The Blessings of Obedience
(Leviticus 25:18–22)

1“ And it shall come to pass, if you will listen carefully to the voice of YHWH your God, to observe carefully to do all His commandments that I command you today, that YHWH your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you listen to the voice of YHWH your God.

3Blessed are you in the city,

and blessed are you in the field.

4Blessed is the fruit of your womb,

and the fruit of your ground,

and the increase of your herd,

the increase of your cattle,

and the increase of your flock.

5Blessed is your basket and your kneading bowl.

6Blessed are you in your coming in,

and blessed are you in your going out.

7YHWH will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; in one way they shall come out against you, and in seven ways they shall flee before you.

8YHWH will command with you the blessing in your barns and in every putting forth of your hand, and He will bless you in the land that YHWH your God is giving to you. 9YHWH will establish you to Himself as a holy people, as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of YHWH your God and walk in His ways. 10And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the name of YHWH is called upon you, and they shall be afraid of you.

11And YHWH will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land that YHWH swore to your fathers to give to you.

12YHWH will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. And you shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow.

13And YHWH will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall be only above, and be not beneath, if you listen to the commandments of YHWH your God, which I am commanding you today to keep and do. 14And you shall not turn aside from any of the words that I am commanding you⁺ this day, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

The Curses of Disobedience
(Leviticus 20:1–9; Leviticus 26:14–39)

15And it shall come to pass, if you do not listen to the voice of YHWH your God, to observe carefully to do all His commandments and His statutes that I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.

16Cursed are you in the city,

and cursed are you in the field.

17Cursed is your basket and your kneading bowl.

18Cursed is the fruit of your womb,

and the fruit of your ground,

the increase of your cattle,

and the young of your flock.

19Cursed are you in your coming in,

and cursed are you in your going out.

20YHWH will send on you the cursing, the confusion, and the rebuke, in every putting forth of your hand that you do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.

21YHWH will make cling to you the plague, until He has consumed you from the land that you are going in to possess. 22YHWH will strike you with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with severe burning fever, and with the sword,† and with scorching, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish. 23And your heavens that are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth that is under you iron.

24YHWH will give the rain of your land to be dust and powder; from the heavens it shall come down on you, until you are destroyed.

25YHWH will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; one way you shall go out against him, and seven ways you shall flee before his face, and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26And your carcass shall be food for all the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away.

27YHWH will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scab, and with the itch, from which you are not able to be healed.

28YHWH will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, 29and you shall grope at noonday as a blind man gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and plundered all of the days, and no one shall save you.

30You shall betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house and you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard and you shall not gather its grapes. 31Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be seized from before your face and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them.

32Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes are looking and wasting away toward them all the day, and there is no power in your hand. 33A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and of all your toil, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed all the days. 34And you shall be driven mad because of the sight of your eyes that you see.

35YHWH will strike you with severe boils in the knees and on the legs, which are not able to be healed, from the sole of your foot and to the top of your head.

36YHWH shall bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods of wood and stone. 37And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the nations to which YHWH will drive you.

38Much Seed you shall carry out into the field, and little gather in, for the locust shall consume it. 39You shall plant vineyards and tend them, and of the wine you shall not drink and not gather, for the worms shall consume it. 40Olive trees shall be unto you throughout all your territory, and with the oil you shall not anoint, for your olives shall drop off. 41You shall bear sons and daughters, and they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity. 42The locust shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.

43The foreigner who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, and you shall descend lower and lower. 44He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

45And all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of YHWH your God to keep His commandments and His statutes that He commanded you. 46And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your seed, even to forever.

47Because that you did not serve YHWH your God with joy and gladness of heart from the abundance of all things, 48therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom YHWH will send against you, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in lack of all things, and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.

49YHWH will bring against you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies, a nation whose tongue you have not heard, 50a nation fierce of face, which does not respect the face of the aged, and does not show favor to the young. 51And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed—which will leave to you no grain, or new wine, or oil, or offspring of your cattle, or increase of your flock, until they have destroyed you. 52And they shall lay siege to you in all your gates until your walls, high and fortified, in which you trust, come down in all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates in all your land that YHWH your God has given to you.

53And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom YHWH your God has given you, in the siege and dire straits that your enemy will inflict on you.

54The tender man among you and very refined—his eye shall do evil against his brother, and against the wife of his bosom, and against the remnant of his sons whom he leaves behind, 55so that he will not give to one of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because there remains nothing at all for him in the siege and dire straits that your enemy will inflict on you at all your gates.†

56The tender 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—her eye is evil against the husband of her bosom, and against her son, and against her daughter, 57and against her afterbirth that comes from between her feet, and against her children whom she bears. For she will eat them in secret for lack of anything in the siege and dire straits that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates.

58If you are not careful to do all the words of this law written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name—YHWH your God— 59then YHWH will bring extraordinary plagues and the plagues of your seed, great and prolonged plagues, and evil and prolonged sicknesses. 60And He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, the presence of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you.

61Also every sickness and every plague that is not written in the Book of this Law, YHWH will bring upon you until you are destroyed. 62And you⁺ shall be left few men, instead of which you⁺ were as stars of the heavens in multitude, because you would not listen to the voice of YHWH your God.

63And it shall come to pass that as YHWH rejoiced over you⁺ to do good to you⁺ and multiply you⁺, so YHWH will rejoice over you⁺ to destroy you⁺ and bring you⁺ to nothing, and you⁺ shall be plucked from off the land that you are going there to possess.

64And YHWH will scatter you among all the peoples, from the end of the earth and to the end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods—which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. 65And among those nations you shall not find rest, nor shall you have a resting place for the sole of your foot. And there YHWH will give to you a trembling heart, and failing eyes, and anguish of soul.

66And your life shall be hanging in doubt before you, and you shall dread night and day, and have no assurance of life. 67In the morning you shall say, ‘Would that evening be granted!’ And at the evening you shall say, ‘Would that morning be granted!’ Because of the dread of your heart that you dread, and because of the sight of your eyes that you see.

68And YHWH will take you back to Egypt in ships by the way of which I said to you, never will you add again to see it, and you⁺ will sell yourselves there to your enemies for menservants and for maidservants, and no one will buy you.”