Deuteronomy 28 · Kingdoms of Scripture

1And it shall be, if you listen, listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep to do all his commands that I am commanding you today, Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

2All these blessings shall come on you and overtake you, when you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

3You are blessed in the city, and you are blessed in the field.

4Blessed is the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your soil, and the fruit of your animals, the offspring of your herd and the young of your flock.

Notes (1)

Translation
Shegar is the offspring of the herd. Ashtarot is the young of the flock. The line is about increase, not a goddess’s name.

5Blessed is your basket and your kneading bowl.

Notes (1)

Translation
Tene is a basket. Mish’eret is the kneading bowl.

6You are blessed when you come in, and you are blessed when you go out.

7Yahweh will give your enemies who rise against you, struck down before you. They shall come out against you on one road, and they shall flee before you on seven roads.

8Yahweh will command the blessing to be with you in your storehouses and in all that your hand sends out, and he will bless you in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you.

9Yahweh will establish you as his people, set apart, as he swore to you, when you keep the commands of Yahweh your God and walk in his ways.

10All the peoples of the earth shall see that the name of Yahweh is called over you, and they shall fear you.

11Yahweh will give you surplus for good, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your animals, and in the fruit of your soil, on the soil that Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you.

12Yahweh will open for you his good storehouse, the heavens, to give your land’s rain in its time, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow.

13Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail. You shall be only upward, and you shall not be downward, when you listen to the commands of Yahweh your God that I am commanding you today, to keep and to do,

14and you do not turn aside from all the words that I am commanding you today, right or left, to go after other gods, to serve them.

15And it shall be, if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep to do all his commands and his statutes that I am commanding you today, all these curses shall come on you and overtake you.

16You are cursed in the city, and you are cursed in the field.

17Cursed is your basket and your kneading bowl.

18Cursed is the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your soil, the offspring of your herd and the young of your flock.

Notes (1)

Translation
Shegar is the offspring of the herd. Ashtarot is the young of the flock. The line is about increase, not a goddess’s name.

19You are cursed when you come in, and you are cursed when you go out.

20Yahweh will send against you the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke, in all that your hand sends out, whatever you do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your deeds, in that you forsook me.

Notes (1)

Translation
Me’erah is the curse. Mehumah is confusion. Migeret is the rebuke. The last word is spoken as me: you forsook me.

21Yahweh will make the pestilence cling to you until it finishes you off the soil that you are entering to take possession of.

22Yahweh will strike you with wasting, with fever, with inflammation, with burning heat, with drought, with blight, and with paleness, and they shall chase you until you perish.

Notes (1)

Translation
Shachefet is wasting. Qaddachat is fever. Dalleqet is inflammation. Charchur is burning heat. Cherev in this list is drought. The same consonants are the word sword. Shiddaphon is blight. Yeraqon is paleness in the crop. No modern disease names are added.

23Your heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you iron.

24Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust. From the heavens it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

25Yahweh will make you struck down before your enemies. You shall go out against him on one road, and you shall flee before him on seven roads, and you shall become a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Notes (1)

Translation
Za’avah is a horror, a thing that makes people tremble.

26Your corpse shall be food for every bird of the sky and for the beast of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them off.

27Yahweh will strike you with the boil of Egypt, with swellings, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed.

Notes (2)

Text
The written consonants are ובעפלים, ophalim, swellings. The Masoretic reading is ובטחורים, techorim, hemorrhoids. The written word is printed.
Translation
Shechin is a boil. Garav is a scab. Cheres is an itch. No modern disease names are added.

28Yahweh will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with bewilderment of heart.

29You shall grope at noon as a blind person gropes in the dark, and you shall not make your ways succeed. You shall be only oppressed and robbed all the days, and there will be no one to save you.

30A woman you shall pledge, and another man shall rape her. A house you shall build, and you shall not live in it. A vineyard you shall plant, and you shall not make it ordinary.

Notes (1)

Text
The written consonants are ישגלנה, he shall rape her. The Masoretic reading is ישכבנה, he shall lie with her. The written word is printed.

31Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be robbed from before you, and it shall not return to you. Your flock shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to save you.

32Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall see and long for them all the day, and your hand shall have no strength.

Notes (1)

Translation
En le-el yadekha is there is no power in your hand. El here is strength, not the name God.

33A people you have not known shall eat the fruit of your soil and all your toil, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed all the days.

