דברים כ״ח:ז׳

Now, if you obey the ETERNAL your God, to observe faithfully all the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, the ETERNAL your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings shall come upon you and take effect, if you will but heed the word of the ETERNAL your God: Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be your issue from the womb, your produce from the soil, and the offspring of your cattle, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be in your comings and blessed shall you be in your goings. GOD will put to rout before you^ayou Addressing the nation’s militia. the enemies who attack you; they will march out against you by a single road, but flee from you by many^bmany Lit. “seven.” roads. GOD will ordain blessings for you upon your barns and upon all your undertakings: you will be blessed in the land that the ETERNAL your God is giving you. As the ETERNAL swore to you, you will be established as a holy people if you keep the commandments of the ETERNAL your God, walking in those ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that GOD’s name is proclaimed over you,^cGOD’s name is proclaimed over you I.e., GOD is responsible for your protection; cf. Isa. 4.1; Jer. 14.9; 2 Sam. 12.28. and they shall stand in fear of you. GOD will give you abounding prosperity in your issue from the womb, the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil in the land that GOD swore to your fathers^dfathers See note at 1.35. to assign to you. GOD will open for you that bounteous store, the heavens, to provide rain for your land in season and to bless all your undertakings. You will be creditor to many nations, but debtor to none. GOD will make you the head, not the tail; you will always be at the top and never at the bottom—if only you obey and faithfully observe the commandments of the ETERNAL your God that I enjoin upon you this day, and do not deviate to the right or to the left from any of the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day and turn to the worship of other gods. But if you do not obey the ETERNAL your God to observe faithfully all the commandments and laws that I enjoin upon you this day, all these curses shall come upon you and take effect: Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be your issue from the womb and your produce from the soil, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock. Cursed shall you be in your comings and cursed shall you be in your goings. GOD will let loose against you calamity, panic, and frustration in all the enterprises you undertake, so that you shall soon be utterly wiped out because of your evildoing in forsaking Me. GOD will make pestilence cling to you, thus putting an end to you in the land that you are entering to possess. GOD will strike you with consumption, fever, and inflammation,^econsumption, fever, and inflammation Exact nature of these afflictions uncertain. with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew; they shall hound you until you perish. The skies above your head shall be copper and the earth under you iron. GOD will make the rain of your land dust, and sand shall drop on you from the sky, until you are wiped out. GOD will put you^fyou See the first note at v. 7. to rout before your enemies; you shall march out against them by a single road, but flee from them by many^gmany Lit. “seven.” roads; and you shall become a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your carcasses shall become food for all the birds of the sky and all the animals of the earth, with none to frighten them off. GOD will strike you with the Egyptian inflammation,^hthe Egyptian inflammation See Exod. 9.9–10. with hemorrhoids, boil-scars, and itch, from which you shall never recover. GOD will strike you with madness, blindness, and dismay.ⁱdismay Lit. “numbness of heart.” You shall grope at noon as the blind grope in the dark; you shall not prosper in your ventures, but shall be constantly abused and robbed, with none to give help. If you^jyou Addressing the typical man among you; see note at 5.18 and cf. 20.7. pay the bride-price for a wife, another man shall enjoy her.
