Deuteronomy 28:46

New Century Version

The curses will be signs and miracles to you and your descendants forever.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
These curses will be a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants forever.

Hebrew Names Version
and they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever.

King James Version
And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

Lexham English Bible
And they shall be among you as a sign and as a wonder and among your offspring forever.

English Standard Version
They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever.

New English Translation
These curses will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants.

Amplified Bible
"They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.

New American Standard Bible
"And they will become a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants forever.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And they shalbe vpon thee for signes & wonders, and vpon thy seede for euer,

Legacy Standard Bible
And they shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your seed forever.

Contemporary English Version
Then everyone will look at you and your descendants and realize that the Lord has placed you under a curse.

Complete Jewish Bible
These curses will be on you and your descendants as a sign and a wonder forever.

Darby Translation
And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

Easy-to-Read Version
These curses will show people that God judged you and your descendants forever. People will be amazed at the terrible things that happen to you.

George Lamsa Translation
And they shall be upon you for signs and wonders, and upon your descendants for ever.

Good News Translation
They will be the evidence of God's judgment on you and your descendants forever.

Literal Translation
And they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Therfore shal there be tokens and wonders vpon the, & vpon thy sede for euer,

American Standard Version
and they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

Bible in Basic English
These things will come on you and on your seed, to be a sign and a wonder for ever;

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And they shalbe vpon thee for signes and wonders, & vpon thy seede for euer.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever;

King James Version (1611)
And they shall be vpon thee for a signe, and for a wonder, and vpon thy seed for euer:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And these things shall be signs in thee, and wonders among thy seed for ever;

English Revised Version
and they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever:

Berean Standard Bible
These curses will be a sign and a wonder upon you and your descendants forever.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And signes, and grete wondris schulen be in thee, and in thi seed, til in to withouten ende;

Young's Literal Translation
and they have been on thee for a sign and for a wonder, also on thy seed -- to the age.

Update Bible Version
and they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever.

Webster's Bible Translation
And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

World English Bible
and they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever.

New King James Version
And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.

New Living Translation
These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever.

New Life Bible
They will be something special to see, and a powerful work upon you and your children forever.

New Revised Standard
They shall be among you and your descendants as a sign and a portent forever.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and they shall be upon thee, for a sign, and for a wonder, and upon thy seed, unto times age-abiding.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And they shall be as signs and wonders on thee, and on thy seed for ever.

Revised Standard Version
They shall be upon you as a sign and a wonder, and upon your descendants for ever.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"They shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever.

Contextual Overview

⁴⁵ All these curses will come upon you. They will chase you and catch you and destroy you, because you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commands and laws he gave you. ⁴⁶ The curses will be signs and miracles to you and your descendants forever. ⁴⁷ You had plenty of everything, but you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a pure heart, ⁴⁸ so you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. You will be hungry, thirsty, naked, and poor, and the Lord will put a load on you until he has destroyed you. ⁴⁹ The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the world, and it will swoop down like an eagle. You won't understand their language, ⁵⁰ and they will look mean. They will not respect old people or feel sorry for the young. ⁵¹ They will eat the calves from your herds and the harvest of your field, and you will be destroyed. They will not leave you any grain, new wine or oil, or any calves from your herds or lambs from your flocks. You will be ruined. ⁵² That nation will surround and attack all your cities. You trust in your high, strong walls, but they will fall down. That nation will surround all your cities everywhere in the land the Lord your God is giving you. ⁵³ Your enemy will surround you. Those people will make you starve so that you will eat your own babies, the bodies of the sons and daughters the Lord your God gave you. ⁵⁴ Even the most gentle and kind man among you will become cruel to his brother, his wife whom he loves, and his children who are still alive.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a sign: Deuteronomy 28:37, Deuteronomy 28:59, Deuteronomy 29:20, Deuteronomy 29:28, Isaiah 8:18, Jeremiah 19:8, Jeremiah 25:18, Ezekiel 14:8, Ezekiel 23:32, Ezekiel 23:33, Ezekiel 36:20, 1 Corinthians 10:11

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder,.... That is, those curses before pronounced, Deuteronomy 27:15, and what follow, should rest and remain upon them, continue with them, and be very visible on them; so as to be observed by others, as a sign of the wrath and displeasure of God, and of the fulfilment of prophecy, and of the truth of divine revelation: and so "for a wonder": as it is most astonishing to observe how exactly all the curses threatened them have fallen upon them and have abode with them, as they did in their former captivities, and more especially do in the present one: and, what is the greater wonder, that notwithstanding these dreadful calamities, and so long continued, enough to have crushed any people from being a people, yet they have continued, and still do continue, a distinct people; which is a standing miracle, and one would think sufficient to convince the most hardened and obstinate deist of the truth and authority of the sacred Scriptures; in which stand so many glaring prophecies that have been fulfilled, and are continually fulfilling in this people:

and upon thy seed for ever; this shows that these curses, said to be upon them, not only refer to those that came upon them at and in the Babylonish captivity, but to those that came upon them at their destruction by the Romans, and which have continued on them nineteen hundred years; and how much longer they will continue none can say: it will be their case, until new heavens and a new earth are created, or there will be a new state of things, at least with them; when they shall be converted to the Lord, and all Israel saved; see

Isaiah 65:17; and it may be observed, that the ten tribes carried captive never returned.

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.