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Deuteronomy 26-28
Contemporary English Version
Deuteronomy 26-28
Contemporary English Version
Give the Lord the First Part of Your Harvest
Moses said to Israel:
26 The Lord is giving you the land, and soon you will conquer it, settle down, 2 (A) and plant crops. And when you begin harvesting each of your crops, the very first things you pick must be put in a basket. Take them to the place where the Lord your God chooses to be worshiped, 3 and tell the priest, “Long ago the Lord our God promised our ancestors that he would give us this land. And today, I thank him for keeping his promise and giving me a share of the land.”
4 The priest will take the basket and set it in front of the Lord's altar. 5 Then, standing there in front of the place of worship, you must pray:
My ancestor was homeless,
an Aramean who went to live
in Egypt.
There were only a few
in his family then,
but they became great
and powerful,
a nation of many people.
6 The Egyptians were cruel
and had no pity on us.
They mistreated our people
and forced us into slavery.
7 We called out for help
to you, the Lord God
of our ancestors.
You heard our cries;
you knew we were in trouble
and abused.
8 Then you terrified the Egyptians
with your mighty miracles
and rescued us from Egypt.
9 You brought us here
and gave us this land
rich with milk and honey.
10 Now, Lord, I bring to you
the best of the crops
that you have given me.
After you say these things, place the basket in front of the Lord's altar and bow down to worship him.
11 Then you and your family must celebrate by eating a meal at the place of worship to thank the Lord your God for giving you such a good harvest. And remember to invite the Levites and the foreigners who live in your town.
Ten Percent of the Harvest
Moses said to Israel:
12 (B) Every year you are to give ten percent of your harvest to the Lord.[a] But every third year,[b] this ten percent must be given to the poor who live in your town, including Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows. That way, they will have enough to eat. 13 Then you must pray:
Our Lord and our God, you have said that ten percent of my harvest is sacred. I have obeyed your command and given this to the poor, including the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows.
14 I have not eaten any of this sacred food while I was in mourning; in fact, I never touched it when I was unclean.[c] And none of it has been offered as a sacrifice to the spirits of the dead. I have done everything exactly as you commanded.
15 Our Lord, look down from your temple in heaven and bless us and our land. You promised our ancestors that you would give us this land rich with milk and honey, and you have kept your promise.
The Lord Is Your God, and You Are His People
Moses said to Israel:
16 Today the Lord your God has commanded you to obey these laws and teachings with all your heart and soul.
17 In response, you have agreed that the Lord will be your God, that you will obey all his laws and teachings, and that you will listen when he speaks to you.
18 (C) Since you have agreed to obey the Lord, he has agreed that you will be his people and that you will belong to him, just as he promised. 19 The Lord created all nations, but he will make you more famous than any of them, and you will receive more praise and honor. You will belong only to the Lord your God, just as he promised.
Build an Altar on Mount Ebal
27 Moses stood together with the leaders and told the people of Israel:
Obey all the laws and teachings that I am giving you today. 2-4 (D) Soon you will enter the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. He is the God your ancestors worshiped, and he has promised that this land is rich with milk and honey.
After you cross the Jordan River, go to Mount Ebal. Set up large slabs of stone, then cover them with white plaster and write on them a copy of these laws.
5 (E) At this same place, build an altar for offering sacrifices to the Lord your God. But don't use stones that have been cut with iron tools. 6 Look for stones that can be used without being cut. Then offer sacrifices to please the Lord,[d] burning them completely on the altar. 7 Next, offer sacrifices to ask the Lord's blessing,[e] and serve the meat at a sacred meal where you will celebrate in honor of the Lord.
8 Don't forget to write out a copy of these laws on the stone slabs that you are going to set up. Make sure that the writing is easy to read.
Curses on Those Who Disobey
9 Moses stood together with the priests[f] and said, “Israel, be quiet and listen to me! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.[g] 10 So you must obey his laws and teachings that I am giving you.”
11 That same day, Moses gave them the following instructions:
12-13 (F) After you cross the Jordan River, you will go to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal.[h] The tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Ephraim, Manasseh,[i] and Benjamin will go up on Mount Gerizim, where they will bless the people of Israel. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali will go up on Mount Ebal where they will agree to the curses.
