Deuteronomy 28:15-44

Listen to Deuteronomy 28:15-44

15 But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe to do all his mitzvot and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come on you, and overtake you.

16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough.

18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.

19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

20 The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, whereby you have forsaken me.

21 The LORD will make the pestilence cleave to you, until he have consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it.

22 The LORD will strike you with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish.

23 Your sky that is over your head shall be brass, and the eretz that is under you shall be iron.

24 The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust: from the sky shall it come down on you, until you are destroyed.

25 The LORD will cause you to be struck before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them, and shall flee seven ways before them: and you shall be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the eretz.

26 Your dead body shall be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the eretz; and there shall be none to frighten them away.

27 The LORD will strike you with the boil of Mitzrayim, and with the tumors, and with the scurvy, and with the itch, whereof you can not be healed.

28 The LORD will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart;

29 and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you.

30 You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: you shall build a house, and you shall not dwell therein: you shall plant a vineyard, and shall not use the fruit of it.

31 Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it: your donkey shall be violently taken away from before your face, and shall not be restored to you: your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have none to save you.

32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people; and your eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day: and there shall be nothing in the power of your hand.

33 The fruit of your ground, and all your labors, shall a nation which you don't know eat up; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always;

34 so that you shall be mad for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.

35 The LORD will strike you in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore boil, whereof you can not be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

36 The LORD will bring you, and your king whom you shall set over you, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods, wood and stone.

37 You shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples where the LORD shall lead you away.

38 You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather little in; for the arbeh shall consume it.

39 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.

40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olive shall cast [its fruit].

41 You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity.

42 All your trees and the fruit of your ground shall the arbeh possess.

43 The sojourner who is in the midst of you shall mount up above you higher and higher; and you shall come down lower and lower.

44 He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him: he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

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Deuteronomy 28:15-44 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 28

In this chapter Moses enlarges on the blessings and the curses which belong, the one to the doers, the other to the transgressors of the law; the blessings, De 28:1-14; the curses, some of which concern individual persons, others the whole nation and body of people, and that both under the former and present dispensations, and which had their fulfilment in their former captivities, and more especially in their present dispersion, De 28:15-68.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

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