blessings and curses

¹“So then, if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, so as to keep and do all of his commandments, which I instruct to you this day, the Lord your God will cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which exist upon the earth. ²And all these blessings shall come to you and take hold of you, but only if you listen to his precepts. ³Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed in the field. ⁴Blessed shall be the fruit of your loins, and the fruit of your land, and the fruit of your cattle, the droves of your herds, and the folds of your sheep. ⁵Blessed shall be your barns, and blessed your storehouses. ⁶Blessed shall you be entering and departing.

¹⁹I call heaven and earth as witnesses this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your offspring may live,

⁸But if anyone has no concern for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith, and he is worse than an unbeliever.

⁵Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is a man who trusts in man, and who establishes what is flesh as his right arm, and whose heart withdraws from the Lord. ⁶For he will be like a saltcedar tree in the desert. And he will not perceive it, when what is good has arrived. Instead, he will live in dryness, in a desert, in a land of salt, which is uninhabitable. ⁷Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, for the Lord will be his confidence. ⁸And he will be like a tree planted beside waters, which sends out its roots to moist soil. And it will not fear when the heat arrives. And its leaves will be green. And in the time of drought, it will not be anxious, nor will it cease at any time to bear fruit.

¹⁰From the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so!

¹⁰For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it has been written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things that have been written in the book of the Law, so as to do them.”

¹⁹Do not defend yourselves, dearest ones. Instead, step aside from wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is mine. I shall give retribution, says the Lord.”

¹And the Lord spoke all these words: ²“I am the Lord your God, who led you away from the land of Egypt, out of the house of servitude. ³You shall not have strange gods before me. ⁴You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor a likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on earth below, nor of those things which are in the waters under the earth. ⁵You shall not adore them, nor shall you worship them. I am the Lord your God: strong, zealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶and showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my precepts.

¹³So may the God of hope fill you with every joy and with peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope and in the virtue of the Holy Spirit.

¹⁰Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, and let there be food in my house. And test me about this, says the Lord, as to whether I will not open to you the floodgates of heaven, and pour out to you a blessing, all the way to abundance.

⁴⁷Because you did not serve the Lord your God, with gladness and a joyful heart, over the abundance of all things. ⁴⁸You will serve your enemy, whom the Lord will send to you, in hunger and thirst and nakedness, and in destitution of all things. And he will place an iron yoke upon your neck, until he has crushed you.

²⁴‘May the Lord bless you and keep you. ²⁵May the Lord reveal his face to you and take pity on you. ²⁶May the Lord turn his countenance toward you and grant peace to you.’

⁴For he is a minister of God for you unto good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid. For it is not without reason that he carries a sword. For he is a minister of God; an avenger to execute wrath upon whomever does evil.

¹⁴And your offspring will be like the dust of the earth. You will spread abroad to the West, and to the East, and to the North, and to the Meridian. And in you and in your offspring, all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed.

¹I am the Lord your God. You shall not make for yourselves an idol or a graven image. Neither shall you erect a monument, or set up a conspicuous stone in your land, in order that you may adore it. For I am the Lord your God. ²Observe my Sabbaths, and be fearful toward my Sanctuary. I am the Lord. ³If you will walk in my precepts, and observe my commandments, and accomplish them, I will give to you rain in its time, ⁴and the ground shall bring forth its seedlings, and the trees shall be filled again with fruit. ⁵The threshing of the harvest shall last until the vintage, and the vintage shall overtake the sowing. And you shall eat your bread to fullness, and you shall live in your land without fear. ⁶I will give peace to your most distant regions. You will sleep, and there will be no one to strike you with terror. I will take away harmful wild beasts, and the sword will not cross your borders.

²Our God is our refuge and strength, a helper in the tribulations that have greatly overwhelmed us.