Deuteronomy 28:15–45

CURSES FOR DISOBEDIENCE

¹⁵“But if you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all his commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake^g you:^h

¹⁶You will be cursed in the city

and cursed in the country.

¹⁷Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed.

¹⁸Your offspring will be cursed,

and your land’s produce,

the young of your herds,

and the newborn of your flocks.

¹⁹You will be cursed when you come in

and cursed when you go out.

²⁰The Lord will send against you curses, confusion,ⁱ and rebuke in everything you do until you are destroyed and quickly perish,^j because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning me.^{k 21}The Lord will make pestilence cling to you until he has exterminated you from the land you are entering to possess.^{l 22}The Lord will afflict you with wasting disease, fever, inflammation, burning heat, drought,^A blight, and mildew;^m these will pursue you until you perish. ²³The sky above you will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. ²⁴The Lord will turn the rain of your land into falling^B dust; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed. ²⁵The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions.ⁿ You will be an object of horror^o to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, with no one to scare them away.^p

²⁷“The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt,^q tumors, a festering rash, and scabies, from which you cannot be cured. ²⁸The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and mental confusion,^{r 29}so that at noon you will grope as a blind person gropes in the dark.^s You will not be successful in anything you do. You will only be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will help you.^{t 30}You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it.^u You will plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit. ³¹Your 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. ³²Your 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.^{v 33}A people you don’t know will eat your land’s produce and everything you have labored for. You will only be oppressed and crushed continually.^{w 34}You will be driven mad by what you see. ³⁵The Lord 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.^x

³⁶“The Lord will bring you and your king that you have appointed to a nation neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone.^{y 37}You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.^z

³⁸“You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because locusts will devour it. ³⁹You will plant and cultivate vineyards but not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. ⁴⁰You will have olive trees throughout your territory but not moisten your skin with oil, because your olives will drop off. ⁴¹You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will be taken prisoner. ⁴²Buzzing insects will take possession of all your trees and your land’s produce. ⁴³The resident alien among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower. ⁴⁴He will lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.

⁴⁵“All these curses will come, pursue, and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commands and statutes he gave you.