Deuteronomy 28:37-47

37 Among all the peoples where God will take you, you'll be treated as a lesson or a proverb - a horror!
38 You'll plant sacks and sacks of seed in the field but get almost nothing - the grasshoppers will devour it.
39 You'll plant and hoe and prune vineyards but won't drink or put up any wine - the worms will devour them.
40 You'll have groves of olive trees everywhere, but you'll have no oil to rub on your face or hands - the olives will have fallen off.
41 You'll have sons and daughters but they won't be yours for long - they'll go off to captivity.
42 Locusts will take over all your trees and crops.
43 The foreigner who lives among you will climb the ladder, higher and higher, while you go deeper and deeper into the hole.
44 He'll lend to you; you won't lend to him. He'll be the head; you'll be the tail.
45 All these curses are going to come on you. They're going to hunt you down and get you until there's nothing left of you because you didn't obediently listen to the Voice of God, your God, and diligently keep his commandments and guidelines that I commanded you.
46 The curses will serve as signposts, warnings to your children ever after.
47 Because you didn't serve God, your God, out of the joy and goodness of your heart in the great abundance,

Deuteronomy 28:37-47 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.