Deuteronomy 28:15-20

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore 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: 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 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.

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me.


tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.

tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

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.

tn Heb “the evil of your doings wherein you have forsaken me”; CEV “all because you rejected the Lord.”