Deuteronomy 28:52-61

28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ¹  until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. 28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ²  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ³  by which your enemies will constrict you. 28:54 The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. 28:55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ⁴  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁵  tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, ⁶  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁷  and her newborn children ⁸  (since she has nothing else), ⁹  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

The Curse of Covenant Termination

28:58 “If you refuse to obey ¹⁰  all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 28:59 then the Lord will increase your punishments and those of your descendants – great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. 28:60 He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt ¹¹  that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. ¹²  28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, ¹³  until you have perished.

¹ tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

² tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

³ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

³ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

⁴ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

⁵ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

⁵ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

⁶ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

⁷ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

⁶ tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”

⁷ sn These are the plagues the Lord inflicted on the Egyptians prior to the exodus which, though they did not fall upon the Israelites, must have caused great terror (cf. Exod 15:26).

⁸ tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”

⁸ tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) can refer either (1) to the whole Pentateuch or, more likely, (2) to the book of Deuteronomy or even (3) only to this curse section of the covenant text. “Scroll” better reflects the actual document, since “book” conveys the notion of a bound book with pages to the modern English reader. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the book of this law”; NIV, NLT “this Book of the Law”; TEV “this book of God’s laws and teachings.”