The Lord Will Bless You if You Obey
Moses said to Israel:
1-2 Today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the Lord your God. Always obey them, and the Lord will make Israel the most famous and important nation on earth, and he will bless you in many ways.
3 The Lord will make your businesses and your farms successful.
4 You will have many children. You will harvest large crops, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats will produce many young.
5 You will have plenty of bread to eat.
6 The Lord will make you successful in your daily work.
7 The Lord will help you defeat your enemies and make them scatter in all directions.
8 The Lord your God is giving you the land, and he will make sure you are successful in everything you do. Your harvests will be so large that your storehouses will be full.
9 If you follow and obey the Lord, he will make you his own special people, just as he promised. 10 Then everyone on earth will know that you belong to the Lord, and they will be afraid of you.
11 The Lord will give you a lot of children and make sure that your animals give birth to many young. The Lord promised your ancestors that this land would be yours, and he will make it produce large crops for you.
12 The Lord will open the storehouses of the skies where he keeps the rain, and he will send rain on your land at just the right times. He will make you successful in everything you do. You will have plenty of money to lend to other nations, but you won't need to borrow any yourself.
13 Obey the laws and teachings that I'm giving you today, and the Lord your God will make Israel a leader among the nations, and not a follower. Israel will be wealthy and powerful, not poor and weak. 14 But you must not reject any of his laws and teachings or worship other gods.
The Lord Will Put Curses on You if You Disobey
(Leviticus 26.14-46)Moses said:
15 Israel, today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the Lord your God. And if you don't obey them all, he will put many curses on you.
16 Your businesses and farms will fail.
17 You won't have enough bread to eat.
18 You'll have only a few children, your crops will be small, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats won't produce many young.
19 The Lord will make you fail in everything you do.
20 No matter what you try to accomplish, the Lord will confuse you, and you will feel his anger. You won't last long, and you may even meet with disaster, all because you rejected the Lord.
21-23 The Lord will send terrible diseases to attack you, and you will never be well again. You will suffer with burning fever and swelling and pain until you die somewhere in the land that you captured.
The Lord will make the sky overhead seem like a bronze roof that keeps out the rain, and the ground under your feet will become as hard as iron. Your crops will be scorched by the hot east wind or ruined by mildew. 24 He will send dust and sandstorms instead of rain, and you will be wiped out.
25 The Lord will let you be defeated by your enemies, and you will scatter in all directions. You will be a horrible sight for the other nations to see, 26 and no one will disturb the birds and wild animals while they eat your dead bodies.
27 The Lord will make you suffer with diseases that will cause oozing sores or crusty itchy patches on your skin or boils like the ones that are common in Egypt. And there will be no cure for you! 28 You will become insane and go blind. The Lord will make you so confused, 29 that even in bright sunshine you will have to feel your way around like a blind person, who cannot tell day from night. For the rest of your life, people will beat and rob you, and no one will be able to stop them.
30 A man will be engaged to a woman, but before they can get married, she will be raped by enemy soldiers. Some of you will build houses, but never get to live in them. If you plant a vineyard, you won't be around long enough to enjoy the first harvest. 31 Your cattle will be killed while you watch, but you won't get to eat any of the meat. Your donkeys and sheep will be stolen from you, and no one will be around to force your enemies to give them back. 32 Your sons and daughters will be dragged off to a foreign country, while you stand there helpless. And even if you watch for them until you go blind, you will never see them again.
33 You will work hard on your farms, but everything you harvest will be eaten by foreigners, who will mistreat you and abuse you for the rest of your life.
34 What you see will be so horrible that you will go insane, 35 and the Lord will punish you from head to toe with boils that never heal.
36 The Lord will let you and your king be taken captive to a country that you and your ancestors have never even heard of, and there you will have to worship idols made of wood and stone. 37 People of nearby countries will shudder when they see your terrible troubles, but they will still make fun of you.
38 You will plant a lot of seed, but gather a small harvest, because locusts will eat your crops. 39 You will plant vineyards and work hard at taking care of them, but you won't gather any grapes, much less get any wine, because the vines themselves will be eaten by worms. 40 Even if your olive trees grow everywhere in your country, the olives will fall off before they are ready, and there won't be enough olive oil for combing your hair.
