Deuteronomy 28:20-30

20 "Yahweh will send upon you the curse, the panic, and the threat {in everything that you undertake}, {until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly} {because of} the evil of your deeds in that you have forsaken me.

21 Yahweh will cause the plague to cling to you {until it consumes you} from the land that you [are] going to, to take possession of it.

22 Yahweh will afflict you with the wasting diseases and with the fever and with the inflammation and with the scorching heat and with the sword and with the blight and with the mildew, and they shall pursue you {until you perish}.

23 And your heavens that [are] over your heads shall be [like] bronze, and the earth that [is] under you [shall be like] iron.

24 Yahweh will change the rain of your land [to] fine dust and [to] sand; from the heaven it shall come down upon you {until you are destroyed}.

25 "Yahweh shall cause you to be defeated {before} your enemies; on one road you shall go {against} them, but you will flee on seven roads {before} them, and you shall become a thing of horror to all of the kingdoms of the earth.

26 And your dead bodies shall be as food for all of the birds of the heaven and to the animals of the earth, and there shall not be {anyone to frighten them away}.

27 "Yahweh shall afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scurvy and with {the skin rash that cannot be healed}.

28 Yahweh shall afflict you with madness and with blindness and with confusion of heart.

29 And you shall be groping at noon just as the blind person gropes in the dark, and you shall not succeed [in finding] your way, and you shall only be abused and robbed {all the time}, and there will not be {anyone who will rescue you}.

30 You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall sleep with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not live in it; a vineyard you shall plant, but you shall not enjoy it.

Deuteronomy 28:20-30 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Others translate as a wish: "may Yahweh send upon you ..."
• [b]. These words are translated variously, e.g., "starvation," "thirst," "rebuke/dysentery" (NEB) or "curses," "confusion," "frustration" (NLT)
• [c]. Or "confusion"
• [d]. Or "rebuke"
• [e]. Literally "in all the sending out of your hand that you do"
• [f]. Literally "until your to be destroyed and until your to perish quickly"
• [g]. Literally "from the face of the evil of your deeds"
• [h]. Literally "which"
• [i]. Literally "it to consume to"
• [j]. Hebrew "to there"
• [k]. Others translate "drought" (NLT, NEB)
• [l]. Literally "until your/you to perish"
• [m]. Literally "until your being destroyed"
• [n]. Literally "to the face of"
• [o]. Literally "to/toward"
• [p]. Hebrew "him"
• [q]. Literally "to the face of"
• [r]. Hebrew "him"
• [s]. Literally "one causing fright [to them]"
• [t]. Literally "the skin rash that not it is able it to be healed"
• [u]. Literally "all the days"
• [v]. Literally "one who delivers/rescues [you]"
• [w]. Or "ravish/violate"