Deuteronomy 28
Blessings on the Mountain, and a Longer List of Curses
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The Principal Promise
28:1When you cross the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, keeping and performing all His commands that I give you today, the Lord your God will set you above all the nations of the earth.
28:2All these blessings will come upon you and find you if you diligently obey the Lord your God.
The Sixfold Blessing
28:3Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
28:4Blessed shall be the offspring of your womb and the produce of your land, the herds of your cattle and the flocks of your sheep.
28:5Blessed shall be your storehouses and your reserves.
28:6Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
National Expansion and Security
28:7May the Lord your God hand your opposing enemies over crushed before you. They will come against you by one road and flee before you by seven roads.
28:8May the Lord send blessing upon you, in your storerooms and in everything you undertake, in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
28:9May the Lord your God establish you as His holy people, as He swore to your fathers, if you obey the Lord your God and walk in His ways.
28:10All the nations of the earth will see you, that the Lord’s name has been called over you, and they will fear you.
28:11The Lord your God will multiply you in good things—in your womb’s offspring, your land’s produce, and your livestock’s offspring—on the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.
28:12May the Lord open for you His good treasury, heaven, to give your land rain in season and bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will not borrow; you will rule many nations, but they will not rule you.
28:13May the Lord your God make you the head and not the tail; then you will be above and not beneath, if you heed the Lord your God’s commands that I give you today to keep and perform.
28:14Do not depart, right or left, from any words I command you today by following other gods to worship them.
The Sixfold Curse
28:15But if you do not obey the Lord your God, keeping and performing all His commands that I give you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
28:16Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
28:17Cursed shall be your storehouses and your reserves.
28:18Cursed shall be the offspring of your womb and your land’s produce, the herds of your cattle and the flocks of your sheep.
28:19Cursed shall you be when you go out, and cursed shall you be when you come in.
Internal Ruin and Pestilence
28:20May the Lord send you deprivation, starvation, and consumption upon everything you undertake and do, until He destroys you and until He makes you perish quickly because of your evil practices, because you have forsaken Me.
28:21May the Lord make death cling to you until He consumes you from the land you are entering to inherit.
28:22May the Lord strike you with destitution, fever, chills, irritation, slaughter, wind blight, and pallor. They will pursue you until they destroy you.
28:23The heaven over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.
28:24May the Lord give your land dust for rain; soil will descend upon you from heaven until He wears you away and until He destroys you.
28:25May the Lord give you over to slaughter before your enemies. You will advance against them by one road and flee before them by seven roads. You will be dispersed throughout all the earth’s kingdoms.
28:26Your dead will be food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, with no one to frighten them away.
Mental and Social Oppression
28:27May the Lord strike you with an Egyptian ulcer on the buttocks, severe scabies, and itching, so that you cannot be healed.
28:28May the Lord strike you with madness, blindness, and derangement of mind.
28:29You will grope at noon as a blind person gropes in darkness, and He will not prosper your ways. Then you will be wronged and plundered every day, with no helper.
28:30You will take a wife, but another man will have her. You will build a house but not live in it; plant a vineyard but not harvest it.
28:31Your calf will be slaughtered before you, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be seized from you and not returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, with no one to help you.
28:32Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation while your eyes watch them, wasting away; your hand will have no strength.
28:33A nation you do not know will consume your land’s yield and all your labors. You will be continually wronged and crushed.
28:34You will be driven mad by the sights your eyes see.
Loss of Sovereignty
28:35May the Lord strike your knees and shins with a severe ulcer from which you cannot be healed, from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head.
28:36May the Lord lead you and the rulers you appoint over yourself to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known. There you will worship other gods, wood and stone.
28:37There you will become a riddle, a parable, and a tale among all the nations to which the Lord leads you.
28:38You will take much seed into the plain but bring in little, for the locust will devour it.
28:39You will plant and cultivate a vineyard but neither drink wine nor rejoice in it, for worms will devour them.
28:40You will have olive trees throughout your territory but will not anoint yourself with oil, for your olives will fall away.
28:41You will beget sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, for they will go into captivity.
28:42Blight will consume all your trees and your land’s produce.
28:43The resident foreigner among you will rise above you higher and higher, while you descend lower and lower.
28:44He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you the tail.
The Horrors of Siege
28:45All these curses will come upon you, pursue you, and overtake you until He destroys you and until He makes you perish, because you did not obey the Lord your God by keeping the commands and ordinances He gave you.
28:46There will be signs and wonders upon you and your offspring forever,
28:47because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a good heart because of the abundance of everything.
28:48You will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and lack of everything. He will put an iron collar on your neck until He destroys you.
28:49The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the earth’s end, like an eagle’s rush—a nation whose speech you do not understand,
28:50a nation shameless in countenance, respecting neither the old nor showing mercy to the young.
28:51It will consume your livestock’s offspring and your land’s produce, leaving you no grain, wine, oil, cattle herds, or sheep flocks, until it makes you perish.
28:52It will wear you down in all your cities until the high fortified walls you trusted throughout your land are demolished. It will afflict you in all the cities the Lord your God gave you.
28:53You will eat the offspring of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God gave you, in the confinement and affliction your enemy inflicts upon you.
28:54Even the tender and most luxurious man among you will look begrudgingly upon his brother, the wife in his embrace, and the children left to him,
28:55begrudging any of them a share of his children’s flesh that he eats, since nothing remains to him in the confinement and affliction your enemies inflict upon you in all your cities.
28:56The tender and most luxurious woman among you, whose foot had never experienced walking on the ground because of her luxury and tenderness, will look begrudgingly upon the husband in her embrace, her son, and her daughter,
28:57and upon the afterbirth emerging between her thighs and the child she bears, for she will secretly eat them for lack of everything, in the confinement and affliction your enemy inflicts upon you in all your cities.
Exile and Reversal of the Exodus
28:58If you do not obey by performing all the words of this law written in this book, revering this honored and wondrous name, the Lord your God,
28:59the Lord will make your plagues and your offspring’s plagues extraordinary—great and astonishing plagues, severe and enduring diseases.
28:60He will bring back upon you all Egypt’s severe suffering that you dreaded, and they will cling to you.
28:61The Lord will also bring upon you every infirmity and plague not written in this book of the law, until He destroys you.
28:62You will be left few in number, instead of being as numerous as heaven’s stars, because you did not obey the Lord your God.
28:63As the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you. You will be removed from the land you are entering to inherit.
28:64The Lord your God will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will be enslaved to other gods, wood and stone, unknown to you and your fathers.
28:65Even among those nations He will give you no rest, and your foot will have no place to stand. The Lord will give you a discouraged heart, failing eyes, and a wasting soul.
28:66Your life will hang before your eyes. You will fear day and night and have no assurance of your life.
28:67In the morning you will say, If only it were evening! At evening you will say, If only it were morning!—because of your heart’s fear and the sights your eyes see.
28:68The Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships and by the route of which I said, You shall never see it again. There you will be sold to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.
The Preamble in Moab
28:69These are the words of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to establish for Israel’s sons in the land of Moab, besides the covenant He made with them at Horeb.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.