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Deuteronomy 28

KJV · Chapter 28/34

1And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:

2And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.

3Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

4Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

5Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.

6Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

7The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.

8The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

9The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.

10And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.

11And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

12The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

13And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:

14And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

15But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

16Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

17Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.

18Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

19Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

20The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.

21The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.

22The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

23And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

24The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

25The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

26And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.

27The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

28The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:

29And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

30Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

31Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.

32Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.

33The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:

34So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

35The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.

36The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.

37And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.

38Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.

39Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.

40Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.

41Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.

42All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.

43The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.

44He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

45Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:

46And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

47Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;

48Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

49The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;

50A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:

51And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.

52And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.

53And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:

54So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:

55So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.

56The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,

57And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.

58If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD;

59Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.

60Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.

61Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

62And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God.

63And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.

64And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

65And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:

66And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:

67In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

68And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

This long chapter presents, in extensive detail, the blessings that would come upon Israel for obedience (prosperity, victory, health) and the curses that would come for disobedience (disease, defeat, famine, exile, extreme suffering), forming the rhetorical climax of Moses' entire discourse on the covenant.

Explanation

This chapter serves as the emotional and theological heart of Deuteronomy: it presents, with striking rhetorical force, the real and tangible consequences of choosing between faithfulness and unfaithfulness to the covenant, using vivid and at times shocking language to make sure the seriousness of the decision was fully understood. The disproportionate length of the curses (far longer and more detailed than the blessings) reflects a pattern common to ancient Near Eastern covenant treaties, but it also communicates the gravity of the consequences of abandoning the relationship with God. Tragically, many of these specific curses (siege, extreme famine, exile, dispersion among the nations) would be fulfilled historically in the centuries that followed — both in the fall of the Northern Kingdom to Assyria (722 BC) and in the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon (586 BC) and later by Rome (AD 70).

