Curses for Disobedience
15 “But lif you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and movertake you. 16 Cursed shall you be nin the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 “The Lord owill send on you curses, confusion, and pfrustration in all that you undertake to do, quntil you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. 21 The Lord will make rthe pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 22 sThe Lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought1 and with tblight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And uthe heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. 24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 v“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 wshall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 And xyour dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and ythere shall be no one to frighten them away. 27 The Lord will strike you zwith the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and ascabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will strike you with bmadness and blindness and confusion of mind, 29 and you shall cgrope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways.2 And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. 30 dYou shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. eYou shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. fYou shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. 32 gYour sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, hbut you shall be helpless. 33 A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, 34 so that you are driven mad iby the sights that your eyes see. 35 The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs jwith grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
36 “The Lord will kbring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you lnor your fathers have known. And mthere you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. 37 And you shall become na horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away. 38 oYou shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for pthe locust shall consume it. 39 qYou shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you rshall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for sthey shall go into captivity. 42 pThe cricket3 shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground. 43 tThe sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 uHe shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. tHe shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45 v“All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. 46 They shall be wa sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. 47 xBecause you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he ywill put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. 49 zThe Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, aswooping down like the eagle, a nation bwhose language you do not understand, 50 a hard-faced nation cwho shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. 51 It shall deat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
52 “They shall ebesiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you. 53 And fyou shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, gin the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. 54 The man who is the most tender and refined among you will hbegrudge food to his brother, to ithe wife he embraces,4 and to the last of the children whom he has left, 55 so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, jin the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. 56 kThe most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces,5 to her son and to her daughter, 57 her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, jin the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns.
58 “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, lthe Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. 60 And he will bring upon you again all mthe diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61 Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you, until you are destroyed. 62 Whereas nyou were as numerous oas the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God. 63 And as the Lord ptook delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will qtake delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.
64 “And the Lord rwill scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and sthere you shall serve other gods tof wood and stone, uwhich neither you nor your fathers have known. 65 And vamong these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but wthe Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and xa languishing soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. 67 yIn the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the dread that your heart shall feel, and zthe sights that your eyes shall see. 68 And the Lord awill bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that byou should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”
Joshua Commissioned to Lead Israel
14 And the Lord said to Moses, b“Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that cI may commission him.” And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. 15 And dthe Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud. And the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance of the tent.
16 And the Lord said to Moses, b“Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and ewhore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will fforsake me and gbreak my covenant that I have made with them. 17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and hI will forsake them and ihide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, j‘Have not these evils come upon us because kour God is not among us?’ 18 And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because lthey have turned to other gods.
19 “Now therefore write mthis song and nteach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be oa witness for me against the people of Israel. 20 For when I have brought them into the land pflowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and qgrown fat, rthey will turn to other gods and serve them, and sdespise me and gbreak my covenant. 21 And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as ta witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For uI know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” 22 So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel.
23 vAnd the Lord1 commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, w“Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. xI will be with you.”
24 When Moses had finished ywriting the words of this law in a book to the very end, 25 Moses commanded zthe Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, 26 “Take this Book of the Law aand put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for ba witness against you. 27 For I know how rebellious and cstubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, dyou have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death! 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak ethese words in their ears and fcall heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death gyou will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And hin the days to come ievil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, jprovoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”
The Song of Moses
30 Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel:
1 “Give ear, kO heavens, and I will speak,
and let lthe earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 May mmy teaching drop as the rain,
my speech distill as the dew,
like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
and nlike showers upon the herb.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
ascribe ogreatness to our God!
4 p“The Rock, qhis work is perfect,
for rall his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and swithout iniquity,
just and upright is he.
5 They have dealt corruptly with him;
they are no longer his children tbecause they are blemished;
they are ua crooked and twisted generation.
6 Do you thus repay the Lord,
you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he vyour father, who wcreated you,
who xmade you and established you?
7 yRemember the days of old;
consider the years of many generations;
zask your father, and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High agave to the nations their inheritance,
when he bdivided mankind,
he fixed the borders2 of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.3
9 But the Lord’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
10 “He found him cin a desert land,
and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he dencircled him, he cared for him,
he ekept him as the apple of his eye.
11 fLike an eagle that stirs up its nest,
that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
bearing them on its pinions,
12 gthe Lord alone guided him,
hno foreign god was with him.
13 iHe made him ride on the high places of the land,
and he ate the produce of the field,
and he suckled him with jhoney out of the rock,
and koil out of lthe flinty rock.
14 Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,
with fat4 of lambs,
rams of Bashan and goats,
with the very finest5 of the wheat—
and you drank foaming wine made from mthe blood of the grape.
15 “But nJeshurun grew fat, and okicked;
pyou grew fat, stout, and sleek;
qthen he forsook God rwho made him
and scoffed at sthe Rock of his salvation.
16 tThey stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;
with abominations they provoked him to anger.
17 uThey sacrificed to demons that were not God,
to gods they had never known,
to vnew gods that had come recently,
whom your fathers had never dreaded.
18 You were unmindful of wthe Rock that bore6 you,
and you xforgot the God who gave you birth.
19 y“The Lord saw it and spurned them,
because of the provocation of zhis sons and his daughters.
20 And he said, a‘I will hide my face from them;
I will see what their end will be,
for they are a perverse generation,
children in whom is no faithfulness.
21 bThey have made me jealous with what is no god;
they have provoked me to anger cwith their idols.
So dI will make them jealous with those who are no people;
I will provoke them to anger with ea foolish nation.
22 For fa fire is kindled by my anger,
and it burns to gthe depths of Sheol,
devours the earth and its increase,
and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 “‘And I will heap disasters upon them;
hI will spend my arrows on them;
24 they shall be wasted with hunger,
and devoured by plague
and poisonous pestilence;
I will send ithe teeth of beasts against them,
with the venom of jthings that crawl in the dust.
25 kOutdoors the sword shall bereave,
and indoors terror,
for young man and woman alike,
the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
26 lI would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;
mI will wipe them from human memory,”
27 had I not feared provocation by the enemy,
lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
lest they should say, n“Our hand is triumphant,
it was not the Lord who did all this.”’
28 “For they are a nation void of counsel,
and there is ono understanding in them.
29 pIf they were wise, they would understand this;
they would qdiscern their latter end!
30 How could rone have chased a thousand,
and two have put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock shad sold them,
and the Lord had given them up?
31 For ttheir rock is not as our Rock;
uour enemies are by themselves.
32 For their vine vcomes from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah;
their grapes are grapes of wpoison;
their clusters are bitter;
33 their wine is the poison of xserpents
and the cruel venom of asps.
34 “‘Is not this laid up in store with me,
ysealed up in my treasuries?
35 zVengeance is mine, and recompense,7
afor the time when their foot shall slip;
for bthe day of their calamity is at hand,
and their doom comes swiftly.’
36 For cthe Lord will vindicate8 his people
dand have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone
and there is none remaining, ebond or free.
37 Then he will say, f‘Where are their gods,
gthe rock in which they took refuge,
38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise up and help you;
let them be your protection!
39 “‘See now that hI, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
iI kill and I make alive;
jI wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
40 For kI lift up my hand to heaven
and swear, As I live forever,
41 if I lsharpen my flashing sword9
and my hand takes hold on judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
and will repay those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and mmy sword shall devour flesh—
with the blood of the slain and the captives,
from the nlong-haired heads of the enemy.’
43 o“Rejoice with him, O heavens;10
bow down to him, all gods,11
for he pavenges the blood of his children12
and takes vengeance on his adversaries.
He repays those who hate him13
