Covenant Blessings and Curses

¹Now, if you obey the Lord your God, to observe faithfully all His commandments which I enjoin upon you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. ²All these blessings shall come upon you and take effect, if you will but heed the word of the Lord your God:

³Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country.

⁴Blessed shall be the issue of your womb, the produce of your soil, and the offspring of your cattle, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock.

⁵Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

⁶Blessed shall you be in your comings and blessed shall you be in your goings.

⁷The Lord will put to rout before you the enemies who attack you; they will march out against you by a single road, but flee from you by many^aroads. ⁸The Lord will ordain blessings for you upon your barns and upon all your undertakings: He will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ⁹The Lord will establish you as His holy people, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the Lord’s name is proclaimed over you,^band they shall stand in fear of you. ¹¹The Lord will give you abounding prosperity [ . . . ] in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to assign to you. ¹²The Lord will open for you His bounteous store, the heavens, to provide rain for your land in season and to bless all your undertakings. [ . . . ] ¹³[ . . . ]—if only you obey and faithfully observe the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin upon you this day, ¹⁴and do not deviate to the right or to the left from any of the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day and turn to the worship of other gods.

¹⁵But if you do not obey the Lord your God to observe faithfully all His commandments and laws which I enjoin upon you this day, all these curses shall come upon you and take effect:

¹⁶Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the country.

¹⁷Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

¹⁸Cursed shall be the issue of your womb and the produce of your soil, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock.

¹⁹Cursed shall you be in your comings and cursed shall you be in your goings.

²⁰The Lord will let loose against you calamity, panic, and frustration in all the enterprises you undertake, so that you shall soon be utterly wiped out because of your evildoing in forsaking Me. ²¹The Lord will make pestilence cling to you, until He has put an end to you in the land that you are entering to possess. ²²The Lord will strike you with consumption, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew; they shall hound you until you perish. ²³The skies above your head shall be copper and the earth under you iron. ²⁴The Lord will make the rain of your land dust, and sand shall drop on you from the sky, until you are wiped out.

²⁵The Lord will put you to rout before your enemies; you shall march out against them by a single road, but flee from them by many roads; and you shall become a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶Your carcasses shall become food for all the birds of the sky and all the beasts of the earth, with none to frighten them off. [ . . . ]

⁴⁵All these curses shall befall you; they shall pursue you and overtake you, until you are wiped out, because you did not heed the Lord your God and keep the commandments and laws that He enjoined upon you. ⁴⁶They shall serve as signs and proofs against you and your offspring for all time. ⁴⁷Because you would not serve the Lord your God in joy and gladness over the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸you shall have to serve—in hunger and thirst, naked and lacking everything—the enemies whom the Lord will let loose against you. He will put an iron yoke upon your neck until He has wiped you out.