Deuteronomy 28

1If you listen carefully to the voice of Yahweh your God and are careful to follow all his commandments that I am giving you today, Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

2All these blessings will come on you and overtake you if you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God:

3You will be blessed in the city, and you will be blessed in the country.

4The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your livestock, the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

5Your basket and your kneading bowl will be blessed.

6You will be blessed when you come in, and you will be blessed when you go out.

7Yahweh will let your enemies who rise up against you be defeated before you. They will come out against you by one road and flee from you by seven roads.

8Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns and in everything you put your hand to, and he will bless you in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you.

9Yahweh will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he swore to you, if you keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and walk in his ways.

10Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of Yahweh, and they will be afraid of you.

11Yahweh will give you an abundance of good things—in the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground—in the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors to give you.

12Yahweh will open for you his rich storehouse, the heavens, to give your land rain in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.

13Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail; you will always be at the top and never at the bottom, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God that I am giving you today and are careful to follow them,

14and if you do not turn aside to the right or to the left from any of the words I am commanding you today, to go after other gods and serve them.

15But if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God and are not careful to follow all his commandments and his statutes that I am giving you today, then all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

16You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the country.

17Your basket and your kneading bowl will be cursed.

18The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the fruit of your ground, the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

19You will be cursed when you come in, and you will be cursed when you go out.

20Yahweh will send on you curse, confusion, and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.

21Yahweh will make disease cling to you until he has wiped you out from the land you are entering to possess.

22Yahweh will strike you with wasting disease, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and the sword, with blight and mildew. They will pursue you until you perish.

23The sky over your head will be bronze, and the ground beneath you iron.

24Yahweh will turn the rain of your land into powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

25Yahweh will let you be defeated before your enemies. You will go out against them by one road and flee from them by seven roads, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

26Your dead bodies will be food for all the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

27Yahweh will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, festering sores, and the itch, from which you cannot be healed.

28Yahweh will strike you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind.

29At noon you will grope about as a blind man gropes in the dark. You will not succeed in anything you do; you will be constantly oppressed and robbed, with no one to save you.

30You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not enjoy its fruit.

31Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken from you by force and not returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and there will be no one to save you.

32Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on, your eyes wearing themselves out for them all day long, and you will be powerless to do anything.

33A people you have not known will eat the produce of your land and everything you have worked for, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed all your days.

34The sights your eyes see will drive you mad.

35Yahweh will strike your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

36Yahweh will bring you and the king you set over yourselves to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods, gods of wood and stone.

37You will become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will drive you.

38You will take much seed out to the field but harvest little, because locusts will devour it.

39You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.

40You will have olive trees throughout your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, because your olives will drop off.

41You will have sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity.

42Swarms of insects will take over all your trees and the produce of your land.

43The foreigner who lives among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower.

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

45All these curses will come on you, pursue you, and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God and keep his commandments and statutes that he commanded you.

46They will be a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants forever.

47Because you did not serve Yahweh your God with joy and gladness of heart when you had plenty of everything,

48you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and in need of everything. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

49Yahweh will bring against you a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, swooping down like an eagle, a nation whose language you will not understand,

50a fierce-looking nation that shows no respect for the old and no mercy to the young.

51It will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed. It will leave you no grain, new wine, or olive oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until it has ruined you.

52It will besiege you in all your towns until the high, fortified walls you trust in come down throughout your land. It will besiege you in all your towns throughout the land that Yahweh your God has given you.

53Then, in the siege and the distress your enemy brings on you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom Yahweh your God has given you.

54Even the most gentle and refined man among you will look with hostility at his own brother, at the wife he embraces, and at the children he has left,

55and he will not give any of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating, because nothing else is left to him in the siege and the distress your enemy brings on you in all your towns.

56The most gentle and refined woman among you, so delicate and refined that she would never venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will look with hostility at the husband she embraces, at her son and her daughter,

57and at the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the children she bears, for she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, in the siege and the distress your enemy brings on you in your towns.

58If you are not careful to follow all the words of this law that are written in this book, and do not fear this glorious and awesome name, Yahweh your God,

59then Yahweh will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, great and lasting plagues, and severe and lasting illnesses.

60He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you.

61Yahweh will also bring on you every sickness and every plague not written in this book of the law, until you are destroyed.

62Though you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, you will be left few in number, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

63Just as Yahweh delighted in doing you good and making you numerous, so Yahweh will delight in ruining you and destroying you. You will be torn away from the land you are entering to possess.

64Yahweh will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.

65Among those nations you will find no peace, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There Yahweh will give you a trembling heart, eyes worn out with longing, and a despairing soul.

66Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be in dread night and day, never sure of your life.

67In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the dread that fills your heart and the sights your eyes will see.

68Yahweh will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the route I told you that you would never see again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”