Deuteronomy 28:13

13 The LORD your God will make you leaders, not followers. Pay attention to his commands that I'm giving you today. Be careful to follow them. Then you will always be on top. You will never be on the bottom.

Deuteronomy 28:13 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 28:13

And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail
Give them dominion over others, and not make them subject to them; the head signifies rulers and governors, and the tail the common people that are subjects; or the one such that are honourable and in high esteem, and the other such that are mean and base; see ( Isaiah 9:14 Isaiah 9:15 ) ; the Targum of Jonathan is,

``the Word of the Lord shall make thee''

and thou shalt be above only, and thou shall not be beneath;
which explains what is meant by head and tail, being uppermost and lowermost, as the head is the upper part, and the tail the lower part of a creature; the one is more honourable, the other vile: the sense is, that they should be superior to other people in honour and dignity, and not below them, or vassals to them: if that thou hearken to the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I
command thee this day to observe and to do [them];
which is the condition on which all this happiness depended.

Deuteronomy 28:13 In-Context

11 The LORD will give you more than you need. You will have many children. Your livestock will have many little ones. Your crops will do very well. All of that will happen in the land he promised with an oath to your fathers to give you.

12 The LORD will open up the heavens. That's where he stores his riches. He will send rain on your land at just the right time. He'll bless everything you do. You will lend money to many nations. But you won't have to borrow from any of them.

13 The LORD your God will make you leaders, not followers. Pay attention to his commands that I'm giving you today. Be careful to follow them. Then you will always be on top. You will never be on the bottom.

14 Don't turn away from any of the commands I'm giving you today. Don't turn to the right or the left. Don't follow other gods. Don't worship them.

15 But suppose you don't obey the LORD your God. And you aren't careful to follow all of his commands and rules I'm giving you today. Then he will send curses on you. They'll catch up with you. Here are those curses.