Deuteronomy 28:16

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
You will be cursed in the cityand cursed in the country.

Hebrew Names Version
Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

King James Version
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

Lexham English Bible
"You shall be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field.

English Standard Version
Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

New Century Version
You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

New English Translation
You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field.

Amplified Bible
"You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field.

New American Standard Bible
"Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the country.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Cursed shalt thou bee in the towne, and cursed also in the fielde.

Legacy Standard Bible
"Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

Contemporary English Version
Your businesses and farms will fail.

Complete Jewish Bible
"A curse on you in the city, and a curse on you in the countryside.

Darby Translation
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

Easy-to-Read Version
"The Lord will curse you in the city and in the field.

George Lamsa Translation
Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

Good News Translation
"The Lord will curse your towns and your fields.

Literal Translation
You shall be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Cursed shalt thou be in the towne, and cursed in ye felde:

American Standard Version
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

Bible in Basic English
You will be cursed in the town and cursed in the field.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Cursed shalt thou be in the citie, and cursed in the fielde.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

King James Version (1611)
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

English Revised Version
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

Berean Standard Bible
You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thou schalt be cursid in citee, cursid in feeld.

Young's Literal Translation
`Cursed [art] thou in the city, and cursed [art] thou in the field.

Update Bible Version
Cursed you shall be in the city, and cursed you shall be in the field.

Webster's Bible Translation
Cursed [shalt] thou [be] in the city, and cursed [shalt] thou [be] in the field.

World English Bible
Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

New King James Version
"Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

New Living Translation
Your towns and your fields will be cursed.

New Life Bible
You will be cursed in the city, and in the country.

New Revised Standard
Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Cursed, shalt thou be in the city, - and cursed, shalt thou be in the field:

Douay-Rheims Bible
Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field.

Revised Standard Version
Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

Contextual Overview

¹⁵Here's what will happen if you don't obediently listen to the Voice of God , your God, and diligently keep all the commandments and guidelines that I'm commanding you today. All these curses will come down hard on you: God 's curse in the city, God 's curse in the country; God 's curse on your basket and bread bowl; God 's curse on your children, the crops of your land, the young of your livestock, the calves of your herds, the lambs of your flocks. God 's curse in your coming in, God 's curse in your going out. ²⁰ God will send The Curse, The Confusion, The Contrariness down on everything you try to do until you've been destroyed and there's nothing left of you—all because of your evil pursuits that led you to abandon me. ²¹ God will infect you with The Disease, wiping you right off the land that you're going in to possess. ²² God will set consumption and fever and rash and seizures and dehydration and blight and jaundice on you. They'll hunt you down until they kill you. ²³The sky over your head will become an iron roof, the ground under your feet, a slab of concrete. From out of the skies God will rain ash and dust down on you until you suffocate. ²⁵ God will defeat you by enemy attack. You'll come at your enemies on one road and run away on seven roads. All the kingdoms of Earth will see you as a horror. Carrion birds and animals will boldly feast on your dead body with no one to chase them away. ²⁷ God will hit you hard with the boils of Egypt, hemorrhoids, scabs, and an incurable itch. He'll make you go crazy and blind and senile. You'll grope around in the middle of the day like a blind person feeling his way through a lifetime of darkness; you'll never get to where you're going. Not a day will go by that you're not abused and robbed. And no one is going to help you. ³⁰You'll get engaged to a woman and another man will take her for his mistress; you'll build a house and never live in it; you'll plant a garden and never eat so much as a carrot; you'll watch your ox get butchered and not get a single steak from it; your donkey will be stolen from in front of you and you'll never see it again; your sheep will be sent off to your enemies and no one will lift a hand to help you. ³²Your sons and daughters will be shipped off to foreigners; you'll wear your eyes out looking vainly for them, helpless to do a thing. Your crops and everything you work for will be eaten and used by foreigners; you'll spend the rest of your lives abused and knocked around. What you see will drive you crazy. ³⁵ God will hit you with painful boils on your knees and legs and no healing or relief from head to foot.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

in the city: Deuteronomy 28:3-14, Proverbs 3:33, Isaiah 24:6-12, Isaiah 43:28, Jeremiah 9:11, Jeremiah 26:6, Jeremiah 44:22, Lamentations 1:1, Lamentations 2:11-22, Lamentations 4:1-13, Malachi 2:2, Malachi 4:6

in the field: Deuteronomy 28:55, Genesis 3:17, Genesis 3:18, Genesis 4:11, Genesis 4:12, Genesis 5:29, Genesis 8:21, Genesis 8:22, 1 Kings 17:1, 1 Kings 17:5, 1 Kings 17:12, Jeremiah 14:2-5, Jeremiah 14:18, Lamentations 5:10, Joel 1:4, Joel 1:8-18, Joel 2:3, Amos 4:6-9, Haggai 1:9-11, Haggai 2:16, Haggai 2:17, Malachi 3:9-12

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 27:15 - Cursed be Deuteronomy 28:18 - thy land Job 24:18 - their portion Matthew 25:41 - ye cursed

Cross-References

Exodus 3:5
God said, "Don't come any closer. Remove your sandals from your feet. You're standing on holy ground."

Joshua 5:15
God 's army commander ordered Joshua, "Take your sandals off your feet. The place you are standing is holy." Joshua did it.

Psalms 68:35
A terrible beauty, O God, streams from your sanctuary. It's Israel's strong God! He gives power and might to his people! O you, his people—bless God!

