FLOGVIT
.bible

DeuteronomyChapter 28

+ Secondary textOriginal text← PreviousNext →Contribute
Show the covenant conditionsThe fruits of obedience

Moses presents Israel's choice: obedience brings blessing, disobedience brings curse. These are the covenant conditions before they enter the promised land.

Curses (disobedience)

v.15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22-25-28-36-64
  • Cursed in the city and in the field
  • Cursed basket and kneading trough
  • Cursed fruit of the womb
  • Cursed when you come in and go out
  • Pestilence, sickness, and drought
  • Defeat before your enemies
  • Madness, blindness, and confusion
  • Foreigners shall rule over you
  • Scattered among the nations

Blessings (obedience)

v.3-4-5-6-7-8-11-12-13
  • Blessed in the city and in the field
  • Blessed basket and kneading trough
  • Blessed fruit of the womb
  • Blessed when you come in and go out
  • Your enemies will flee before you
  • Blessing in your storehouses
  • Rain at the proper time
  • The head, not the tail
  • At the top, not the bottom

"See, I set before you today a blessing and a curse" (Deut 11:26)

If you listen faithfully to the voice of the LORD your God, keeping and doing all his commandments that I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, because you listen to the voice of the LORD your God:
Blessed will be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your soil, and the fruit of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the young of your flocks.
The LORD will cause the enemies who rise against you to be struck down before you. They will march out against you by one road and flee from you by seven.
The LORD will command his blessing upon you—on your barns and on everything you set your hand to—and he will bless you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
The LORD will establish you as his holy people, just as he swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.
Then all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the LORD is called over you, and they will stand in awe of you.
The LORD will give you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your soil—in the land the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
The LORD will open his good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but borrow from none.
The LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you will be only at the top and never at the bottom—if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God that I give you today, keeping them and doing them,
and if you do not turn aside from any of the words I command you today, to the right or to the left, going after other gods to serve them.
But if you do not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, if you are not careful to do all his commandments and statutes that I give you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
Cursed will be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your soil, the calves of your herds and the young of your flocks.
The LORD will send upon you cursing, confusion, and frustration in everything you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and quickly perish, because of the evil of your deeds in forsaking me.
The LORD will make the plague cling to you until it has wiped you off the land you are entering to take possession of.
The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought,* with blight and mildew, and they will pursue you until you perish. [*Footnote: The Hebrew word here can be read as "sword"; a closely related form means "drought."]
The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.
The LORD will cause you to be struck down before your enemies. You will march out against them by one road and flee from them by seven, and you will become a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
Your corpses will be food for every bird of the sky and every beast of the earth, and no one will drive them away.
The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, scabs, and itch, and there will be no healing for you.
You will grope at midday like a blind man groping in the dark, and you will not succeed in your ways. You will be nothing but oppressed and robbed all your days, with no one to save you.
You will be engaged to a woman, and another man will lie with her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but never enjoy its fruit.
Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be seized from you and never returned. Your sheep will be handed over to your enemies, and no one will come to your rescue.
Your sons and daughters will be handed over to another people while you watch, and you will strain your eyes for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand.
A people you do not know will eat the fruit of your soil and all the produce of your labor, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed all your days.
The LORD will strike you with painful boils on your knees and legs, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head, and there will be no healing for you.
The LORD will drive you and the king you set over yourself to a nation you and your fathers have never known, and there you will serve other gods of wood and stone.
You will have olive trees throughout your territory, but you will have no oil to anoint yourself, for your olives will drop off.
All these curses will come upon you; they will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God or keep the commandments and statutes he gave you.
Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart in the midst of all your abundance,
you will serve your enemies, whom the LORD sends against you—in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and utter want. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
The LORD will bring against you a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, swooping down like an eagle—a nation whose language you do not understand,
They will devour the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your soil until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, no new wine, no oil, no calves of your herds or young of your flocks, until they have brought you to ruin.
They will besiege you in all your towns until the high, fortified walls you trust in have fallen throughout your land. They will besiege you in every town in all the land the LORD your God has given you.
Then you will eat the fruit of your own womb—the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God gave you—in the siege and distress your enemy inflicts on you.
refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children that he eats, because nothing else is left him in the siege and distress your enemy inflicts on you in all your towns.
The most refined and delicate woman among you, so pampered and soft that she would never set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces, and her son and her daughter,
even the afterbirth from between her legs and the children she bears; for in utter want she will secretly eat them in the siege and distress your enemy inflicts on you in your towns.
If you are not careful to do all the words of this law, written in this book, and to fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God,
then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants—severe and lasting plagues, and grievous, lingering diseases.
The LORD will also bring on you every sickness and plague not recorded in this book of the law, until you are destroyed.
You who were as numerous as the stars of the sky will be left few in number, because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.
Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so it will please the LORD to bring you to ruin and destroy you, and you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to take possession of.
The LORD will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
Among those nations you will find no rest, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul.
In the morning you will say, "If only it were evening!" and in the evening, "If only it were morning!"—because of the terror in your heart and the sights your eyes must see.
The LORD will send you back to Egypt in ships, along the road I said you would never see again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb.
←→