Deuteronomy 28:36-66

36 "¹The LORD will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, ²wood and stone.

37 "³You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where * the LORD drives you.

38 "⁴You shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little, for ⁵the locust will consume it.

39 "⁶You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them.

40 "⁷You shall have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off.

41 "⁸You shall have sons and daughters but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity.

42 "⁹The cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground.

43 "¹⁰The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower.

44 "¹¹He shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; ¹²he shall be the head, and you will be the tail.

45 "So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you ¹³until you are destroyed, because you would not obey * the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.

46 "They shall become ¹⁴a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever *.

47 "¹⁵Because * you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things;

48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, ¹⁶in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He ¹⁷will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

49 "¹⁸The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, ¹⁹as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand,

50 a nation of fierce countenance who will ²⁰have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.

51 "Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish.

52 "²¹It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the LORD your God has given you.

53 "²²Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you.

54 "The man who is refined and very delicate among you shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain,

55 so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing * else left, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in all your towns.

56 "²³The refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and refinement, shall be hostile toward the husband she cherishes and toward her son and daughter,

57 and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her legs and toward her children whom she bears; for ²⁴she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in your towns.

58 "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to ²⁵fear this honored and awesome ²⁶name, the LORD your God,

59 then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses.

60 "²⁷He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you.

61 "Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring on you ²⁸until you are destroyed.

62 "Then you shall be left few in number, ²⁹whereas * you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey * the LORD your God.

63 "It shall come about that as the LORD ³⁰delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will ³¹delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be ³²torn from the land where * you are entering to possess it.

64 "Moreover, the LORD will ³³scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall ³⁴serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known.

65 "³⁵Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there ³⁶the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul.

66 "So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life.

Deuteronomy 28:36-66 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. 2 Kings 17:4, 6; 2 Kings 24:12, 14; 2 Kings 25:7, 11; 2 Chronicles 36:1-21; Jeremiah 39:1-9
• 2. Deuteronomy 4:28; Jeremiah 16:13
• 3. 1 Kings 9:7, 8; Jeremiah 19:8; Jeremiah 24:9; Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 29:18
• 4. Isaiah 5:10; Micah 6:15; Haggai 1:6
• 5. Exodus 10:4; Joel 1:4
• 6. Isaiah 5:10; Isaiah 17:10, 11
• 7. Jeremiah 11:16; Micah 6:15
• 8. Deuteronomy 28:32
• 9. Deuteronomy 28:38
• 10. Deuteronomy 28:13
• 11. Deuteronomy 28:12
• 12. Deuteronomy 28:13
• 13. Deuteronomy 4:25, 26
• 14. Numbers 26:10; Isaiah 8:18; Ezekiel 5:15; Ezekiel 14:8
• 15. Deuteronomy 12:7; Nehemiah 9:35-37
• 16. Lamentations 4:4-6
• 17. Jeremiah 28:13, 14
• 18. Isaiah 5:26-30; Isaiah 7:18-20; Jeremiah 5:15; Jeremiah 6:22, 23
• 19. Jeremiah 48:40; Jeremiah 49:22; Lamentations 4:19; Hosea 8:1
• 20. Isaiah 47:6
• 21. Jeremiah 10:17, 18; Zephaniah 1:15, 16
• 22. Leviticus 26:29; 2 Kings 6:28, 29; Jeremiah 19:9; Lamentations 2:20; Lamentations 4:10
• 23. Lamentations 4:10
• 24. 2 Kings 6:28, 29; Lamentations 4:10
• 25. Psalms 99:3; Malachi 1:14
• 26. Isaiah 42:8
• 27. Deuteronomy 28:27
• 28. Deuteronomy 4:25, 26
• 29. Deuteronomy 1:10; Nehemiah 9:23
• 30. Jeremiah 32:41
• 31. Proverbs 1:26
• 32. Jeremiah 12:14; Jeremiah 45:4
• 33. Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 4:27; Nehemiah 1:8
• 34. Deuteronomy 4:28; Deuteronomy 29:26; Deuteronomy 32:17
• 35. Lamentations 1:3
• 36. Leviticus 26:36

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "beget"
• [b]. Lit "listen to the voice of"
• [c]. Lit "seed"
• [d]. Lit "fruit"
• [e]. Lit "gates"
• [f]. Lit "gates"
• [g]. Lit "fruit"
• [h]. Or "distress"
• [i]. Lit "tender"
• [j]. Lit "his eye shall be evil toward"
• [k]. Lit "of his bosom"
• [l]. Or "distress"
• [m]. Lit "gates"
• [n]. Lit "tender"
• [o]. Lit "tenderness"
• [p]. Lit "her eye shall be evil toward"
• [q]. Lit "of her bosom"
• [r]. Lit "feet"
• [s]. Or "distress"
• [t]. Lit "gates"
• [u]. Or "reverence"
• [v]. Heb "YHWH"
• [w]. Lit "plague on your seed"
• [x]. Lit "great"
• [y]. Lit "listen to the voice of"
• [z]. Lit "be hung for you in front"