Deuteronomy 28:15-68 (New American Standard)

Consequences of Disobedience

15 "¹But it shall come about, if you do not ^aobey 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 "²Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the ^bcountry. 17 "³Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 "⁴Cursed shall be the ^coffspring of your ^dbody and the ^eproduce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 19 "⁵Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. 20 "⁶The LORD will send upon you curses, confusion, and ⁷rebuke, in all ^fyou undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until ⁸you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me. 21 "⁹The LORD will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. 22 "¹⁰The LORD will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with ^gthe sword and ¹¹with blight and with mildew, and they will pursue you until ¹²you perish. 23 "^hThe heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. 24 "¹³The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust ; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. 25 "¹⁴The LORD shall cause you to be ⁱdefeated before your enemies ; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will ¹⁵be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 "¹⁶Your 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 "¹⁷The LORD will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with ¹⁸tumors 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 ^j19grope 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 "²⁰You shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; ²¹you shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not ^kuse 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 "²²Your 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 ^lyou can do. 33 "²³A 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 ^mwhat you see. 35 "²⁴The 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 "²⁵The 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, ²⁶wood and stone. 37 "²⁷You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the LORD drives you. 38 "²⁸You shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little, for ²⁹the locust will consume it. 39 "³⁰You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them. 40 "³¹You shall have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. 41 "³²You shall ⁿhave sons and daughters but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. 42 "³³The cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground. 43 "³⁴The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower. 44 "³⁵He shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; ³⁶he 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 ³⁷until you are destroyed, because you would not ^oobey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 "They shall become ³⁸a sign and a wonder on you and your ^pdescendants forever . 47 "³⁹Because 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, ⁴⁰in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things ; and He ⁴¹will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 "⁴²The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, ⁴³as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance who will ⁴⁴have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. 51 "Moreover, it shall eat the ^qoffspring 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 "⁴⁵It shall besiege you in all your ^rtowns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your ^stowns throughout your land which the LORD your God has given you. 53 "⁴⁶Then you shall eat the ^toffspring 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 ^uoppress you. 54 "The man who is ^vrefined and very delicate among you ^wshall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife ^xhe 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 ^yoppress you in all your ^ztowns. 56 "⁴⁷The ^aarefined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and ^bbrefinement, ^ccshall be hostile toward the husband ^ddshe cherishes and toward her son and daughter, 57 and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her ^eelegs and toward her children whom she bears ; for ⁴⁸she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will ^ffoppress you in your ^ggtowns. 58 "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to ^hh49fear this honored and awesome ⁵⁰name, ⁱⁱthe LORD your God, 59 then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and ^jjyour descendants, even ^kksevere and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. 60 "⁵¹He 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 ⁵²until you are destroyed. 62 "Then you shall be left few in number, ⁵³whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not ^llobey the LORD your God. 63 "It shall come about that as the LORD ⁵⁴delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will ⁵⁵delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be ⁵⁶torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. 64 "Moreover, the LORD will ⁵⁷scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth ; and there you shall ⁵⁸serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. 65 "⁵⁹Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot ; but there ⁶⁰the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 "So your life shall ^mmhang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. 67 "⁶¹In 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."