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 6 to all the kingdoms of the earth.
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. 7 28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts 8 will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil.
28:58 “If you refuse to obey 18 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 19 that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. 20 28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, 21 until you have perished.
1 tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”
2 tn Heb “The
3 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”).
4 tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”
5 tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).
6 tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).
7 tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.
8 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).
9 tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.
10 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”
11 tn Heb “siege and stress.”
12 tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”
13 tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.
14 tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”
15 tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”
16 tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”
17 tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”
18 tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”
19 sn These are the plagues the
20 tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”
21 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.”