Deuteronomy 28:1-39 ▼

1 Carefully obey the LORD your God, and faithfully follow all his commands that I'm giving you today. If you do, the LORD your God will place you high above all the other nations in the world.

2 These are all the blessings that will come to you and stay close to you because you obey the LORD your God:

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

4 You will be blessed. You will have children. Your land will have crops. Your animals will have offspring. Your cattle will have calves, and your flocks will have lambs and kids.

5 The grain you harvest and the bread you bake will be blessed.

6 You will be blessed when you come and blessed when you go.

7 The LORD will defeat your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction but run away from you in seven directions.

8 The LORD will bless your barns and everything you do. The LORD your God will bless you in the land that he is giving you.

9 You will be the LORD's holy people, as he promised you with an oath. He will do this if you obey the commands of the LORD your God and follow his directions.

10 Then all the people in the world will see that you are the LORD's people, and they will be afraid of you.

11 The LORD will give you plenty of blessings: You will have many children. Your animals will have many offspring. Your soil will produce many crops in the land the LORD will give you, as he swore to your ancestors.

12 The LORD will open the heavens, his rich storehouse, for you. He will send rain on your land at the right time and bless everything you do. You will be able to make loans to many nations but won't need to borrow from any.

13 The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. You will always be at the top, never at the bottom, if you faithfully obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today.

14 Do everything I'm commanding you today. Never worship other gods or serve them.

15 Obey the LORD your God, and faithfully follow all his commands and laws that I am giving you today. If you don't, all these curses will come to you and stay close to you:

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

17 The grain you harvest and the bread you bake will be cursed.

18 You will be cursed. You will have few children. Your land will have few crops. Your cattle will be cursed with few calves, and your flocks will have few lambs and kids.

19 You will be cursed when you come and cursed when you go.

20 The LORD will send you curses, panic, and frustration in everything you do until you're destroyed and quickly disappear for the evil you will do by abandoning the LORD.

21 The LORD will send one plague after another on you until he wipes you out of the land you're about to enter and take possession of.

22 The LORD will strike you with disease, fever, and inflammation; heat waves, drought, scorching winds, and ruined crops. They will pursue you until you die.

23 The sky above will look like bronze, and the ground below will be as hard as iron.

24 The LORD will send dust storms and sandstorms on you from the sky until you're destroyed.

25 The LORD will let your enemies defeat you. You will attack them from one direction but run away from them in seven directions. You will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms in the world.

26 Your dead bodies will be food for all the birds and wild animals. There will be no one to scare them away.

27 The LORD will strike you with the same boils that plagued the Egyptians. He will strike you with hemorrhoids, sores, and itching that won't go away.

28 The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic.

29 You will grope in broad daylight as blind people grope in their blindness. You won't be successful in anything you do. As long as you live, you will be oppressed and robbed with no one to rescue you.

30 You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will have sex with her. You will build a house, but you won't live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you won't enjoy the grapes.

31 Your ox will be butchered as you watch, but you won't eat any of its meat. You will watch as your donkey is stolen from you, but you'll never get it back. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue it.

32 You will watch with your own eyes as your sons and daughters are given to another nation. You will strain your eyes looking for them all day long, but there will be nothing you can do.

33 People you never knew will eat what your land and your hard work have produced. As long as you live, you will know nothing but oppression and abuse.

34 The things you see will drive you mad.

35 The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with severe boils that can't be cured. The boils will cover your whole body from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.

36 The LORD will lead you and the king you choose to a nation that you and your ancestors never knew. There you will worship gods made of wood and stone.

37 You will become a thing of horror. All the nations where the LORD will send you will make an example of you and ridicule you.

38 You will plant many crops in your fields, but harvest little because locusts will destroy your crops.

39 You will plant vineyards and take care of them, but you won't drink any wine or gather any grapes, because worms will eat them.