The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 Now if you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep with care all these orders which I have given you today, then the Lord your God will put you high over all the nations of the earth:
1
"If you obey the Lord your God and faithfully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, he will make you greater than any other nation on earth.
2 And all these blessings will come on you and overtake you, if your ears are open to the voice of the Lord your God.
2
Obey the Lord your God and all these blessings will be yours:
3 A blessing will be on you in the town, and a blessing in the field.
3
"The Lord will bless your towns and your fields.
4 A blessing will be on the fruit of your body, and on the fruit of your land, on the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herd, and the young of your flock.
4
"The Lord will bless you with many children, with abundant crops, and with many cattle and sheep.
5 A blessing will be on your basket and on your bread-basin.
5
"The Lord will bless your grain crops and the food you prepare from them.
6 A blessing will be on your coming in and on your going out.
6
"The Lord will bless everything you do.
7 By the power of the Lord, those who take arms against you will be overcome before you: they will come out against you one way, and will go in flight from you seven ways.
7
"The Lord will defeat your enemies when they attack you. They will attack from one direction, but they will run from you in all directions.
8 The Lord will send his blessing on your store-houses and on everything to which you put your hand: his blessing will be on you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
8
"The Lord your God will bless your work and fill your barns with grain. He will bless you in the land that he is giving you.
9 The Lord will keep you as a people holy to himself, as he has said to you in his oath, if you keep the orders of the Lord your God and go on walking in his ways.
9
"If you obey the Lord your God and do everything he commands, he will make you his own people, as he has promised.
10 And all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the Lord is on you, and they will go in fear of you.
10
Then all the peoples on earth will see that the Lord has chosen you to be his own people, and they will be afraid of you.
11 And the Lord will make you fertile in every good thing, in the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your fields, in the land which the Lord, by his oath to your fathers, said he would give you.
11
The Lord will give you many children, many cattle, and abundant crops in the land that he promised your ancestors to give you.
12 Opening his store-house in heaven, the Lord will send rain on your land at the right time, blessing all the work of your hands: other nations will make use of your wealth, and you will have no need of theirs.
12
He will send rain in season from his rich storehouse in the sky and bless all your work, so that you will lend to many nations, but you will not have to borrow from any.
13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; and you will ever have the highest place, if you give ear to the orders of the Lord your God which I give you today, to keep and to do them;
13
The Lord your God will make you the leader among the nations and not a follower; you will always prosper and never fail if you obey faithfully all his commands that I am giving you today.
14 Not turning away from any of the orders which I give you today, to the right hand or to the left, or going after any other gods to give them worship.
14
But you must never disobey them in any way, or worship and serve other gods.
15 But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to do all his orders and his laws which I give you today, then all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
15
"But if you disobey the Lord your God and do not faithfully keep all his commands and laws that I am giving you today, all these evil things will happen to you:
16 You will be cursed in the town and cursed in the field.
16
"The Lord will curse your towns and your fields.
17 A curse will be on your basket and on your bread-basin.
17
"The Lord will curse your grain crops and the food you prepare from them.
18 A curse will be on the fruit of your body, and on the fruit of your land, on the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.
18
"The Lord will curse you by giving you only a few children, poor crops, and few cattle and sheep.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
19
"The Lord will curse everything you do.
20 The Lord will send on you cursing and trouble and punishment in everything to which you put your hand, till sudden destruction overtakes you; because of your evil ways in which you have been false to me.
20
"If you do evil and reject the Lord, he will bring on you disaster, confusion, and trouble in everything you do, until you are quickly and completely destroyed.
21 The Lord will send disease after disease on you, till you have been cut off by death from the land to which you are going.
21
He will send disease after disease on you until there is not one of you left in the land that you are about to occupy.
22 The Lord will send wasting disease, and burning pain, and flaming heat against you, keeping back the rain till your land is waste and dead; so will it be till your destruction is complete.
22
The Lord will strike you with infectious diseases, with swelling and fever; he will send drought and scorching winds to destroy your crops. These disasters will be with you until you die.
23 And the heaven over your heads will be brass, and the earth under you hard as iron.
23
No rain will fall, and your ground will become as hard as iron.
24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust, sending it down on you from heaven till your destruction is complete.
24
Instead of rain, the Lord will send down duststorms and sandstorms until you are destroyed.
25 The Lord will let you be overcome by your haters: you will go out against them one way, and you will go in flight before them seven ways: you will be the cause of fear among all the kingdoms of the earth.
25
"The Lord will give your enemies victory over you. You will attack them from one direction, but you will run from them in all directions, and all the people on earth will be terrified when they see what happens to you.
26 Your bodies will be meat for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth; there will be no one to send them away.
26
When you die, birds and wild animals will come and eat your bodies, and there will be no one to scare them off.
