Deuteronomy - The Old Testament

¹ 'But if you faithfully obey the voice of Yahweh your God, by keeping and observing all his commandments, which I am laying down for you today, Yahweh your God will raise you higher than every other nation in the world,

² and all these blessings will befall and overtake you, for having obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God.

³ 'You will be blessed in the town and blessed in the countryside;

⁴ blessed, the offspring of your body, the yield of your soil, the yield of your livestock, the young of your cattle and the increase of your flocks;

⁵ blessed, your basket and your kneading trough.

⁶ You will be blessed in coming home, and blessed in going out.

⁷ The enemies who attack you, Yahweh will defeat before your eyes; they will advance on you from one direction and flee from you in seven.

⁸ Yahweh will command blessedness to be with you, on your barns and on all your undertakings, and he will bless you in the country given you by Yahweh your God.

⁹ 'From you Yahweh will make a people consecrated to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and follow his ways.

¹⁰ The peoples of the world, seeing that you bear Yahweh's name, will all be afraid of you.

¹¹ Yahweh will make you abound in possessions: in the offspring of your body, in the yield of your cattle and in the yield of your soil, in the country which he swore to your ancestors that he would give you.

¹² For you Yahweh will open his treasury of rain, the heavens, to give your country its rain at the right time, and to bless all your labours. You will make many nations your subjects, yet you will be subject to none.

¹³ Yahweh will put you at the head, not at the tail; you will always be on top and never underneath, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am laying down for you today, and then keep them and put them into practice,

¹⁴ not deviating to right or to left from any of the words which I am laying down for you today, by following other gods and serving them.

¹⁵ 'But if you do not obey the voice of Yahweh your God, and do not keep and observe all his commandments and laws which I am laying down for you today then all these curses will befall and overtake you.

¹⁶ 'You will be accursed in the town and accursed in the countryside;

¹⁷ accursed, your basket and your kneading trough;

¹⁸ accursed, the offspring of your body, the yield of your soil, the young of your cattle and the increase of your flock.

¹⁹ You will be accursed in coming home, and accursed in going out.

²⁰ 'Yahweh will send a curse on you, a spell, an imprecation on all your labours until you have been destroyed and quickly perish, because of your perverse behaviour, for having deserted me.

²¹ Yahweh will fasten the plague on you, until it has exterminated you from the country which you are about to enter and make your own.

²² Yahweh will strike you down with consumption, fever, inflammation, burning fever, drought, wind-blast, mildew, and these will pursue you to your ruin.

²³ The heavens above you will be brass, the earth beneath you iron.

²⁴ Your country's rain Yahweh will turn into dust and sand; it will fall on you from the heavens until you perish.

²⁵ Yahweh will have you defeated by your enemies; you will advance on them from one direction and flee from them in seven; and you will be a terrifying object-lesson to all the kingdoms of the world.

²⁶ Your carcase will be carrion for all wild birds and all wild animals, with no one to scare them away.

²⁷ 'Yahweh will strike you down with Egyptian ulcers, with swellings in the groin, with scurvy and the itch, for which you will find no cure.

²⁸ Yahweh will strike you down with madness, blindness, distraction of mind,

²⁹ until you grope your way at noon like a blind man groping in the dark, and your steps will lead you nowhere. 'You will never be anything but exploited and plundered, with no one to save you.

³⁰ Get engaged to a woman, another man will have her; build a house, you will not live in it; plant a vineyard, you will not gather its first-fruits.

³¹ Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes and you will eat none of it; your donkey will be carried off in front of you and not be returned to you; your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will come to your help.

³² Your sons and daughters will be handed over to another people, and every day you will wear your eyes out watching for them, while your hands are powerless.

³³ A nation hitherto unknown to you will eat the yield of your soil and of all your hard work. You will never be anything but exploited and crushed.

³⁴ You will be driven mad by the sights you will see.

³⁵ Yahweh will strike you down with foul ulcers on knee and leg, for which you will find no cure -- from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

³⁶ 'Yahweh will send away both you and the king whom you have appointed to rule you to a nation unknown either to you or to your ancestors, and there you will serve other gods, made of wood and stone.

³⁷ And you will be the astonishment, the byword, the laughing-stock of all the peoples where Yahweh is taking you.

