Blessings for Obedience
1If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
3You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
4The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
5Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
7The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.
8The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
9The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
12The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. 14Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.
Curses for Disobedience
15However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
16You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
20The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.28:20 Hebrew me 21The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. 22The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. 23The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. 24The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.
25The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. 26Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.
30You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. 31Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. 32Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. 33A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. 34The sights you see will drive you mad. 35The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
36The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. 37You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.
38You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. 39You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. 40You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. 41You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. 42Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.
43The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. 44They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail.
45All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. 46They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. 47Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, 48therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. 51They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. 52They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.
53Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you. 54Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. 56The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter 57the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.
58If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God— 59the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. 62You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
64Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. 65Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. 66You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. 68The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
遵守誡命蒙祝福
1「你們若全心順服你們的上帝耶和華，謹遵祂今天藉我吩咐你們的一切誡命，祂必使你們超越天下萬國。 2你們若聽從你們的上帝耶和華的話，以下這些福氣必臨到你們，追隨你們。
3「無論你們在城裡還是鄉間，都必蒙福。
4「你們必子孫昌盛，五穀豐登，牛羊成群。
5「你們的籃子和揉麵盆都必蒙福。
6「你們出入都必蒙福。
7「耶和華必使來犯之敵敗在你們面前、潰不成軍、四散逃命。
8「耶和華必使你們凡事蒙福、五穀滿倉。你們的上帝耶和華必在祂賜給你們的土地上賜福你們。
9「你們若遵守你們上帝耶和華的誡命，遵行祂的旨意，祂必按自己的誓言立你們作祂聖潔的子民。 10天下萬民將看出你們是耶和華名下的子民，並懼怕你們。
11「在耶和華向你們祖先起誓要賜給你們的土地上，祂必使你們子孫昌盛、牛羊成群、五穀豐登。 12耶和華要為你們打開天上的寶庫，使你們風調雨順、凡事蒙福。你們必借貸給多國，卻無需向別國借貸。 13-14你們若聽從你們的上帝耶和華藉我今天吩咐你們的誡命，謹慎遵行，毫不偏離，也不隨從、供奉其他神明，祂必使你們做首不做尾，居上不居下。
違背誡命受咒詛
15「你們若不聽從你們的上帝耶和華，不謹遵祂今天藉我吩咐你們的一切誡命和律例，祂必使以下的咒詛臨到你們，追隨你們。
16「無論你們在城裡還是鄉間，都必受咒詛。
17「你們的籃子和揉麵盆都必受咒詛。
18「婦女所生的，土地所產的，牛羊所生的都必受咒詛。
19「你們出入都必受咒詛。
20「因為你們作惡、背棄耶和華，祂要使你們凡事受咒詛、混亂不堪、飽受責罰，直到你們被毀滅，迅速滅亡。
21「耶和華要使瘟疫緊緊跟隨你們，直到你們在將要佔領的土地上被滅絕。
22「耶和華要使你們遭受癆病、熱症、炎症、炙熱、刀劍、乾旱和黴爛之災。這些要危害你們，直到你們滅亡。
23「耶和華要使你們頭頂的天如銅，腳下的地如鐵。
24「耶和華要使雨水變為塵土，降在你們身上，直到你們滅亡。
25「耶和華要使你們被敵人擊敗、潰不成軍、四散逃命，下場令天下萬國驚懼。 26你們的屍體要成為飛禽走獸的食物，必無人趕走牠們。
27「耶和華要使你們患埃及的膿瘡、腫瘤和癬疥，無藥可治。
28「耶和華要使你們發瘋、瞎眼、心智錯亂。
29「你們必在大白天摸索，就像盲人在黑暗中摸索一樣，你們的道路必不得亨通，你們要終日受人欺壓搶掠，無人搭救。
30「你們聘了妻子，別人必佔有她們；你們蓋了房屋，必不能住在裡面；你們栽種葡萄園，必吃不到園中的出產。
31「你們必看著自己的牛被宰殺卻吃不到肉，自己的驢被搶走後一去不還，自己的羊被敵人擄走卻無人搭救， 32自己的兒女被外族人擄走，你們終日望眼欲穿，卻無能為力。
33「與你們素不相識的民族必吃光你們土地的出產和勞碌所得，你們必常受欺壓， 34以致眼前的一切令你們發瘋。
35「耶和華要使你們從頭到腳長滿毒瘡，無藥可治。
36「耶和華要帶你們和你們立的王，到一個你們和你們祖先都不知道的國家，你們要在那裡供奉木石神像。
37「在耶和華驅逐你們去的列國，你們的下場令人驚駭，被人嘲笑和譏諷。
38「你們種的多，卻收的少，因為莊稼必被蝗蟲吃掉。
39「你們栽種、修剪葡萄園，卻吃不到葡萄，也喝不到葡萄酒，因為葡萄必被蟲子吃掉。
40「你們境內長滿橄欖樹，卻沒有橄欖油抹身，因為橄欖必未熟先落。
41「你們生兒育女，卻留不住一個，因為他們必被擄走。
42「蝗蟲要吃光你們的樹木和地上的出產。
43「你們中間的外族人要日益興旺，你們卻要日漸衰微。
44「他們要借貸給你們，你們卻不能借貸給他們。他們要做首，你們要做尾。
45「因為你們不聽從你們上帝耶和華的話，不遵守祂吩咐你們的誡命和律例，這些咒詛都必臨到你們、追趕你們，直到毀滅你們。 46這些咒詛要永遠作為你們和你們子孫的神蹟奇事。 47因為你們在富足時不心甘情願地事奉你們的上帝耶和華， 48所以你們必饑餓乾渴、赤身裸體、一無所有地侍奉耶和華派來攻擊你們的敵人。祂要把鐵軛加在你們的頸上，直到消滅你們。
49「耶和華要使一國從遙遠的地極興起，他們要如鷹飛來襲擊你們。你們不懂他們的語言。 50他們面目猙獰，不尊重年老的，也不憐憫年少的。 51他們要吃光你們的牛羊、五穀、新酒和油，直到消滅你們。 52在你們的上帝耶和華所賜給你們的整片土地上，他們要把你們圍困在各個城邑中，直到你們所依賴的高大堅固的城牆都倒塌。
53「當你們被敵人圍困、陷入絕境時，你們必吃自己的親生骨肉，就是你們的上帝耶和華賜給你們的兒女。 54-55你們被敵人圍困在各城中，陷入絕境時，連你們中間最溫柔體貼的男人也要獨自吞吃子女的肉，不肯分給自己的兄弟、愛妻和剩下的兒女，因為他別無所有。 56-57你們被敵人困在各城中，陷入絕境時，連你們中間最溫柔、嬌嫩得連腳也不肯踏在地上的婦女，都要偷偷吃掉自己生的嬰兒和胎胞，不肯分給所愛的丈夫和子女。
58「如果你們不謹遵這書上所寫的一切律法，不敬畏你們的上帝耶和華那榮耀、可畏的名， 59祂必使你們及子孫遭遇嚴重而長久的災難和疾病， 60使你們所懼怕的埃及人的一切疾病都降在你們身上，纏住你們， 61還使各種未記在這律法書上的疾病和災難降在你們身上，直到消滅你們。 62因為你們不聽從你們的上帝耶和華的話，即使你們的人數多如天上的星，也將所剩無幾。 63正如耶和華喜歡賜福你們，使你們人丁興旺，祂也同樣會不惜消滅你們，使你們在將要佔領的土地上被剷除。
64「耶和華要把你們分散到天下萬邦，你們要在那裡供奉祖祖輩輩素不認識的木石神像。 65你們在萬邦中將不得安寧，沒有落腳之地，耶和華必使你們膽戰心驚、目光呆滯、精神頹廢。 66你們必惴惴不安，晝夜恐懼，生死難料。 67你們必看見可怕之事，以致心中充滿恐懼，早上盼望天黑，晚上盼望天亮。 68耶和華必沿著我曾說你們再不會走的路線，用船把你們送回埃及。你們將在那裡賣身做敵人的僕婢，卻無人買。」
