Deuteronomy 28
BSASBMoses sets two roads before Israel as they stand on the edge of the promised land. Obedience to the LORD leads to blessing in every part of life. Turning away from Him leads to curses that grow darker and darker, ending in siege, exile, and despair. The chapter shows how seriously God takes His covenant and how much His people stand to lose when they forsake Him.
Deuteronomy 28:1
Moses begins with a promise. If Israel truly listens to the LORD and does what He says, He will lift them above every nation. The blessing rests on a relationship of hearing and doing, not on Israel’s own greatness.
BSA: obey (“diligently hearken unto”): Obedience here means careful, steady listening that turns into action, not a one-time effort.
Hebrew: שָׁמוֹעַ (shamoa, H8085) — “hearing, listening.” The Hebrew word for obey is simply ‘hear.’ Doubling it (‘hearing, you will hear’) stresses listening that takes the words to heart and acts on them.
See also: Leviticus 26:3-4.
Deuteronomy 28:2
The blessings are pictured as a pursuer that chases God’s people down. They do not have to strain to reach them. The condition is repeated: they come to those who listen to the LORD’s voice.
BSA: overtake (“reach, catch up to”): God’s blessings are pictured as running after His people until they catch them.
Hebrew: וְהִשִּׂיגֻךָ (vehissigukha, H5381) — “and will overtake you.” This is the language of a chase. Blessings come running after the obedient, as later in the chapter the curses will chase the disobedient.
Deuteronomy 28:3-6
Blessing reaches every corner of life: town and field, children, crops, herds, the kitchen, and daily comings and goings. Nothing is left out. Home, work, and travel all lie under the LORD’s favor.
BSA: blessed (“receive divine favor, prosper”): To be blessed is to live under God’s favor, with good flowing from Him into ordinary life.
Deuteronomy 28:7
The LORD fights for His people. An enemy who attacks in an organized way will scatter in panic. Israel’s safety comes from God’s hand, not from its own armies.
BSA: seven (“many, abundant”): Seven stands for completeness, so the enemy’s defeat will be total and scattered in every direction.
Deuteronomy 28:8
God speaks, and blessing is commanded onto the barns and onto all the work of Israel’s hands. Their labor still matters, but it prospers because God has spoken over it in the land He gave.
BSA: decree (“command, give orders”): The LORD gives blessing by His word of command, as a king orders it to happen.
Deuteronomy 28:9-10
God promises to confirm Israel as His own holy people, as He swore to their fathers. When the nations see Israel carrying the LORD’s name and living differently, they will be struck with awe. Israel’s life is meant to be a witness.
BSA: holy (“set apart, sacred”): Holiness means belonging to God and being set apart for Him, not just being religious. name (“reputation, character”): To carry the LORD’s name is to carry His reputation in the eyes of the world.
Hebrew: קָדוֹשׁ (qadosh, H6918) — “holy, set apart.” The word means set apart for God’s own use. Israel’s holiness starts with belonging to Him before it shows in conduct.
See also: Exodus 19:5-6.
Deuteronomy 28:11
Prosperity is repeated here with the focus on children, livestock, and crops, all in the land promised to the fathers. It is a gift that comes from the LORD’s faithfulness to His oath.
BSA: swore (“made an oath, promised”): The land and its plenty rest on God’s sworn word, not on Israel’s merit.
Deuteronomy 28:12
God opens heaven like a full storehouse and sends rain on time. Rain was life in a land that depended on it. Israel will be so well supplied that it lends to others and never needs to borrow.
BSA: storehouse (“treasure house, a depository”): Heaven itself is pictured as God’s treasury, kept full for His people’s needs.
See also: Deuteronomy 15:6.
Deuteronomy 28:13
Israel is promised leadership and not servility, with a steady rise in standing before the nations. Once again this stands on the same condition: hearing and carefully keeping what the LORD commands.
BSA: head (“chief, leader”): The head leads and the tail follows. God offers Israel the place of honor among the nations.
Hebrew: רֹאשׁ (rosh, H7218) — “head.” Head and tail are a body picture. The head goes first, and the tail drags behind. The same picture is turned around in verse 44.
Deuteronomy 28:14
Moses closes the blessings with a warning. Stay on the road and do not drift to either side. The danger he names most sharply is going after other gods to serve them.
BSA: turn aside (“depart, stray”): Drifting off the path is how people end up far from God, one small step at a time.
