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Wednesday, August 27th, 2025
the Week of Proper 16 / Ordinary 21
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Read the Bible

Douay-Rheims Bible

Deuteronomy 28:16

Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Backsliders;   Disobedience to God;   Fear of God;   Holy Spirit;   Idolatry;   Judgments;   Obedience;   Reprobacy;   Wicked (People);   Thompson Chain Reference - Curse, Divine;   Divine;   God;   The Topic Concordance - Curses;   Destruction;   Disobedience;   Forsaking;   Perishing;   Pestilence;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Obedience to God;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Gerizim;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Farming;   Nature;   Water;   Weather;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Amos, Theology of;   Blessing;   Command, Commandment;   Curse, Accursed;   Disease;   Israel;   Jeremiah, Theology of;   Obedience;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Faithfulness of God;   Jews;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Field;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Sadducees;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Blessing and Cursing;   Covenant;   Field;   Kings, 1 and 2;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Crimes and Punishments;   Deuteronomy;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Agriculture;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Plagues of egypt;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Captivity;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Peculiarities of the Law of Moses;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Basket;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Tokaḥah;  

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:
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

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. 16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field. 17 Cursed shall be thy barn, and cursed thy stores. 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. 19 Cursed shalt thou be coming in, and cursed going out. 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. 21 May the Lord set the pestilence upon thee, until he consume thee out of the land, which thou shalt go in to possess. 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. 23 Be the heaven, that is over thee, of brass: and the ground thou treadest on, of iron. 24 The Lord give thee dust for rain upon thy land, and let ashes come down from heaven upon thee, till thou be consumed.

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

Genesis 28:4
And give the blessings of Abraham to thee, and to thy seed after thee: that thou mayst possess the land of thy sojournment, which he promised to thy grandfather.
Genesis 28:7
And that Jacob obeying his parents, was gone into Syria:
Exodus 3:5
And he said: Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet; for the place, whereon thou standest, is holy ground.
Exodus 15:11
Who is like to thee, among the strong, O Lord? who is like to thee, glorious in holiness, terrible and praise-worthy, doing wonders?
Joshua 5:15
And the Prince of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, Acts 10:25, 26; Rev. 19:10), and still further in the command, 'Loose thy shoe from off thy foot'" (KJV) (Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown, A Commentary). The New Bible Commentary supports this position (as do J.P. Lange, The Cambridge Bible, Charles Ellicott, and many others) when it says, "We believe that this was the Son of God Himself."">[fn] oose your shoes from off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. Exod. 3:5.">[fn]
Job 9:11
If he come to me, I shall not see him: if he depart, I shall not understand.
Job 33:14
God speaketh once, and repeateth not the selfsame thing the second time.
Psalms 68:35
(67-36) God is wonderful in his saints: the God of Israel is he who will give power and strength to his people. Blessed be God.
Isaiah 8:13
Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself: and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

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.


 
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