1 And it will be, if you truly listen to the voice of the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Commander} to keep and to do all His commandments {mitzvotav: divine directives} which I am commanding you today, then the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
2 And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you listen {tishma: obedient response} to the voice of the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Blessing-Giving Sovereign}.
3 Blessed are you in the city {ir: urban settlement} and blessed are you in the field {sadeh: rural expanse}.
4 Blessed will be the fruit {peri: product of a source} of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock; the offspring {shegar: newborn cattle} of your cattle, and the young of your flock.
5 Blessed will be your basket {tan': container for gathering produce} and your kneading trough {mish'eret: bowl for preparing dough}.
6 You will be blessed {barukh: divinely favored} when you come in, and you will be blessed when you go out {betsetekha: every departure}.
7 The LORD {YHWH, Victory Giver} will deliver your enemies—those who rise up against you—struck down {niggāfîm: actively defeated} before you. They will come against you by one way but will flee before you by seven ways.
8 The LORD {YHWH, Blessing Commander} will command the blessing {berakhah: abundant favor} to be with you in your storehouses and in all that you undertake with your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Provider} is giving to you.
9 The LORD {YHWH, Covenant Upholder} will establish you as a holy {kadosh: set apart} people, just as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.
10 And all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Seal} is called upon you, and they will fear {yare’u: reverential dread} you.
11 And the LORD {YHWH, Blessing Giver} will cause you to abound for good {letovah: lasting benefit} in the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, on the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.
12 The LORD {YHWH, Covenant Provider} will open for you His good storehouse {otzar: treasury}, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but you will not borrow.
13 And the LORD {YHWH, Exalter of Israel} will make you the head and not the tail, and you will be exclusively above {lema’lah: exalted position} and not beneath, because you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today to keep and to do.
14 And you shall not turn aside {tasur: deliberate deviation} from all the words {hadevarim: divine instructions} that I command you today, neither to the right nor to the left, to go after other gods and serve them.
15 And it shall be, if you do not listen to the voice of the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Enforcer}, to keep and to do all his commandments and his statutes which I am commanding you today {hayom: this very day}, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
16 Cursed {arur: under a curse} are you in the city, and cursed are you in the field {sadeh: cultivated land}.
17 Cursed will be your basket {tan’akha: vessel for gathering} and your kneading-trough {mish’artekha: dough-mixing bowl}.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb {bitnecha: Source of Life}, and the produce of your land {admatecha: Cultivated Ground}, the offspring of your cattle, and the young of your flock.
19 Cursed are you in your coming {bo: entrance}, and cursed are you in your going out {tset: exit}.
20 The LORD {YHWH, Covenant Judge} will send against you the curse {me'erah: utter ban}, the confusion and the rebuke in every undertaking of your hand that you do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken Me.
21 The LORD {YHWH, Covenant Enforcer} will cause the plague {daver: devastating disease} to cling to you until He has finished you off from upon the land you are entering to possess.
22 The LORD {YHWH, Covenant Enforcer} will strike you with wasting disease {shachefet: debilitating consumption}, fever, inflammation, burning, sword, blight, and mildew. They will pursue you until you are destroyed.
23 Your heavens {shamayim: sky-dome} that are over your head will become bronze, and the earth {eretz: cultivated soil} beneath you will become iron.
24 The LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge} will give the rain of your land as dust {avak: fine particles} and powder; from the heavens it will come down upon you until you are destroyed.
25 The LORD {YHWH, Supreme Judge} will deliver you as one struck down {nigaf: utterly defeated} before your enemies; you will go out against them by one way but flee before them by seven ways. You will become a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 And your carcass {nivlatkha: lifeless remains} will become food for all the birds of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to drive them away {maharid: cause to drive off}.
27 The LORD {YHWH, Just Judge} will strike you with the Egyptian boils {bishchin: painful inflammation}, and with tumors, and with hemorrhoids, and with scab, and with itch, which you will not be able to be healed.
28 The LORD {YHWH, Covenant Judge} will strike you with madness {shiggaon: derangement}, and with blindness, and with confusion of heart.
29 And you will be groping at noon as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not succeed in your ways {derakhim: life paths}; and you will be only oppressed and robbed all your days, and there will be no rescuer {moshia: one who delivers}.
30 You will betroth {te’ares: formal marriage pledge} a woman, but another man will lie with her. You will build a house, but you will not dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not begin to use it {tekhallelenhu: use its produce}.
31 Your ox will be slaughtered {tavuach: violently killed} before your eyes, and you will not eat from it. Your donkey will be stolen from before you and will not return to you. Your flock will be handed over to your enemies, and there will be no one to rescue you {moshia: deliverer or savior}.
32 Your sons and your daughters will be given {netunim: passive delivery} to another people, and your eyes will watch and grow weary for them all day long, but you will have no strength {el: capacity to act} in your hand.
33 The fruit of your land and all your labor will be eaten by a people you do not know, and you will be only oppressed {ashuq: violently oppressed} and crushed {ratsuts: broken down} all your days.
34 And you will become crazed {meshugga: driven to madness} from the sight {mimmarae: visible spectacle} your eyes see.
35 The LORD {YHWH, Covenant Enforcer} will strike you with a boil {shechin: severe inflammation} upon your knees and upon your legs, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
36 The LORD {YHWH, Supreme Judge} will cause you and your king whom you appoint over yourself to be led to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known; and there you will serve other gods {elohim: false deities}, gods of wood and stone.
37 And you will become a horror, a byword {mashal: proverbial insult} and a taunt among all the peoples to which the LORD {YHWH, Disciplining Judge} will drive you.
38 You will bring out abundant seed in the field, but you will gather {asaf: collect produce} only a little, because the locust {arbeh: destructive swarm} will consume it.
39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink the wine {yayin: fermented grape beverage} and you will not gather the grapes, because the worm {tola‘at: destructive larva} will consume them.
40 Olive trees will be for you in all your territory, but oil you shall not anoint {tasukh: ritual consecration} because your olive will drop off {yishal: fall prematurely}.
41 You will have sons and daughters, but {ve-lo: emphatic negation} they will not remain with you, because they will go into exile {ba-she-vi: forced exile}.
42 All your trees {ets: orchard trees} and the fruit of your land will be taken over by the cricket {tselatsal: devouring insect}.
43 The sojourner {ger: non-native resident} among you will ascend above you, higher and higher, but you will descend {tērêd: go down}, lower and lower.
44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head {rosh: leader, chief}, but you will be the tail {zanav: subordinate, follower}.
45 All these curses will come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God {YHWH Elohekha, Covenant Enforcer} to keep His commandments {mitzvotav: binding requirements} and His statutes which He commanded you.
46 And they will be upon you for a sign {ot: symbolic marker} and for a wonder, and upon your descendants {zera: lineage} forever.
47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheikha, Covenant Master} with joy and with gladness of heart {levav: whole inner being} from the abundance of all things.
48 And you will serve your enemies whom the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Judge} will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness {erom: utter exposure}, and in the lack of all things; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He destroys you.
49 The LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge} will bring against you a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, as the eagle {nesher: swift raptor} swoops down, a nation whose language you will not understand.
50 A fierce-faced nation {az panim: hard and ruthless appearance} that will not show favor {yisa panim: grant respect} to the old and will show no compassion to the young.