The Blessings of Obedience
(Leviticus 25:18–22)

1“So then, if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, so as to keep and do all of his commandments, which I instruct to you this day, the Lord your God will cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which exist upon the earth. 2And all these blessings shall come to you and take hold of you, but only if you listen to his precepts.

3Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed in the field.

4Blessed shall be the fruit of your loins, and the fruit of your land, and the fruit of your cattle, the droves of your herds, and the folds of your sheep.

5Blessed shall be your barns, and blessed your storehouses.

6Blessed shall you be entering and departing.

7The Lord will grant that your enemies, who rise up against you, will fall down in your sight. They will come against you by one way, and they will flee from your face by seven ways. 8The Lord will send forth a blessing upon your cellars, and upon all the works of your hands. And he will bless you in the land that you shall receive. 9The Lord will raise you up as a holy people for himself, just as he swore to you, if you will keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in his ways. 10And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord has been invoked over you, and they shall fear you. 11The Lord will cause you be abundant in every good thing: in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your land, which the Lord swore to your fathers that he would give to you. 12The Lord will open his excellent treasury, the heavens, so that it may distribute rain in due time. And he will bless all the works of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you yourself will borrow nothing from anyone. 13And the Lord will appoint you as the head, and not as the tail. And you shall be always above, and not beneath. But only if you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I entrust to you this day, and will keep and do them, 14and will not turn aside from them, neither to the right, nor to the left, nor follow strange gods, nor worship them.

The Curses of Disobedience
(Leviticus 20:1–9; Leviticus 26:14–39)

15But if you are not willing to listen to the voice of the Lord your God, so as to keep and do all his commandments and ceremonies, which I instruct to you this day, all these curses shall come to you, and take hold of you.

16Cursed shall you be in the city, cursed in the field.

17Cursed shall be your barn, and cursed your storehouses.

18Cursed shall be the fruit of your loins, and the fruit of your land, the herds of your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep.

19Cursed shall you be entering, and cursed departing.

20The Lord will send famine and hunger upon you, and a rebuke upon all the works that you do, until he quickly crushes and perishes you, because of your very wicked innovations, by which you have forsaken me. 21May the Lord join a pestilence to you, until he consumes you from the land, which you shall enter so as to possess. 22May the Lord strike you with destitution, with fever and cold, with burning and heat, and with polluted air and rot, and may he pursue you until you perish. 23May the heavens which are above you be of brass, and may the ground upon which you tread be of iron. 24May the Lord give you dust instead of rain upon your land, and may ashes descend from heaven over you, until you have been wiped away.

25May the Lord hand you over to fall before your enemies. May you go forth against them by one way, and flee by seven ways, and may you be scattered across all the kingdoms of the earth. 26And may your carcass be food for all the flying things of the air and the wild beasts of the land, and may there be no one to drive them away.

27May the Lord strike you with the ulcer of Egypt, and may he strike the part of your body, through which the dung goes out, with disease as well as itch, so much so that you are unable to be cured. 28May the Lord strike you with frenzy and blindness and a madness of the mind. 29And may you grope at midday, just as a blind man is accustomed to grope in darkness, and may your paths not be straight. And at all times may you suffer slander and be oppressed with violence, and may you have no one who may free you. 30May you take a wife, though another sleeps with her. May you build a house, but not live within it. May you plant a vineyard, and not gather its vintage. 31May your ox be immolated before you, though you do not eat from it. May your donkey be seized in your sight, and not restored to you. May your sheep be given to your enemies, and may there be no one who may help you. 32May your sons and your daughters be handed over to another people, as your eyes watch and languish at the sight of them throughout the day, and may there be no strength in your hand. 33May a people you do not know eat the fruits of your land and of all your labors. And may you continually suffer from slander and oppression every day. 34And may you be stupefied at the terror of the things your eyes will see. 35May the Lord strike you with a very grievous ulcer in the knees and in the legs, and may you be unable to attain health, from the sole of the foot to the top of the head. 36May the Lord lead you and your king, whom you will have appointed over yourself, into a nation which you and your fathers have not known. And there you will serve foreign gods, of wood and of stone. 37And you will become nothing but a proverb and a fable to all the peoples to whom the Lord will lead you.

