28:1 And it will be that if you indeed obey¹ the LORD your God, being careful to observe² all his commandments that I am giving³ you today, that he⁴ will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. 28:2 And all these blessings will come to⁵ you in abundance⁶ if you obey⁷ the LORD your God. 28:3 Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field. 28:4 Blessed shall be your children,⁸ the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your cattle, and the young of your sheep. 28:5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough. 28:6 Blessed will you be when you come in and blessed will you be when you go out.⁹ 28:7 The LORD will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck down before you; they will come against you one way but flee in seven different directions¹⁰ from you. 28:8 The LORD will decree blessing for¹¹ you in respect to your barns and in everything you do;¹² yes¹³ he will bless you in the land which he¹⁴ is giving you. 28:9 The LORD will designate you for himself as a holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his¹⁵ commandments and walk in his ways. 28:10 And all the people of the earth will see that the name of the LORD is linked with you¹⁶ and they will fear you. 28:11 The LORD will enhance his goodness to you¹⁷ in respect to your children ,¹⁸ the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he¹⁹ promised to your ancestors to give you. 28:12 He²⁰ will open for you his good treasure-house, the heavens, to give you the rain of the land in its season and to bless all you do;²¹ you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from them. 28:13 The LORD will appoint you to be a head and not a tail, and you will be only above and not beneath, if you obey²² his²³ commandments which I am urging²⁴ you today to be careful to do,²⁵ 28:14 and if you do not turn away from all the things that I am commanding you today, to either the right or left, to go after other gods in order to worship²⁶ them.

28:15 But if you pay no attention²⁷ to the LORD your God and are not careful to keep²⁸ all his commandments and statutes I am relating to²⁹ you today, then all these curses will come and overtake you: 28:16 Cursed will you be in the city and cursed will you be in the field. 28:17 Cursed will be your basket and your kneading-trough. 28:18 Cursed will be your children,³⁰ the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your cattle, and the young of your flock. 28:19 Cursed will you be in your coming in and cursed will you be in your going out.

28:20 The LORD will send upon you the curse, the unease, and the rebuke in everything you undertake³¹ until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of your evil in forsaking me.³² 28:21 The LORD will plague you with pestilence³³ until he has completely removed you from the land to which you are going to possess it. 28:22 He³⁴ will afflict you with consumption, fever, inflammation, infection,³⁵ sword, scorching, and mildew, and these will attack³⁶ you until you perish. 28:23 The³⁷ heavens above your heads will be as brass and the earth beneath you as iron. 28:24 The LORD will make the rain of your land like powder and dust; it will come down upon you from the sky³⁸ until you are destroyed.

28:25 The LORD will allow you³⁹ to be struck down before your enemies; you will go out against them⁴⁰ one way but flee them⁴¹ seven ways and will become a source of terror⁴² to all the kingdoms of the earth. 28:26 Your carcass will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to shoo them off. 28:27 The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies which cannot be healed. 28:28 He⁴³ will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind.⁴⁴ 28:29 You will feel your way along at noonday as the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in what you do;⁴⁵ you will be constantly⁴⁶ oppressed and continually robbed,⁴⁷ with no one to save you. 28:30 You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape⁴⁸ her; you will build a house but not live in it; you will plant a vineyard but not begin to use it. 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will be unable to eat of it; your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not return to you; your flock will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you. 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you⁴⁹ look in vain⁵⁰ all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it.⁵¹ 28:33 As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it and you will be only oppressed and crushed forever. 28:34 You will go insane from seeing all this.⁵² 28:35 The LORD will afflict you in your⁵³ knees and on your legs with a painful boil that you will be unable to heal—from the sole of your feet to the top of your skull. 28:36 He⁵⁴ will force you and your king⁵⁵ whom you will appoint over you to go to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there. 28:37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of taunt to all the people among whom the LORD will drive you.

28:38 You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest for the locust will consume it. 28:39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will neither drink wine nor gather in grapes for the worm will eat them.⁵⁶ 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with oil for your olive tree will not bear to ripeness.⁵⁷ 28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep⁵⁸ them because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 The locust will take over⁵⁹ every tree and all the produce of your land. 28:43 The sojourner among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower. 28:44 He will lend to you but you will not lend to him; he will be as a head and you will be as a tail. 28:45 All these curses will fall upon⁶⁰ you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you do not obey the LORD your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has demanded of⁶¹ you. 28:46 These curses⁶² will be as a sign and wonder with reference to⁶³ you and your descendants⁶⁴ forever.

28:47 Because you have not served the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly⁶⁵ with⁶⁶ the abundance of everything you have, 28:48 you will instead serve your enemies whom he⁶⁷ will send against you bringing⁶⁸ hunger, thirst, nakedness, and lack of everything; they⁶⁹ will place an iron yoke on your neck until they⁷⁰ have destroyed you. 28:49 The LORD will raise up against you a distant nation, one from the other side of the earth⁷¹ as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 28:50 one⁷² of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly nor consideration of the young. 28:51 It will devour the offspring of your cattle and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed; it will not leave you with grain, new wine, olive oil, increase of herds, or growth of flocks until it has demolished you. 28:52 It will besiege all of your villages⁷³ until all of your high and fortified walls collapse, those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. It will put under siege all your gates in all parts of the land the LORD your God has given you. 28:53 You will then eat your own offspring,⁷⁴ the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you, because of⁷⁵ the stressful siege⁷⁶ in which your enemies will constrict you. 28:54 The man among you who is by nature tender and very sensitive will look with evil upon his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children 28:55 and will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he will eat, there being none left, because of the bitter siege with which your enemy will oppress⁷⁷ you in your villages.⁷⁸ 28:56 Likewise, the most⁷⁹ tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of even putting the sole of their foot on the ground because of their daintiness,⁸⁰ will turn against⁸¹ their beloved husbands, their sons and daughters, 28:57 their afterbirth,⁸² and their newborn children,⁸³ for they will eat them secretly in their need⁸⁴ because of the severe siege which your enemy will impose upon you in your villages.⁸⁵

28:58 If you refuse to obey all the words of this teaching, the things written in this book, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God, 28:59 then he will magnify⁸⁶ your punishments⁸⁷ and those of your descendants, great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. 28:60 He will infect you⁸⁸ with all the diseases of Egypt⁸⁹ of which you were terrified and they will beset you.⁹⁰ 28:61 Moreover, every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned⁹¹ in this book of instruction⁹² will the LORD pour out upon you until you have perished. 28:62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars of the sky, because you will not obey the LORD your God. 28:63 It will come about⁹³ that just as the LORD was delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he⁹⁴ will be pleased to destroy and decimate you; you will be uprooted from the land to which you are going in order to inherit it. 28:64 The LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other; there you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. 28:65 Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of tranquillity for the sole of your feet, for the LORD will there give you a fluttering heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. 28:66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of life. 28:67 In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” And in the evening you will say, “I wish it were morning!” because of the things you will fear⁹⁵ and the things you will see.⁹⁶ 28:68 Then the LORD will make you return to Egypt by ship, by the way of which I said to you, you shall never again see it. You will sell yourselves there to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.