28:29. And mayst thou grope at midday as the blind is wont to grope in the dark, and not make straight thy ways. And mayst thou at all times suffer wrong, and be oppressed with violence, and mayst thou have no one to deliver thee.
28:30. Mayst thou take a wife, and another sleep with her. Mayst thou build a house, and not dwell therein. Mayest thou plant a vineyard and not gather the vintage thereof.
28:31. May thy ox be slain before thee, and thou not eat thereof. May thy a.s.s be taken away in thy sight, and not restored to thee. May thy sheep be given to thy enemies, and may there be none to help thee.
28:32. May thy sons and thy daughters be given to another people, thy eyes looking on, and languishing at the sight of them all the day, and may there be no strength in thy hand.
28:33. May a people which thou knowest not, eat the fruits of thy land, and all thy labours: and mayst thou always suffer oppression, and be crushed at all times.
28:34. And be astonished at the terror of those things which thy eyes shall see:
28:35. May the Lord strike thee with a very sore ulcer in the knees and in the legs, and be thou incurable from the sole of the foot to the top of the head.
28:36. The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king, whom thou shalt have appointed over thee, into a nation which thou and thy fathers know not: and there thou shalt serve strange G.o.ds, wood and stone.
28:37. And thou shalt be lost, as a proverb and a byword to all people, among whom the Lord shall bring thee in.
28:38. Thou shalt cast much seed into the ground, and gather little: because the locusts shall consume all.
28:39. Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and dig it, and shalt not drink the wine, nor gather any thing thereof: because it shall be wasted with worms.
28:40. Thou shalt have olive trees in all thy borders, and shalt not be anointed with the oil: for the olives shall fall off and perish.
28:41. Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, and shalt not enjoy them: because they shall be led into captivity.
28:42. The blast shall consume all the trees and the fruits of thy ground.
28:43. The stranger that liveth with thee in the land, shall rise up over thee, and shall be higher: and thou shalt go down, and be lower.
28:44. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be as the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
28:45. And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue and overtake thee, till thou perish: because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy G.o.d, and didst not keep his commandments and ceremonies which he commanded thee.
28:46. And they shall be as signs and wonders on thee, and on thy seed for ever.
28:47. Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy G.o.d with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things:
28:48. Thou shalt serve thy enemy, whom the Lord will send upon thee, in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put an iron yoke upon thy neck, till he consume thee.
28:49. The Lord will bring upon thee a nation from afar, and from the uttermost ends of the earth, like an eagle that flyeth swiftly, whose tongue thou canst not understand,
28:50. A most insolent nation, that will shew no regard to the ancients, nor have pity on the infant,
28:51. And will devour the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruits of thy land: until thou be destroyed, and will leave thee no wheat, nor wine, nor oil, nor herds of oxen, nor flocks of sheep: until he destroy thee.
28:52. And consume thee in all thy cities, and thy strong and high wall be brought down, wherein thou trustedst in all thy land. Thou shalt be besieged within thy gates in all thy land which the Lord thy G.o.d will give thee:
28:53. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy G.o.d shall give thee, in the distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee.
28:54. The man that is nice among you, and very delicate, shall envy his own brother, and his wife, that lieth in his bosom,
28:55. So that he will not give them of the flesh of his children, which he shall eat: because he hath nothing else in the siege and the want, wherewith thy enemies shall distress thee within all thy gates.
28:56. The tender and delicate woman, that could not go upon the ground, nor set down her foot for over much niceness and tenderness, will envy her husband who lieth in her bosom, the flesh of her son, and of her daughter,
28:57. And the filth of the afterbirths, that come forth from between her thighs, and the children that are born the same hour. For they shall eat them secretly for the want of all things, in the siege and distress, wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee within thy gates.
28:58. If thou wilt not keep, and fulfil all the words of this law, that are written in this volume, and fear his glorious and terrible name: that is, The Lord thy G.o.d:
28:59. The Lord shall increase thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed, plagues great and lasting, infirmities grievous and perpetual.
28:60. And he shall bring back on thee all the afflictions of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of, and they shall stick fast to thee.
28:61. Moreover the Lord will bring upon thee all the diseases, and plagues, that are not written in the volume of this law till he consume thee:
28:62. And you shall remain few in number, who before were as the stars of heaven for mult.i.tude, because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy G.o.d.
28:63. And as the Lord rejoiced upon you before doing good to you, and multiplying you: so he shall rejoice destroying and bringing you to nought, so that you shall be taken away from the land which thou shalt go in to possess.
28:64. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the farthest parts of the earth to the ends thereof: and there thou shalt serve strange G.o.ds, which both thou art ignorant of and thy fathers, wood and stone.
28:65. Neither shalt thou be quiet, even in those nations, nor shall there be any rest for the sole of thy foot. For the Lord will give thee a fearful heart, and languishing eyes, and a soul consumed with pensiveness:
28:66. And thy life shall be as it were hanging before thee. Thou shalt fear night and day, neither shalt thou trust thy life.
28:67. In the morning thou shalt say: Who will grant me evening? and at evening: Who will grant me morning? for the fearfulness of thy heart, wherewith thou shalt be terrified, and for those things which thou shalt see with thy eyes.
28:68. The Lord shall bring thee again with ships into Egypt, by the way whereof he said to thee that thou shouldst see it no more. There shalt thou be set to sale to thy enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.
Deuteronomy Chapter 29
The covenant is solemnly confirmed between G.o.d and his people. Threats against those that shall break it.
29:1. These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab: beside that covenant which he made with them in h.o.r.eb.
29:2. And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: You have seen all the things that the Lord did before you in the land of Egypt to Pharao, and to all his servants, and to his whole land.
29:3. The great temptations, which thy eyes have seen, those mighty signs and wonders,
29:4. And the Lord hath not given you a heart to understand, and eyes to see, and ears that may hear, unto this present day.
Hath not given you, etc... Through your own fault and because you resisted his grace.
29:5. He hath brought you forty years through the desert: your garments are not worn out, neither are the shoes of your feet consumed with age.
29:6. You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink: that you might know that I am the Lord your G.o.d.
29:7. And you came to this place: and Sehon king of Hesebon, and Og king of Basan, came out against us to fight. And we slew them.