Deuteronomy 28

Deuteronomy 28:1 “Now if you faithfully obey Yahveh your God and are careful to do all his commands I am commanding you today, Yahveh your God will put you far above all the nations of the land.

Deuteronomy 28:2 All these empowerments will come and overtake you because you obey Yahveh your God:

Deuteronomy 28:3 You will be empowered in the city and empowered in the country.

Deuteronomy 28:4 Your offspring will be empowered, and your land’s produce, and the offspring of your livestock, including the young of your herds and the newborn of your flocks.

Deuteronomy 28:5 Your basket and kneading bowl will be empowered.

Deuteronomy 28:6 You will be empowered when you come in and empowered when you go out.

Deuteronomy 28:7 “Yahveh will cause the enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you in one direction but run away from you in seven directions.

Deuteronomy 28:8 Yahveh will command for you empowerment on your barns and on everything you do; he will empower you in the land Yahveh your God is giving you.

Deuteronomy 28:9 Yahveh will establish you as his sacred people, as he swore to you, if you watch the commands of Yahveh your God and walk in his ways.

Deuteronomy 28:10 Then all the peoples of the land will see that you bear Yahveh’s name, and they will stand in awe of you.

Deuteronomy 28:11 Yahveh will make your prosperity survive[1] with offspring, the offspring of your livestock, and your land’s produce in the land Yahveh swore to your fathers to give you.

Deuteronomy 28:12 Yahveh will open for you his abundant storehouse, the sky, to give your land rain in its season and to empower all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.

Deuteronomy 28:13 Yahveh will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward if you listen to Yahveh, your God’s commands, which I am commanding you today, and are careful to follow them.

Deuteronomy 28:14 Do not turn aside to the right or the left from all the things I am commanding you today, and do not follow other gods to worship them.

Deuteronomy 28:15 “But if you disobey Yahveh your God by carefully following all his commands and prescriptions I am giving you today, all these afflictions will come and overtake you:

Deuteronomy 28:16 You will be afflicted with a curse in the city and afflicted with a curse in the country.

Deuteronomy 28:17 Your basket and kneading bowl will be afflicted with a curse.

Deuteronomy 28:18 Your offspring will be afflicted with a curse, and your land’s produce, the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks.

Deuteronomy 28:19 You will be afflicted with a curse when you come in and afflicted with a curse when you go out.

Deuteronomy 28:20 Yahveh will send against you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you do until you are exterminated and quickly destroyed because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning me.

Deuteronomy 28:21 Yahveh will make pestilence cling to you until he has exterminated you from the land you are entering to take possession of.

Deuteronomy 28:22 Yahveh will afflict you with wasting disease, fever, inflammation, burning heat, drought, blight, and mildew; these will pursue you until you are destroyed.

Deuteronomy 28:23 The sky above you will be bronze, and the land beneath you iron.

Deuteronomy 28:24 Yahveh will turn the rain of your land into falling dust; it will descend on you from the sky until you are exterminated.

Deuteronomy 28:25 Yahveh will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but run away from them in seven directions. You will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the land.

Deuteronomy 28:26 Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away.

Deuteronomy 28:27 “Yahveh will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, tumors, a festering rash, and scabies, from which you cannot be cured.

Deuteronomy 28:28 Yahveh will afflict you with madness, blindness, and mental confusion,

Deuteronomy 28:29 so that at noon you will grope as a blind person gropes in the dark. You will not be successful in anything you do. You will certainly be exploited and robbed continually, and no one will help you.

Deuteronomy 28:30 You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You will build a house but not stay in it. You will plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit.

Deuteronomy 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will help you.

Deuteronomy 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes grow weary looking for them every day. But you will be powerless to do anything.

Deuteronomy 28:33 A people you don’t know will eat your land’s produce and everything you have labored for. You will only be exploited and crushed continually.

Deuteronomy 28:34 You will be driven mad by what you see.

Deuteronomy 28:35 Yahveh will afflict you with painful and incurable boils on your knees and thighs– from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

Deuteronomy 28:36 “Yahveh will bring you and your king that you have appointed to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone.

Deuteronomy 28:37 You will become an object of desolation, scorn, and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahveh will drive you.

Deuteronomy 28:38 “You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because locusts will devour it.

Deuteronomy 28:39 You will plant and cultivate vineyards but not drink the wine or gather the grapes because worms will eat them.

Deuteronomy 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but not moisten your skin with oil, because your olives will drop off.

Deuteronomy 28:41 You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours because they will be taken prisoner.

Deuteronomy 28:42 Buzzing insects will take possession of all your trees and your land’s produce.

Deuteronomy 28:43 The guest among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower.

Deuteronomy 28:44 He will lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.

Deuteronomy 28:45 “All these afflictions will come, pursue, and overtake you until you are exterminated, since you disobeyed Yahveh your God and watch the commands and prescriptions he gave you.

Deuteronomy 28:46 These curses will be a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants permanently.

Deuteronomy 28:47 Because you didn’t serve Yahveh your God with joy and a cheerful heart, even though you had an abundance of everything,

Deuteronomy 28:48 you will serve your enemies Yahveh will send against you, in famine, thirst, nakedness, and a lack of everything. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until he has exterminated you.

