Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 28:15--29:19
Context28:15 “But if you ignore 1 the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: 2 28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 28:18 Your children 3 will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. 4
28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you 5 in everything you undertake 6 until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. 7 28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases 8 until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He 9 will afflict you with weakness, 10 fever, inflammation, infection, 11 sword, 12 blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The 13 sky 14 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.
28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror 15 to all the kingdoms of the earth. 28:26 Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off. 28:27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed. 28:28 The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind. 16 28:29 You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; 17 you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you. 28:30 You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape 18 her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it. 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you. 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it. 19 28:33 As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives. 28:34 You will go insane from seeing all this. 28:35 The Lord will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils – from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. 28:36 The Lord will force you and your king 20 whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there. 28:37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.
28:38 “You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it. 28:39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them. 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe. 21 28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts 22 will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. 28:43 The foreigners 23 who reside among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower. 28:44 They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail!
28:45 All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given 24 you. 28:46 These curses 25 will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. 26
28:47 “Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have, 28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty 27 you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They 28 will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you. 28:49 The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth 29 as the eagle flies, 30 a nation whose language you will not understand, 28:50 a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young. 28:51 They 31 will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, 32 or lambs of your flocks 33 until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages 34 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, 35 the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege 36 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 37 you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most 38 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, 39 will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth 40 and her newborn children 41 (since she has nothing else), 42 because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.
28:58 “If you refuse to obey 43 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 44 that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. 45 28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, 46 until you have perished. 28:62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, 47 because you will have disobeyed 48 the Lord your God. 28:63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he 49 will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. 28:64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. 28:65 Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. 28:66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next. 50 28:67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see. 28:68 Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
29:1 (28:69) 51 These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. 52
29:2 Moses proclaimed to all Israel as follows: “You have seen all that the Lord did 53 in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, all his servants, and his land. 29:3 Your eyes have seen the great judgments, 54 those signs and mighty wonders. 29:4 But to this very day the Lord has not given you an understanding mind, perceptive eyes, or discerning ears! 55 29:5 I have led you through the desert for forty years. Your clothing has not worn out 56 nor have your sandals 57 deteriorated. 29:6 You have eaten no bread and drunk no wine or beer – all so that you might know that I 58 am the Lord your God! 29:7 When you came to this place King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to make war and we defeated them. 29:8 Then we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh.
29:9 “Therefore, keep the terms 59 of this covenant and obey them so that you may be successful in everything you do. 29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, 60 your elders, your officials, every Israelite man, 29:11 your infants, your wives, and the 61 foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water – 29:12 so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today. 62 29:13 Today he will affirm that you are his people and that he is your God, 63 just as he promised you and as he swore by oath to your ancestors 64 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 29:14 It is not with you alone that I am making this covenant by oath, 29:15 but with whoever stands with us here today before the Lord our God as well as those not with us here today. 65
29:16 “(For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we crossed through the nations as we traveled. 29:17 You have seen their detestable things 66 and idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold.) 67 29:18 Beware that the heart of no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you turns away from the Lord our God today to pursue and serve the gods of those nations; beware that there is among you no root producing poisonous and bitter fruit. 68 29:19 When such a person 69 hears the words of this oath he secretly 70 blesses himself 71 and says, “I will have peace though I continue to walk with a stubborn spirit.” 72 This will destroy 73 the watered ground with the parched. 74
[28:15] 1 tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”
[28:15] 2 tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”
[28:18] 3 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
[28:19] 4 sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.
[28:20] 5 tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”
[28:20] 6 tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”
[28:20] 7 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.
[28:21] 8 tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”
[28:22] 9 tn Heb “The
[28:22] 10 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”).
[28:22] 11 tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”
[28:22] 12 tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).
[28:23] 13 tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”
[28:23] 14 tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
[28:25] 15 tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).
[28:28] 16 tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).
[28:29] 17 tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”
[28:30] 18 tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.
[28:32] 19 tn Heb “and there will be no power in your hand”; NCV “there will be nothing you can do.”
[28:36] 20 tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”
[28:40] 21 tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.
[28:42] 22 tn The Hebrew term denotes some sort of buzzing or whirring insect; some have understood this to be a type of locust (KJV, NIV, CEV), but other insects have also been suggested: “buzzing insects” (NAB); “the cricket” (NASB); “the cicada” (NRSV).