41 Even your children will be taken as prisoners of war.
42 Locusts will eat your crops and strip your trees of leaves and fruit.
43 Foreigners in your towns will become wealthy and powerful, while you become poor and powerless. 44 You will be so short of money that you will have to borrow from those foreigners. They will be the leaders in the community, and you will be the followers.
More Curses for Disobedience
Moses said:
45 Israel, if you don't obey the laws and teachings that the Lord your God is giving you, he will send these curses to chase, attack, and destroy you. 46 Then everyone will look at you and your descendants and realize that the Lord has placed you under a curse.
47 If the Lord makes you wealthy, but you don't joyfully worship and honor him, 48 he will send enemies to attack you and make you their slaves. Then you will live in poverty with nothing to eat, drink, or wear, and your owners will work you to death.
49 Foreigners who speak a strange language will be sent to attack you without warning, just like an eagle swooping down. 50 They won't show any mercy, and they will have no respect for old people or pity for children. 51 They will take your cattle, sheep, goats, grain, wine, and olive oil, then leave you to starve.
52 All over the land that the Lord your God gave you, the enemy army will surround your towns. You may feel safe inside your town walls, but the enemy will tear them down, 53 while you wait in horror. Finally, you will get so hungry that you will eat the sons and daughters that the Lord gave you. 54-55 Because of hunger, a man who had been gentle and kind will eat his own children and refuse to share the meal with his brother or wife or with his other children. 56-57 A woman may have grown up in such luxury that she never had to put a foot on the ground. But times will be so bad that she will secretly eat both her newborn baby and the afterbirth, without sharing any with her husband or her other children.
Disobedience Brings Destruction
Moses said to Israel:
58 You must obey everything in The Book of God's Law. Because if you don't respect the Lord, 59 he will punish you and your descendants with incurable diseases, 60 like those you were so afraid of in Egypt. 61 Remember! If the Lord decides to destroy your nation, he can use any disease or disaster, not just the ones written in The Book of God's Law.
62 There are as many of you now as the stars in the sky, but if you disobey the Lord your God, only a few of you will be left. 63 The Lord is happy to make you successful and to help your nation grow while you conquer the land. But if you disobey him, he will be just as happy to pull you up by your roots.
64 Those of you that survive will be scattered to every nation on earth, and you will have to worship stone and wood idols that never helped you or your ancestors. 65 You will be restless—always longing for home, but never able to return. 66 You will live in constant fear of death. 67 Each morning you will wake up to such terrible sights that you will say, “I wish it were night!” But at night you will be terrified and say, “I wish it were day!”
68 I told you never to go back to Egypt. But now the Lord himself will load you on ships and send you back. Then you will even try to sell yourselves as slaves, but no one will be interested.
1 If thou shalt obey diligently the voyce of the Lord thy God, and obserue and do all his commandements, which I commande thee this day, then the Lord thy God wil set thee on high aboue all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and ouertake thee, if thou shalt obey the voyce of the Lord thy God. 3 Blessed shalt thou be in the citie, and blessed also in the fielde. 4 Blessed shalbe the fruite of thy body, and ye fruite of thy ground, and the fruite of thy cattel, the increase of thy kine, and ye flocks of thy sheepe. 5 Blessed shalbe thy basket and thy dough. 6 Blessed shalt thou be, whe thou commest in, and blessed also when thou goest out. 7 The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise against thee, to fall before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and shall flee before thee leuen wayes. 8 The Lord shall command the blessing to be with thee in thy store houses, and in all that thou settest thine hande to, and wil blesse thee in the land which the Lord thy God giueth thee. 9 The Lord shall make thee an holy people vnto himself, as he hath sworne vnto thee, if thou shalt keepe the commandements of the Lord thy God, and walke in his wayes. 10 Then all people of the earth shall see that the Name of the Lord is called vpon ouer thee, and they shalbe afrayde of thee. 11 And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruite of thy body, and in the fruite of thy cattell, and in the fruite of thy grounde, in the land which the Lord sware vnto thy fathers, to giue thee. 12 The Lord shall open vnto thee his good treasure, euen the heauen to giue rayne vnto thy kind in due season, and to blesse all the worke of thine handes: and thou shalt lende vnto many nations, but shalt not borow thy selfe. 13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tayle, and thou shalt be aboue onely, and shalt not bee beneath, if thou obey the commandements of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to keepe and to do them. 14 But thou shalt not decline from any of the wordes, which I command you this day, either to the right hand or to the left, to goe after other gods to serue them. 15 But if thou wilt not obey the voyce of the Lord thy God, to keepe and to do all his commandementes and his ordinances, which I command thee this day, then al these curses shall come vpon thee, and ouertake thee. 16 Cursed shalt thou bee in the towne, and cursed also in the fielde. 17 Cursed shall thy basket be, and thy dough. 18 Cursed shall be the fruite of thy body, and the fruite of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flockes of thy sheepe. 19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou commest in, and cursed also when thou goest out. 20 The Lord shall sende vpon thee cursing, trouble, and shame, in all that which thou settest thine hand to do, vntil thou be destroyed, and perish quickely, because of the wickednesse of thy workes whereby thou hast forsaken me. 21 The Lord shall make the pestilence cleaue vnto thee, vntill he hath consumed thee from the land, whither thou goest to possesse it. 22 The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with the feuer, and with a burning ague, and with feruent heate, and with the sworde, and with blasting, and with the mildew, and they shall pursue thee vntill thou perish. 23 And thine heauen that is ouer thine head, shall be brasse, and the earth that is vnder thee, yron. 24 The Lord shall giue thee for the rayne of thy land, dust and ashes: euen from heauen shall it come downe vpon thee, vntil thou be destroyed. 25 And the Lord shall cause thee to fall before thine enemies: thou shalt come out one way against them, and shalt flee seuen wayes before them, and shalt be scattered through all the kingdomes of the earth. 26 And thy carkeis shall be meate vnto all foules of the ayre, and vnto the beasts of the earth, and none shall fray them away. 27 The Lord wil smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emeroids, and with the skab, and with the itche, that thou canst not be healed. 28 And ye Lord shall smite thee with madnes, and with blindnes, and with astonying of heart. 29 Thou shalt also grope at noone daies, as the blinde gropeth in darknes, and shalt not prosper in thy wayes: thou shalt neuer but bee oppressed with wrong and be powled euermore, and no man shall succour thee. 30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lye with her: thou shalt builde an house, and shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not eate the fruite. 31 Thine oxe shalbe slayne before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eate thereof: thine asse shall be violently taken away before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheepe shalbe giuen vnto thine enemies, and no man shall rescue them for thee. 32 Thy sonnes and thy daughters shalbe giuen vnto another people, and thine eyes shall still looke for them, euen till they fall out, and there shalbe no power in thine hand. 33 The fruite of thy land and all thy labours shall a people, which thou knowest not, eate, and thou shalt neuer but suffer wrong, and violence alway: 34 So that thou shalt be madde for the sight which thine eyes shall see. 35 The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the thighes, with a sore botche, that thou canst not be healed: euen from the sole of thy foote vnto the top of thine head. 36 The Lord shall bring thee and thy King (which thou shalt set ouer thee) vnto a nation, which neither thou nor thy fathers haue knowen, and there thou shalt serue other gods: euen wood and stone, 37 And thou shalt be a wonder, a prouerbe and a common talke among all people, whither the Lord shall carie thee. 38 Thou shalt carie out much seede into the fielde, and shalt gather but litle in: for the grashoppers shall destroy it. 39 Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and dresse it, but shalt neither drinke of the wine, nor gather the grapes: for the wormes shall eate it. 40 Thou shalt haue Oliue trees in all thy coastes, but shalt not anoynt thy selfe with the oyle: for thine oliues shall fall. 41 Thou shalt beget sonnes, and daughters, but shalt not haue them: for they shall goe into captiuitie. 42 All thy trees and fruite of thy land shall the grashopper consume. 