28
1 It shall happen, if you shall sh'ma ·hear obey· sh'ma ·hear obey· Adonai your God’s voice, to observe to do all his mitzvot ·instructions· which I enjoin you today, that Adonai your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
2 All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you sh'ma ·hear obey· Adonai your God’s voice.
3 You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field.
4 You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed.
6 You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out. (6)
7 Adonai will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways.
8 Adonai will enjoin the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which Adonai your God gives you.
9 Adonai will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you shall keep the mitzvot ·instructions· of Adonai your God, and walk in his ways.
10 All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by Adonai’s name, and they will be afraid of you.
11 Adonai will grant you abundant prosperity, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Adonai swore to your fathers to give you.
12 Adonai will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow.
13 Adonai will make you the head, and not the tail. You will be above only, and you will not be beneath; if you sh'ma ·hear obey· the mitzvot ·instructions· of Adonai your God, which I enjoin you today, to observe and to do,
14 and shall not turn aside from any of the words which I enjoin you today, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other deities to abad ·serve· them.
15 But it shall come to pass, if you will not sh'ma ·hear obey· Adonai your God’s voice, to observe to do all his mitzvot ·instructions· and his statutes which I enjoin you today, that all these curses will come on you, and overtake you.
16 You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the field.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed.
19 You will be cursed when you come in, and you will be cursed when you go out.
20 Adonai will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me.
21 Adonai will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it.
22 Adonai will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with tzara'at mildew. They will pursue you until you perish.
23 Your sky that is over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron.
24 Adonai will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come down on you from the sky, until you are destroyed.
25 Adonai will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 Your dead body will be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there will be no one to frighten them away.
27 Adonai will strike you with the boils of Egypt [Abode of slavery], with the tumors, with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you cannot be healed.
28 Adonai will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of heart.
29 You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you.
30 You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit.
31 Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from before your face, and will not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you.
32 Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look, and fail with longing for them all day long. There will be no power in your hand.
33 A nation which you don’t know eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always;
34 so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad.
35 Adonai will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
36 Adonai will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will abad ·serve· other deities of wood and stone.
37 You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Adonai will lead you away.
38 You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in; for the locust will consume it.
39 You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat them.
40 You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won’t anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives will drop off.
41 You will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours; for they will go into captivity.
42 Locusts will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground.
43 The foreigner who is among you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower.
44 He will lend to you, and you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
45 All these curses will come on you, and will pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you didn’t sh'ma ·hear obey· Adonai your God’s voice, to keep his mitzvot ·instructions· and his statutes which he enjoined you.
46 They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your offspring forever.
47 Because you didn’t abad ·serve· Adonai your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;
48 therefore you will abad ·serve· your enemies whom Adonai sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until he has destroyed you.
49 Adonai will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you will not sh'ma ·hear understand obey·;
50 a nation of fierce facial expressions, that does not respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young,
51 and they will eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
52 They will besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which Adonai your God has given you.
53 You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Adonai your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you.
54 The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye will be evil toward his brother, toward the wife whom he loves, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining;
55 so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left to him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates.
56 The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil toward the husband that she loves, toward her son, toward her daughter,
57 toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your gates.
58 If you will not observe to do all the words of this Torah ·Teaching· that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, Yahweh Eloheinu [He sustains breathing Your God];
59 then Adonai will make your plagues fearful, and the plagues of your offspring, even great plagues, and of long duration, and severe sicknesses, and of long duration.
60 He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt [Abode of slavery], which you were afraid of; and they will cling to you.
61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this Torah ·Teaching·, Adonai will bring them on you, until you are destroyed.
62 You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you didn’t sh'ma ·hear obey· Adonai your God’s voice.
63 It will happen that as Adonai rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so Adonai will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you. You will be plucked from off of the land where you go in to possess it.
64 Adonai will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will abad ·serve· other deities, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone.
65 Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but Adonai will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul.
66 Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life.
67 In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening!” and at evening you will say, “I wish it were morning!” for the fear of your heart which you will fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see.
68 Adonai will bring you into Egypt [Abode of slavery] again with ships, by the way of which I told to you that you would never see it again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies for male and female slaves, and nobody will buy you.