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Cursed [shalt] thou [be] in the city, and cursed [shalt] thou [be] in the field. In Deuteronomy 28:16 the curses are delivered out in form, as the reverse of the blessings in Deuteronomy 28:3; and by observing what the blessings mean, the sense of the curses may easily be understood, the one being directly opposite to the other.

Deuteronomy 28:3- :.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The curses correspond in form and number Deuteronomy 28:15-19 to the blessings Deuteronomy 28:3-6, and the special modes in which these threats should be executed are described in five groups of denunciations Deuteronomy 28:20-68.

Deuteronomy 28:20-26

First series of judgments. The curse of God should rest on all they did, and should issue in manifold forms of disease, in famine, and in defeat in war.

Deuteronomy 28:20

Vexation - Rather, confusion: the word in the original is used Deuteronomy 7:23; 1 Samuel 14:20 for the panic and disorder with which the curse of God smites His foes.

Deuteronomy 28:22

“Blasting” denotes (compare Genesis 41:23) the result of the scorching east wind; “mildew” that of an untimely blight falling on the green ear, withering it and marring its produce.

Deuteronomy 28:24

When the heat is very great the atmosphere in Palestine is often filled with dust and sand; the wind is a burning sirocco, and the air comparable to the glowing heat at the mouth of a furnace.

Deuteronomy 28:25

Shalt be removed - See the margin. The threat differs from that in Leviticus 26:33, which refers to a dispersion of the people among the pagan. Here it is meant that they should be tossed to and fro at the will of others, driven from one country to another without any certain settlement.

Deuteronomy 28:27-37

Second series of judgments on the body, mind, and outward circumstances of the sinners.

Deuteronomy 28:27

The “botch” (rather “boil;” see Exodus 9:9), the “emerods” or tumors 1Sa 5:6, 1 Samuel 5:9, the “scab” and “itch” represent the various forms of the loathsome skin diseases which are common in Syria and Egypt.

Deuteronomy 28:28

Mental maladies shah be added to those sore bodily plagues, and should Deuteronomy 28:29-34 reduce the sufferers to powerlessness before their enemies and oppressors.

Blindness - Most probably mental blindness; compare Lamentations 4:14; Zep 1:17; 2 Corinthians 3:14 ff.

Deuteronomy 28:30-33

See the marginal references for the fulfillment of these judgments.

Deuteronomy 28:38-48

Third series of judgments, affecting every kind of labor and enterprise until it had accomplished the total ruin of the nation, and its subjection to its enemies.

Deuteronomy 28:39

Worms - i. e. the vine-weevil. Naturalists prescribed elaborate precautions against its ravages.

Deuteronomy 28:40

Cast ... - Some prefer “shall be spoiled” or “plundered.”

Deuteronomy 28:43, Deuteronomy 28:44

Contrast Deuteronomy 28:12 and Deuteronomy 28:13.

Deuteronomy 28:46

Forever - Yet “the remnant” Romans 9:27; Romans 11:5 would by faith and obedience become a holy seed.

Deuteronomy 28:49-58

Fourth series of judgments, descriptive of the calamities and horrors which should ensue when Israel should be subjugated by its foreign foes.

Deuteronomy 28:49

The description (compare the marginal references) applies undoubtedly to the Chaldeans, and in a degree to other nations also whom God raised up as ministers of vengeance upon apostate Israel (e. g. the Medes). But it only needs to read this part of the denunciation, and to compare it with the narrative of Josephus, to see that its full and exact accomplishment took place in the wars of Vespasian and Titus against the Jews, as indeed the Jews themselves generally admit.

The eagle - The Roman ensign; compare Matthew 24:28; and consult throughout this passage the marginal references.

Deuteronomy 28:54

Evil - i. e. grudging; compare Deuteronomy 15:9.

Deuteronomy 28:57

Young one - The “afterbirth” (see the margin). The Hebrew text in fact suggests an extremity of horror which the King James Version fails to exhibit. Compare 2 Kings 6:29.

Deuteronomy 28:58-68

Fifth series of judgments. The uprooting of Israel from the promised land, and its dispersion among other nations. Examine the marginal references.

Deuteronomy 28:58

In this book - i. e. in the book of the Law, or the Pentateuch in so far as it contains commands of God to Israel. Deuteronomy is included, but not exclusively intended. So Deuteronomy 28:61; compare Deuteronomy 27:3 and note, Deuteronomy 31:9.

Deuteronomy 28:66

Thy life shall hang in doubt before thee - i. e. shall be hanging as it were on a thread, and that before thine own eyes. The fathers regard this passage as suggesting in a secondary or mystical sense Christ hanging on the cross, as the life of the Jews who would not believe in Him.

Deuteronomy 28:68

This is the climax. As the Exodus from Egypt was as it were the birth of the nation into its covenant relationship with God, so the return to the house of bondage is in like manner the death of it. The mode of conveyance, “in ships,” is added to heighten the contrast. They crossed the sea from Egypt with a high hand. the waves being parted before them. They should go back again cooped up in slaveships.

There ye shall be sold - Rather, “there shall ye offer yourselves, or be offered for sale.” This denunciation was literally fulfilled on more than one occasion: most signally when many thousand Jews were sold into slavery and sent into Egypt by Titus; but also under Hadrian, when numbers were sold at Rachel’s grave Genesis 35:19.

No man shall buy you - i. e. no one shall venture even to employ you as slaves, regarding you as accursed of God, and to be shunned in everything.