Deuteronomy 28:49 Yahveh will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the land, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a country whose language you won’t understand,

Deuteronomy 28:50 a ruthless nation, showing no respect for the old and not sparing the young.

Deuteronomy 28:51 They will eat the offspring of your livestock and your land’s produce until you are exterminated. They will leave you no grain, new wine, fresh oil, young of your herds, or newborn of your flocks until they cause you to be destroyed.

Deuteronomy 28:52 They will besiege you within all your city gates until the high and fortified walls that you trust in come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your city gates throughout the land Yahveh your God has given you.

Deuteronomy 28:53 “You will eat your offspring, the meat of your sons and daughters Yahveh your God has given you during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you.

Deuteronomy 28:54 The most sensitive and refined man among you will look grudgingly at his brother, the wife he embraces, and the survivors of his children,

Deuteronomy 28:55 refusing to share with any of them his children’s meat that he will eat because he has nothing left during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you in all your towns.

Deuteronomy 28:56 The most sensitive and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the land because of her refinement and sensitivity, will begrudge the husband she embraces, her son, and her daughter,

Deuteronomy 28:57 the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you within your city gates.

Deuteronomy 28:58 “If you are not careful to watch all the words of this instruction, which are written in this scroll, by fearing this glorious and awe-inspiring name – Yahveh, your God –

Deuteronomy 28:59 and Yahveh will bring overwhelming plagues on you and your descendants, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses.

Deuteronomy 28:60 He will afflict you again with all the diseases of Egypt, which you dreaded, and they will cling to you.

Deuteronomy 28:61 Yahveh will also afflict you with every sickness and plague not recorded in the book of this instruction until you are exterminated.

Deuteronomy 28:62 Though you were as numerous as the stars of the sky, you will be left with only a few people because you disobeyed Yahveh, your God.

Deuteronomy 28:63 Just as Yahveh was glad to cause you to prosper and to multiply you, so he will also be glad to cause you to be destroyed and to exterminate you. You will be ripped out of the land you are entering to take possession of.

Deuteronomy 28:64 Then Yahveh will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the land to the other, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

Deuteronomy 28:65 You will find no peace among those nations, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot. There, Yahveh will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a lethargic throat.

Deuteronomy 28:66 Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be in dread night and day, never sure of survival.

Deuteronomy 28:67 In the morning, you will say, ‘If only it were evening! ‘ and in the evening, you will say, ‘If only it were morning! ‘– because of the dread you will have in your heart and because of what you will see.

Deuteronomy 28:68 Yahveh will take you back in ships to Egypt by a route that I said you would never see again. There, you will try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

[1]יָתַר

Deuteronomy 28 quotes:

“The blessings (vv. 1–14) and curses (vv. 15–68) of chapter 28 follow the pattern of Ancient Near Eastern treaties in seeking to motivate loyalty and obedience in the subjects of the conquering king.

But within the Pentateuch, the unity and concept of blessing and curse drives the narrative from Genesis (the fivefold blessing given to Abraham at 12:1–3, reversing the fivefold curse of Gen. 3 – 11); the blessing of Jacob (Gen. 49:1–33); Leviticus 26:1–13 (blessings); Leviticus 26:14–46 (curses); and Deuteronomy 27 – 28, 32 – 33.91 Therefore, the assumption behind the blessings and curses within the Pentateuch is the sovereignty of Yahweh (monotheism) in all the affairs of life. This especially relates to the Lord’s covenant with Abraham and his progeny to give them a land (Gen. 12:1–3). But in order to possess this promise in all its fullness, Israel must replicate Abraham’s obedience to all of the Lord’s commands (cf. Gen. 26:5; Deut. 28:1, 15, 58). The main sin that will undo this blessing and incur Yahweh’s curses will be Israel’s proclivity to go after other gods and serve them (28:14). Within chapter 28, the curses are four times longer than the blessings (cf. Lev. 26:14–46; three times longer than the blessings), which initially may have served the purpose of motivating obedience to the laws of chapters 5 – 28 (cf. 29:19–21). But it may also suggest that Israel will fail in its attempt to keep the demands of the covenant (cf. 31:14–29). Even though the curses will inevitably follow the blessings (30:1), God’s grace will also prevail in the possibility of Israel’s return to the Lord (30:1–10), suggesting that the curses were not always logical or irreversible in their desired and rhetorical effects. Finally, the terms of the covenant (28:69 [MT]; 29:1 [ET]) from chapters 5 – 28 were to be understood as a new embodiment or renewal of the Horeb covenant, and not its replacement.”

Woods, Edward J.. Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries Book 5) . InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

“The conclusion to the specific stipulations (26:16–19) was followed in the address by instructions relating to the future renewal of the covenant in the vicinity of Shechem, after the initial stages of the conquest. In that future renewal ceremony, blessings and curses would be declared to the people (27:11–26). Now the focus in the address of Moses returns to the present moment, and in ch. 28 the substance of the address is an exhortation based upon the blessings and curses pronounced during the renewal of the covenant on the plains of Moab.”

Craigie, Peter C.. The Book of Deuteronomy (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament) (p. 335). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

The DEUTERONOMY shelf in Jeff’s library.

Day: December 18, 2025

Deuteronomy 28

Deuteronomy 28

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