27 The Lord will send on you the disease of Egypt, and other sorts of skin diseases which nothing will make well.
27
The Lord will send boils on you, as he did on the Egyptians. He will make your bodies break out with sores. You will be covered with scabs, and you will itch, but there will be no cure.
28 He will make your minds diseased, and your eyes blind, and your hearts wasted with fear:
28
The Lord will make you lose your mind; he will strike you with blindness and confusion.
29 You will go feeling your way when the sun is high, like a blind man for whom all is dark, and nothing will go well for you: you will be crushed and made poor for ever, and you will have no saviour.
29
You will grope about in broad daylight like someone blind, and you will not be able to find your way. You will not prosper in anything you do. You will be constantly oppressed and robbed, and there will be no one to help you.
30 You will take a wife, but another man will have the use of her: the house which your hands have made will never be your resting-place: you will make a vine-garden, and never take the fruit of it.
30
"You will be engaged to a young woman - but someone else will marry her. You will build a house - but never live in it. You will plant a vineyard - but never eat its grapes.
31 Your ox will be put to death before your eyes, but its flesh will not be your food: your ass will be violently taken away before your face, and will not be given back to you: your sheep will be given to your haters, and there will be no saviour for you.
31
Your cattle will be butchered before your very eyes, but you will not eat any of the meat. Your donkeys will be dragged away while you look on, and they will not be given back to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and there will be no one to help you.
32 Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, and your eyes will be wasted away with looking and weeping for them all the day: and you will have no power to do anything.
32
Your sons and daughters will be given as slaves to foreigners while you look on. Every day you will strain your eyes, looking in vain for your children to return.
33 The fruit of your land and all the work of your hands will be food for a nation which is strange to you and to your fathers; you will only be crushed down and kept under for ever:
33
A foreign nation will take all the crops that you have worked so hard to grow, while you receive nothing but constant oppression and harsh treatment.
34 So that the things which your eyes have to see will send you out of your minds.
34
Your sufferings will make you lose your mind.
35 The Lord will send a skin disease, attacking your knees and your legs, bursting out from your feet to the top of your head, so that nothing will make you well.
35
The Lord will cover your legs with incurable, painful sores; boils will cover you from head to foot.
36 And you, and the king whom you have put over you, will the Lord take away to a nation strange to you and to your fathers; there you will be servants to other gods of wood and stone.
36
"The Lord will take you and your king away to a foreign land, where neither you nor your ancestors ever lived before; there you will serve gods made of wood and stone.
37 And you will become a wonder and a name of shame among all the nations where the Lord will take you.
37
In the countries to which the Lord will scatter you, the people will be shocked at what has happened to you; they will make fun of you and ridicule you.
38 You will take much seed out into the field, and get little in; for the locust will get it.
38
"You will plant plenty of seed, but reap only a small harvest, because the locusts will eat your crops.
39 You will put in vines and take care of them, but you will get no wine or grapes from them; for they will be food for worms.
39
You will plant vineyards and take care of them, but you will not gather their grapes or drink wine from them, because worms will eat the vines.
40 Your land will be full of olive-trees, but there will be no oil for the comfort of your body; for your olive-tree will give no fruit.
40
Olive trees will grow everywhere in your land, but you will not have any olive oil, because the olives will drop off.
41 You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be yours; for they will go away prisoners into a strange land.
41
You will have sons and daughters, but you will lose them, because they will be taken away as prisoners of war.
42 All your trees and the fruit of your land will be the locust's.
42
All your trees and crops will be devoured by insects.
43 The man from a strange land who is living among you will be lifted up higher and higher over you, while you go down lower and lower.
43
"Foreigners who live in your land will gain more and more power, while you gradually lose yours.
44 He will let you have his wealth at interest, and will have no need of yours: he will be the head and you the tail.
44
They will have money to lend you, but you will have none to lend them. In the end they will be your rulers.
45 And all these curses will come after you and overtake you, till your destruction is complete; because you did not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, or keep his laws and his orders which he gave you:
45
"All these disasters will come on you, and they will be with you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and keep all the laws that he gave you.
46 These things will come on you and on your seed, to be a sign and a wonder for ever;
46
They will be the evidence of God's judgment on you and your descendants forever.
47 Because you did not give honour to the Lord your God, worshipping him gladly, with joy in your hearts on account of all your wealth of good things;
47
The Lord blessed you in every way, but you would not serve him with glad and joyful hearts.
48 For this cause you will become servants to those whom the Lord your God will send against you, without food and drink and clothing, and in need of all things: and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck till he has put an end to you.
48
So then, you will serve the enemies that the Lord is going to send against you. You will be hungry, thirsty, and naked - in need of everything. The Lord will oppress you harshly until you are destroyed.
