What condition governs the promised blessings, and what failure brings the threatened curses?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The blessings depend on hearing the Lord’s voice and keeping and doing all his commands without turning aside or following strange gods. The curses are threatened if Israel will not hear and keep his commandments and ceremonies. The chapter presents promises and warnings, not a report that these outcomes have happened.

Chapter breakdown

If Israel hears the Lord’s voice and does and keeps every command given that day, he will make it higher than all earth’s nations. The blessings will come and overtake it, provided it hears his precepts: blessing in city and field, the fruit of the womb and ground, cattle, herds and sheepfolds, barns and stores, and coming in and going out. Challoner’s separate note says God promised earthly blessings to law-keepers in the Old Testament because heaven was not yet open and a gross and sensual people was more moved by present, tangible things. It says New Testament promised goods are spiritual and eternal, and earthly evils are turned into blessings.

The Lord will cause rising enemies to fall before Israel: they come one way and flee seven. He will bless storehouses, all work of its hands, and the received land. He will raise Israel as his holy people as sworn, if it keeps his commands and walks in his ways; earth’s peoples will see his name invoked on it and fear it. He will give abundance in children, cattle, and the land sworn to the fathers. He will open heaven, his excellent treasure, for rain in season and bless all work. Israel will lend to many nations and borrow from none. He will make it the head rather than tail, always above rather than beneath, provided it hears, keeps, and does his commands, turns neither right nor left, and neither follows nor worships strange gods.

If Israel will not hear the Lord’s voice to keep and do all his commandments and ceremonies given that day, the curses will come and overtake it. Challoner’s separate note says this is how God dealt with Old Testament lawbreakers, but now he often lets sinners prosper in this world, rewarding some small good they have done and reserving punishment for the other world. The curses name city and field, barn and stores, womb and ground, ox herds and sheep flocks, and coming in and going out. The Lord will send famine, hunger, and rebuke on all work until quick destruction for the wicked inventions by which Israel forsook him. The warnings call for pestilence until removal from the future land, miserable want, fever, cold, burning, heat, corrupted air, and blasting until death. Heaven is to be brass and ground iron, with dust as rain and ashes falling from heaven until Israel is consumed.

The warnings call for Israel to fall before enemies, going out one way and fleeing seven, scattered throughout earth’s kingdoms. Its carcass will feed birds and beasts with no one driving them off. The Lord is called on to strike it with Egypt’s ulcer, affliction of the part of the body that expels dung, scab and itch without healing, and madness, blindness, and fury of mind. Israel will grope at midday like the blind in darkness, fail to make its ways straight, suffer wrong and violent oppression continually, and have no deliverer. Another man will sleep with its wife; its built house will not be inhabited by it, nor its planted vineyard harvested. Its ox will be killed before it without its eating, its donkey taken in its sight and not restored, and its sheep given to enemies without help. Sons and daughters will be given to another people as its eyes watch and languish all day, with no strength in its hand. An unknown people will consume land fruits and labor, leaving continual oppression and crushing. Israel will be stunned by the terror it sees. A very sore ulcer of knees and legs will be incurable from foot to head.

The Lord will bring Israel and its appointed king to a nation unknown to it and its fathers, where it will serve strange gods of wood and stone and be lost as a proverb and byword among the peoples. Much seed will yield little because locusts consume it; planted, dug vineyards will give neither wine nor harvest because worms waste them. Olives throughout its borders will fall and perish, leaving no oil for anointing. Children will be born but not enjoyed because they are led captive. Blasting will consume trees and ground fruits. The resident stranger will rise higher as Israel falls lower, lending to it while it cannot lend to him, becoming head while Israel is tail. All the curses will pursue and overtake Israel until it perishes because it did not hear the Lord or keep his commandments and ceremonies. They will be signs and wonders on it and its descendants forever.

Because Israel did not serve the Lord with joy and gladness for the abundance of everything, it will serve the enemy he sends in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and total want, with an iron yoke on its neck until consumed. The Lord will bring a nation from the farthest ends of earth, swift as a flying eagle, with an incomprehensible language. It will be insolent, disregard elders, and pity no infant. It will devour cattle and land fruits, leaving no wheat, wine, oil, ox herds, or sheep flocks until destruction. All cities will be besieged, their trusted high, strong walls brought down throughout the given land. In that extreme distress Israel will eat its own children’s flesh. The refined, delicate man will envy his brother and wife and refuse them any of his children’s flesh because nothing else remains in the siege within all the gates. The tender, delicate woman who could not put her foot on the ground will envy her husband, the flesh of her son and daughter, the afterbirth from between her thighs, and children born that same hour. They will eat these secretly for lack of all things under the enemy’s siege and distress within the gates.

If Israel will not keep and fulfill all the law written in this volume and fear the Lord’s glorious and terrible name, he will increase its and its descendants’ great, lasting plagues and grievous, perpetual illnesses. Egypt’s feared afflictions will return and cling; even diseases and plagues not written in this law will come until destruction. The people once numerous as heaven’s stars will remain few because they did not hear his voice. As he rejoiced in doing good and multiplying them, he will rejoice in destroying and reducing them to nothing, removing them from the land they were to possess. He will scatter them among all peoples from earth’s farthest parts to its ends, where they will serve unfamiliar gods of wood and stone, unknown also to their fathers. Even there they will have no quiet or rest for the foot. The Lord will give a fearful heart, languishing eyes, and a soul consumed by troubled thoughts. Life will hang before them, with fear night and day and no trust in life. In morning they will wish for evening, and in evening for morning, because of heart’s fear and what their eyes see. The Lord will bring them back by ships to Egypt along the way he said they would see no more. They will be put up for sale to their enemies as bondmen and bondwomen, and no one will buy them.

