New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 If you will only obey the Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth;
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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:
2 all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God:
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And all these blessings will come on you and overtake you, if your ears are open to the voice of the Lord your God.
3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
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A blessing will be on you in the town, and a blessing in the field.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, both the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock.
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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.
5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
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A blessing will be on your basket and on your bread-basin.
6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
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A blessing will be on your coming in and on your going out.
7 The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways.
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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.
8 The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns, and in all that you undertake; he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
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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.
9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways.
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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.
10 All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.
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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.
11 The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you.
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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.
12 The Lord will open for you his rich storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all your undertakings. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.
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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.
13 The Lord will make you the head, and not the tail; you shall be only at the top, and not at the bottom—if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, by diligently observing them,
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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;
14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I am commanding you today, either to the right or to the left, following other gods to serve them.
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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.
15 But if you will not obey the Lord your God by diligently observing all his commandments and decrees, which I am commanding you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you:
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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:
16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
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You will be cursed in the town and cursed in the field.
17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
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A curse will be on your basket and on your bread-basin.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock.
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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.
19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
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You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
20 The Lord will send upon you disaster, panic, and frustration in everything you attempt to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.
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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.
21 The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until it has consumed you off the land that you are entering to possess.
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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.
22 The Lord will afflict you with consumption, fever, inflammation, with fiery heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.
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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.
23 The sky over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you iron.
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And the heaven over your heads will be brass, and the earth under you hard as iron.
24 The Lord will change the rain of your land into powder, and only dust shall come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed.
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The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust, sending it down on you from heaven till your destruction is complete.
25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out against them one way and flee before them seven ways. You shall become an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
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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.
26 Your corpses shall be food for every bird of the air and animal of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.
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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.
27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with ulcers, scurvy, and itch, of which you cannot be healed.
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The Lord will send on you the disease of Egypt, and other sorts of skin diseases which nothing will make well.
28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind;
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He will make your minds diseased, and your eyes blind, and your hearts wasted with fear:
29 you shall grope about at noon as blind people grope in darkness, but you shall be unable to find your way; and you shall be continually abused and robbed, without anyone to help.
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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.
30 You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house, but not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but not enjoy its fruit.
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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.
31 Your ox shall be butchered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be stolen in front of you, and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, without anyone to help you.
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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.
32 Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people, while you look on; you will strain your eyes looking for them all day but be powerless to do anything.
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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.
33 A people whom you do not know shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors; you shall be continually abused and crushed,
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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:
34 and driven mad by the sight that your eyes shall see.
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So that the things which your eyes have to see will send you out of your minds.
35 The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
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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.
36 The Lord will bring you, and the king whom you set over you, to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, where you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone.
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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.
37 You shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you.
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And you will become a wonder and a name of shame among all the nations where the Lord will take you.
38 You shall carry much seed into the field but shall gather little in, for the locust shall consume it.
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You will take much seed out into the field, and get little in; for the locust will get it.
39 You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them.
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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.
40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off.
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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.
41 You shall have sons and daughters, but they shall not remain yours, for they shall go into captivity.
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You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be yours; for they will go away prisoners into a strange land.
42 All your trees and the fruit of your ground the cicada shall take over.
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All your trees and the fruit of your land will be the locust's.
43 Aliens residing among you shall ascend above you higher and higher, while you shall descend lower and lower.
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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.
44 They shall lend to you but you shall not lend to them; they shall be the head and you shall be the tail.
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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.
45 All these curses shall come upon you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God, by observing the commandments and the decrees that he commanded you.
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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:
46 They shall be among you and your descendants as a sign and a portent forever.
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These things will come on you and on your seed, to be a sign and a wonder for ever;
47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything,
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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;
48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lack of everything. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
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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.
49 The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,
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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;
50 a grim-faced nation showing no respect to the old or favor to the young.
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A hard-faced nation, who will have no respect for the old or mercy for the young:
51 It shall consume the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, leaving you neither grain, wine, and oil, nor the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, until it has made you perish.
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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.
52 It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout your land; it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout the land that the Lord your God has given you.
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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.
53 In the desperate straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you.
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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.
54 Even the most refined and gentle of men among you will begrudge food to his own brother, to the wife whom he embraces, and to the last of his remaining children,
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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;
55 giving to none of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because nothing else remains to him, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in all your towns.
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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 She who is the most refined and gentle among you, so gentle and refined that she does not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge food to the husband whom she embraces, to her own son, and to her own daughter,
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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;
57 begrudging even the afterbirth that comes out from between her thighs, and the children that she bears, because she is eating them in secret for lack of anything else, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in your towns.
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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 do not diligently observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, fearing this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,
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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;
59 then the Lord will overwhelm both you and your offspring with severe and lasting afflictions and grievous and lasting maladies.
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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.
60 He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were in dread, and they shall cling to you.
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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.
61 Every other malady and affliction, even though not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will inflict on you until you are destroyed.
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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.
62 Although once you were as numerous as the stars in heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God.
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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.
63 And just as the Lord took delight in making you prosperous and numerous, so the Lord will take delight in bringing you to ruin and destruction; you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to possess.
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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.
64 The Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.
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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.
65 Among those nations you shall find no ease, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a languishing spirit.
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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:
66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall be in dread, with no assurance of your life.
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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:
67 In the morning you shall say, "If only it were evening!" and at evening you shall say, "If only it were morning!"—because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sights that your eyes shall see.
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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.
68 The Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, by a route that I promised you would never see again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.
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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.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.