The Bible

Deuteronomy Chapter 28

¹If you listen diligently to Yahweh your God's voice, observing to do all his commandments which I command 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, if you listen to Yahweh your God's voice. ³You'll be blessed in the city, and you'll be blessed in the country. ⁴You'll be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the offspring of your livestock, and the young of your flock. ⁵Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. ⁶You'll be blessed when you come in, and you'll be blessed when you go out. ⁷Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways. ⁸Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you. ⁹If you keep Yahweh your God's commandments, and walk in his ways, Yahweh will establish you as a holy people, [just] as he has sworn to you. ¹⁰All the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by Yahweh's name, and they'll be afraid of you. ¹¹Yahweh will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. ¹²Yahweh will open his good treasure in the sky to you, to give the rain for your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You'll lend to many nations, and won't borrow. ¹³Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail. You will only be above, and you won't be below, if you listen to Yahweh your God's commandments which I command you today, to observe and to do [them], ¹⁴and don't turn away from any of the words which I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

¹⁵But if you will not listen to Yahweh your God's voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you. ¹⁶You'll be cursed in the city, and you'll be cursed in the country. ¹⁷Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. ¹⁸The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the offspring of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed. ¹⁹You'll be cursed when you come in, and you'll be cursed when you go out. ²⁰Yahweh will send cursing, confusion, and rebuke on you in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your actions, by which you have forsaken me. ²¹Yahweh will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from the land which you are entering to possess. ²²Yahweh will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew. They will pursue you until you perish. ²³The sky that is over your head will be [like] bronze, and the earth that is under you will be [like] iron. ²⁴Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come down on you from the sky, until you are destroyed. ²⁵Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You'll go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them. You'll be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶Your dead bodies will be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there'll be no one to frighten them away. ²⁷Yahweh will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with scurvy, and with the itch, from which you can't be healed. ²⁸Yahweh will strike you with madness, blindness, and astonishment of heart. ²⁹You'll grope [about] at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you won't prosper in your ways. You will only ever be oppressed and robbed, and there'll be no one to save you. ³⁰You'll be betrothed to a wife, but another man will lie with her. You'll build a house, but won't live in it. You'll plant a vineyard, but won't use its fruit. ³¹Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, and you won't eat any of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from in front of your face, and won't be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you'll have no one to save you. ³²Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look and fail with longing for them all day [long]. There'll be no power in your hand. ³³A nation which you don't know will eat the fruit of your ground and all your work. You will only ever be oppressed and crushed, ³⁴so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad. ³⁵Yahweh will strike you in the knees and in the legs with dreadful boils, which cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. ³⁶Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷You'll become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away. ³⁸You'll carry a lot of seed out into the field, but gather [only a] little in, for the locust will consume it. ³⁹You'll plant vineyards and dress them, but you won't drink of the wine, or gather [grapes], because worms will eat them. ⁴⁰You'll have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won't anoint yourself with the oil, for your olive trees will drop [their fruit]. ⁴¹You'll father sons and daughters, but they won't be [there], for they will go into captivity. ⁴²Locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land. ⁴³The foreigner who is among you will mount up above you higher and higher, but you'll come down lower and lower. ⁴⁴He'll lend to you, and you won't lend to him. He'll be the head, and you'll be the tail.

⁴⁵All these curses will come upon you, and will pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you didn't listen to Yahweh your God's voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you. ⁴⁶They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your offspring forever. ⁴⁷Because you didn't serve Yahweh your God with joy and gladness of heart, because of the abundance [of all your] things; ⁴⁸therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. ⁴⁹Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far [away], from the end of the earth, flying like an eagle: a nation whose language you won't understand, ⁵⁰a fierce faced nation, that doesn't respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹They'll eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They won't leave you grain, new wine, oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. ⁵²They'll besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. They'll besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which Yahweh your God has given you. ⁵³In the siege and distress with which your enemies will distress you, you'll eat the fruit of your own body- the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you. ⁵⁴[Even] the man who is tender among you and very delicate, will have an evil eye toward his brother, the wife he loves, and the remainder of his children who are left, ⁵⁵so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates. ⁵⁶[Even] the woman who is tender and delicate among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, will have an evil eye toward the husband that she loves, and toward her son and daughter, ⁵⁷toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your gates. ⁵⁸If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, Yahweh your God, ⁵⁹then Yahweh [will send] plagues [to make you] wonder and the plagues of your offspring [will be] fearful, great plagues, of long duration, and [he will bring] severe sicknesses, [that will also be] of long duration. ⁶⁰He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they will cling to you. ⁶¹Also, Yahweh will bring on you every sickness and every plague which is not written in this book of the law, until you have been destroyed. ⁶²You'll be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude, because you didn't listen to Yahweh your God's voice. ⁶³As Yahweh rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so Yahweh will rejoice over you to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You'll be plucked from the land that you are going in to possess. ⁶⁴Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you'll serve other gods which you have not known, [neither] you nor your fathers, [made of] wood and stone. ⁶⁵You'll find no ease among those nations, and there'll be no rest for the sole of your foot. Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a pining soul. ⁶⁶Your life will hang in doubt before you. You'll be afraid night and day, and have no assurance of your life. ⁶⁷In the morning you'll say, "I wish it were evening!" and in the evening you'll say, "I wish it were morning!" for the fear of your heart which you'll fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see. ⁶⁸Yahweh will take you back to Egypt again by ship, a journey I told you that you would never make again. There you will offer yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but nobody will buy you.