Deuteronomy 28:15-68

Curses for Disobedience

15 "But ¹if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and ²overtake you.

16 Cursed shall you be ³in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.

19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

20 "The LORD ⁴ will send on you curses, confusion, and ⁵frustration in all that you undertake to do, ⁶until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.

21 The LORD will make ⁷the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

22 ⁸The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought^[a] and with ⁹blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish.

23 And ¹⁰the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron.

24 The LORD will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

25 ¹¹"The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you ¹²shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 And ¹³your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and ¹⁴there shall be no one to frighten them away.

27 The LORD will strike you ¹⁵with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and ¹⁶scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed.

28 The LORD will strike you with ¹⁷madness and blindness and confusion of mind,

29 and you shall ¹⁸grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways.^[b] And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you.

30 ¹⁹You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. ²⁰You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. ²¹You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit.

31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you.

32 ²²Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, ²³but you shall be helpless.

33 A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually,

34 so that you are driven mad ²⁴by the sights that your eyes see.

35 The LORD will strike you on the knees and on the legs ²⁵with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

36 "The LORD will ²⁶bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you ²⁷nor your fathers have known. And ²⁸there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone.

37 And you shall become ²⁹a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away.

38 ³⁰You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for ³¹the locust shall consume it.

39 ³²You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them.

40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you ³³shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off.

41 You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for ³⁴they shall go into captivity.

42 ³⁵The cricket^[c] shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground.

43 ³⁶The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.

44 ³⁷He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. ³⁸He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

45 ³⁹"All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.

46 They shall be ⁴⁰a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever.

47 ⁴¹Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things,

48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he ⁴²will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

49 ⁴³The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, ⁴⁴swooping down like the eagle, a nation ⁴⁵whose language you do not understand,

50 a hard-faced nation ⁴⁶who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young.

51 It shall ⁴⁷eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

52 "They shall ⁴⁸besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given you.

53 And ⁴⁹you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, ⁵⁰in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.

54 The man who is the most tender and refined among you will ⁵¹begrudge food to his brother, to ⁵²the wife he embraces,^[d] and to the last of the children whom he has left,

55 so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, ⁵³in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns.

56 ⁵⁴The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces,^[e] to her son and to her daughter,

57 her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, ⁵⁵in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns.

58 "If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, ⁵⁶the LORD your God,

59 then the LORD will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting.

60 And he will bring upon you again all ⁵⁷the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you.

61 Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the LORD will bring upon you, until you are destroyed.

62 Whereas ⁵⁸you were as numerous ⁵⁹as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God.

63 And as the LORD ⁶⁰took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the LORD will ⁶¹take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

64 "And the LORD ⁶² will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and ⁶³there you shall serve other gods ⁶⁴of wood and stone, ⁶⁵which neither you nor your fathers have known.

65 And ⁶⁶among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but ⁶⁷the LORD will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and ⁶⁸a languishing soul.

66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life.

67 ⁶⁹In 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 ⁷⁰the sights that your eyes shall see.

68 And the LORD ⁷¹ will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that ⁷²you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer."