If you^kyou Addressing the head of a stereotypical household; cf. 20.5. build a house, you shall not live in it. If you plant a vineyard, you shall not harvest it.^lIf you plant a vineyard … harvest it Cf. 20.6. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be seized in front of you, and it shall not be returned to you; your flock shall be delivered to your enemies, with none to help you. Your sons and daughters shall be delivered to another people, while you look on; and your eyes shall strain for them constantly, but you shall be helpless. A people you do not know shall eat up the produce of your soil and all your gains; you shall be abused and downtrodden continually, until you are driven mad by what your eyes behold. GOD will afflict you at the knees and thighs with a severe inflammation, from which you shall never recover—from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. GOD will drive you, and the king you have set over you, to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors, where you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone. You shall be a consternation, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples to which GOD will drive you. Though you take much seed out to the field, you shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it. Though you plant vineyards and till them, you shall have no wine to drink or store, for the worm shall devour them. Though you have olive trees throughout your territory, you shall have no oil for anointment, for your olives shall drop off. Though you beget sons and daughters, they shall not remain with you, for they shall go into captivity. The cricket shall take over all the trees and produce of your land. The strangers in your midst shall rise above you higher and higher, while you sink lower and lower: they shall be your creditors, but you shall not be theirs; they shall be the head and you the tail. All these curses shall befall you; they shall pursue you and overtake you, until you are wiped out, because you did not heed the ETERNAL your God and keep the commandments and laws enjoined upon you. They shall serve as signs and proofs against you and your offspring for all time. Because you would not serve the ETERNAL your God in joy and gladness over the abundance of everything, you shall have to serve—in hunger and thirst, naked and lacking everything—the enemies whom GOD will let loose against you. An iron yoke will be put upon your neck until you are wiped out. GOD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, that will swoop down like the eagle—a nation whose language you do not understand, a ruthless nation, that will show the old no regard and the young^mthe old…the young Or “the influential…the vulnerable.” no mercy. It shall devour the offspring of your cattle and the produce of your soil, until you have been wiped out, leaving you nothing of new grain, wine, or oil, of the calving of your herds and the lambing of your flocks, until it has brought you to ruin. It shall shut you up in all your towns throughout your land until every mighty, towering wall in which you trust has come down. And when you are shut up in all your towns throughout your land that the ETERNAL your God has assigned to you, you shall eat your own issue, the flesh of your sons and daughters that the ETERNAL your God has assigned to you, because of the desperate straits to which your enemy shall reduce you. The manⁿman See note at 1.31. who is most tender and fastidious among you shall be too mean to his brother and his mate^ohis mate Lit. “the wife of his bosom.” and the children he has spared to share with any of them the flesh of the children that he eats, because he has nothing else left as a result of the desperate straits to which your enemy shall reduce you in all your towns. And she who is most tender and dainty among you, so tender and dainty that she would never venture to set a foot on the ground, shall begrudge her mate,^pher mate Lit. “the husband of her bosom.” and her son and her daughter, the afterbirth that issues from between her legs and the babies she bears; she shall eat them secretly, because of utter want, in the desperate straits to which your enemy shall reduce you in your towns. If you fail to observe faithfully all the terms of this Teaching that are written in this book, to reverence this honored and awesome Name, the ETERNAL your God, the ETERNAL will inflict extraordinary plagues upon you and your offspring, strange and lasting plagues, malignant and chronic diseases— bringing back upon you all the sicknesses of Egypt that you dreaded so, and they shall cling to you. Moreover, GOD will bring upon you all the other diseases and plagues that are not mentioned in this book of Teaching, until you are wiped out. You shall be left a scant few, after having been as numerous as the stars in the skies, because you did not heed the command of the ETERNAL your God. And as GOD once delighted in making you prosperous and many, so will GOD now delight in causing you to perish and in wiping you out; you shall be torn from the land that you are about to enter and possess. GOD will scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, whom neither you nor your ancestors have experienced.^qwhom neither you nor your ancestors have experienced See note at 11.28. Yet even among those nations you shall find no peace, nor shall your foot find a place to rest. GOD will give you there an anguished heart and eyes that pine and a despondent spirit. The life you face shall be precarious; you shall be in terror, night and day, with no assurance of survival. In the morning you shall say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening you shall say, “If only it were morning!”—because of what your heart shall dread and your eyes shall see. GOD will send you back to Egypt in galleys, by a route that I told you you should not see again. There you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but none will buy. ^rThis verse is labeled as 29.1 in some editions. These are the terms of the covenant that GOD commanded Moses to conclude with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant that was made with them at Horeb.