Deuteronomy 28:1-13

Blessings for Obedience

1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.

2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:

3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

7 The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.

8 The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

9 The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in obedience to him.

10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you.

11 The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.

12 The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.

13 The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.

Deuteronomy 28:1-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 28

In this chapter Moses enlarges on the blessings and the curses which belong, the one to the doers, the other to the transgressors of the law; the blessings, De 28:1-14; the curses, some of which concern individual persons, others the whole nation and body of people, and that both under the former and present dispensations, and which had their fulfilment in their former captivities, and more especially in their present dispersion, De 28:15-68.

Cross References

• 1. S Deuteronomy 15:5
• 2. Exodus 15:26; S Leviticus 26:3; Deuteronomy 7:12-26
• 3. S Numbers 24:7; S Deuteronomy 26:19
• 4. Jeremiah 32:24; Zechariah 1:6
• 5. Psalms 144:15; Psalms 128:1,4
• 6. S Genesis 39:5
• 7. S Genesis 49:25; S Deuteronomy 8:18; Proverbs 10:22
• 8. Psalms 121:8
• 9. 2 Chronicles 6:34
• 10. S Leviticus 26:8,17
• 11. Deuteronomy 15:4
• 12. S Exodus 19:6; Deuteronomy 7:6
• 13. S Leviticus 26:3
• 14. S Numbers 6:27; 1 Kings 8:43; Jeremiah 25:29; Daniel 9:18; 2 Chronicles 7:14
• 15. S Genesis 30:27
• 16. ver 4; Deuteronomy 30:9; Proverbs 10:22
• 17. Job 38:22; Psalms 135:7; Jeremiah 10:13; Jeremiah 51:16
• 18. Psalms 65:11; Psalms 68:10; Jeremiah 31:12
• 19. S Leviticus 26:4; 1 Kings 8:35-36; 1 Kings 18:1; Psalms 104:13; Isaiah 5:6; Isaiah 30:23; Isaiah 32:20
• 20. Isaiah 61:9; Isaiah 65:23; Jeremiah 32:38-41; Malachi 3:12
• 21. ver 44; S Leviticus 25:19; S Deuteronomy 15:3,6; Ezekiel 34:26
• 22. Jeremiah 11:6
• 23. S Deuteronomy 26:19