mayst thou at all times suffer wrong, and be oppressed with violence, and mayst thou have no one to deliver thee.

³⁰Mayst thou take a wife, and another sleep with her. Mayst thou build a house, and not dwell therein. Mayest thou plant a vineyard and not gather the vintage thereof.

³¹May thy ox be slain before thee, and thou not eat thereof. May thy ass be taken away in thy sight, and not restored to thee. May thy sheep be given to thy enemies, and may there be none to help thee.

³²May thy sons and thy daughters be given to another people, thy eyes looking on, and languishing at the sight of them all the day, and may there be no strength in thy hand.

³³May a people which thou knowest not, eat the fruits of thy land, and all thy labours: and mayst thou always suffer oppression, and be crushed at all times.

³⁴And be astonished at the terror of those things which thy eyes shall see:

³⁵May the Lord strike thee with a very sore ulcer in the knees and in the legs, and be thou incurable from the sole of the foot to the top of the head.

³⁶The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king, whom thou shalt have appointed over thee, into a nation which thou and thy fathers know not: and there thou shalt serve strange gods, wood and stone.

³⁷And thou shalt be lost, as a proverb and a byword to all people, among whom the Lord shall bring thee in.

³⁸Thou shalt cast much seed into the ground, and gather little: because the locusts shall consume all.

³⁹Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and dig it, and shalt not drink the wine, nor gather any thing thereof: because it shall be wasted with worms.

⁴⁰Thou shalt have olive trees in all thy borders, and shalt not be anointed with the oil: for the olives shall fall off and perish.

⁴¹Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, and shalt not enjoy them: because they shall be led into captivity.

⁴²The blast shall consume all the trees and the fruits of thy ground.

⁴³The stranger that liveth with thee in the land, shall rise up over thee, and shall be higher: and thou shalt go down, and be lower.

⁴⁴He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be as the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

⁴⁵And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue and overtake thee, till thou perish: because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God, and didst not keep his commandments and ceremonies which he commanded thee.

⁴⁶And they shall be as signs and wonders on thee, and on thy seed for ever.

⁴⁷Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things:

⁴⁸Thou shalt serve thy enemy, whom the Lord will send upon thee, in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put an iron yoke upon thy neck, till he consume thee.

⁴⁹The Lord will bring upon thee a nation from afar, and from the uttermost ends of the earth, like an eagle that flyeth swiftly, whose tongue thou canst not understand,

⁵⁰A most insolent nation, that will shew no regard to the ancients, nor have pity on the infant,

⁵¹And will devour the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruits of thy land: until thou be destroyed, and will leave thee no wheat, nor wine, nor oil, nor herds of oxen, nor flocks of sheep: until he destroy thee.

⁵²And consume thee in all thy cities, and thy strong and high wall be brought down, wherein thou trustedst in all thy land. Thou shalt be besieged within thy gates in all thy land which the Lord thy God will give thee:

⁵³And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in the distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee.

⁵⁴The man that is nice among you, and very delicate, shall envy his own brother, and his wife, that lieth in his bosom,

⁵⁵So that he will not give them of the flesh of his children, which he shall eat: because he hath nothing else in the siege and the want, wherewith thy enemies shall distress thee within all thy gates.

⁵⁶The tender and delicate woman, that could not go upon the ground, nor set down her foot for over much niceness and tenderness, will envy her husband who lieth in her bosom, the flesh of her son, and of her daughter,

⁵⁷And the filth of the afterbirths, that come forth from between her thighs, and the children that are born the same hour. For they shall eat them secretly for the want of all things, in the siege and distress, wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee within thy gates.

⁵⁸If thou wilt not keep, and fulfil all the words of this law, that are written in this volume, and fear his glorious and terrible name: that is, The Lord thy God:

⁵⁹The Lord shall increase thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed, plagues great and lasting, infirmities grievous and perpetual.

⁶⁰And he shall bring back on thee all the afflictions of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of, and they shall stick fast to thee.

⁶¹Moreover the Lord will bring upon thee all the diseases, and plagues, that are not written in the volume of this law till he consume thee:

⁶²And you shall remain few in number, who before were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God.

⁶³And as the Lord rejoiced upon you before doing good to you, and multiplying you: so he shall rejoice destroying and bringing you to nought, so that you shall be taken away from the land which thou shalt go in to possess.

⁶⁴The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the farthest parts of the earth to the ends thereof: and there thou shalt serve strange gods, which both thou art ignorant of and thy fathers, wood and stone.

⁶⁵Neither shalt thou be quiet, even in those nations, nor shall there be any rest for the sole of thy foot. For the Lord will give thee a fearful heart, and languishing eyes, and a soul consumed with pensiveness:

⁶⁶And thy life shall be as it were hanging before thee. Thou shalt fear night and day, neither shalt thou trust thy life.

⁶⁷In the morning thou shalt say: Who will grant me evening? and at evening: Who will grant me morning? for the fearfulness of thy heart, wherewith thou shalt be terrified, and for those things which thou shalt see with thy eyes.

⁶⁸The Lord shall bring thee again with ships into Egypt, by the way whereof he said to thee that thou shouldst see it no more. There shalt thou be set to sale to thy enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.