Curses on Disobedience

15 “But it shall come to pass, tif you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

18 “Cursed shall be the 5fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

20 “The Lord will send on you ucursing, vconfusion, and wrebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21 The Lord will make the 6plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. 22 xThe Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with yscorching, 7and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And zyour heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

25 a“The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become 8troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 bYour carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. 27 The Lord will strike you with cthe boils of Egypt, with dtumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and econfusion of heart. 29 And you shall fgrope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.

30 g“You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; hyou shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; iyou shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to janother people, and your eyes shall look and kfail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be 9no strength in your lhand. 33 A nation whom you have not known shall eat mthe fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. 34 So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. 35 The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

36 “The Lord will nbring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and othere you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And you shall become pan 1astonishment, a proverb, qand a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.

38 r“You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for sthe locust shall 2consume it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the twine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for uthey shall go into captivity. 42 Locusts shall 3consume all your trees and the produce of your land.

43 “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

45 “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you 4did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And they shall be upon vyou for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.

47 w“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, xfor the abundance of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in yhunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He zwill put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 aThe Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, bas swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance, cwhich does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. 51 And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.

52 “They shall dbesiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53 eYou shall eat the 5fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. 54 The 6sensitive and very refined man among you fwill 7be hostile toward his brother, toward gthe wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, 55 so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. 56 The 8tender and 9delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, 1will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, 57 her 2placenta which comes out hfrom between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.

58 “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear ithis glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, 59 then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants jextraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. 60 Moreover He will bring back on you all kthe diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. 62 You lshall be left few in number, whereas you were mas the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. 63 And it shall be, that just as the Lord nrejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord owill rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be pplucked 3from off the land which you go to possess.

64 “Then the Lord qwill scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and rthere you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. 65 And samong those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; tbut there the Lord will give you a 4trembling heart, failing eyes, and uanguish of soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. 67 vIn the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and wbecause of the sight which your eyes see.

68 “And the Lord xwill take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, y‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”