Many blessings are promised to observers of God's commandments: and
curses threatened to transgressors.
28:1. Now if thou wilt hear the voice of all his commandments, which I
command thee this day, the Lord thy God will make thee higher than all
the nations that are on the earth.
28:2. And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee:
yet so if thou hear his precepts.
All these blessings, etc... In the Old Testament, God promised temporal
blessings to the keepers of his law, heaven not being opened as yet; and
that gross and sensual people being more moved with present and sensible
things. But in the New Testament the goods that are promised us are
spiritual and eternal; and temporal evils are turned into blessings.
28:3. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed in the field.
28:4. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy
ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the droves of thy herds, and the
folds of thy sheep.
28:5. Blessed shall be thy barns and blessed thy stores.
28:6. Blessed shalt thou be coming in and going out.
28:7. The Lord shall cause thy enemies, that rise up against thee, to
fall down before thy face: one way shall they come out against thee, and
seven ways shall they flee before thee.
28:8. The Lord will send forth a blessing upon thy storehouses, and upon
all the works of thy hands: and will bless thee in the land that thou
shalt receive.
28:9. The Lord will raise thee up to be a holy people to himself, as he
swore to thee: if thou keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and
walk in his ways.
28:10. And all the people of the earth shall see that the name of the
Lord is invocated upon thee, and they shall fear thee.
28:11. The Lord will make thee abound with all goods, with the fruit of
thy womb, and the fruit of thy cattle, with the fruit of thy land, which
the Lord swore to thy fathers that he would give thee.
28:12. The Lord will open his excellent treasure, the heaven, that it
may give rain in due season: and he will bless all the works of thy
hands. And thou shalt lend to many nations, and shalt not borrow of any
one.
28:13. And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail: and thou
shalt be always above, and not beneath: yet so if thou wilt hear the
commandments of the Lord thy God which I command thee this day, and keep
and do them,
28:14. And turn not away from them neither to the right hand, nor to the
left, nor follow strange gods, nor worship them.
28:15. But if thou wilt not hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep
and to do all his commandments and ceremonies, which I command thee this
day, all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.
All these curses, etc... Thus God dealt with the transgressors of his
law in the Old Testament: but now he often suffers sinners to prosper in
this world, rewarding them for some little good they have done, and
reserving their punishment for the other world.
28:16. Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field.
28:17. Cursed shall be thy barn, and cursed thy stores.
28:18. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy
ground, the herds of thy oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep.
28:19. Cursed shalt thou be coming in, and cursed going out.
28:20. The Lord shall send upon thee famine and hunger, and a rebuke
upon all the works which thou shalt do: until he consume and destroy
thee quickly, for thy most wicked inventions, by which thou hast
forsaken me.
28:21. May the Lord set the pestilence upon thee, until he consume thee
out of the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.
28:22. May the Lord afflict thee with miserable want, with the fever and
with cold, with burning and with heat, and with corrupted air and with
blasting, and pursue thee till thou perish.
28:23. Be the heaven, that is over thee, of brass: and the ground thou
treadest on, of iron.
28:24. The Lord give thee dust for rain upon thy land, and let ashes
come down from heaven upon thee, till thou be consumed.
28:25. The Lord make thee to fall down before thy enemies, one way mayst
thou go out against them, and flee seven ways, and be scattered
throughout all the kingdoms of the earth.
28:26. And be thy carcass meat for all the fowls of the air, and the
beasts of the earth, and be there none to drive them away.
28:27. The Lord strike thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and the part of thy
body, by which the dung is cast out, with the scab and with the itch: so
that thou canst not be healed.
28:28. The Lord strike thee with madness and blindness and fury of mind.
28:29. And mayst thou grope at midday as the blind is wont to grope in
the dark, and not make straight thy ways. And mayst thou at all times
suffer wrong, and be oppressed with violence, and mayst thou have no one
to deliver thee.
28:30. Mayst thou take a wife, and another sleep with her. Mayst thou
build a house, and not dwell therein. Mayest thou plant a vineyard and
not gather the vintage thereof.
28:31. May thy ox be slain before thee, and thou not eat thereof. May
thy ass be taken away in thy sight, and not restored to thee. May thy
sheep be given to thy enemies, and may there be none to help thee.
28:32. May thy sons and thy daughters be given to another people, thy
eyes looking on, and languishing at the sight of them all the day, and
may there be no strength in thy hand.
28:33. May a people which thou knowest not, eat the fruits of thy land,
and all thy labours: and mayst thou always suffer oppression, and be
crushed at all times.
