Old Testament · Law
Deuteronomy chapter 28
Press Space to select this verse for copying or sharing. Up and down arrows move between verses.
Now if you truly to the voice of Yahweh your God, and carefully follow every I’m giving you today, Yahweh your God will set you high above every nation on earth.All these will come after you and catch up with you, because you listened to the voice of Yahweh your God:Good things will come to you in the city, and good things will come to you in the countryside.Good things will come to your , the crops of your land, and the offspring of your livestock — the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.Good things will come to your and your kneading bowl.Good things will follow you when you come in, and good things will follow you when you go out.Yahweh will cause the enemies who rise against you to be crushed right in front of you. They’ll come at you from one direction but scatter from you in .Yahweh will command good things to fill your storehouses and to be in everything you put your hand to. He will bring good things to you in the land Yahweh your God is giving you.Yahweh will establish you as , just as he promised you with a sworn oath, if you keep the commands of Yahweh your God and .Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you are , and they will be in awe of you.Yahweh will give you good things — in your children, in the offspring of your livestock, and in the crops of your land — in the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors he would give you.Yahweh will open up for you his — to give rain to your land at the right time and to bring good things to everything you do. You’ll lend to many nations but never need to borrow.Yahweh will make you the , not the tail. You’ll always be on top and never on the bottom — if you pay attention to the commands of Yahweh your God that I’m giving you today and carefully follow them.Don’t turn aside from any of the words I’m commanding you today — not to the right or the left — by chasing after and serving them.But if you don’t listen to the voice of Yahweh your God and aren’t careful to follow all his commands and guidelines that I’m giving you today, then all these will come after you and catch up with you:Disaster will find you in the city, and disaster will find you in the countryside.Disaster will hit your bread basket and your kneading bowl.Disaster will strike your children, the crops of your land, the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.Disaster will follow you when you come in, and disaster will follow you when you go out.Yahweh will send against you , , and in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and quickly wiped out because of the evil of your actions in abandoning him.Yahweh will make cling to you until it has consumed you from the land you’re going in to possess.Yahweh will strike you with , with fever, with inflammation, with scorching heat, with drought, with , and with mildew. These will chase you until you’re finished.The sky above your head will be , and the ground beneath you will be iron.Yahweh will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder. It will come down on you from the sky until you’re destroyed.Yahweh will cause you to be crushed in front of your enemies. You’ll march out against them from one direction but scatter from them in seven. You’ll become a to every kingdom on earth.Your dead bodies will be food for every bird in the sky and every animal on the ground, and no one will scare them away.Yahweh will strike you with the , with tumors, with scabs, and with an itch that can’t be cured.Yahweh will strike you with , with blindness, and with a .You’ll be groping around at noon like someone groping in total darkness. Nothing you do will succeed. You’ll be constantly oppressed and robbed, and no one will you.You’ll get engaged to a woman but another man will her. You’ll build a house but never live in it. You’ll plant a vineyard but never enjoy its fruit.Your ox will be slaughtered right in front of you, but you won’t eat any of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you and never returned. Your sheep will be handed over to your enemies, and no one will help you.Your sons and daughters will be handed over to another people. Your eyes will watch for them and fail with longing for them all day long, and your hand will be powerless to do anything.A people you’ve never known will eat the produce of your land and all your hard work. You’ll be nothing but oppressed and crushed — every single day.What you see with your own eyes will drive you mad.Yahweh will strike you with painful, incurable sores on your knees and legs — from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.Yahweh will drive you and the king you’ve set over yourselves to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. There you’ll serve other gods made of .You’ll become an object of shock, a , and a among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you.You’ll carry out lots of seed to the field but harvest almost nothing, because the will devour it.You’ll plant vineyards and work them, but you won’t drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.You’ll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won’t rub yourself with the , because your olives will drop off before they’re ripe.You’ll have sons and daughters but they won’t be yours for long, because they’ll go into .Swarms of insects will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.The living among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower.They’ll lend to you, but you won’t lend to them. They’ll become the head, and you’ll become the tail.All these disasters will come after you, chase you down, and catch up with you until you’re destroyed — because you didn’t listen to the voice of Yahweh your God and didn’t keep the commands and guidelines he gave you.These things will be a and a against you and your descendants forever.Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with and a glad heart when you had more than enough of everything,you’ll serve the enemies Yahweh sends against you — in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. He will put an on your neck until he has destroyed you.Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, swooping down like an — a nation whose language you won’t understand,a nation that shows no respect for the old and no mercy to the young.They’ll devour the offspring of your livestock and the crops of your land until you’re destroyed. They’ll leave you no grain, no new wine, no oil, no calves from your herds, and no lambs from your flocks — until they’ve finished you off.They’ll besiege you in every one of your towns until your high, — the ones you trusted in — come crashing down throughout your entire land. They’ll besiege you in every town throughout the land that Yahweh your God gave you.During the siege and the desperation your enemies will inflict on you, you’ll — the flesh of the sons and daughters that Yahweh your God gave you.Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will look with hostility at his own brother, at the wife he loves, and at the children he still has left,refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children that he’s eating — because he has nothing else left during the siege and desperation your enemies will inflict on you in all your towns.The most gentle and delicate woman among you — so delicate and gentle that she wouldn’t even set the sole of her foot on the ground —will secretly begrudge the husband she loves and her own son and daughter even the from her womb and the newborn she delivers, because she plans to eat them herself in her desperate need during the siege and desperation your enemies will inflict on you in your towns.If you don’t carefully follow every word of this that is written in this book — if you don’t respect this name, Yahweh your God —then Yahweh will make your plagues and the plagues of your descendants extraordinary — severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and lasting sicknesses.He’ll bring back on you all the that you were afraid of, and they’ll cling to you.Every sickness and every plague that isn’t even written in the book of this instruction — Yahweh will bring those on you too, until you’re destroyed.You’ll be left with only a few people, even though you were once as numerous as the — because you didn’t listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.Just as Yahweh in doing good for you and making you numerous, so now Yahweh will delight in ruining you and destroying you. You’ll be ripped from the land you’re going in to possess.Yahweh will you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other. There you’ll serve other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known — gods of wood and stone.Among those nations you’ll find , and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot. Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a .Your life will hang in doubt before you. You’ll be terrified night and day, with no confidence that you’ll survive.In the morning you’ll say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you’ll say, ‘If only it were morning!’ — because of the terror filling your heart and the things your eyes are seeing.Yahweh will bring you in , by a route I told you that you would never see again. There you’ll offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as slaves — male and female — but no one will even buy you.