Dual Panel1IF you faithfully obey the LORD your God by diligently observing all his commandments which I lay on you this day, then the LORD your God will raise you high above all nations of the earth,
2and the following blessings will all come and light on you, because you obey the LORD your God.
3A blessing on you in the town; a blessing on you in the country.
4A blessing on the fruit of your body, the fruit of your land and cattle, the offspring of your herds and lambing flocks.
5A blessing on your basket and your kneading trough.
6A blessing on you as you come in, and a blessing on you as you go out.
7May the LORD deliver up to you the enemies who attack you, and let them be put to rout before you. Though they come out against you by one way, they will flee before you by seven.
8May the LORD grant you a blessing in your granaries and on all your labours; may the LORD your God bless you in the land which he is giving you.
9The LORD will establish you as his own holy people, as he swore to you, provided you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and conform to his ways.
10All people on earth seeing that the LORD has named you as his very own will go in fear of you.
11The LORD will make you prosper greatly in the fruit of your body and of your cattle, and in the fruit of the soil in the land which he swore to your forefathers to give you.
12May the LORD open the heavens for you, his rich storehouse, to give your land rain at the proper time and bless everything to which you turn your hand. You may lend to many nations, but borrow from none;
13the LORD will make you the head and not the tail: you will always be at the top and never at the bottom, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I give you this day to keep and to fulfil.
14Deviate neither to right nor to left from all the things which I command you this day, and do not go after other gods to serve them.
15BUT if you will not obey the LORD your God by diligently observing all his commandments and statutes which I lay upon you this day, then all the following curses will come and light upon you.
16A curse on you in the town, a curse in the country.
17A curse on your basket and your kneading trough.
18A curse on the fruit of your body, the fruit of your land, the offspring of your herds and your lambing flocks.
19A curse on you as you come in, and a curse on you as you go out.
20May the LORD send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in whatever you are doing, until you are destroyed and soon perish for the evil you have done in forsaking him.
21May the LORD cause pestilence to haunt you until he has exterminated you out of the land which you are entering to occupy;
22may the LORD afflict you with wasting disease and recurrent fever, ague, and eruptions; with drought, and black blight and red; and may these plague you until you perish.
23May the skies above you be brazen, and the earth beneath you iron.
24May the LORD turn the rain in your country to fine sand, and may dust descend on you from the sky until you are blotted out.
25May the LORD put you to rout before your enemies. Though you go out against them by one way, you will flee before them by seven. May you be repugnant to all the kingdoms on earth.
26May your bodies become food for all the birds of the air and all the wild beasts, with no one to scare them off.
27May the LORD strike you with Egyptian boils and with tumours, scabs, and itch, for which you will find no cure.
28May the LORD strike you with madness, blindness, and stupefaction;
29so that you will grope about in broad daylight, just as a blind man gropes in darkness, and you will fail to find your way. You will be oppressed and robbed, day in, day out, with no one to save you.
30A woman will be betrothed to you, but someone will ravish her; you will build a house but not live in it; you will plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit.
31Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it; and while you watch your donkey will be stolen and will not come back to you; your sheep will be given to the enemy, and there will be no one to recover them.
32Your sons and daughters will be given to another people with you looking on; your eyes will strain after them all day long, but you will be powerless.
33A nation which you do not know will eat the products of your land and of all your toil, and your lot will be nothing but grievous oppression.
34The sights you see will drive you mad.
35May the LORD strike you on knee and leg with severe boils for which you will find no cure; they will spread from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
36May the LORD give you up, you and the king whom you have appointed, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods, gods of wood and stone.
37You will become a horror, a byword, and an object-lesson to all the peoples amongst whom the LORD disperses you.
38You will carry plentiful seed to your fields, but you will harvest little, for locusts will devour it.
39You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, for the grub will eat them.
40You will have olive trees everywhere in your territory, but you will not anoint yourselves with the oil, for your olives will drop off.
41You will have sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, for they will go into captivity.
42All your trees and the fruit of the ground will be infested with the mole-cricket.
43The alien who lives with you will raise himself higher and higher, and you will sink lower and lower.
44He will lend to you but you will not lend to him: he will be the head and you the tail.
45All these curses will come on you; they will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God by keeping the commandments and statutes which he gave you.
46They will be a sign and a portent to you and your descendants for ever.
47You have not served the LORD your God, rejoicing in gladness of heart over all your blessings;
48therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and extreme want, you will have to serve the enemies whom the LORD will send against you. He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until you are subdued.
49May the LORD bring against you from afar, from the end of the earth, a nation which will swoop upon you like a vulture, a nation whose language you will not understand,
50a nation of grim aspect with no regard for the old, no pity for the young.
51When you have been subdued, they will devour the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your land. They will leave you neither grain nor new wine nor oil, neither calves from your herds nor lambs from your flocks, until you are brought to ruin.
52They will besiege you in all your towns until they overthrow your high fortifications, those walls throughout your land in which you trust. They will besiege you within all your towns, throughout the land which the LORD your God has given you.
53Then, because of the dire straits to which you will be reduced when your enemy besieges you, you will eat your own children, the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you.
54The most delicately bred and sensitive man will not share with his brother, or with the wife he loves, or with his own remaining children
55any of the meat which he is eating, the flesh of his own children. He is left with nothing else because of the dire straits to which you will be reduced within all your towns when the enemy besieges you.
56The most delicately bred and sensitive woman, so delicate and sensitive that she would never venture to put a foot to the ground, will not share with her own husband or her son or her daughter
57the afterbirth which she expels, or any boy or girl that she may bear. During the siege she herself will eat them secretly in her extreme want, in the dire straits to which the enemy will reduce you in your towns.
58If you do not observe and fulfil all the law written down in this book, if you do not revere this honoured and dreaded name, this name “the LORD your God”,
59then the LORD will strike you and your descendants with unimaginable plagues, virulent and chronic, and with lingering and severe sickness.
60He will bring on you once again all the diseases of Egypt which you dreaded, and they will cling to you.
61The LORD will bring upon you sickness and plague of every kind, even those not recorded in this book of the law, until you are destroyed.
62Then you who were countless as the stars in the heavens will be left few in number, because you did not obey the LORD your God.
63Just as the LORD took delight in you, prospering you and increasing your numbers, so now it will be his delight to ruin and exterminate you, and you will be uprooted from the land which you are entering to occupy.
64The LORD will disperse you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve other gods of whom neither you nor your forefathers have had experience, gods of wood and stone.
65Among those nations you will find no peace, no resting-place for the sole of your foot. Then the LORD will give you an unquiet mind, dim eyes, and failing appetite.
66Your life will hang continually in suspense, fear will beset you night and day, and you will find no security all your life long.
67Every morning you will say, “Would God it were evening!” and every evening, “Would God it were morning!” because of the terror that fills your heart and because of the sights you see.
68The LORD will bring you back sorrowing to Egypt by that very road of which I said to you, “You shall not see that road again”; there you will offer yourselves for sale as slaves to your enemies, but there will be no buyer.