| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. | 1“If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. |
| 2And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. | 2You will experience all these blessings if you obey the LORD your God: |
| 3Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. | 3Your towns and your fields will be blessed. |
| 4Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. | 4Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. |
| 5Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. | 5Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed. |
| 6Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. | 6Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed. |
| 7“The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. | 7“The LORD will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven! |
| 8The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. | 8“The LORD will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. |
| 9The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. | 9“If you obey the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways, the LORD will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do. |
| 10And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. | 10Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you. |
| 11And the LORD 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, within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. | 11“The LORD will give you prosperity in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops. |
| 12The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. | 12The LORD will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. |
| 13And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, | 13If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom. |
| 14and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. | 14You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them. Curses for Disobedience |
| 15“But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. | 15“But if you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you: |
| 16Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. | 16Your towns and your fields will be cursed. |
| 17Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. | 17Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be cursed. |
| 18Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. | 18Your children and your crops will be cursed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be cursed. |
| 19Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. | 19Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be cursed. |
| 20“The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. | 20“The LORD himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me. |
| 21The LORD will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. | 21The LORD will afflict you with diseases until none of you are left in the land you are about to enter and occupy. |
| 22The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. | 22The LORD will strike you with wasting diseases, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew. These disasters will pursue you until you die. |
| 23And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. | 23The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron. |
| 24The LORD will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed. | 24The LORD will change the rain that falls on your land into powder, and dust will pour down from the sky until you are destroyed. |
| 25“The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. | 25“The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will attack your enemies from one direction, but you will scatter from them in seven! You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. |
| 26And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away. | 26Your corpses will be food for all the scavenging birds and wild animals, and no one will be there to chase them away. |
| 27The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed. | 27“The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. |
| 28The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, | 28The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic. |
| 29and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. | 29You will grope around in broad daylight like a blind person groping in the darkness, but you will not find your way. You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you. |
| 30You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. | 30“You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her. You will build a house, but someone else will live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will never enjoy its fruit. |
| 31Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. | 31Your ox will be butchered before your eyes, but you will not eat a single bite of the meat. Your donkey will be taken from you, never to be returned. Your sheep and goats will be given to your enemies, and no one will be there to help you. |
| 32Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless. | 32You will watch as your sons and daughters are taken away as slaves. Your heart will break for them, but you won’t be able to help them. |
| 33A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, | 33A foreign nation you have never heard about will eat the crops you worked so hard to grow. You will suffer under constant oppression and harsh treatment. |
| 34so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see. | 34You will go mad because of all the tragedy you see around you. |
| 35The LORD will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. | 35The LORD will cover your knees and legs with incurable boils. In fact, you will be covered from head to foot. |
| 36“The LORD will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. | 36“The LORD will exile you and your king to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors. There in exile you will worship gods of wood and stone! |
| 37And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away. | 37You will become an object of horror, ridicule, and mockery among all the nations to which the LORD sends you. |
| 38You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it. | 38“You will plant much but harvest little, for locusts will eat your crops. |
| 39You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. | 39You will plant vineyards and care for them, but you will not drink the wine or eat the grapes, for worms will destroy the vines. |
| 40You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. | 40You will grow olive trees throughout your land, but you will never use the olive oil, for the fruit will drop before it ripens. |
| 41You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity. | 41You will have sons and daughters, but you will lose them, for they will be led away into captivity. |
| 42The cricket shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground. | 42Swarms of insects will destroy your trees and crops. |
| 43The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. | 43“The foreigners living among you will become stronger and stronger, while you become weaker and weaker. |
| 44He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. | 44They will lend money to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail! |
| 45“All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. | 45“If you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and to obey the commands and decrees he has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed. |
| 46They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. | 46These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever. |
| 47Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, | 47If you do not serve the LORD your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received, |
| 48therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. | 48you will serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything. The LORD will put an iron yoke on your neck, oppressing you harshly until he has destroyed you. |
| 49The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, | 49“The LORD will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the earth, and it will swoop down on you like a vulture. It is a nation whose language you do not understand, |
| 50a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. | 50a fierce and heartless nation that shows no respect for the old and no pity for the young. |
| 51It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. | 51Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you will be destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs, and you will starve to death. |
| 52“They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given you. | 52They will attack your cities until all the fortified walls in your land—the walls you trusted to protect you—are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the LORD your God has given you. |
| 53And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. | 53“The siege and terrible distress of the enemy’s attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you. |
| 54The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces, and to the last of the children whom he has left, | 54The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving children. |
| 55so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. | 55He will refuse to share with them the flesh he is devouring—the flesh of one of his own children—because he has nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns. |
| 56The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces, to her son and to her daughter, | 56The most tender and delicate woman among you—so delicate she would not so much as touch the ground with her foot—will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or daughter. |
| 57her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns. | 57She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns. |
| 58“If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God, | 58“If you refuse to obey all the words of instruction that are written in this book, and if you do not fear the glorious and awesome name of the LORD your God, |
| 59then the LORD will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. | 59then the LORD will overwhelm you and your children with indescribable plagues. These plagues will be intense and without relief, making you miserable and unbearably sick. |
| 60And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. | 60He will afflict you with all the diseases of Egypt that you feared so much, and you will have no relief. |
| 61Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the LORD will bring upon you, until you are destroyed. | 61The LORD will afflict you with every sickness and plague there is, even those not mentioned in this Book of Instruction, until you are destroyed. |
| 62Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God. | 62Though you become as numerous as the stars in the sky, few of you will be left because you would not listen to the LORD your God. |
| 63And as the LORD took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the LORD will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. | 63“Just as the LORD has found great pleasure in causing you to prosper and multiply, the LORD will find pleasure in destroying you. You will be torn from the land you are about to enter and occupy. |
| 64“And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. | 64For the LORD will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship foreign gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods made of wood and stone! |
| 65And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. | 65There among those nations you will find no peace or place to rest. And the LORD will cause your heart to tremble, your eyesight to fail, and your soul to despair. |
| 66Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. | 66Your life will constantly hang in the balance. You will live night and day in fear, unsure if you will survive. |
| 67In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the dread that your heart shall feel, and the sights that your eyes shall see. | 67In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were night!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ For you will be terrified by the awful horrors you see around you. |
| 68And the LORD will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.” | 68Then the LORD will send you back to Egypt in ships, to a destination I promised you would never see again. There you will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will buy you.” |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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