Chapter 28

1 "Now ^R809 it shall be, if you diligently obey ^F417 the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will ^R810 set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 "All these blessings will come upon you and overtake ^R811 you if you obey ^F418 the LORD your God: 3 "Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in ^R812 the country. ^F419 4 "Blessed shall be the offspring ^F420 of your body ^F421 and the produce ^F420 of your ground and the offspring ^F420 of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 5 "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 "Blessed shall you be when ^R813 you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7 "The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated ^F422 before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. 8 "The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all ^R814 that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 9 "The ^R815 LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 10 "So all the peoples of the earth will see that you ^{R816 F423} are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you. 11 "The ^R817 LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring ^F424 of your body ^F425 and in the offspring ^F424 of your beast and in the produce ^F424 of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 12 "The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you ^R818 shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 "The ^R819 LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe ^F426 them carefully, 14 and do ^R820 not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

15 "But ^R821 it shall come about, if you do not obey ^F427 the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: 16 "Cursed ^R822 shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. ^F428 17 "Cursed ^R823 shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 "Cursed ^R824 shall be the offspring ^F429 of your body ^F430 and the produce ^F429 of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 19 "Cursed ^R825 shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. 20 "The ^R826 LORD will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, ^R827 in all you ^F431 undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you ^R828 perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me. 21 "The ^R829 LORD will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. 22 "The ^R830 LORD will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the ^F432 sword and with ^R831 blight and with mildew, and they will pursue you until you ^R832 perish. 23 "The ^F433 heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. 24 "The ^R833 LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. 25 "The ^R834 LORD shall cause you to be defeated ^F434 before your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will be ^R835 an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 "Your ^R836 carcasses will be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27 "The ^R837 LORD will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors ^R838 and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 "The LORD will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart; 29 and you will grope ^{R839 F435} at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways; but you shall only be oppressed and robbed continually, with none to save you. 30 "You ^R840 shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; you ^R841 shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not use ^F436 its fruit. 31 "Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey shall be torn away from you, and will not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you will have none to save you. 32 "Your ^R842 sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and yearn for them continually; but there will be nothing you ^F437 can do. 33 "A ^R843 people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed continually. 34 "You shall be driven mad by the sight of what ^F438 you see. 35 "The ^R844 LORD will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. 36 "The ^R845 LORD will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood ^R846 and stone. 37 "You ^R847 shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the LORD drives you. 38 "You ^R848 shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little, for the ^R849 locust will consume it. 39 "You ^R850 shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them. 40 "You ^R851 shall have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. 41 "You ^R852 shall have ^F439 sons and daughters but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. 42 "The ^R853 cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground. 43 "The ^R854 alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower. 44 "He ^R855 shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he ^R856 shall be the head, and you will be the tail.

45 "So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until ^R857 you are destroyed, because you would not obey ^F440 the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 "They shall become a ^R858 sign and a wonder on you and your descendants ^F441 forever. 47 "Because ^R859 you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in ^R860 hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will ^R861 put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 "The ^R862 LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as ^R863 the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance who will have ^R864 no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. 51 "Moreover, it shall eat the offspring ^F442 of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. 52 "It ^R865 shall besiege you in all your towns ^F443 until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns ^F443 throughout your land which the LORD your God has given you. 53 "Then ^R866 you shall eat the offspring ^F444 of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress ^F445 you. 54 "The man who is refined ^F446 and very delicate among you shall ^F447 be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife he ^F448 cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain, 55 so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else left, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress ^F449 you in all your towns. ^F450 56 "The ^R867 refined ^F451 and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and refinement, ^F452 shall ^F453 be hostile toward the husband she ^F454 cherishes and toward her son and daughter, 57 and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her legs ^F455 and toward her children whom she bears; for she ^R868 will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress ^F456 you in your towns. ^F457 58 "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear ^{R869 F458} this honored and awesome name, ^R870 the ^F459 LORD your God, 59 then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your ^F460 descendants, even severe ^F461 and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. 60 "He ^R871 will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. 61 "Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring on you until ^R872 you are destroyed. 62 "Then you shall be left few in number, whereas ^R873 you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey ^F462 the LORD your God. 63 "It shall come about that as the LORD delighted ^R874 over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight ^R875 over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn ^R876 from the land where you are entering to possess it. 64 "Moreover, the LORD will scatter ^R877 you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve ^R878 other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. 65 "Among ^R879 those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the ^R880 LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 "So your life shall hang ^F463 in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. 67 "In ^R881 the morning you shall say, `Would that it were evening!' And at evening you shall say, `Would that it were morning!' because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you will see. 68 "The LORD will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, `You will never see it again!' And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer."