Deuteronomy 27-28New King James Version (NKJV)
The Law Inscribed on Stones
27 Now Moses, with the elders of Israel,
commanded the people, saying: “Keep all the commandments which I command you
today. 2 And it shall be, on the day when you cross
over the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God is giving you,
that you shall set up for yourselves large stones, and whitewash them with
lime. 3 You shall write on them all the words of
this law, when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land which
the Lord your God is giving you, ‘a land flowing with milk and
honey,’[a] just as
the Lord God of your fathers promised you. 4 Therefore
it shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that on
Mount Ebal you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, and you
shall whitewash them with lime. 5 And there you
shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you
shall not use an iron tool on them. 6 You
shall build with whole stones the altar of the Lord your God, and
offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. 7 You
shall offer peace offerings, and shall eat there, and rejoice before
the Lord your God. 8 And you shall write
very plainly on the stones all the words of this law.”
9 Then Moses and the priests, the
Levites, spoke to all Israel, saying, “Take heed and listen, O Israel: This day
you have become the people of the Lord your God. 10 Therefore
you shall obey the voice of the Lord your God, and observe His
commandments and His statutes which I command you today.”
Curses Pronounced from Mount Ebal
11 And Moses commanded the people on
the same day, saying, 12 “These shall stand on
Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan:
Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin; 13 and
these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and
Naphtali.
14 “And the Levites shall speak with
a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel: 15 ‘Cursed is the
one who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord, the
work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’
“And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen!’
16 ‘Cursed is the
one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
17 ‘Cursed is the
one who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
18 ‘Cursed is the
one who makes the blind to wander off the road.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
19 ‘Cursed is the
one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
20 ‘Cursed is the
one who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s
bed.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
21 ‘Cursed is the
one who lies with any kind of animal.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
22 ‘Cursed is the
one who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his
mother.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
23 ‘Cursed is the
one who lies with his mother-in-law.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
24 ‘Cursed is the
one who attacks his neighbor secretly.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
25 ‘Cursed is the
one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
26 ‘Cursed is the
one who does not confirm all the words of this law by
observing them.’
“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
Blessings on Obedience
28 “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently
obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His
commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will
set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And
all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the
voice of the Lord your God:
3 “Blessed shall you be in
the city, and blessed shall you be in the
country.
4 “Blessed shall be the
fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds,
the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 “Blessed shall be your
basket and your kneading bowl.
6 “Blessed shall you be when
you come in, and blessed shall you be when
you go out.
7 “The Lord will cause your
enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come
out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8 “The Lord will command
the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand,
and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving
you.
9 “The Lord will establish
you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the
commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then
all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of
the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And
the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body,
in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the
land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will
open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in
its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many
nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And
the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above
only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of
the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to
observe them. 14 So you shall not turn
aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the
right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
Curses on Disobedience
15 “But it shall come to pass, if you
do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all
His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these
curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 “Cursed shall you be in
the city, and cursed shall you be in the
country.
17 “Cursed shall be your
basket and your kneading bowl.
18 “Cursed shall be the
fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle
and the offspring of your flocks.
19 “Cursed shall you be when
you come in, and cursed shall you be when you
go out.
20 “The Lord will send on
you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until
you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of
your doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21 The Lord will
make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you
are going to possess. 22 The Lord will
strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning
fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you
until you perish. 23 And your heavens which are over
your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 24 The Lord will
change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come
down on you until you are destroyed.
25 “The Lord will cause you
to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and
flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the
kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your carcasses shall be
food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall
frighten them away. 27 The Lord will
strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the
itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will
strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. 29 And
you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not
prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually,
and no one shall save you.
30 “You shall betroth a wife, but
another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not
dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. 31 Your
ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not
eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from
before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given
to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. 32 Your
sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and
your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day
long; and there shall be no strength in your hand. 33 A
nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce
of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. 34 So
you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. 35 The Lord will
strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be
healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 “The Lord will bring you
and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your
fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And
you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations
where the Lord will drive you.
38 “You shall carry much seed out to
the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. 39 You
shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither
drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for
the worms shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive
trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with
the oil; for your olives shall drop off. 41 You
shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go
into captivity. 42 Locusts shall consume all your
trees and the produce of your land.
43 “The alien who is among
you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and
lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not
lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45 “Moreover all these curses shall
come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you
did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments
and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And
they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants
forever.
47 “Because you did not serve
the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance
of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your
enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst,
in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your
neck until He has destroyed you. 49 The Lord will
bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as
swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a
nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor
to the young. 51 And they shall eat the increase of
your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they
shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase
of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
52 “They shall besiege you at all
your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down
throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates
throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53 You
shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters
whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate
straits in which your enemy shall distress you. 54 The
sensitive and very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother,
toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he
leaves behind, 55 so that he will not give any of
them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in
the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all
your gates. 56 The tender and delicate woman among
you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of
her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse[b] to the husband of her
bosom, and to her son and her daughter, 57 her
placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears;
for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and
desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.
58 “If you do not carefully observe
all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this
glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, 59 then
the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary
plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. 60 Moreover
He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid,
and they shall cling to you. 61 Also every sickness
and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the
Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. 62 You
shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in
multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your
God. 63 And it shall be, that just
as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so
the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to
nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.
64 “Then the Lord will
scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and
there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have
known—wood and stone. 65 And among those nations
you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place;
but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and
anguish of soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt
before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. 67 In
the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall
say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your
heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.
68 “And the Lord will take
you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, ‘You shall never
see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male
and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
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