Deuteronomy 28

1 “And when you cross the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you — if you really listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep and do all these commands I am charging you with today, then the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth; [e] 2 and all these blessings will come on you and find you, if you really listen to the voice of the Lord your God. 3 Blessed you will be in the city, and blessed you will be in the field. 4 Blessed will be the children of your body, and the fruits of your land, and the herds of your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep. 5 Blessed will be your barns and your stores. 6 Blessed you will be when you come in, and blessed you will be when you go out. 7 May the Lord hand over the enemies who stand against you, broken to pieces in front of you: they will come out against you by one road, and flee from you by seven. 8 May the Lord send his blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to, in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 9 May the Lord raise you up for himself as a holy people, as he swore to your fathers, if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God and walk in all his ways. 10 And all the nations of the earth will see that the name of the Lord is called on you, and they will stand in awe of you. 11 And the Lord your God will make you many, for good — in the children of your body, and in the fruits of your land, and in the young of your cattle — on the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 May the Lord open to you his good storehouse, the sky, to give your land rain in season; may he bless all the works of your hands. And you will lend to many nations and will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations and they will not rule over you. 13 May the Lord your God make you the head and not the tail; and you will be above and not below, if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God in everything I charge you to keep today. 14 You are not to turn aside from any of the commands I charge you with today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods and serve them.

15 But if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep all his commands, all that I charge you with today, then all these curses will come on you and catch up with you. 16 Cursed you will be in the city, and cursed you will be in the field. 17 Cursed will be your barns and your stores. 18 Cursed will be the children of your body, and the fruits of your land, the herds of your oxen and the flocks of your sheep. 19 Cursed you will be when you go out, and cursed you will be when you come in. 20 May the Lord send on you want, and hunger, and the wasting of everything you put your hand to, until he has destroyed you and has finished you off quickly, because of your evil schemes, because you abandoned me. 21 May the Lord make the plague stick to you, until he has finished you off the land you are going into to take. 22 May the Lord strike you with distress, and fever, and chills, and inflammation, and slaughter, and blight, and the yellowing of the crop; and they will chase you until they have destroyed you. [a] 23 And the sky over your head will be bronze, and the ground under you iron. [b] 24 May the Lord your God turn the rain of your land to dust; and dust will come down from the sky until it has destroyed you and finished you off quickly. 25 May the Lord hand you over to be cut down in front of your enemies: you will go out against them by one road and flee from them by seven; and you will be scattered through all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 And your dead will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth, and there will be nobody to scare them off. 27 May the Lord strike you with the sore of Egypt in the seat, and with a cruel scab, and with the itch, so that you cannot be healed. 28 May the Lord strike you with madness and blindness and a stunned mind. 29 And you will grope about at midday as a blind man gropes in the dark, and you will not do well in your ways; and you will be wronged and robbed continually, and there will be nobody to help.

30 You will take a wife, and another man will have her. You will build a house, and you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, and you will not gather its grapes. 31 Your calf will be slaughtered in front of you, and you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be seized from you and not brought back. Your sheep will be handed to your enemies, and there will be nobody to help you. 32 Your sons and your daughters will be handed to another nation, and your eyes will waste away watching for them; and your hand will have no strength. 33 A nation you do not know will eat the produce of your land and all your labor; and you will be hurt and crushed all your days. 34 And you will lose your mind, because of the sights your eyes will see. 35 May the Lord strike you with a cruel sore, on the knees and the legs, so that you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. 36 May the Lord carry you away, and the rulers you set over yourself, to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known; and there you will serve other gods, wood and stone. 37 And there you will be a riddle, and a byword, and a story told, among all the nations the Lord your God carries you away to.

38 You will carry a great deal of seed out to the field and bring in little, because the locust will eat it. 39 You will plant a vineyard and tend it, and you will not drink the wine or enjoy it, because the worm will eat it. 40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory, and you will not rub yourself with oil, because your olives will drop their fruit. 41 You will father sons and daughters, and they will not be yours, because they will go off into captivity. 42 The blight will finish off all your trees and the fruits of your land. 43 The newcomer among you will rise higher and higher, and you will sink lower and lower. 44 He will lend to you and you will not lend to him; he will be the head and you will be the tail. 45 And all these curses will come on you and chase you and catch up with you, until he has finished you and destroyed you — because you did not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commands and his rules that he commanded you. 46 And these things will be signs on you, and wonders on your descendants, forever — 47 because you did not serve the Lord your God with gladness and a good heart, when you had everything in plenty. 48 And you will serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in want of everything; and you will wear an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

49 The Lord will bring on you a nation from the end of the earth, swooping like an eagle, a nation whose language you will not understand — 50 a nation with a hard face, that will show no respect to the old and no pity to the young. 51 And it will eat the young of your cattle and the fruits of your land, leaving you no grain, no wine, no oil, no herds of oxen, no flocks of sheep, until it has destroyed you; 52 and it will crush you completely in your cities, until the high strong walls you trust in are brought down throughout your land; and it will press you hard in your cities, the cities he has given you. 53 And you will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom he gave you, in the tightness and the trouble your enemy will press on you. [c] 54 The soft and very delicate man among you will look with a grudging eye on his brother, and on the wife in his arms, and on the children left to him, whichever of them are left, 55 rather than give any one of them any of the flesh of his children, which he is eating, because he has nothing left, in the tightness and the trouble your enemies will press on you in all your cities. 56 And the soft and delicate woman among you, whose foot has never tried to walk on the ground because she is so soft and delicate, will look with a grudging eye on the husband in her arms, and on her son and her daughter, 57 and on the afterbirth that comes out between her feet, and on the child she bears — because she will eat them in secret, for want of everything, in the tightness and the trouble your enemy will press on you in your cities.

58 If you will not listen and do all the words of this law, which have been written in this book, and fear this glorious and wonderful name, the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will make your plagues terrible, and the plagues of your descendants — great and terrible plagues, and cruel diseases that stay. 60 And he will bring on you all the terrible sickness of Egypt that you were afraid of, and it will stick to you. 61 And the Lord will bring on you every illness and every plague that is not written in the book of this law, until he has destroyed you. 62 And you will be left few in number, where you were as many as the stars of the sky — because you did not listen to the voice of the Lord your God. 63 And just as the Lord was glad over you to do you good and to make you many, so the Lord will be glad over you to destroy you; and you will be pulled off the land you are going into to take, quickly. 64 And the Lord your God will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you will serve other gods, wood and stone, which you have not known, and neither did your fathers. 65 And among those nations he will give you no quiet, and there will be no rest at all for the sole of your foot; and there the Lord will give you another heart, a doubting heart, and failing eyes, and a wasting soul. 66 And your life will hang in front of your eyes; and you will be afraid by day and by night, and you will have no confidence in your life. 67 In 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 fear in your heart that you will be afraid with, and because of the sights your eyes will see. 68 And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the road I told you, ‘You are never to see it again’; and there you will be sold to your enemies as male and female slaves — and there will be no buyer.” [d]