Deuteronomy 28:7-17

7 "ADONAI will cause your enemies attacking you to be defeated before you; they will advance on you one way and flee before you seven ways.

8 "ADONAI will order a blessing to be with you in your barns and in everything you undertake; he will bless you in the land ADONAI your God is giving you.

9 "ADONAI will establish you as a people separated out for himself, as he has sworn to you - if you will observe the mitzvot of ADONAI your God and follow his ways.

10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that ADONAI's name, his presence, is with you; so that they will be afraid of you.

11 "ADONAI will give you great abundance of good things - of the fruit of your body, the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your land in the land ADONAI swore to your ancestors to give you.

12 ADONAI will open for you his good treasure, the sky, to give your land its rain at the right seasons and to bless everything you undertake. You will lend to many nations and not borrow;

13 ADONAI will make you the head and not the tail; and you will be only above, never below - if you will listen to, observe and obey the mitzvot of ADONAI your God

14 and not turn away from any of the words I am ordering you today, neither to the right nor to the left, to follow after other gods and serve them.

15 "But if you refuse to pay attention to what ADONAI your God says, and do not observe and obey all his mitzvot and regulations which I am giving you today, then all the following curses will be yours in abundance:

16 "A curse on you in the city, and a curse on you in the countryside.

17 "A curse on your grain-basket and kneading-bowl.

Deuteronomy 28:7-17 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.