14-26 (G) The people of the Levi tribe will speak each curse in a loud voice, then the rest of the people[j] will agree to that curse by saying, “Amen!” Here are the curses:
We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who makes an idol or worships idols, even secretly. The Lord is disgusted with idols.
We ask the Lord to put a curse on all who do not show respect for their father and mother.
We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who moves the rocks that mark property lines.
We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who tells blind people to go the wrong way.
We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who keeps the poor from getting justice, whether these poor are foreigners, widows, or orphans.
We ask the Lord to put a curse on any man who sleeps with his father's wife; that man has shown no respect for his father's marriage.
We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who has sex with an animal.
We ask the Lord to put a curse on any man who sleeps with his sister or his half sister or his mother-in-law.
We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who commits murder, even when there are no witnesses to the crime.
We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who accepts money to murder an innocent victim.
We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who refuses to obey his laws.
And so, to each of these curses, the people will answer, “Amen!”
The Lord Will Bless You if You Obey
Moses said to Israel:
28 1-2 (H) Today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the Lord your God. Always obey them, and the Lord will make Israel the most famous and important nation on earth, and he will bless you in many ways.
3 The Lord will make your businesses and your farms successful.
4 You will have many children. You will harvest large crops, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats will produce many young.
5 You will have plenty of bread[k] to eat.
6 The Lord will make you successful in your daily work.
7 The Lord will help you defeat your enemies and make them scatter in all directions.
8 The Lord your God is giving you the land, and he will make sure you are successful in everything you do. Your harvests will be so large that your storehouses will be full.
9 If you follow and obey the Lord, he will make you his own special people, just as he promised. 10 Then everyone on earth will know that you belong to the Lord, and they will be afraid of you.
11 The Lord will give you a lot of children and make sure that your animals give birth to many young. The Lord promised your ancestors that this land would be yours, and he will make it produce large crops for you.
12 The Lord will open the storehouses of the skies where he keeps the rain, and he will send rain on your land at just the right times. He will make you successful in everything you do. You will have plenty of money to lend to other nations, but you won't need to borrow any yourself.
13 Obey the laws and teachings that I'm giving you today, and the Lord your God will make Israel a leader among the nations, and not a follower. Israel will be wealthy and powerful, not poor and weak. 14 But you must not reject any of his laws and teachings or worship other gods.
The Lord Will Put Curses on You if You Disobey
(Leviticus 26.14-46)
Moses said:
15 Israel, today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the Lord your God. And if you don't obey them all, he will put many curses on you.
16 Your businesses and farms will fail.
17 You won't have enough bread[l] to eat.
18 You'll have only a few children, your crops will be small, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats won't produce many young.
19 The Lord will make you fail in everything you do.
20 No matter what you try to accomplish, the Lord will confuse you, and you will feel his anger. You won't last long, and you may even meet with disaster, all because you rejected the Lord.
21-23 The Lord will send terrible diseases to attack you, and you will never be well again. You will suffer with burning fever and swelling and pain until you die somewhere in the land that you captured.
The Lord will make the sky overhead seem like a bronze roof that keeps out the rain, and the ground under your feet will become as hard as iron. Your crops will be scorched by the hot east wind or ruined by mildew. 24 He will send dust and sandstorms instead of rain, and you will be wiped out.
25 The Lord will let you be defeated by your enemies, and you will scatter in all directions. You will be a horrible sight for the other nations to see, 26 and no one will disturb the birds and wild animals while they eat your dead bodies.
27 The Lord will make you suffer with diseases that will cause oozing sores or crusty itchy patches on your skin or boils like the ones that are common in Egypt. And there will be no cure for you! 28 You will become insane and go blind. The Lord will make you so confused, 29 that even in bright sunshine you will have to feel your way around like a blind person, who cannot tell day from night. For the rest of your life, people will beat and rob you, and no one will be able to stop them.