³⁸ 'You will cast seed in plenty on the fields but harvest little, since the locust will devour it.

³⁹ You will plant and till your vineyards but not drink the wine or gather the grapes, since the grub will eat them up.

⁴⁰ You will grow olive trees throughout your territory but not anoint yourself with the oil, since your olive trees will be cut down.

⁴¹ You will father sons and daughters but they will not belong to you, since they will go into captivity.

⁴² All your trees and the whole yield of your soil will be the prey of insects.

⁴³ 'The foreigners living with you will rise higher and higher at your expense, while you yourself sink lower and lower.

⁴⁴ You will be subject to them, not they to you; they will be the ones at the head, and you the one at the tail.

⁴⁵ 'All these curses will befall you, pursue you and overtake you until you have been destroyed, for not having obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God by keeping his commandments and laws which he has laid down for you.

⁴⁶ They will be a sign and a wonder over you and your descendants for ever.

⁴⁷ 'For not having joyfully and with happy heart served Yahweh your God, despite the abundance of everything,

⁴⁸ you will have to serve the enemy whom Yahweh will send against you, in hunger, thirst, lack of clothing and total privation. He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until he has destroyed you.

⁴⁹ 'Against you Yahweh will raise a distant nation from the ends of the earth like an eagle taking wing: a nation whose language you do not understand,

⁵⁰ a nation grim of face, with neither respect for the old, nor pity for the young.

⁵¹ He will eat the yield of your cattle and the yield of your soil until you have been destroyed; he will leave you neither wheat, nor wine, nor oil, nor the young of your cattle, nor increase of your flock, until he has made an end of you.

⁵² He will besiege you inside all your towns until your loftiest and most strongly fortified walls collapse, on which, throughout your country, you have relied. He will besiege you inside all the towns throughout your country, given you by Yahweh your God.

⁵³ During the siege and in the distress to which your enemy will reduce you, you will eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of the sons and daughters given you by Yahweh your God.

⁵⁴ The gentlest and tenderest of your men will scowl at his brother, and at the wife whom he embraces, and at his remaining children,

⁵⁵ not willing to give any of them any of his own children's flesh, which he is eating; because of the siege and the distress to which your enemy will reduce you in all your towns, he will have nothing left.

⁵⁶ The most refined and fastidious of your women, so refined, so fastidious that she has never ventured to set the sole of her foot to the ground, will scowl at the husband whom she embraces, and at her son and daughter, and at the after-birth when it leaves her womb, and at the child to which she has given birth-

⁵⁷ she will hide away and eat them, so complete will be the starvation resulting from the siege and the distress to which your enemy will reduce you in all your towns.

⁵⁸ 'If you do not keep and observe all the words of this Law, which are written in this book, in the fear of this glorious and awe-inspiring name: Yahweh your God,

⁵⁹ Yahweh will strike you down with monstrous plagues, you and your descendants: with plagues grievous and lasting, diseases pernicious and enduring.

⁶⁰ He will afflict you with all the maladies of Egypt which you used to dread, and they will fasten on you.

⁶¹ What is more, Yahweh will afflict you with all the plagues and all the diseases not mentioned in the book of this Law, until you have been destroyed.

⁶² There will only be a small group of you left, you who were once as numerous as the stars of heaven. 'For not having obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God,

⁶³ just as Yahweh used to delight in making you happy and in making your numbers grow, so will he take delight in ruining you and destroying you. You will be torn from the country which you are about to enter and make your own.

⁶⁴ Yahweh will scatter you throughout every people, from one end of the earth to the other; there you will serve other gods made of wood and stone, hitherto unknown either to you or to your ancestors.

⁶⁵ Among these nations there will be no repose for you, no rest for the sole of your foot; there Yahweh will give you a quaking heart, weary eyes, halting breath.

⁶⁶ Your life ahead of you will hang in doubt; you will be afraid day and night, uncertain of your life.

⁶⁷ In the morning you will say, "How I wish it were evening!", and in the evening you will say, "How I wish it were morning!", such terror will grip your heart and such sights you will see!

⁶⁸ Yahweh will send you back to Egypt, either by ship or by a road which I promised you would never see again. And there you will want to offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as serving men and women, but no one will buy you.'

⁶⁹ These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh ordered Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant which he had made with them at Horeb.