38You will sow much seed upon the ground, but you will harvest little. For the locusts will devour everything. 39You will dig and plant a vineyard, but you will not drink the wine, nor gather anything at all from it. For it will be devastated by worms. 40You will have olive trees in all your borders, but you will not be anointed with the oil. For the olives will fall off and perish. 41You will conceive sons and daughters, and you will not enjoy them. For they will be led into captivity. 42Rot will consume all the trees, as well as the fruits of your land. 43The new arrival who lives with you in the land will ascend over you, and be higher. But you will descend, and be lower. 44He will lend to you, and you will not lend to him. He will be as the head, and you will be as the tail.

45And all these curses shall come to you, and shall pursue you, and shall take hold of you, until you pass away, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and you would not serve his commandments and ceremonies, which he has instructed to you. 46And there will be the signs and portents with you, and with your offspring, forever.

47Because you did not serve the Lord your God, with gladness and a joyful heart, over the abundance of all things. 48You will serve your enemy, whom the Lord will send to you, in hunger and thirst and nakedness, and in destitution of all things. And he will place an iron yoke upon your neck, until he has crushed you.

49The Lord will lead over you a nation from far away, even from the furthest parts of the earth, like an eagle flying with great force, whose language you are not able to understand: 50a very insolent nation, which will show no deference to elders, nor take pity on little ones. 51And he will devour the fruit of your cattle, and the fruits of your land, until you have passed away, without leaving behind you wheat, or wine, or oil, or herds of oxen, or flocks of sheep: until he utterly destroys you. 52And he will crush you in all your cities. And your strong and lofty walls, in which you trusted, will be destroyed throughout all your land. You will be besieged within your gates throughout all your land, which the Lord your God will give to you. 53And you will eat the fruit of your womb, and the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, which the Lord your God will give to you, due to the anguish and devastation with which your enemy will oppress you. 54The man who is pampered and very self-indulgent among you will vie with his own brother, and with the wife who lies at his bosom, 55lest he give to them from the flesh of his sons, which he will eat. For he has nothing else due to the siege and the destitution, with which your enemies will devastate you within all your gates. 56The tender and pampered woman, who would not walk upon the soil, nor step firmly with her foot due to her very great softness and tenderness, will vie with her husband, who lies at her bosom, over the flesh of son and of daughter, 57and over the filth of the afterbirth, which goes forth from between her thighs, and over the children who are born in the same hour. For they will eat them secretly, due to the scarcity of all things during the siege and the devastation, with which your enemy will oppress you within your gates.

58If you will not keep and do all the words of this law, which have been written in this volume, and fear his glorious and terrible name, that is, the Lord your God, 59then the Lord will increase your plagues, and the plagues of your offspring, plagues great and long-lasting, infirmities very grievous and continuous. 60And he will turn back upon you all the afflictions of Egypt, which you fear, and these will cling to you. 61In addition, the Lord will lead over you all the diseases and plagues that are not written in the volume of this law, until he crushes you. 62And you will remain few in number, though you were before like the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God. 63And just as before, when the Lord rejoiced over you, doing good for you and multiplying you, so shall he rejoice, scattering and overturning you, so as to take you away from the land, which you shall enter in order to possess. 64The Lord will disperse you among all the peoples, from the heights of the earth to its furthest limits. And there you will serve foreign gods of wood and of stone, which you and your fathers did not know. 65Similarly, you will not have tranquility, even within those nations, nor will there be any rest for the steps of your feet. For the Lord will give to you in that place a fearful heart, and failing eyes, and a life consumed with grieving. 66And your life will be as if it were hanging before you. You will be afraid night and day, and you will not have confidence in your own life. 67In the morning you will say, ‘Who will grant evening to me?’ and at evening, ‘Who will grant morning to me?’ because of the dread of your heart, with which you will be terrified, and because of those things that you will see with your eyes. 68The Lord will lead you back into Egypt with a fleet of ships, along the way, about which he said to you that you would not see it again. In that place, you will be put up for sale as men and women servants to your enemies, but there will be no one willing to buy you.”