Deuteronomy 28:3-12

28:3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. ¹  28:4 Your children ²  will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:5 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. ³  28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack ⁴  you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction ⁵  but flee from you in seven different directions. 28:8 The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do – yes, he will bless you in the land he ⁶  is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments ⁷  and obey him. ⁸  28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, ⁹  and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, ¹⁰  the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he ¹¹  promised your ancestors ¹²  he would give you. 28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; ¹³  you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.

Deuteronomy 28:38-42

The Curse of Reversed Status

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. ¹⁴  28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts ¹⁵  will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil.

[28:3]  ¹ tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.

[28:4]  ² tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:6]  ³ sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.

[28:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).

[28:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).

[28:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” Because English would not typically reintroduce the proper name following a relative pronoun (“he will bless…the Lord your God is giving”), the pronoun (“he”) has been employed here in the translation.

[28:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

[28:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).

[28:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

[28:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:11]  ¹² tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

[28:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

[28:40]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.

[28:42]  ¹⁵ 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).