Hebrew: תָסוּר (tasur, H5493) — “you shall turn aside.” It is the word for stepping off the road. The road is God’s way, and wandering from it can start small.
See also: Deuteronomy 5:32.
Deuteronomy 28:15
Now the other road. Disobedience brings curses that chase Israel down just as the blessings would have. The curses are the covenant’s own warnings, and they come after God has pleaded with His people to choose life.
BSA: curses (“punishments, judgments”): These are the covenant’s stated consequences for rejecting God, laid out ahead of time.
Hebrew: קְלָלוֹת (qelalot, H7045) — “curses.” The word comes from the idea of making light of something. Those who treat God lightly end up being treated as light, and hollow.
See also: Galatians 3:13.
Deuteronomy 28:16-19
The curses answer the blessings one by one, in the same places: city, field, children, harvest, kitchen, and every coming and going. The very things God would have blessed now lie under His judgment.
BSA: cursed (“to be under God’s judgment, to suffer”): To be cursed is to live under God’s judgment, with life’s good things turning against you.
Deuteronomy 28:20
Everything Israel touches will end in confusion and rebuke, until they are quickly ruined. Moses names the root cause plainly: abandoning the LORD. The disasters are the fruit of leaving Him.
BSA: forsaking (“abandoning, loosening”): To forsake God is to let go of Him, loosening the bond that held life together.
Hebrew: עֲזַבְתָּנִי (azavtani, H5800) — “you have forsaken me.” The word means to leave, abandon, or let go. Here it reads like a broken marriage vow, which fits the covenant tone.
Deuteronomy 28:21-22
Plague and a list of illnesses and crop diseases will cling to Israel and hound them. Sickness of body and failure of harvest were both common fears in the ancient world. Here they come as signs of broken covenant.
BSA: cling (“to cleave, stick to”): The same word describes a husband holding to his wife, but here plague will hold fast to the people.
Deuteronomy 28:23-24
The heavens turn hard as bronze and the ground as iron. Even the little rain that falls arrives as dust. The very rain God promised as a blessing in verse 12 is withheld.
BSA: bronze (“copper, a base metal”): The sky turns hard and metallic, shutting off any rain or help from above.
See also: Leviticus 26:19.
Deuteronomy 28:25-26
The promise of verse 7 is reversed. Israel will go out against enemies in order and flee in disorder. Their dead will lie unburied, a shame in the ancient world, and they will be a horror to onlookers.
BSA: seven (“many, numerous”): The scattering in many directions shows how complete the rout will be.
Deuteronomy 28:27-29
Moses lists sicknesses of body and mind: the boils of Egypt, incurable skin disease, madness, blindness, and confusion. People will fumble in the dark at noon. Their ways will fail, with no one to rescue them.
BSA: madness (“intense fury, craziness, or insanity”): Life under judgment unravels the mind itself, not only the body.
See also: Exodus 9:9-11.
Deuteronomy 28:30-34
Loss after loss: a fiancée taken, a house never lived in, a vineyard never tasted, animals seized, children carried away. Strangers eat the fruit of Israel’s labor. The pain peaks in helpless watching, with no power in the hand to stop it.
BSA: violate (“ravish, forcefully take”): Even the most personal and protected promise of life will be taken by force.
Deuteronomy 28:35
Another painful, incurable skin affliction spreads from head to toe. It leaves no part of the body untouched, just as the earlier curses reached every part of the land.
BSA: incurable (“ulcers, inflamed spots”): The boils are open sores that do not heal, wearing the body down.
Deuteronomy 28:36-37
Even the king Israel chooses will be carried to a foreign land, where they will serve idols of wood and stone. They will be mocked among the nations. Israel’s later exiles to Assyria and Babylon match this picture.
BSA: ridicule (“a taunt, a sharp word”): Their downfall becomes a proverb that other nations repeat as a taunt.
See also: 2 Kings 17:6-7.
Deuteronomy 28:38-42
Their work fails. Locusts eat the seed, worms eat the grapes, olives drop off the trees, and children go into captivity. They plant and labor but never enjoy the fruit. The promised provision is turned upside down.
BSA: captivity (“exile, bondage, as slaves”): The loss of children to slavery is the deepest loss in the list.
Deuteronomy 28:43-44
The order of society flips. The foreigner who lived among Israel rises, and Israel sinks. The lender becomes the borrower, and the head becomes the tail. It reverses the promise of verses 12-13.
