“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.
And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if
you obey 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 cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your
flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed
shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go
out.
“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. The 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. The 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. And 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.
And 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. The 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. And 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, and 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.
“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. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in
the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your
ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.
Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when
you go out.
“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. The 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. The 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. And
the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you
shall be iron. The LORD will make the rain of your land powder.
From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
“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. And
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. The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with
tumors and scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed. The LORD
will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind,
and 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. You
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. Your 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. Your 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. A 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, so that you are driven mad by the sights that your
eyes see. The 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.
“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. And you shall become a
horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the
LORD will lead you away. You shall carry much seed into the field
and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it. You
shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink
of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. You
shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall
not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off.
You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours,
for they shall go into captivity. The cricket shall possess all
your trees and the fruit of your ground. The sojourner who is among
you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down
lower and lower. He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to
him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
“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. They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and
your offspring forever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God
with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of
all things, therefore 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. The 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, a hard-
faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the
young. It 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.
“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. And 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. The 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, so 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. The 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, her
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.
“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, then the LORD will bring on you and your
offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and
lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. And he will bring
upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid,
and they shall cling to you. Every 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. Whereas 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. And 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.
“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. And
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. Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you
shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. In 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. And
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.”
