Deuteronomy 28:1-14

Blessings for Obedience

1 "And ¹if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you ²high above all the nations of the earth.

2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and ³overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God.

3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and ⁴blessed shall you be in the field.

4 Blessed shall be ⁵the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.

5 Blessed shall be your basket and your ⁶kneading bowl.

6 Blessed shall you be ⁷when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

7 "The LORD ⁸ 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.

8 The LORD ⁹ will command the blessing on you in your barns and ¹⁰in all that you undertake. ¹¹And he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

9 ¹²The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.

10 And ¹³all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are ¹⁴called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be ¹⁵afraid of you.

11 And ¹⁶the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in ¹⁷the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.

12 The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, ¹⁸to give the rain to your land in its season and ¹⁹to bless all the work of your hands. And ²⁰you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

13 And the LORD will make you ²¹the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them,

14 ²²and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Deuteronomy 28:1-14 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.

Cross References

• 1. [Exodus 15:26; Exodus 23:22; Leviticus 26:3; Isaiah 55:2]
• 2. Deuteronomy 26:19
• 3. ver. 15; Zechariah 1:6
• 4. [Genesis 39:5]
• 5. Deuteronomy 7:13; Deuteronomy 30:9; [Genesis 49:25; Exodus 23:26]
• 6. ver. 17; [Exodus 8:3; Exodus 12:34]
• 7. Psalms 121:8
• 8. Exodus 23:22, 27; Leviticus 26:7, 8; [ver. 25]; See 2 Samuel 22:38-41; Psalms 18:37-40
• 9. Leviticus 25:21; Psalms 133:3
• 10. See Deuteronomy 12:7
• 11. Deuteronomy 15:4
• 12. Deuteronomy 7:6; Deuteronomy 26:18, 19; Deuteronomy 29:13; See Exodus 19:5, 6
• 13. [Isaiah 61:9]
• 14. See Numbers 6:27
• 15. Deuteronomy 2:25; Deuteronomy 11:25
• 16. Deuteronomy 30:9
• 17. [See ver. 4 above]
• 18. Deuteronomy 11:14; Leviticus 26:4
• 19. Deuteronomy 14:29
• 20. Deuteronomy 15:6; [ver. 44; Psalms 37:26]
• 21. Isaiah 9:14, 15; Isaiah 19:15
• 22. See Deuteronomy 5:32