The Blessings of Obedience
And it shall be, if you surely listen to the voice of the LORD your God, keeping to do all his commandments that I am commanding you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you listen to the voice of the LORD your God:
Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your beasts — the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock.
Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading trough.
Blessed shall you be in your coming in, and blessed shall you be in your going out.
The LORD will give your enemies who rise up against you struck down before you; by one way they will come out against you, and by seven ways they will flee before you.
The LORD will command the blessing to be with you in your storehouses and in every undertaking of your hand; and he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
The LORD will establish you for himself as a holy people, as he swore to you, when you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.
And all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the LORD is called over you, and they will be afraid of you.
And the LORD will make you overflow with good — in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your beasts, and in the fruit of your ground — on the ground that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
The LORD will open for you his good storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand; and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.
And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; and you shall be only above, and you shall not be beneath — when you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, to keep and to do,
and do not turn aside from all the words that I am commanding you today, right or left, to go after other gods to serve them.
The Curses of Disobedience
But it shall be, if you do not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, keeping to do all his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you:
Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading trough.
Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your ground — the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock.
Cursed shall you be in your coming in, and cursed shall you be in your going out.
The LORD will send on you the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke, in every undertaking of your hand that you do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your deeds, by which you have forsaken me.
The LORD will make the pestilence cling to you until it has finished you off from the ground into which you are going, to possess it.
The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with burning heat, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew; and they will pursue you until you perish.
And your heavens that are over your head shall be copper, and the earth that is under you iron.
The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from the heavens it will come down on you until you are destroyed.
The LORD will give you struck down before your enemies; by one way you will go out against him, and by seven ways you will flee before him; and you shall become a trembling to all the kingdoms of the earth.
And your carcass shall be food for every bird of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth, with no one making them afraid.
The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors, and with the scab, and with the itch, of which you cannot be healed.
The LORD will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with bewilderment of heart.
And you shall grope at noon as the blind man gropes in the darkness, and you shall not make your ways prosper; and you shall be only oppressed and robbed all the days, with no one to save.
A woman you will betroth, and another man will lie with her. A house you will build, and you will not live in it. A vineyard you will plant, and you will not begin to enjoy it.
Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, and you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be robbed from before your face, and it will not return to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save.
Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all the day — and your hand will be powerless.
The fruit of your ground, and all your toil, a people you have not known will eat; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed all the days.
And you shall be driven mad by the sight of your eyes that you will see.
The LORD will strike you with evil boils on the knees and on the legs, of which you cannot be healed — from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
The LORD will lead you, and your king whom you set over you, to a nation that you have not known, you or your fathers; and there you will serve other gods — wood and stone.
And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will drive you.
Much seed you will carry out to the field, and little you will gather in — for the locust will consume it.
Vineyards you will plant and work, but wine you will not drink or store — for the worm will eat it.
Olive trees you will have in all your territory, but with oil you will not anoint yourself — for your olives will drop off.
Sons and daughters you will father, but they will not be yours — for they will go into captivity.
All your trees and the fruit of your ground the whirring locust will possess.
The sojourner who is in your midst will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower.
He will lend to you, and you will not lend to him; he will be the head, and you will be the tail.
And all these curses will come upon you, and pursue you, and overtake you until you are destroyed — because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.
And they shall be a sign and a wonder in you, and in your seed, forever.
Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and with goodness of heart, out of the abundance of everything,
you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in lack of everything; and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.
The LORD will carry against you a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops — a nation whose tongue you will not understand,
a nation fierce of face, that will show no regard for the old and no favor to the young.
And it will eat the fruit of your beasts and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed; it will leave you no grain, new wine, or fresh oil, no offspring of your cattle or young of your flock, until it has made you perish.
And it will besiege you within all your gates, until your high and fortified walls in which you trust come down, in all your land; and it will besiege you within all your gates, in all your land that the LORD your God has given you.
And you will eat the fruit of your own womb — the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you — in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you.
The most tender man among you, and the most delicate, will be evil-eyed toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his sons whom he has left,
so as not to give to any of them of the flesh of his sons that he is eating — because nothing at all is left him — in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you within all your gates.
The most tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, will be evil-eyed toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son and her daughter,
over her afterbirth that comes out from between her legs, and over her sons whom she bears — for she will eat them in secret, in the lack of everything, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you within your gates.
If you do not keep to do all the words of this instruction, written in this book, to fear this glorious and fearful name — the LORD your God —
then the LORD will make your plagues extraordinary, and the plagues of your seed — great and lasting plagues, and evil and lasting sicknesses.
And he will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, before which you were in dread; and they will cling to you.
Also every sickness and every plague that is not written in the book of this instruction — the LORD will bring them up against you, until you are destroyed.
And you will be left few in number, whereas you were like the stars of the heavens for multitude — because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.
And it shall be, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to make you perish and to destroy you; and you will be torn from the ground into which you are going, to possess it.
And the LORD will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you will serve other gods that you have not known, you or your fathers — wood and stone.
And among those nations you will find no ease, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; and the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, and failing eyes, and a languishing soul.
And your life will hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and will not be sure of your life.
In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening you will say, “If only it were morning!” — from the dread of your heart that you will dread, and from the sight of your eyes that you will see.
And the LORD will return you to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, “You shall not see it again”; and there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male slaves and female slaves — and there will be no buyer.