Deuteronomy 28:3–15

28:3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field.4 28:4 Your children5 will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:5 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.6 28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack7 you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction8 but flee from you in seven different directions. 28:8 The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do—yes, he will bless you in the land he9 is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments10 and obey him.11 28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord,12 and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children,13 the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he14 promised your ancestors15 he would give you. 28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do;16 you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any. 28:13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his17 commandments which I am urging18 you today to be careful to do. 28:14 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving19 you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship20 them.

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore21 the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force:22

4	tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.
5	tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
6	sn Come in … go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.
7	tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).
8	tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).
9	tn Heb “the Lord your God.” Because English would not typically reintroduce the proper name following a relative pronoun (“he will bless … the Lord your God is giving”), the pronoun (“he”) has been employed here in the translation.
10	tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.
11	tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
12	tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).
13	tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”
14	tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.
15	tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).
16	tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”
17	tn Heb “the Lord your God’s.” See note on “he” in 28:8.
18	tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”
19	tn Heb “from all the words which I am commanding.”
20	tn Heb “in order to serve.”
21	tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”
22	tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”