Blessings for Obedience

1 “And ^qif you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you ^rhigh above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and ^sovertake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and ^tblessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be ^uthe fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your ^vkneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be ^wwhen you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

7 “The Lord ^xwill cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 The Lord ^ywill command the blessing on you in your barns and ^zin all that you undertake. ^aAnd he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 9 ^bThe Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. 10 And ^call the peoples of the earth shall see that you are ^dcalled by the name of the Lord, and they shall be ^eafraid of you. 11 And ^fthe Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in ^uthe fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, ^gto give the rain to your land in its season and ^hto bless all the work of your hands. And ⁱyou shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make you ^jthe head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, 14 ^kand if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

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.”

The Lord Reigns

Paul and Silas in Thessalonica

1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to ^gThessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, ^has was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them ⁱfrom the Scriptures, 3 ^jexplaining and proving that it was necessary for ^kthe Christ to suffer and ^lto rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And ^msome of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did ⁿa great many of the devout ^oGreeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 ^pBut the Jews^{1 q}were jealous, and taking ^rsome wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, ^sthey dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against ^tthe decrees of Caesar, saying that there is ^uanother king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

Paul and Silas in Berea

10 ^vThe brothers² immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they ^wwent into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, ^xexamining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 ^yMany of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek ^zwomen of high standing as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, ^aagitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then the brothers ^bimmediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and ^cTimothy remained there. 15 ^dThose who conducted Paul brought him as far as ^eAthens, and after receiving a command ^ffor Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

Paul in Athens

16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was ^gprovoked within him as he saw that the city was ^hfull of idols. 17 So ⁱhe reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, ^j“What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because ^khe was preaching ^lJesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to ^mthe Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this ⁿnew teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some ^ostrange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

Paul Addresses the Areopagus

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ^p‘To the unknown god.’ ^pWhat therefore you worship ^qas unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 ^rThe God who made the world and everything in it, being ^sLord of heaven and earth, ^tdoes not live in temples made by man,³ 25 nor is he served by human hands, ^uas though he needed anything, since he himself ^vgives to all mankind ^wlife and breath and everything. 26 And ^xhe made from one man every nation of mankind to live ^yon all the face of the earth, ^zhaving determined allotted periods and ^athe boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 ^bthat they should seek God, ^cand perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. ^dYet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for

as even some of ^fyour own poets have said,

29 ^gBeing then God’s offspring, ^hwe ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 ⁱThe times of ignorance ^jGod overlooked, but ^know he ^lcommands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed ^ma day on which ⁿhe will judge the world ^oin righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and ^pof this he has given assurance to all ^qby raising him from the dead.”

32 Now when they heard of ^rthe resurrection of the dead, ^ssome mocked. But others said, ^t“We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius ^uthe Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.