Deuteronomy 28:56-66

56 The most refined and the [most] delicate [woman] among you, who shall not venture to put the sole of her foot on the ground from being [so] delicate and from [such] gentleness, {shall be mean to her beloved husband} and against her son and against her daughter,

57 and [even] concerning her afterbirth {that goes out} from between her feet and [also] concerning her children that she bears, because she eats them for lack of anything in secret {during the siege and during the distress} that your enemy inflicts upon her in your {towns}.

58 "If {you do not diligently observe} all the words of this law written in this scroll by revering this glorious and awesome name, Yahweh your God,

59 then Yahweh shall overwhelm [you] with your plagues and the plagues of your offspring, severe plagues and lasting illnesses, grievous and enduring.

60 And he shall bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt [concerning] which {you were in dread} {because of them}.

61 Also any illness and any plague that [is] not written in the scroll of this law, he shall bring them, Yahweh, upon you until you are destroyed.

62 And you shall remain {only a few people} in place of [the fact] you were [formerly] as the stars of heaven as far as number [is concerned], because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

63 {And then} as Yahweh delighted over you {to make you prosperous} to make you numerous, so Yahweh shall delight over you to exterminate you and to destroy you, and [so] you shall be plucked from the land that you [are] going there to take possession of it.

64 And Yahweh shall scatter you among all the nations from [one] end of the earth up to the [other] end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods that you have not known nor your ancestors, [gods of] wood and stone.

65 And among these nations you shall not find rest, and [there] shall not be a resting place for the sole of your foot, and Yahweh shall give you there an anxious heart and a weakening of eyes and a languishing of [your] inner self.

66 And {your life shall hang in doubt before you}, and you shall be startled night and day, and you shall not be confident of your life.

Deuteronomy 28:56-66 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "would"
• [b]. Literally "shall be bad her eye against the husband of her lap"
• [c]. Literally "the going out"
• [d]. Literally "in the siege and in the distress"
• [e]. Literally "gates"
• [f]. Literally "you observe to do"
• [g]. Literally "you dreaded"
• [h]. Literally "from their presence"
• [i]. Or "each illness and each plague"
• [j]. Literally "with people of few"
• [k]. Literally "And it will happen"
• [l]. Literally "to do good with you"
• [m]. Or "to cause you to perish"
• [n]. Hebrew "and"
• [o]. Or "your fathers"
• [p]. Or "a failure of eyes"
• [q]. Or "soul"
• [r]. Literally "they shall be your life hanging for you in front"
• [s]. Or "in fear"