Deuteronomy 28:16-26

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.
18 "A curse on the fruit of your body, the fruit of your land and the young of your cattle and flocks.
19 "A curse on you when you come in, and a curse on you when you go out.
20 "ADONAI will send on you curses, disasters and frustration in everything you set out to do, until you are destroyed and quickly perish, because of your evil actions in abandoning me.
21 "ADONAI will bring on you a plague that will stay with you until he has exterminated you from the land you are entering in order to take possession of it.
22 ADONAI will strike you down with wasting diseases, fever, inflammation, fiery heat, drought, blasting winds and mildew; and they will pursue you until you perish.
23 "The sky over your head will be brass and the earth under you iron.
24 ADONAI will turn the rain your land needs into powder and dust that will fall on you from the sky until you are destroyed.
25 "ADONAI your God will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you will advance on them one way and flee before them seven. You will become an object of horror to every kingdom on earth.
26 Your carcasses will become food for all the birds in the air and the wild animals, and there will be no one to scare them away.

Deuteronomy 28:16-26 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.

Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.