Deuteronomy 28 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Blessings for Obedience

(Lev 26:1–13; Deu 7:12–24 )

Deu 28:1“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

Deu 28:2

Deu 28:2And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God.

Deu 28:3

Deu 28:3Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.

Deu 28:4

Deu 28:4Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.

Deu 28:5

Deu 28:5Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

Deu 28:6

Deu 28:6Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

Deu 28:7

Deu 28:7“The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.

Deu 28:8

Deu 28:8The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

Deu 28:9

Deu 28:9The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.

Deu 28:10

Deu 28:10And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you.

Deu 28:11

Deu 28:11And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.

Deu 28:12

Deu 28:12The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

Deu 28:13

Deu 28:13And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them,

Deu 28:14

Deu 28:14and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Curses for Disobedience

(Lev 26:14–46 )

Deu 28:15

Deu 28:15“But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

Deu 28:16

Deu 28:16Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

Deu 28:17

Deu 28:17Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

Deu 28:18

Deu 28:18Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.

Deu 28:19

Deu 28:19Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

Deu 28:20

Deu 28:20“The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.

Deu 28:21

Deu 28:21The LORD will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

Deu 28:22

Deu 28:22The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought[fn] and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish.

Deu 28:23

Deu 28:23And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron.

Deu 28:24

Deu 28:24The LORD will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

Deu 28:25

Deu 28:25“The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Deu 28:26

Deu 28:26And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.

Deu 28:27

Deu 28:27The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed.

Deu 28:28

Deu 28:28The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind,

Deu 28:29

Deu 28:29and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways.[fn] And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you.

Deu 28:30

Deu 28:30You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit.

Deu 28:31

Deu 28:31Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you.

Deu 28:32

Deu 28:32Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless.

Deu 28:33

Deu 28:33A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually,

Deu 28:34

Deu 28:34so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see.

Deu 28:35

Deu 28:35The LORD will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

Deu 28:36

Deu 28:36“The LORD will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone.

Deu 28:37

Deu 28:37And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away.

Deu 28:38

Deu 28:38You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it.

Deu 28:39

Deu 28:39You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them.

Deu 28:40

Deu 28:40You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off.

Deu 28:41

Deu 28:41You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity.

Deu 28:42

Deu 28:42The cricket[fn] shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground.

Deu 28:43

Deu 28:43The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.

Deu 28:44

Deu 28:44He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

Deu 28:45

Deu 28:45“All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.

Deu 28:46

Deu 28:46They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever.

Deu 28:47

Deu 28:47Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things,

Deu 28:48

Deu 28:48therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

Deu 28:49

Deu 28:49The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,

Deu 28:50

Deu 28:50a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young.

Deu 28:51

Deu 28:51It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

Deu 28:52

Deu 28:52“They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given you.

Deu 28:53

Deu 28:53And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.

Deu 28:54

Deu 28:54The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces,[fn] and to the last of the children whom he has left,

Deu 28:55

Deu 28:55so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns.

Deu 28:56

Deu 28:56The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces,[fn] to her son and to her daughter,

Deu 28:57

Deu 28:57her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns.

Deu 28:58

Deu 28:58“If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God,

Deu 28:59

Deu 28:59then the LORD will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting.

Deu 28:60

Deu 28:60And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you.

Deu 28:61

Deu 28:61Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the LORD will bring upon you, until you are destroyed.

Deu 28:62

Deu 28:62Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God.

Deu 28:63

Deu 28:63And as the LORD took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the LORD will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

Deu 28:64

Deu 28:64“And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

Deu 28:65

Deu 28:65And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul.

Deu 28:66

Deu 28:66Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life.

Deu 28:67

Deu 28:67In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the dread that your heart shall feel, and the sights that your eyes shall see.

Deu 28:68

Deu 28:68And the LORD will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(28:22)

Or sword

(28:29)

Or shall not succeed in finding your ways

(28:42)

Identity uncertain

(28:54)

Hebrew the wife of his bosom

(28:56)

Hebrew the husband of her bosom

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

Deuteronomy Chapter 28 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

Deuteronomy 28 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Blessings for Obedience

Curses for Disobedience

ESV Footnotes

Deuteronomy Chapter 28 — Additional Translations:

Did You Know BLB Is User Supported?