HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 554
D EU T ERO N O MY 2 8
that you are a people claimed by the Lord, and
they will stand in awe of you.
11 “The Lord will give you prosperity in the
land he swore to your ancestors to give you,
blessing you with many children, numerous
livestock, and abundant crops. 12 The Lord
will send rain at the proper time from his rich
treasury in the heavens and will bless all the
work you do. You will lend to many nations,
but you will never need to borrow from them.
13 If you listen to these commands of the Lord
your God that I am giving you today, and if you
carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the
head and not the tail, and you will always be
on top and never at the bottom. 14 You must not
turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and
worship them.
Curses for Disobedience
15 “But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your
God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will
come and overwhelm you:
16
17
18
19
Your towns and your fields
will be cursed.
Your fruit baskets and breadboards
will be cursed.
Your children and your crops
will be cursed.
The offspring of your herds and flocks
will be cursed.
Wherever you go and whatever you do,
you will be cursed.
20 “The Lord himself will send on you curses,
confusion, and frustration in everything you
do, until at last you are completely destroyed
for doing evil and abandoning me. 21 The Lord
will afflict you with diseases until none of you
are left in the land you are about to enter and
occupy. 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting diseases, fever, and inflammation, with
scorching heat and drought, and with blight
and mildew. These disasters will pursue you
until you die. 23 The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will
be as hard as iron. 24 The Lord will change the
rain that falls on your land into powder, and
dust will pour down from the sky until you are
destroyed.
25 “The Lord will cause you to be defeated
by your enemies. You will attack your enemies
from one direction, but you will scatter from
them in seven! You will be an object of horror
to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your corpses
will be food for all the scavenging birds and
wild animals, and no one will be there to chase
them away.
27 “The Lord will afflict you with the boils of
Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch,
page 184
from which you cannot be cured. 28 The Lord
will strike you with madness, blindness, and
panic. 29 You will grope around in broad daylight like a blind person groping in the darkness, but you will not find your way. You will be
oppressed and robbed continually, and no one
will come to save you.
30 “You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her. You will build
a house, but someone else will live in it. You
will plant a vineyard, but you will never enjoy
its fruit. 31 Your ox will be butchered before
your eyes, but you will not eat a single bite of
the meat. Your donkey will be taken from you,
never to be returned. Your sheep and goats will
be given to your enemies, and no one will be
there to help you. 32 You will watch as your sons
and daughters are taken away as slaves. Your
heart will break for them, but you won’t be able
to help them. 33 A foreign nation you have never
heard about will eat the crops you worked so
hard to grow. You will suffer under constant
oppression and harsh treatment. 34 You will go
mad because of all the tragedy you see around
you. 35 The Lord will cover your knees and legs
with incurable boils. In fact, you will be covered
from head to foot.
36 “The Lord will exile you and your king to
a nation unknown to you and your ancestors.
There in exile you will worship gods of wood
and stone! 37 You will become an object of horror, ridicule, and mockery among all the nations to which the Lord sends you.
38 “You will plant much but harvest little,
for locusts will eat your crops. 39 You will plant
vineyards and care for them, but you will not
drink the wine or eat the grapes, for worms
will destroy the vines. 40 You will grow olive
trees throughout your land, but you will never
use the olive oil, for the fruit will drop before it
ripens. 41 You will have sons and daughters, but
you will lose them, for they will be led away into
captivity. 42 Swarms of insects will destroy your
trees and crops.
43 “The foreigners living among you will become stronger and stronger, while you become
weaker and weaker. 44 They will lend money to
you, but you will not lend to them. They will be
the head, and you will be the tail!
45 “If you refuse to listen to the Lord your
God and to obey the commands and decrees
he has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed.
46 These horrors will serve as a sign and warning
among you and your descendants forever. 47 If
you do not serve the Lord your God with joy
and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you
have received, 48 you will serve your enemies
whom the Lord will send against you. You will
be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in