28:34. And be astonished at the terror of those things which thy eyes
shall see:
28:35. May the Lord strike thee with a very sore ulcer in the knees and
in the legs, and be thou incurable from the sole of the foot to the top
of the head.
28:36. The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king, whom thou shalt have
appointed over thee, into a nation which thou and thy fathers know not:
and there thou shalt serve strange gods, wood and stone.
28:37. And thou shalt be lost, as a proverb and a byword to all people,
among whom the Lord shall bring thee in.
28:38. Thou shalt cast much seed into the ground, and gather little:
because the locusts shall consume all.
28:39. Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and dig it, and shalt not drink the
wine, nor gather any thing thereof: because it shall be wasted with
worms.
28:40. Thou shalt have olive trees in all thy borders, and shalt not be
anointed with the oil: for the olives shall fall off and perish.
28:41. Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, and shalt not enjoy them:
because they shall be led into captivity.
28:42. The blast shall consume all the trees and the fruits of thy
ground.
28:43. The stranger that liveth with thee in the land, shall rise up
over thee, and shall be higher: and thou shalt go down, and be lower.
28:44. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall
be as the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
28:45. And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue and
overtake thee, till thou perish: because thou heardst not the voice of
the Lord thy God, and didst not keep his commandments and ceremonies
which he commanded thee.
28:46. And they shall be as signs and wonders on thee, and on thy seed
for ever.
28:47. Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joy and
gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things:
28:48. Thou shalt serve thy enemy, whom the Lord will send upon thee, in
hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things: and he
shall put an iron yoke upon thy neck, till he consume thee.
28:49. The Lord will bring upon thee a nation from afar, and from the
uttermost ends of the earth, like an eagle that flyeth swiftly, whose
tongue thou canst not understand,
28:50. A most insolent nation, that will shew no regard to the ancients,
nor have pity on the infant,
28:51. And will devour the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruits of thy
land: until thou be destroyed, and will leave thee no wheat, nor wine,
nor oil, nor herds of oxen, nor flocks of sheep: until he destroy thee.
28:52. And consume thee in all thy cities, and thy strong and high wall
be brought down, wherein thou trustedst in all thy land. Thou shalt be
besieged within thy gates in all thy land which the Lord thy God will
give thee:
28:53. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy
sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in
the distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee.
28:54. The man that is nice among you, and very delicate, shall envy his
own brother, and his wife, that lieth in his bosom,
28:55. So that he will not give them of the flesh of his children, which
he shall eat: because he hath nothing else in the siege and the want,
wherewith thy enemies shall distress thee within all thy gates.
28:56. The tender and delicate woman, that could not go upon the ground,
nor set down her foot for over much niceness and tenderness, will envy
her husband who lieth in her bosom, the flesh of her son, and of her
daughter,
28:57. And the filth of the afterbirths, that come forth from between
her thighs, and the children that are born the same hour. For they shall
eat them secretly for the want of all things, in the siege and distress,
wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee within thy gates.
28:58. If thou wilt not keep, and fulfil all the words of this law, that
are written in this volume, and fear his glorious and terrible name:
that is, The Lord thy God:
28:59. The Lord shall increase thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed,
plagues great and lasting, infirmities grievous and perpetual.
28:60. And he shall bring back on thee all the afflictions of Egypt,
which thou wast afraid of, and they shall stick fast to thee.
28:61. Moreover the Lord will bring upon thee all the diseases, and
plagues, that are not written in the volume of this law till he consume
thee:
28:62. And you shall remain few in number, who before were as the stars
of heaven for multitude, because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord
thy God.
28:63. And as the Lord rejoiced upon you before doing good to you, and
multiplying you: so he shall rejoice destroying and bringing you to
nought, so that you shall be taken away from the land which thou shalt
go in to possess.
28:64. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the farthest
parts of the earth to the ends thereof: and there thou shalt serve
strange gods, which both thou art ignorant of and thy fathers, wood and
stone.
28:65. Neither shalt thou be quiet, even in those nations, nor shall
there be any rest for the sole of thy foot. For the Lord will give thee
a fearful heart, and languishing eyes, and a soul consumed with
pensiveness:
28:66. And thy life shall be as it were hanging before thee. Thou shalt
fear night and day, neither shalt thou trust thy life.
28:67. In the morning thou shalt say: Who will grant me evening? and at
evening: Who will grant me morning? for the fearfulness of thy heart,
wherewith thou shalt be terrified, and for those things which thou shalt
see with thy eyes.
28:68. The Lord shall bring thee again with ships into Egypt, by the way
whereof he said to thee that thou shouldst see it no more. There shalt
thou be set to sale to thy enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man
shall buy you.