¹⁵“And then^x if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God by diligently observing^y all of his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today,^z then all of these curses shall come upon you, and they shall overtake you:

¹⁶“You shall^a be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field.

¹⁷“Your basket shall be cursed and your kneading trough.

¹⁸“The fruit of your womb shall be cursed and the fruit of your ground, the calves of your cattle and the lambs of your flock.

¹⁹“You shall be cursed when you come in,^b and you shall be cursed when you go out.^c

²⁰“Yahweh will send upon you^d the curse,^e the panic,^f and the threat^g in everything that you undertake,^h until you are destroyed and until you perish quicklyⁱ because of^j the evil of your deeds in that^k you have forsaken me. ²¹Yahweh will cause the plague to cling to you until it consumes you^l from the land that you are going to,^m to take possession of it. ²²Yahweh will afflict you with the wasting diseases and with the fever and with the inflammation and with the scorching heat and with the swordⁿ and with the blight and with the mildew, and they shall pursue you until you perish.^o ²³And your heavens that are over your heads shall be like bronze, and the earth that is under you shall be like iron. ²⁴Yahweh will change the rain of your land to fine dust and to sand; from the heaven it shall come down upon you until you are destroyed.^p

²⁵“Yahweh shall cause you to be defeated before^q your enemies; on one road you shall go against^r them,^s but you will flee on seven roads before^t them,^u and you shall become a thing of horror to all of the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶And your dead bodies shall be as food for all of the birds of the heaven and to the animals of the earth, and there shall not be anyone to frighten them away.^v

²⁷“Yahweh shall afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scurvy and with the skin rash that cannot be healed.^w ²⁸Yahweh shall afflict you with madness and with blindness and with confusion of heart. ²⁹And you shall be groping at noon just as the blind person gropes in the dark, and you shall not succeed in finding your way, and you shall only be abused and robbed all the time,^x and there will not be anyone who will rescue you. ^y ³⁰You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall sleep^z with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not live in it; a vineyard you shall plant, but you shall not enjoy it. ³¹Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, and you shall not eat it; your donkey shall be stolen right before you,^a and it shall not be returned to you; your sheep and your goats shall be given to your enemies, and there shall not be anyone who rescues you.^b ³²Your sons and your daughters shall be given to other people, and you will be looking on^c longingly^d for^e them all day, but you will be powerless to do anything.^f ³³A people that you do not know shall consume the harvest of your land and all your labor, and you will be only oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives.^g ³⁴You shall become mad because of what your eyes shall see.^h ³⁵Yahweh shall strike you with grievous boils on the knees and on the upper thighs from which you will not be able to be healed,ⁱ from the sole of your foot and up to your crown. ³⁶Yahweh will bring you and your king whom you set up over you to a nation that you or your ancestors^j have not known, and there you will serve other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷And you will become a horror and a proverb and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you there.

³⁸“You shall carry out much seed to the field, but you shall gather little produce, for the locust shall devour it. ³⁹You shall plant vineyards and you shall dress^k them, but you shall not drink wine and you shall not gather grapes, for the worm shall eat it.^l ⁴⁰There shall be olive trees for you in all of your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself, for your olives^m shall drop off. ⁴¹You shall bear sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours,ⁿ for they shall go into captivity. ⁴²The cricket shall take possession of all your trees and the fruit of your ground. ⁴³The alien that is in your midst shall ascend over you, higher and higher, but you shall go down lower and lower. ⁴⁴He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, but you shall be the tail.

⁴⁵“And all of these curses shall come over you, and they shall pursue you, and they shall overtake you until you are destroyed,^o because you did not listen^p to the voice of Yahweh your God, by observing^q his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.

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Footnotes

xLiterally “and it will happen”
yLiterally “to observe and to do”
zLiterally “the day”
aAll of these curses have a future orientation that points to Israel in the land of Canaan
bLiterally “at/in your coming”
cLiterally “at/in your going out”
dOthers translate as a wish: “may Yahweh send upon you …”
eThese words are translated variously, e.g., “starvation,” “thirst,” “rebuke/dysentery” (NEB) or “curses,” “confusion,” “frustration” (NLT)
fOr “confusion”
gOr “rebuke”
hLiterally “in all the sending out of your hand that you do”
iLiterally “until your to be destroyed and until your to perish quickly”
jLiterally “from the face of the evil of your deeds”
kLiterally “which”
lLiterally “it to consume to”
mHebrew “to there”
nOthers translate “drought” (NLT, NEB)
oLiterally “until your/you to perish”
pLiterally “until your being destroyed”
qLiterally “to the face of”
rLiterally “to/toward”
sHebrew “him”
tLiterally “to the face of”
uHebrew “him”
vLiterally “one causing fright to them”
wLiterally “the skin rash that not it is able it to be healed”
xLiterally “all the days”
yLiterally “one who delivers/rescues you”
zOr “ravish/violate”
aLiterally “to the face of you”
bLiterally “there shall not be for you one who rescues”
cLiterally “your eyes will see/look”
dLiterally “wearing out”
eHebrew “to”
fLiterally “but there will not be for power of your hand”
gLiterally “all of the days”
hLiterally “from/by the sight of your eyes”
iLiterally “which not you are able to heal”
jOr “fathers”
kOr “cultivate”
lThat is, the produce
mHebrew “olive”
nLiterally “for you”
oLiterally “until you to be destroyed”
pLiterally “not you listened”
qLiterally “to observe”