43 The straunger that is among you, shall clime aboue thee vp on hie, and thou shalt come downe beneath alow. 44 He shall lend thee, and thou shalt not lend him: he shalbe the head, and thou shalt be ye tayle. 45 Moreouer, all these curses shall come vpon thee, and shall pursue thee and ouertake thee, till thou be destroyed, because thou obeyedst not the voyce of the Lord thy God, to keepe his commandements, and his ordinances, which he commanded thee: 46 And they shalbe vpon thee for signes and wonders, and vpon thy seede for euer, 47 Because thou seruedst not the Lord thy God with ioyfulnesse and with a good heart for the abundance of all things. 48 Therefore thou shalt serue thine enemies which the Lord shall send vpon thee, in hunger and in thirst, and in nakednesse, and in neede of all things? and he shall put a yoke of yron vpon thy necke vntill he haue destroyed thee. 49 The Lord shall bring a nation vpon thee from farre, euen from the ende of the world, flying swift as an Egle: a nation whose tongue thou shalt not vnderstand: 50 A nation of a fierce countenance, which will not regarde the person of the olde, nor haue compassion of the yong. 51 The same shall eate the fruit of thy cattell, and the fruite of thy land vntill thou be destroyed, and he shall leaue thee neyther wheate, wine, nor oyle, neither the increase of thy kyne, nor the flockes of thy sheepe, vntill he haue brought thee to nought. 52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy cities, vntill thine hie and strong walles fall downe, wherein thou trustedst in all the lande: and hee shall besiege thee in all thy cities throughout all thy lande, which the Lord thy God hath giuen thee. 53 And thou shalt eate the fruite of thy bodie: euen the flesh of thy sonnes and thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath giuen thee, during the siege and straitnesse wherein thine enemie shall inclose thee: 54 So that the man (that is tender and exceeding deintie among you) shalbe grieued at his brother, and at his wife, that lieth in his bosome, and at the remnant of his children, which hee hath yet left, 55 For feare of giuing vnto any of them of the flesh of his children, whom he shall eate, because he hath nothing left him in that siege, and straitnesse, wherewith thine enemie shall besiege thee in all thy cities. 56 The tender and deintie woman among you, which neuer woulde venture to set the sole of her foote vpon the grounde (for her softnesse and tendernesse) shalbe grieued at her husband that lieth in her bosome, and at her sonne, and at her daughter, 57 And at her afterbirth (that shall come out from betweene her feete) and at her childre, which she shall beare: for when all things lacke, she shall eate them secretly, during the siege and straitnesse, wherewith thine enemie shall besiege thee in thy cities. 58 If thou wilt not keepe and doe all the wordes of the Lawe (that are written in this booke) and feare this glorious and feareful name The Lord Thy God, 59 The the Lord wil make thy plagues wonderfull, and the plagues of thy seede, euen great plagues and of long continuance, and sore diseases, and of long durance. 60 Moreouer, he will bring vpon thee all the diseases of Egypt, whereof thou wast afraide, and they shall cleaue vnto thee. 61 And euery sickenesse, and euery plague, which is not written in the booke of this Lawe, will the Lord heape vpon thee, vntill thou be destroyed. 62 And ye shall be left few in nomber, where ye were as the starres of heauen in multitude, because thou wouldest not obey the voyce of the Lord thy God. 63 And as the Lord hath reioyced ouer you, to doe you good, and to multiply you, so he will reioyce ouer you, to destroy you, and bring you to nought, and ye shalbe rooted out of the land, whither thou goest to possesse it. 64 And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one ende of the worlde vnto the other, and there thou shalt serue other gods, which thou hast not knowen nor thy fathers, euen wood and stone. 65 Also among these nations thou shalt finde no rest, neither shall the sole of thy foote haue rest: for the Lord shall giue thee there a trembling heart, and looking to returne till thine eyes fall out, and a sorowfull minde. 66 And thy life shall hang before thee, and thou shalt feare both night and day, and shalt haue none assurance of thy life. 67 In the morning thou shalt say, Woulde God it were euening, and at the euening thou shalt say, Would God it were morning, for ye feare of thine heart, which thou shalt feare, and for the sight of thine eyes, which thou shalt see. 68 And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt againe with shippes by the way, whereof I saide vnto thee, Thou shalt see it no more againe: and there yee shall sell your selues vnto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and there shalbe no byer.