30 A man will be engaged to a woman, but before they can get married, she will be raped by enemy soldiers. Some of you will build houses, but never get to live in them. If you plant a vineyard, you won't be around long enough to enjoy the first harvest. 31 Your cattle will be killed while you watch, but you won't get to eat any of the meat. Your donkeys and sheep will be stolen from you, and no one will be around to force your enemies to give them back. 32 Your sons and daughters will be dragged off to a foreign country, while you stand there helpless. And even if you watch for them until you go blind, you will never see them again.
33 You will work hard on your farms, but everything you harvest will be eaten by foreigners, who will mistreat you and abuse you for the rest of your life.
34 What you see will be so horrible that you will go insane, 35 and the Lord will punish you from head to toe with boils that never heal.
36 The Lord will let you and your king be taken captive to a country that you and your ancestors have never even heard of, and there you will have to worship idols[m] made of wood and stone. 37 People of nearby countries will shudder when they see your terrible troubles, but they will still make fun of you.
38 You will plant a lot of seed, but gather a small harvest, because locusts[n] will eat your crops. 39 You will plant vineyards and work hard at taking care of them, but you won't gather any grapes, much less get any wine, because the vines themselves will be eaten by worms. 40 Even if your olive trees grow everywhere in your country, the olives will fall off before they are ready, and there won't be enough olive oil for combing your hair.[o]
41 Even your children will be taken as prisoners of war.
42 Locusts[p] will eat your crops and strip your trees of leaves and fruit.
43 Foreigners in your towns will become wealthy and powerful, while you become poor and powerless. 44 You will be so short of money that you will have to borrow from those foreigners. They will be the leaders in the community, and you will be the followers.
More Curses for Disobedience
Moses said:
45 Israel, if you don't obey the laws and teachings that the Lord your God is giving you, he will send these curses to chase, attack, and destroy you. 46 Then everyone will look at you and your descendants and realize that the Lord has placed you under a curse.
47 If the Lord makes you wealthy, but you don't joyfully worship and honor him, 48 he will send enemies to attack you and make you their slaves. Then you will live in poverty with nothing to eat, drink, or wear, and your owners will work you to death.
49 Foreigners who speak a strange language will be sent to attack you without warning, just like an eagle swooping down. 50 They won't show any mercy, and they will have no respect for old people or pity for children. 51 They will take your cattle, sheep, goats, grain, wine, and olive oil, then leave you to starve.
52 All over the land that the Lord your God gave you, the enemy army will surround your towns. You may feel safe inside your town walls, but the enemy will tear them down, 53 while you wait in horror. Finally, you will get so hungry that you will eat the sons and daughters that the Lord gave you. 54-55 Because of hunger, a man who had been gentle and kind will eat his own children and refuse to share the meal with his brother or wife or with his other children. 56-57 (I) A woman may have grown up in such luxury that she never had to put a foot on the ground. But times will be so bad that she will secretly eat both her newborn baby and the afterbirth, without sharing any with her husband or her other children.
Disobedience Brings Destruction
Moses said to Israel:
58 You must obey everything in The Book of God's Law. Because if you don't respect the Lord, 59 he will punish you and your descendants with incurable diseases, 60 like those you were so afraid of in Egypt. 61 Remember! If the Lord decides to destroy your nation, he can use any disease or disaster, not just the ones written in The Book of God's Law.
62 There are as many of you now as the stars in the sky, but if you disobey the Lord your God, only a few of you will be left. 63 The Lord is happy to make you successful and to help your nation grow while you conquer the land. But if you disobey him, he will be just as happy to pull you up by your roots.
64 Those of you that survive will be scattered to every nation on earth, and you will have to worship stone and wood idols[q] that never helped you or your ancestors. 65 You will be restless—always longing for home, but never able to return. 66 You will live in constant fear of death. 67 Each morning you will wake up to such terrible sights that you will say, “I wish it were night!” But at night you will be terrified and say, “I wish it were day!”
68 I told you never to go back to Egypt. But now the Lord himself will load you on ships and send you back. Then you will even try to sell yourselves as slaves, but no one will be interested.
Footnotes
- 26.12 Every year … Lord: See 14.22-29.
- 26.12 every third year: Probably the third and sixth years of the seven-year cycle described in 15.1-11 and Leviticus 25.1-7.
- 26.14 in mourning … unclean: Touching a dead body made a person unclean and unfit to worship God. Ten percent of the harvest belonged to God, and was not to be touched by an unclean person.