The story inside

Several threatened curses reverse named blessings. City and field, barns and stores, womb and land, livestock, and coming and going appear in both lists. Enemies first come one way and flee seven; the warning reverses this to Israel going one way and fleeing seven. Lending without borrowing gives way to the resident stranger lending while Israel cannot lend to him; head and tail are reversed. The chapter repeatedly gives failure to hear and keep the commands as the reason, and adds failure to serve with joy amid abundance. Its two actual Challoner notes distinguish earthly Old Testament promises from New Testament goods and explain how present prosperity of sinners can accompany punishment reserved for the other world. The siege and scattering passages remain threatened consequences, without added claims about particular later sieges or fulfilled history.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The blessing conditions remain explicit. Hearing, keeping, doing, walking in the Lord’s ways, and avoiding strange gods accompany the promises. The later curses repeat failure to hear and keep as their reason.
2
The warnings preserve concrete reversals. One-way/seven-way flight, lending and borrowing, and head and tail change places. The chapter also names specific crop losses, bodily afflictions, family losses, siege horrors, and scattering.
3
Challoner’s notes must be read separately and fully. One contrasts earthly blessings with spiritual and eternal goods; the other says sinners may now prosper for some small good while punishment is reserved for the other world. Neither supplies the draft’s added claim about inward judgments or historical siege fulfillment.

Test your recall

Why does the chapter say all these curses will pursue and overtake Israel until it perishes?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 21417–21444
Deuteronomy Chapter 28 Many blessings are promised to observers of God’s commandments: and curses threatened to transgressors. 28:1. Now if thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to do and keep all his commandments, which I command thee this day, the Lord thy God will make thee higher than all the nations that are on the earth. 28:2. And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee: yet so if thou hear his precepts. All these blessings, etc.... In the Old Testament, God promised temporal blessings to the keepers of his law, heaven not being opened as yet; and that gross and sensual people being more moved with present and sensible things. But in the New Testament the goods that are promised us are spiritual and eternal; and temporal evils are turned into blessings. 28:3. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed in the field. 28:4. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the droves of thy herds, and the folds of thy sheep. 28:5. Blessed shall be thy barns and blessed thy stores. 28:6. Blessed shalt thou be coming in and going out.
Lines 21446–21476
28:7. The Lord shall cause thy enemies, that rise up against thee, to fall down before thy face: one way shall they come out against thee, and seven ways shall they flee before thee. 28:8. The Lord will send forth a blessing upon thy storehouses, and upon all the works of thy hands: and will bless thee in the land that thou shalt receive. 28:9. The Lord will raise thee up to be a holy people to himself, as he swore to thee: if thou keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. 28:10. And all the people of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord is invocated upon thee, and they shall fear thee. 28:11. The Lord will make thee abound with all goods, with the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy cattle, with the fruit of thy land, which the Lord swore to thy fathers that he would give thee. 28:12. The Lord will open his excellent treasure, the heaven, that it may give rain in due season: and he will bless all the works of thy hands. And thou shalt lend to many nations, and shalt not borrow of any one. 28:13. And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail: and thou shalt be always above, and not beneath: yet so if thou wilt hear the commandments of the Lord thy God which I command thee this day, and keep and do them, 28:14. And turn not away from them neither to the right hand, nor to the left, nor follow strange gods, nor worship them.
Lines 21478–21512
28:15. But if thou wilt not hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep and to do all his commandments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day, all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. All these curses, etc.... Thus God dealt with the transgressors of his law in the Old Testament: but now he often suffers sinners to prosper in this world, rewarding them for some little good they have done, and reserving their punishment for the other world. 28:16. Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field. 28:17. Cursed shall be thy barn, and cursed thy stores. 28:18. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, the herds of thy oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep. 28:19. Cursed shalt thou be coming in, and cursed going out. 28:20. The Lord shall send upon thee famine and hunger, and a rebuke upon all the works which thou shalt do: until he consume and destroy thee quickly, for thy most wicked inventions, by which thou hast forsaken me. 28:21. May the Lord set the pestilence upon thee, until he consume thee out of the land, which thou shalt go in to possess. 28:22. May the Lord afflict thee with miserable want, with the fever and with cold, with burning and with heat, and with corrupted air and with blasting, and pursue thee till thou perish. 28:23. Be the heaven, that is over thee, of brass: and the ground thou treadest on, of iron. 28:24. The Lord give thee dust for rain upon thy land, and let ashes come down from heaven upon thee, till thou be consumed.
Lines 21514–21554
28:25. The Lord make thee to fall down before thy enemies, one way mayst thou go out against them, and flee seven ways, and be scattered throughout all the kingdoms of the earth. 28:26. And be thy carcass meat for all the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, and be there none to drive them away. 28:27. The Lord strike thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and the part of thy body, by which the dung is cast out, with the scab and with the itch: so that thou canst not be healed. 28:28. The Lord strike thee with madness and blindness and fury of mind. 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 ass 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.
Lines 21556–21591
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 gods, 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 God, 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.
Lines 21593–21635
28:47. Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God 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 God 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 God 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.
Lines 21637–21683
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 God: 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 multitude, because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God. 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 gods, 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.