34You shall be driven mad by the sight of your eyes that you see.

35Yahweh will strike you with an evil boil on the knees and on the thighs, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

36Yahweh will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation you have not known, you or your fathers, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone.

37You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you.

Notes (1)

Translation
Shammah is a horror. Mashal is a proverb. Sheninah is a taunt.

38You shall take much seed out to the field, and you shall gather little, for the locust shall finish it.

39You shall plant vineyards and work them, and you shall not drink the wine or gather it, for the worm shall eat it.

40You shall have olive trees in all your territory, and you shall not anoint yourself with oil, for your olives shall drop off.

41You shall bear sons and daughters, and they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity.

42The buzzing locust shall take possession of all your trees and the fruit of your soil.

Notes (1)

Translation
Tseltsal is a buzzing locust. It is a different word from the locust in verse 38.

43The sojourner who is in your midst shall go up above you, higher and higher, and you shall go down, lower and lower.

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

45All these curses shall come on you and chase you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep his commands and his statutes that he commanded you.

46They shall be a sign and a portent against you and against your seed forever.

47Because you did not serve Yahweh your God with joy and with a good heart, from the abundance of everything,

48you shall serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of everything. He shall put an iron yoke on your neck until he destroys you.

49Yahweh will lift up against you a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops, a nation whose tongue you do not hear,

Notes (1)

Translation
Nesher is the eagle, the same bird named in the food list. Lo tishma leshono is you do not hear its tongue, you do not understand its speech.

50a nation fierce of face, that does not lift the face of an old person and does not show favor to a youth.

51It shall eat the fruit of your animals and the fruit of your soil until you are destroyed. It shall not leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the offspring of your herd or the young of your flock, until it makes you perish.

Notes (1)

Translation
Shegar is the offspring of the herd. Ashtarot is the young of the flock. The line is about increase, not a goddess’s name.

52It shall besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls come down, the walls in which you trust, in all your land. It shall besiege you in all your gates, in all your land that Yahweh your God has given you.

53You shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy presses you.

54The man who is soft among you, and very delicate, his eye shall begrudge his brother, the wife of his bosom, and the rest of his children whom he leaves over,

Notes (1)

Translation
Tera ayin is the eye that begrudges, that refuses to share.

55so that he does not give to any one of them some of the flesh of his children that he is eating, because nothing is left for him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy presses you in all your gates.

56The soft and delicate woman among you, who has not tried the sole of her foot to set it on the ground, from delicacy and from softness, her eye shall begrudge the husband of her bosom, her son, and her daughter,

57and her afterbirth that comes out from between her legs, and her children whom she bears, for she shall eat them for lack of everything, in secret, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy presses you in your gates.

Notes (1)

Translation
Shilyah is the afterbirth. The line says she eats it and the children she bears.

58If you do not keep to do all the words of this instruction that are written in this scroll, to fear this honored and feared name, Yahweh your God,

59then Yahweh will make your blows extraordinary, and the blows of your seed, great and lasting blows, and evil and lasting sicknesses.

Notes (1)

Translation
Hifli is to make extraordinary. Ne’emanim is lasting, sure.

60He will bring back on you all the sickness of Egypt that you dreaded before them, and they shall cling to you.

61Also every sickness and every blow that is not written in the scroll of this instruction, Yahweh will bring them up on you until you are destroyed.

62You shall be left few in number, instead of being like the stars of the heavens for multitude, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

63And it shall be, as Yahweh rejoiced over you to do you good and to make you many, so Yahweh will rejoice over you to make you perish and to destroy you, and you shall be torn off the soil that you are entering to take possession of.

64Yahweh will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods that you have not known, you or your fathers, wood and stone.

65Among those nations you shall not find rest, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot. Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a fainting life.

Notes (1)

Translation
Lev ragaz is a trembling heart. Kilyon enayim is failing of the eyes. De’avon nefesh is a fainting life.

66Your life shall hang in front of you, and you shall dread night and day, and you shall not trust in your life.

67In the morning you shall say, Who will give evening? And in the evening you shall say, Who will give morning? From the dread of your heart that you dread, and from the sight of your eyes that you see.

Notes (1)

Translation
Mi yitten is who will give. It is the wish as spoken. No other wish-word is added.

68Yahweh will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the road of which I said to you, You shall not see it again. And you will sell yourselves there to your enemies as male slaves and as female slaves, and there will be no buyer.