Text -- Deuteronomy 28:20-24 (NET)

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. 28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He will afflict you with weakness, fever, inflammation, infection, sword, blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The sky above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Deu 28:20

¹ tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

² tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

³ tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.

tn Heb “the evil of your doings wherein you have forsaken me”; CEV “all because you rejected the Lord.”

NET Notes: Deu 28:21

¹ tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”

NET Notes: Deu 28:22

¹ tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

² tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).

³ tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”

⁴ tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

NET Notes: Deu 28:23

¹ tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”

² tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.