49 The Lord will send a nation against you from the farthest ends of the earth, coming with the flight of an eagle; a nation whose language is strange to you;
49
The Lord will bring against you a nation from the ends of the earth, a nation whose language you do not know. They will swoop down on you like an eagle.
50 A hard-faced nation, who will have no respect for the old or mercy for the young:
50
They will be ruthless and show no mercy to anyone, young or old.
51 He will take the fruit of your cattle and of your land till death puts an end to you: he will let you have nothing of your grain or wine or oil or any of the increase of your cattle or the young of your flock, till he has made your destruction complete.
51
They will eat your livestock and your crops, and you will starve to death. They will not leave you any grain, wine, olive oil, cattle, or sheep; and you will die.
52 Your towns will be shut in by his armies, till your high walls, in which you put your faith, have come down: his armies will be round your towns, through all your land which the Lord your God has given you.
52
They will attack every town in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and the high, fortified walls in which you trust will fall.
53 And your food will be the fruit of your body, the flesh of the sons and daughters which the Lord your God has given you; because of your bitter need and the cruel grip of your haters.
53
"When your enemies are besieging your towns, you will become so desperate for food that you will even eat the children that the Lord your God has given you.
54 That man among you who is soft and used to comfort will be hard and cruel to his brother, and to his dear wife, and to of those his children who are still living;
54
Even the most refined man of noble birth will become so desperate during the siege that he will eat some of his own children because he has no other food. He will not even give any to his brother or to the wife he loves or to any of his children who are left.
55 And will not give to any of them the flesh of his children which will be his food because he has no other; in the cruel grip of your haters on all your towns.
56 The most soft and delicate of your women, who would not so much as put her foot on the earth, so delicate is she, will be hard-hearted to her husband and to her son and to her daughter;
56
Even the most refined woman of noble birth, so rich that she has never had to walk anywhere, will behave in the same way. When the enemy besieges her town, she will become so desperate for food that she will secretly eat her newborn child and the afterbirth as well. She will not share them with the husband she loves or with any of her children.
57 And to her baby newly come to birth, and to the children of her body; for having no other food, she will make a meal of them secretly, because of her bitter need and the cruel grip of your haters on all your towns.
58 If you will not take care to do all the words of this law, recorded in this book, honouring that name of glory and of fear, THE LORD YOUR GOD;
58
"If you do not obey faithfully all of God's teachings that are written in this book and if you do not honor the wonderful and awesome name of the Lord your God,
59 Then the Lord your God will make your punishment, and the punishment of your seed, a thing to be wondered at; great punishments and cruel diseases stretching on through long years.
59
he will send on you and on your descendants incurable diseases and horrible epidemics that can never be stopped.
60 He will send on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which were a cause of fear to you, and they will take you in their grip.
60
He will bring on you once again all the dreadful diseases you experienced in Egypt, and you will never recover.
61 And all the diseases and the pains not recorded in the book of this law will the Lord send on you till your destruction is complete.
61
He will also send all kinds of diseases and epidemics that are not mentioned in this book of God's laws and teachings, and you will be destroyed.
62 And you will become a very small band, though your numbers were like the stars of heaven; because you did not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God.
62
Although you become as numerous as the stars in the sky, only a few of you will survive, because you did not obey the Lord your God.
63 And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and increasing you, so the Lord will take pleasure in cutting you off and causing your destruction, and you will be uprooted from the land which you are about to take as your heritage.
63
Just as the Lord took delight in making you prosper and in making you increase in number, so he will take delight in destroying you and in bringing ruin on you. You will be uprooted from the land that you are about to occupy.
64 And the Lord will send you wandering among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other: there you will be servants to other gods, of wood and stone, gods of which you and your fathers had no knowledge.
64
"The Lord will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve gods made of wood and stone, gods that neither you nor your ancestors have ever worshiped before.
65 And even among these nations there will be no peace for you, and no rest for your feet: but the Lord will give you there a shaking heart and wasting eyes and weariness of soul:
65
You will find no peace anywhere, no place to call your own; the Lord will overwhelm you with anxiety, hopelessness, and despair.
66 Your very life will be hanging in doubt before you, and day and night will be dark with fears, and nothing in life will be certain:
66
Your life will always be in danger. Day and night you will be filled with terror, and you will live in constant fear of death.
67 In the morning you will say, If only it was evening! And at evening you will say, If only morning would come! Because of the fear in your hearts and the things which your eyes will see.
67
Your hearts will pound with fear at everything you see. Every morning you will wish for evening; every evening you will wish for morning.
68 And the Lord will take you back to Egypt again in ships, by the way of which I said to you, You will never see it again: there you will be offering yourselves as men-servants and women-servants to your haters for a price, and no man will take you.
68
The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships, even though he said that you would never have to go there again. There you will try to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will want to buy you."
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.