Fun facts

  • The horrifying description of cannibalism during an extreme siege (v. 53-57) would be literally fulfilled during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, recorded with shock in Lamentations 4:10, and again during the Roman siege of AD 70, documented by the historian Flavius Josephus.
  • The prophecy that Israel would be taken back to Egypt 'in ships' (v. 68) is seen by historians as a remarkably specific prediction that would be fulfilled centuries later, when the Romans sold Jewish prisoners into slavery after the revolt of AD 70, some of them shipped back to Egypt by sea.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Deuteronomy 28:1This block of blessings for obedience — in the city, in the field, in children, in livestock — mirrors point by point the structure of the curses that follow right after. It is a common device in ancient treaties, meant to make clear exactly what is at stake on both sides of the agreement.
  2. Deuteronomy 28:2Announces that the blessings to come are not conditional one by one: they would arrive as a package, all at once, for anyone who obeyed God.
  3. Deuteronomy 28:3The first blessing covers both settings of everyday life: prosperity in the city and prosperity in the countryside alike.
  4. Deuteronomy 28:4Extends the blessing to fertility itself: children, crops, and the young of the herds would all overflow with abundance.
  5. Deuteronomy 28:5Even everyday tools — the harvest basket and the kneading bowl — are included in the promise of blessing.
  6. Deuteronomy 28:6Sums up total protection in a phrase that covers every moment: leaving home or returning to it, blessed either way.
  7. Deuteronomy 28:7Promises a military victory so complete that enemies would attack by a single road but flee scattered in seven different directions.
  8. Deuteronomy 28:8The blessing would even reach the storehouses and every work of the hands, guaranteeing steady material abundance.
  9. Deuteronomy 28:9Reinforces Israel’s special identity: they would be confirmed as a holy people, fulfilling what God had already sworn.
  10. Deuteronomy 28:10Respect from other nations would follow as a direct consequence: everyone would see that God’s name was tied to this people, and they would fear them.
  11. Deuteronomy 28:11Repeats the promise of abundance on three fronts — children, livestock, and crops — in the land promised to the ancestors.
  12. Deuteronomy 28:12Promises rain at the right time and prosperity so great that Israel would lend to other nations, never needing to borrow.
  13. Deuteronomy 28:13Uses the image of “the head, and not the tail” to describe the leading, standout position Israel would hold among the nations for obeying.
  14. Deuteronomy 28:14Closes the block of blessings with the implied condition: all of it depends on never turning aside to serve other gods.
  15. Deuteronomy 28:15Flips the coin: from here on, the same conditions run in reverse — disobedience would bring on all the curses that follow.
  16. Deuteronomy 28:16The first curse mirrors the first blessing: instead of prosperity, a curse would fall on both the city and the countryside.
  17. Deuteronomy 28:17The same household tools once blessed — the basket and the kneading bowl — now appear under a curse.
  18. Deuteronomy 28:18The fertility that was once a blessing turns into a curse: children, crops, and the young of the herds, all put at risk.
  19. Deuteronomy 28:19Repeats the formula of total protection in reverse: cursed both going out and coming in, with no escape at any moment.
  20. Deuteronomy 28:20Describes a state of confusion and widespread ruin in everything the person attempted, a direct result of forsaking God.
  21. Deuteronomy 28:21Threatens ongoing plague, capable of consuming the people even off the very land promised to them.
  22. Deuteronomy 28:22Lists a sequence of diseases and agricultural disasters — fever, drought, blight on the crops — pursuing the people without relief.
  23. Deuteronomy 28:23Uses a poetic image of extreme drought: the sky turns to bronze (no rain) and the ground turns to iron (hard and barren).
  24. Deuteronomy 28:24Instead of rain, the sky would send down powder and dust, a complete agricultural disaster.
  25. Deuteronomy 28:25Reverses the earlier military promise: now it would be Israel fleeing in panic, scattered among the kingdoms of the earth.
  26. Deuteronomy 28:26Describes the ultimate humiliation of defeat: unburied bodies becoming food for birds and wild animals.
  27. Deuteronomy 28:27Threatens painful, incurable skin diseases, recalling the very plagues that struck the Egyptians themselves.
  28. Deuteronomy 28:28Promises mental and physical breakdown: madness, blindness, and inner panic taking hold of the person.
  29. Deuteronomy 28:29Compares the confusion to groping blindly at midday, directionless, under constant oppression, with no one to help.
  30. Deuteronomy 28:30Describes total helplessness: betrothing a wife without consummating the marriage, building a house without living in it, planting a vineyard without harvesting it — everything cut short by others.
  31. Deuteronomy 28:31Continues the list of losses: animals killed or stolen right before their eyes, with no power to stop it or get anything back.
  32. Deuteronomy 28:32Extends the pain to the children: sold or handed over to another people, watched by their own parents, powerless to stop it.
  33. Deuteronomy 28:33Describes total economic exploitation: strangers they have never known consuming the fruit of a whole lifetime’s labor.
  34. Deuteronomy 28:34Sums up the psychological toll of so much suffering: going mad simply from witnessing what their own eyes see.
