Deuteronomy 28:45-68

English Standard Version

^45 (A)“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 ^(B)a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. ^47 (C)Because 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 ^(D)will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. ^49 (E)The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, ^(F)swooping down like the eagle, a nation ^(G)whose language you do not understand, ⁵⁰ a hard-faced nation ^(H)who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. ⁵¹ It shall ^(I)eat 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 ^(J)besiege 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 ^(K)you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, ^(L)in 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 ^(M)begrudge food to his brother, to ^(N)the wife he embraces,^[a] 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, ^(O)in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. ^56 (P)The 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,^[b] 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, ^(Q)in 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, ^(R)the 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 ^(S)the 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 ^(T)you were as numerous ^(U)as 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 ^(V)took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will ^(W)take 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 ^(X)will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and ^(Y)there you shall serve other gods ^(Z)of wood and stone, ^(AA)which neither you nor your fathers have known. ⁶⁵ And ^(AB)among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but ^(AC)the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and ^(AD)a 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 (AE)In 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 ^(AF)the sights that your eyes shall see. ⁶⁸ And the Lord ^(AG)will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that ^(AH)you 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.”