BSA: foreigner (“sojourner, temporary resident”): The very person who was once a guest in Israel’s land now rules over it.
Deuteronomy 28:45-46
Moses restates the cause: they did not obey. The curses will pursue them and become a lasting sign to later generations. The sign points to the seriousness of God’s covenant, and to His justice.
BSA: sign (“miraculous token, beacon”): Israel’s fate becomes a standing warning to future generations and the nations.
Deuteronomy 28:47-48
The deeper fault was not first a list of rules broken but a joyless heart. They had abundance and did not serve the LORD gladly. So they would serve enemies, hungry and bare, under an iron yoke.
BSA: joy (“gladness, happiness”): God looks for gladness in service, not just duty done. yoke (“burden, weight”): An iron yoke is a heavy, unbending load of slavery on the neck.
Hebrew: בְּשִׂמְחָה (besimchah, H8057) — “with joy.” Joy is named as the heart of true service. God wants worship that wells up from a thankful heart.
See also: Psalm 100:2.
Deuteronomy 28:49-52
A fierce nation will come from far away, swift as an eagle and speaking a strange tongue. It will show no pity, strip the land, and besiege every city until the high walls fall. Israel’s trust in its walls will be broken.
BSA: eagle (“a large bird of prey”): The picture is of a hunting bird striking from the sky with speed and force.
Hebrew: נֶשֶׁר (nesher, H5404) — “eagle.” The word can also mean a vulture. Either way, the picture is of a swift bird of prey diving on its target.
See also: Jeremiah 5:15.
Deuteronomy 28:53-57
This is the darkest scene in the chapter. In the siege, starvation drives even the gentlest to the unthinkable, eating their own children. Love turns to grudging. Such scenes are recorded in later history, and they show how far sin can bring a people down.
BSA: begrudge (“be evil, have an evil eye”): The picture is of a person whose eye turns hard and jealous toward family under desperate hunger.
See also: 2 Kings 6:28-29; Lamentations 4:10.
Deuteronomy 28:58-59
Moses returns to the written law as the standard. The purpose of keeping it is to fear the glorious and awesome name of the LORD. If they do not, plagues will fall on them and their descendants, severe and lasting.
BSA: fear (“revere, stand in awe of”): This is awe before God’s greatness, not mere terror.
Hebrew: לְיִרְאָה (leyirah, H3372) — “to fear, to revere.” The word covers both holy awe and healthy dread. It is the basis for obedience throughout Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 28:60-61
The diseases Israel dreaded in Egypt will return and cling to them. Even sicknesses not named in this book may follow. Whatever form it takes, there is no corner of life that rebellion leaves safe.
BSA: dreaded (“feared, were afraid of”): The very things they once feared in Egypt return to haunt them.
Deuteronomy 28:62-63
Israel, once countless as the stars, will be reduced to few. The LORD took delight in blessing them, and now His justice will remove them from the land. The same God who gave the land can take its possession away.
BSA: few (“a small number, a remnant”): A remnant is what is left when most are gone, yet it still carries hope. pleased (“was the delight of”): God’s judgment is not cruel pleasure but a settled and righteous response to sin.
See also: Deuteronomy 10:22.
Deuteronomy 28:64
God will scatter them across the nations, and even there they will bow to gods of wood and stone. The thing they turned to in the land will follow them into exile as their master.
BSA: scatter (“disperse, shatter”): The nation is broken apart and flung across the earth.
See also: Leviticus 26:33.
Deuteronomy 28:65-67
Even in exile there is no rest. Their hearts tremble, their eyes fail, and their souls despair. They live in dread of dying, wishing the day away and then the night, haunted by what they see.
BSA: repose (“no resting place, no ease”): They find no settled place or peace for body or heart.
Hebrew: תְּלֻאִים (tela’im, H8511) — “hanging.” Life is pictured as hanging on a thread (verse 66). It is a vivid image of living with no certainty, always afraid it may snap.
Deuteronomy 28:68
The chapter ends with a bitter reversal. God had delivered Israel out of Egypt. Now they are returned there by ship, offering themselves as slaves, and no one will even buy them. It is the Exodus undone. Yet the covenant story does not end here.
BSA: Egypt (“a place of bondage and oppression”): The land God freed them from becomes the symbol of the slavery they return to by their own choice.
See also: Hosea 8:13.