  35. Deuteronomy 28:35Returns to the theme of skin disease, now incurable from head to foot, with no relief in sight.
  36. Deuteronomy 28:36The threat that the people and their future king would be led away to a nation “which neither thou nor thy fathers have known” anticipates — even before Israel had a king — what would happen centuries later in the Babylonian exile. The text describes in advance a scene that Israel’s history would go on to repeat for real.
  37. Deuteronomy 28:37Describes international public humiliation: Israel would become a byword, a joke, and a proverb among the surrounding nations.
  38. Deuteronomy 28:38Describes agricultural frustration: sowing plenty and reaping little, because locusts would devour most of it.
  39. Deuteronomy 28:39Repeats the pattern with the vineyards: laboring hard but never tasting the wine, because worms would consume the grapes first.
  40. Deuteronomy 28:40The same holds for the olive trees: present everywhere, yet yielding no oil, because the olives would drop before they ripened.
  41. Deuteronomy 28:41Returns to the pain of the children: born in hope, yet destined for captivity, far from their family.
  42. Deuteronomy 28:42Closes the agricultural series with swarms of locusts consuming entire trees and crops.
  43. Deuteronomy 28:43Describes a complete social reversal: the foreigner living among them would rise higher and higher, while the people themselves sank lower and lower.
  44. Deuteronomy 28:44Reinforces that reversal economically: the foreigner would lend to Israel, never the other way around — from leader to dependent.
  45. Deuteronomy 28:45Sums up the reason behind all of it: persistent disobedience to the commandments, pursuing the people until total destruction.
  46. Deuteronomy 28:46Describes the lasting effect of these curses: they would stand as a warning sign forever, including for future generations.
  47. Deuteronomy 28:47Points to the root of the problem: failing to serve God with genuine joy, even in the midst of such earlier abundance and blessing.
  48. Deuteronomy 28:48Contrasts the lost abundance with the new reality: serving their own enemies in hunger, thirst, and utter want, under a heavy yoke.
  49. Deuteronomy 28:49Announces the arrival of a distant, foreign nation, compared to a swift eagle, speaking a language the people could not understand.
  50. Deuteronomy 28:50Describes this invading nation as ruthless, with no respect for the elderly and no compassion for the young.
  51. Deuteronomy 28:51Details the total economic devastation caused by this invasion: nothing would be left of grain, wine, oil, or livestock.
  52. Deuteronomy 28:52Describes the siege of the fortified cities, until even the strongest walls, once a source of confidence, came down completely.
  53. Deuteronomy 28:53The curse of a siege so severe that it would drive families to eat their own children is an extreme image, but it draws on war-curse language found in other ancient Near Eastern treaties. Historically, accounts of city sieges, such as Samaria’s in 2 Kings 6, describe similar scenes of extreme famine.
  54. Deuteronomy 28:54Describes the extreme desperation of the siege: even the gentlest man would grow cruel and stingy toward his own family because of hunger.
  55. Deuteronomy 28:55Takes that cruelty to its most shocking extreme: refusing to share food (implied within the siege’s cannibalism) even with his own relatives, the shortage was that desperate.
  56. Deuteronomy 28:56Repeats the same degradation with the figure of the most refined woman, turned cruel by that same extreme desperation of the siege.
  57. Deuteronomy 28:57Details the horror at its most extreme point: the famine of the siege would break even the most basic family bonds, forcing unthinkable acts.
  58. Deuteronomy 28:58Ties all these curses to a root cause: failing to fear God’s glorious and fearful name, ignoring the written law.
  59. Deuteronomy 28:59Promises extraordinary, long-lasting plagues, striking not only the present generation but future descendants as well.
  60. Deuteronomy 28:60Threatens to bring back specifically the diseases of Egypt, the very affliction the people had once feared so much.
  61. Deuteronomy 28:61Extends the threat to any sickness or plague, even ones not explicitly listed in the law.
  62. Deuteronomy 28:62Contrasts with the promise of multiplication: instead of being as numerous as the stars, they would be reduced to a few, because of disobedience.
  63. Deuteronomy 28:63Describes a painful reversal of God’s delight: just as He once rejoiced to bless and multiply the people, He would now be just as ready to destroy them and uproot them from the land.
  64. Deuteronomy 28:64Announces total scattering among the nations, where the people would end up serving the very idols of wood and stone they had always avoided.
  65. Deuteronomy 28:65Describes the total absence of rest in exile: a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul, with no peace to be found anywhere.
  66. Deuteronomy 28:66Life would become uncertain and unstable, a constant threat causing fear day and night, with no confidence in one’s own survival.
  67. Deuteronomy 28:67Describes an anguish so deep that in the morning they would long for evening, and in the evening long for morning, just to escape their own dread.
  68. Deuteronomy 28:68The final curse is the complete reversal of the exodus: returning to Egypt by ship to be sold as slaves, without even finding a buyer — the exact opposite of the liberation that opens the book.

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