- 27.6 sacrifices to please the Lord: See the note at 12.5-19.
- 27.7 sacrifices to ask the Lord's blessing: These sacrifices have traditionally been called “peace offerings” or “offerings of well-being.” A main purpose was to ask for the Lord's blessing, and so in the CEV they are sometimes called “sacrifices to ask the Lord's blessing.”
- 27.9 priests: See the note at 17.8-12.
- 27.9 Today you have become the people of the Lord your God: As a result of the agreement that the Lord had made with them, recorded in 26.16-19.
- 27.12,13 Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal: These mountains were separated by a valley.
- 27.12,13 Ephraim, Manasseh: The Hebrew text has “Joseph”; the descendants of Joseph formed the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.
- 27.14-26 the rest of the people: Or “all the people who are standing on Mount Ebal.”
- 28.5 bread: The main food of the Israelites.
- 28.17 bread: The main food of the Israelites.
- 28.36 have to worship idols: It was sometimes thought that only the gods of a country could be worshiped within the borders of that country.
- 28.38 locusts: A type of grasshopper that comes in swarms and causes great damage to plant life.
- 28.40 olive oil … hair: Olive oil was used for combing the hair.
- 28.42 Locusts: See the note at 28.38.
- 28.64 have to worship … idols: See the note at 28.36.
Deuteronomy 26-28
New International Version
Deuteronomy 26-28
New International Version
Firstfruits and Tithes
26 When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, 2 take some of the firstfruits(A) of all that you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name(B) 3 and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” 4 The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. 5 Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering(C) Aramean,(D) and he went down into Egypt with a few people(E) and lived there and became a great nation,(F) powerful and numerous. 6 But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer,(G) subjecting us to harsh labor.(H) 7 Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice(I) and saw(J) our misery,(K) toil and oppression.(L) 8 So the Lord brought us out of Egypt(M) with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,(N) with great terror and with signs and wonders.(O) 9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey;(P) 10 and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.(Q)” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. 11 Then you and the Levites(R) and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice(S) in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household.
12 When you have finished setting aside a tenth(T) of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe,(U) you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. 13 Then say to the Lord your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them.(V) 14 I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while I was in mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean,(W) nor have I offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God; I have done everything you commanded me. 15 Look down from heaven,(X) your holy dwelling place, and bless(Y) your people Israel and the land you have given us as you promised on oath to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Follow the Lord’s Commands
16 The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.(Z) 17 You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in obedience to him, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws—that you will listen to him.(AA) 18 And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession(AB) as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. 19 He has declared that he will set you in praise,(AC) fame and honor high above all the nations(AD) he has made and that you will be a people holy(AE) to the Lord your God, as he promised.
The Altar on Mount Ebal
27 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: “Keep all these commands(AF) that I give you today. 2 When you have crossed the Jordan(AG) into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones(AH) and coat them with plaster.(AI) 3 Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey,(AJ) just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. 4 And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal,(AK) as I command you today, and coat them with plaster. 5 Build there an altar(AL) to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool(AM) on them. 6 Build the altar of the Lord your God with fieldstones and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. 7 Sacrifice fellowship offerings(AN) there, eating them and rejoicing(AO) in the presence of the Lord your God.(AP) 8 And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stones(AQ) you have set up.”(AR)
Curses From Mount Ebal
9 Then Moses and the Levitical(AS) priests said to all Israel, “Be silent, Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God.(AT) 10 Obey the Lord your God and follow his commands and decrees that I give you today.”
11 On the same day Moses commanded the people:
12 When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim(AU) to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar,(AV) Joseph and Benjamin.(AW) 13 And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal(AX) to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali.