Deuteronomy 28:15-68 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. Leviticus 26:14; Lamentations 2:17; Daniel 9:11, 13; Malachi 2:2
• 2. ver. 2
• 3. [ver. 3-6]
• 4. Malachi 2:2
• 5. Psalms 80:16; Isaiah 30:17; Isaiah 51:20; Isaiah 66:15
• 6. Joshua 23:16
• 7. See Leviticus 26:25
• 8. Leviticus 26:16
• 9. 1 Kings 8:37; 2 Chronicles 6:28; Amos 4:9; Haggai 2:17
• 10. Leviticus 26:19
• 11. Deuteronomy 32:30; Leviticus 26:17, 37; Isaiah 30:17; [ver. 7]
• 12. Ezekiel 23:46
• 13. [1 Samuel 17:44, 46; Psalms 79:2; Jeremiah 16:4; Jeremiah 19:7; Jeremiah 34:20]
• 14. Jeremiah 7:33
• 15. [ver. 35]
• 16. Leviticus 21:20; Leviticus 22:22
• 17. [ver. 34; Zechariah 12:4]
• 18. Job 5:14; Isaiah 59:10
• 19. Deuteronomy 20:5-7; Jeremiah 8:10
• 20. Amos 5:11; Zephaniah 1:13
• 21. Deuteronomy 20:6; Leviticus 19:23-25; [Micah 6:15]
• 22. [2 Chronicles 29:9; Joel 3:6]
• 23. Nehemiah 5:5
• 24. ver. 67
• 25. [ver. 27]
• 26. 2 Kings 17:4, 6; 2 Kings 24:12, 14; 2 Kings 25:7, 11; 2 Chronicles 33:11; 2 Chronicles 36:6, 20
• 27. Jeremiah 9:16; Jeremiah 16:13
• 28. ver. 64; Deuteronomy 4:28
• 29. 1 Kings 9:7, 8; 2 Chronicles 7:20; Jeremiah 24:9; Jeremiah 25:9; [Ezekiel 14:8]
• 30. Micah 6:15; Haggai 1:6
• 31. Joel 1:4; Joel 2:25
• 32. Zephaniah 1:13
• 33. Micah 6:15
• 34. Lamentations 1:5
• 35. [See ver. 38 above]
• 36. [ver. 13]
• 37. [ver. 12]
• 38. [See ver. 43 above]
• 39. ver. 15
• 40. [Isaiah 8:18]
• 41. Nehemiah 9:35-37
• 42. Jeremiah 28:14
• 43. [Jeremiah 5:15-17; Jeremiah 6:22, 23]; See Isaiah 5:26-30
• 44. Jeremiah 48:40; Jeremiah 49:22; Lamentations 4:19; Hosea 8:1; Habakkuk 1:8; [Ezekiel 17:3, 12]
• 45. Isaiah 28:11; Isaiah 33:19; Jeremiah 5:15
• 46. [2 Chronicles 36:17; Isaiah 47:6]
• 47. ver. 33; Jeremiah 5:17; [Isaiah 62:8, 9]
• 48. [2 Kings 17:5; 2 Kings 25:1, 2, 4]
• 49. ver. 57; Leviticus 26:29; Jeremiah 19:9; Ezekiel 5:10; [2 Kings 6:28, 29; Lamentations 2:20; Lamentations 4:10]
• 50. ver. 55, 57
• 51. See Deuteronomy 15:9
• 52. Deuteronomy 13:6
• 53. ver. 53
• 54. ver. 54; Isaiah 47:1
• 55. [See ver. 55 above]
• 56. Exodus 6:3
• 57. See Deuteronomy 7:15
• 58. Deuteronomy 4:27; [2 Kings 24:14; Nehemiah 7:4; Jeremiah 42:2]
• 59. See Deuteronomy 10:22
• 60. Deuteronomy 30:9; Jeremiah 32:41; Zephaniah 3:17
• 61. [Proverbs 1:26; Isaiah 1:24; Ezekiel 5:13]
• 62. See Leviticus 26:33
• 63. ver. 36
• 64. Deuteronomy 4:28
• 65. Deuteronomy 13:6; Jeremiah 19:4; Jeremiah 44:3
• 66. [Amos 9:4]
• 67. [Leviticus 26:36]
• 68. Leviticus 26:16
• 69. Job 7:3, 4
• 70. ver. 34
• 71. Hosea 8:13; Hosea 9:3; [Jeremiah 43:7]
• 72. See Deuteronomy 17:16

Footnotes

• [a]. Or sword
• [b]. Or shall not succeed in finding your ways
• [c]. Identity uncertain
• [d]. Hebrew the wife of his bosom
• [e]. Hebrew the husband of her bosom