Deuteronomy 28:3-5

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.

Deuteronomy 28:11

28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, ³  the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he ⁴  promised your ancestors ⁵  he would give you.

Deuteronomy 28:15-18

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore ⁶  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: ⁷  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 ⁸  will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.

Job 42:12

42:12 So the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

Proverbs 10:22

10:22 The blessing ⁹  from the Lord ¹⁰  makes a person rich, ¹¹ 

and he adds no sorrow ¹²  to ¹³  it.

Malachi 3:10-11

3:10 “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse ¹⁴  so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord who rules over all, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is no room for it all. 3:11 Then I will stop the plague ¹⁵  from ruining your crops, ¹⁶  and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Matthew 6:33

6:33 But above all pursue his kingdom ¹⁷  and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

[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).

[28:11]  ³ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

[28:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

[28:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

[28:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

[28:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[10:22]  ⁹ tn The term בְּרָכָּה (bÿrakhah, “blessing”) refers to a gift, enrichment or endowment from the Lord.

[10:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) functions here as a genitive of source.

[10:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “makes rich” (so NASB); NAB “brings wealth.” The direct object “a person” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the Hiphil verb; it is supplied in the translation.

[10:22]  ¹² tn Heb “toil.” The noun עֶצֶב (’etsev) has a basic two-fold range of meanings: (1) “toil; labor” which produces pain and sorrow, and (2) “pain; sorrow” which is the result of toil and labor (BDB 780 s.v.). This is the word used of the curse of “toil” in man’s labor (Gen 3:17) and the “pain” in the woman’s child-bearing (Gen 3:16). God’s blessing is pure and untarnished – it does not bring physical pain or emotional sorrow.

[10:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “with.”

[3:10]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew phrase בֵּית הָאוֹצָר (bet ha’otsar, here translated “storehouse”) refers to a kind of temple warehouse described more fully in Nehemiah (where the term לִשְׁכָּה גְדוֹלָה [lishkah gÿdolah, “great chamber”] is used) as a place for storing grain, frankincense, temple vessels, wine, and oil (Neh 13:5). Cf. TEV “to the Temple.”

[3:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the eater” (אֹכֵל, ’okhel), a general term for any kind of threat to crops and livelihood. This is understood as a reference to a locust plague by a number of English versions: NAB, NRSV “the locust”; NIV “pests”; NCV, TEV “insects.”

[3:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and I will rebuke for you the eater and it will not ruin for you the fruit of the ground.”

[6:33]  ¹⁷ tc ‡ Most mss (L W Θ 0233 Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat sy mae) read τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ (thn basileian tou qeou kai thn dikaiosunhn aujtou, “the kingdom of God and his righteousness”) here, but the words “of God” are lacking in א B pc sa bo Eus. On the one hand, there is the possibility of accidental omission on the part of these Alexandrian witnesses, but it seems unlikely that the scribe’s eye would skip over both words (especially since τοῦ θεοῦ is bracketed by first declension nouns). Intrinsically, the author generally has a genitive modifier with βασιλεία – especially θεοῦ or οὐρανῶν (ouranwn) – but this argument cuts both ways: Although he might be expected to use such an adjunct here, scribes might also be familiar with his practice and would thus naturally insert it if it were missing in their copy of Matthew. Although a decision is difficult, the omission of τοῦ θεοῦ is considered most likely to be original. NA²⁷ includes the words in brackets, indicating doubt as to their authenticity.