Deuteronomy 28:3-12

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. 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. 3  28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack 4  you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction 5  but flee from you in seven different directions. 28:8 The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do – yes, he will bless you in the land he 6  is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments 7  and obey him. 8  28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, 9  and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, 10  the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he 11  promised your ancestors 12  he would give you. 28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; 13  you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.

Deuteronomy 28:38-42

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. 14  28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts 15  will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil.

1 tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.

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

3 sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.

4 tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).

5 tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).

6 tn Heb “the Lord your God.” Because English would not typically reintroduce the proper name following a relative pronoun (“he will bless…the Lord your God is giving”), the pronoun (“he”) has been employed here in the translation.

7 tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

8 tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

9 tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).

10 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

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

12 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

13 tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

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

15 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).