Rewards for Obedience

1“Indeed, if you diligently obeya the LORD your God to carry out all his commands that I’m giving you today, then the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2Moreover, all these blessings will come upon you in abundance,b if you obey the LORD your God:

3“Blessed will you be in the city and blessed will you be in the country.

4“Blessed will your childrenc be, as well as the produce of your land, the offspring of your beasts and cattle, and the offspring of your flock.

5“Blessed will be your graind basket and your kneading bowl.

6“Blessed will you be in your comings and goings.”

7“The LORD will make your enemies, who rise against you and attack from one direction, to flee from you in seven directions.

8“The LORD will send blessings for you with regard to your barns and everything you undertake. Indeed, he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is about to give you.

9“The LORD will assign you to be a holy peoplee for himself, just as he promised you, as long as you keep hisf commands and walk in his ways.

10“Then all the people of the earth will observe that the name of the LORD is proclaimedg among you, and they will fear you.

11“The LORD will show his abundant goodness with respect to your children,h the offspring of your animals, and the produce of your farmland that hei promised your ancestors he would give you.

12“The LORD will open his richj treasury, the heavens, to release rain upon your land in season and bless everything you undertake so that you’ll lend to many nations but won’t borrow.

13“The LORD your God will make you the head and not the tail—placing you above and not beneath—if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I’m giving you today to keep and observe. 14Do not deviate from any of his commands that I’m giving you today—neither to the right nor the left—to follow and serve other gods.”

Reversal of Blessings

15“But if you don’t obey the LORD your God and faithfully carry out all his commands and statutes that I’m giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you.

16“Cursed will you be in the city and cursed will you be in the country.

17“Cursed will be your graink basket and your kneading bowl.

18“Cursed will your childrenl be, as well as the produce of your land, the offspring of your beasts and cattle, and the offspring of your flock.

19“Cursed will you be in your comings and goings.”

Diseases and Drought

20“The LORD will send the curse among you, will confuse you, and will rebuke you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and perish quickly because of your evil deeds, since you will have forsaken him.m 21The LORD will cause you to be ill with long-lasting diseases until you are wiped out from the land that you are entering to possess. 22The LORD will afflict you with tuberculosis, fever, inflammation, high fever, drought, blight, and mildew. These will attack you until you are completely destroyed. 23The sky above your head will become bronze while the ground beneath you will become iron. 24The LORD will change the rain on your land to powder and dust. It will come down from the sky until you are exterminated.”

From Defeat to Exile

25“The LORD will cause you to be defeatedn by your enemies. You’ll go out against them in one direction, but you’ll flee from them in seven directions. Consequently, you’ll be in a state of great terror throughout all the kingdoms of the earth. 26Your dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, with no one to chase them away.

27“The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, skin disease, and festering rashes, and none of them will be curable. 28The LORD will afflict you with insanity, blindness, and mental confusion.o 29As a result, you’ll wander aimlessly in broad daylight just as a blind person wanders in darkness. You won’t prosper in life.p Instead you’ll be oppressed and plundered all day long, with no deliverer.

30You’ll be engaged to a woman, but another man will rapeq her. You’ll build a house but you won’t live in it. You’ll plant a vineyard but you won’t harvestr it. 31Your ox will be slaughtered in front of you, and you won’t be able to eat it. Your donkey will be stolen from you while you watch and won’t be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be handed to your enemies and there will be no deliverer. 32Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you watch, and you won’t be able to approach them at all,s and you’ll be powerless to help.t

33“A people whom you don’t know will devour what your land and labor produces. You’ll be only oppressed and discouraged continuously 34until you are driven insane from what your eyes will see.

35“The LORD will inflict you with incurable boils on your knees and legs, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

36“The LORD will banish you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you’ll serve other gods of wood and stone. 37You’ll become a desolation and a proverb, and you’ll be mocked among the people where the LORD will drive you.”

Complete Reversal

38“You’ll plant many seeds in a field, but your harvest will be small because the locust will consume it. 39You’ll plant a vineyard, but you won’t drink wine or harvest any grapes, because worms will consume it. 40You’ll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won’t be able to anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off the trees. 41You’ll bear sons and daughters, but they won’t belong to you, because they’ll go into captivity. 42Whirling locusts will consume every tree and the produce of your land. 43The foreigner in your midst will be elevated higher and higher over you, while you are brought low little by little. 44He will lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He’ll be the head, but you’ll be the tail. 45All these curses will come upon you and will overwhelm you until you are exterminated, because you didn’t obeyu the LORD your God to keep his commands and statutes, which he had commanded you. 46These cursesv will serve as a sign and wonder for you and your descendantsw as long as you live.”x

Servitude and Bondage

47“Because you didn’t serve the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly,y despite the abundance of everything you have, 48you’ll serve your enemies whom the LORD your God will send against you. You will serve in famine and in drought,z in nakedness, and in lack of everything. They’llaa set a yoke of iron upon your neck until theybb have exterminated you.

49“The LORD will raise a distant nation against you from the other side of the earth. Swooping down like a vulture, 50it will be a nation whose language you don’t understand, whosecc stern appearancedd neither shows regardee nor extends grace to anyone whether old or young. 51Its armyff will consume the offspring of your animals and the produce of your soil until you are exterminated. Theygg will leave you without your grain, wine, oil, the increase of your cattle, and the lamb of your flock, until you are completely destroyed. 52They’llhh besiege all your cities until your high and fortified walls in which you have trusted collapse throughout the land. Indeed, they will besiege all your cities, which the LORD your God gave you.”

Cannibalism

53“You’ll eat your own childrenii —the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God gave you—on account of the siege and the distress with which your enemy will oppress you. 54Even the compassionate man among you—the very sensitive one—will look with evil in his eyes toward his brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving sons, whom he spared. 55He will withhold from each of them the flesh of his sons that he is eating—since there will be nothing left—on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in all your cities. 56The most tender and sensitive lady among you, who doesn’t venture to touch the soles of her feet to the ground on account of her daintiness, will look with hostility in her eyes against her beloved husband, her sons, and her daughters. 57She will eat her afterbirthjj and her newborn childrenkk secretly—since there will be nothing left—on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in your cities.”

Reduction in Population

58“If you aren’t careful to observe all the words of this Law that have been written in this book, instructing youll to fear this glorious and awesome name of the LORD your God, 59then hemm will inflict extraordinary plagues on you and your children, great and lasting plagues, and severe and lasting illnesses. 60He will inflictnn on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they won’t be curable.oo 61Moreover, the LORD will inflict you with illnesses and plagues that were not written in this Book of the Law, until you are exterminated. 62Because you will not have obeyedpp the LORD your God, very few of you will be left—instead of you being as numerous as the stars in the heavens. 63Just as the LORD delighted to prosper and increase you, so now the LORD will delight to destroy, exterminate, and banish you from the land that you are about to enter to possess.”

Scattering among the Nations

64“He’llqq scatter you among the peoples from one end of the earth to the other,rr and there you’ll serve other gods made of wood and stones, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. 65Among those nations you’ll have no rest. There’ll be no resting place for the soles of your feet. Instead, the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a despairing spirit. 66You’ll cling to life, being fearful by both night and day, with no assurance of survival. 67In the morning you’ll say, ‘I wish it were evening.’ Yet in the evening you’ll say, “I wish it were morning,” on account of what you’ll dreadss and what you’ll see.tt 68Finally, the LORD will bring you back to Egypt by ship, a place that I said you’ll never see again. There you’ll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”