[28:43] 23 tn Heb “the foreigner.” This is a collective singular and has therefore been translated as plural; this includes the pronouns in the following verse, which are also singular in the Hebrew text.
[28:45] 24 tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”
[28:46] 25 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[28:46] 26 tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).
[28:48] 27 tn Heb “lack of everything.”
[28:48] 28 tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the
[28:49] 29 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”
[28:49] 30 tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.
[28:51] 31 tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).
[28:51] 32 tn Heb “increase of herds.”
[28:51] 33 tn Heb “growth of flocks.”
[28:52] 34 tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.
[28:53] 35 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”
[28:53] 36 tn Heb “siege and stress.”
[28:55] 37 tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”
[28:56] 38 tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.
[28:56] 39 tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”
[28:57] 40 tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”
[28:57] 41 tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”
[28:57] 42 tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”
[28:58] 43 tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”
[28:60] 44 sn These are the plagues the
[28:60] 45 tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”
[28:61] 46 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.”
[28:62] 47 tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.
[28:62] 48 tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”
[28:63] 49 tn Heb “the
[28:66] 50 tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.
[29:1] 51 sn Beginning with 29:1, the verse numbers through 29:29 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 29:1 ET = 28:69 HT, 29:2 ET = 29:1 HT, 29:3 ET = 29:2 HT, etc., through 29:29 ET = 29:28 HT. With 30:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.
[29:1] 52 sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (which some English versions substitute here for clarity, cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
[29:2] 53 tn The Hebrew text includes “to your eyes,” but this is redundant in English style (cf. the preceding “you have seen”) and is omitted in the translation.
[29:3] 54 tn Heb “testings.” This is a reference to the plagues; see note at 4:34.
[29:4] 55 tn Heb “a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear” (NASB similar); NAB, NRSV “a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.”
[29:5] 56 tn The Hebrew text includes “on you.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[29:5] 57 tn The Hebrew text includes “from on your feet.”
[29:6] 58 tc The LXX reads “that he is the
[29:10] 60 tc Heb “your heads, your tribes.” The Syriac presupposes either “heads of your tribes” or “your heads, your judges,” etc. (reading שֹׁפְטֵכֶם [shofÿtekhem] for שִׁבְטֵיכֶם [shivtekhem]). Its comparative difficulty favors the originality of the MT reading. Cf. KJV “your captains of your tribes”; NRSV “the leaders of your tribes”; NLT “your tribal leaders.”
[29:12] 62 tn Heb “for you to pass on into the covenant of the Lord your God and into his oath, which the Lord your God is cutting with you today.”
[29:13] 63 tn Heb “in order to establish you today to him for a people and he will be to you for God.” Verses 10-13 are one long sentence in Hebrew. The translation divides this into two sentences for stylistic reasons.
[29:13] 64 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).
[29:15] 65 tn This is interpreted by some English versions as a reference to generations not yet born (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).
[29:17] 66 tn The Hebrew term שִׁקּוּץ (shiquts) refers to anything out of keeping with the nature and character of Yahweh and therefore to be avoided by his people Israel. It is commonly used with or as a synonym for תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “detestable, abhorrent”; 2 Kgs 23:13; Jer 16:18; Ezek 5:11; 7:20; 11:18, 21; see note on the term “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25). See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:243-46.
[29:17] 67 tn The Hebrew text includes “which were with them.” Verses 16-17 constitute a parenthetical comment.
[29:18] 68 tn Heb “yielding fruit poisonous and wormwood.” The Hebrew noun לַעֲנָה (la’anah) literally means “wormwood” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB), but is used figuratively for anything extremely bitter, thus here “fruit poisonous and bitter.”
[29:19] 69 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the subject of the warning in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[29:19] 70 tn Heb “in his heart.”
[29:19] 71 tn Or “invokes a blessing on himself.” A formalized word of blessing is in view, the content of which appears later in the verse.
[29:19] 73 tn Heb “thus destroying.” For stylistic reasons the translation begins a new sentence here.
[29:19] 74 tn Heb “the watered with the parched.” The word “ground” is implied. The exact meaning of the phrase is uncertain although it appears to be figurative. This appears to be a proverbial observation employing a figure of speech (a merism) suggesting totality. That is, the Israelite who violates the letter and even spirit of the covenant will harm not only himself but everything he touches – “the watered and the parched.” Cf. CEV “you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you.”
