Deuteronomy 28:17-27

17 God's curse on your basket and bread bowl;
18 God's curse on your children, the crops of your land, the young of your livestock, the calves of your herds, the lambs of your flocks.
19 God's curse in your coming in, God's curse in your going out.
20 God will send The Curse, The Confusion, The Contrariness down on everything you try to do until you've been destroyed and there's nothing left of you - all because of your evil pursuits that led you to abandon me.
21 God will infect you with The Disease, wiping you right off the land that you're going in to possess.
22 God will set consumption and fever and rash and seizures and dehydration and blight and jaundice on you. They'll hunt you down until they kill you.
23 The sky over your head will become an iron roof, the ground under your feet, a slab of concrete.
24 From out of the skies God will rain ash and dust down on you until you suffocate.
25 God will defeat you by enemy attack. You'll come at your enemies on one road and run away on seven roads. All the kingdoms of Earth will see you as a horror.
26 Carrion birds and animals will boldly feast on your dead body with no one to chase them away.
27 God will hit you hard with the boils of Egypt, hemorrhoids, scabs, and an incurable itch.

Deuteronomy 28:17-27 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.

Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.