14 The Levites shall recite to all the people of Israel in a loud voice:
15 “Cursed is anyone who makes an idol(AY)—a thing detestable(AZ) to the Lord, the work of skilled hands—and sets it up in secret.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”(BA)
16 “Cursed is anyone who dishonors their father or mother.”(BB)
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
17 “Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor’s boundary stone.”(BC)
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
18 “Cursed is anyone who leads the blind astray on the road.”(BD)
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
19 “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner,(BE) the fatherless or the widow.”(BF)
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
20 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he dishonors his father’s bed.”(BG)
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
21 “Cursed is anyone who has sexual relations with any animal.”(BH)
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
22 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.”(BI)
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
23 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his mother-in-law.”(BJ)
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
24 “Cursed is anyone who kills(BK) their neighbor secretly.”(BL)
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
25 “Cursed is anyone who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.”(BM)
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
26 “Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.”(BN)
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”(BO)
Blessings for Obedience
28 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow(BP) all his commands(BQ) I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.(BR) 2 All these blessings will come on you(BS) and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed(BT) in the city and blessed in the country.(BU)
4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.(BV)
5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.(BW)
7 The Lord will grant that the enemies(BX) who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.(BY)
8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless(BZ) you in the land he is giving you.
9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people,(CA) as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands(CB) of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name(CC) of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock(CD) and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.(CE)
12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse(CF) of his bounty,(CG) to send rain(CH) on your land in season and to bless(CI) all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.(CJ) 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow(CK) them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.(CL) 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left,(CM) following other gods and serving them.
Curses for Disobedience
15 However, if you do not obey(CN) the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today,(CO) all these curses will come on you and overtake you:(CP)
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.(CQ)
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.(CR)
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.(CS)
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.(CT)
20 The Lord will send on you curses,(CU) confusion and rebuke(CV) in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin(CW) because of the evil(CX) you have done in forsaking him.[a] 21 The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess.(CY) 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting disease,(CZ) with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought,(DA) with blight(DB) and mildew, which will plague(DC) you until you perish.(DD) 23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron.(DE) 24 The Lord will turn the rain(DF) of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.
25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated(DG) before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven,(DH) and you will become a thing of horror(DI) to all the kingdoms on earth.(DJ) 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds(DK) and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away.(DL) 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt(DM) and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29 At midday you will grope(DN) about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue(DO) you.
30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her.(DP) You will build a house, but you will not live in it.(DQ) You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.(DR) 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation,(DS) and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. 33 A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression(DT) all your days.(DU) 34 The sights you see will drive you mad.(DV) 35 The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils(DW) that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.(DX)
36 The Lord will drive you and the king(DY) you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors.(DZ) There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone.(EA) 37 You will become a thing of horror,(EB) a byword(EC) and an object of ridicule(ED) among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.(EE)
38 You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little,(EF) because locusts(EG) will devour(EH) it. 39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine(EI) or gather the grapes, because worms will eat(EJ) them.(EK) 40 You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off.(EL) 41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity.(EM) 42 Swarms of locusts(EN) will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.
43 The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower.(EO) 44 They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them.(EP) They will be the head, but you will be the tail.(EQ)
45 All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you(ER) until you are destroyed,(ES) because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. 46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.(ET) 47 Because you did not serve(EU) the Lord your God joyfully and gladly(EV) in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst,(EW) in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke(EX) on your neck(EY) until he has destroyed you.
49 The Lord will bring a nation against you(EZ) from far away, from the ends of the earth,(FA) like an eagle(FB) swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand,(FC) 50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old(FD) or pity for the young. 51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine(FE) or olive oil,(FF) nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined.(FG) 52 They will lay siege(FH) to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.(FI)
53 Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you.(FJ) 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities.(FK) 56 The most gentle and sensitive(FL) woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter(FM) 57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them(FN) secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.
58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law,(FO) which are written in this book, and do not revere(FP) this glorious and awesome name(FQ)—the Lord your God— 59 the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60 He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt(FR) that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law,(FS) until you are destroyed.(FT) 62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky(FU) will be left but few(FV) in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63 Just as it pleased(FW) the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please(FX) him to ruin and destroy you.(FY) You will be uprooted(FZ) from the land you are entering to possess.
64 Then the Lord will scatter(GA) you among all nations,(GB) from one end of the earth to the other.(GC) There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.(GD) 65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place(GE) for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes(GF) weary with longing, and a despairing heart.(GG) 66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.(GH) 68 The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again.(GI) There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 28:20 Hebrew me
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