Deuteronomy 28:22-24

28:22 He will afflict you with weakness, fever, inflammation, infection, sword, blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The sky above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Deuteronomy 28:38-40

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.


tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

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”).

tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”

tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”

tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.