Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Deuteronomy
Chapter 28: Blessing and Curse
This is the great chapter of blessing and curse. If Israel obeyed, blessing would overtake them in the city and the field, coming in and going out, making them the head and not the tail. If they disobeyed, the very same areas of life would turn to curse, ending in a scattering among the nations foretold centuries before it happened. Woven in is a piercing reason for the judgment: not only that they disobeyed, but that they 'servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness.' It is a chapter about the two roads set before us, and the Christ who bore the curse so the blessing might come.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Deuteronomy chapter 28. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. The chapter sets out the blessings of obedience, the curses of disobedience, and the scattering that followed, with the sobering note that judgment came because they served God without joy. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
The Head, Not the Tail
Obedience would bring blessing on all of life, setting Israel high above the nations.
The Curse That Overtakes
Disobedience would turn the same blessings to curses that pursued and overtook them.
Served Without Joy
A striking reason for judgment: they did not serve the LORD with joyfulness and gladness.
Scattered Among Nations
The curse ended in a scattering among all peoples, foretold long before it came.
The Blessings of Obedience (Deuteronomy 28:1-14)
If Israel would diligently obey God's voice, blessing would overtake every part of their life, in the city and the field, coming in and going out.
Blessed Coming In and Going Out
"And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee. And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them."
Hebrew Study
"blessed," barukh (בָּרוּךְ). Blessed, endowed with favor and good. The word is piled up again and again in these verses, covering every sphere: the body, the ground, the herds, the basket and the store, the coming in and the going out. It pictures a life surrounded on every side by the favor of God.
Explanation
If Israel would "hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD," God promised that "all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee." The list is sweeping: blessed in the city and the field, blessed in children, crops, and herds, blessed in the basket and the kneading trough, blessed "when thou comest in" and "when thou goest out." Their enemies would flee before them, their labor would prosper, and "the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail." Obedience would set them "on high above all nations of the earth," a people plainly favored by God.
Gospel Focus
Notice a beautiful phrase: the blessings would "overtake" them. Blessing here is not something Israel had to chase down, but something that would pursue and catch up with an obedient people. When we walk in step with God, His goodness follows hard after us; as the psalmist said, "goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." The blessings cover the whole of ordinary life, city and field, work and family, coming in and going out, showing that God cares about every corner of our days, not only our religious hours. Under the new covenant we are not promised freedom from all hardship, for our deepest blessings are spiritual and eternal, "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." Yet the principle abides: the path of glad obedience is the path of God's favor. Walk with God, and His goodness will overtake you, blessing the whole of your life as you keep in step with Him.
The Curses of Disobedience (Deuteronomy 28:15-46)
If Israel would not obey, the very same spheres of blessing would turn to curse, pursuing and overtaking them until they were brought low.
These Curses Shall Overtake Thee
"But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away. The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee. Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof. Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand. The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway: So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head. The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee. Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit. Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity. All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume. The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever."
Hebrew Study
The long catalog of curses is the deliberate mirror-image of the blessings: every good promised for obedience is reversed for rebellion — "cursed in the city... cursed in the field," in basket and store, coming in and going out. The relentless repetition is meant to sober: covenant privilege carries covenant responsibility, and to spurn the God who redeemed them is to unravel every good He gave. The blessings and curses together set life and death plainly before the nation's eyes.
Explanation
The chapter now turns, and the curses mirror the blessings point for point. If Israel would not obey, "all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee." Cursed in the city and the field, cursed in the basket and the store, cursed in body and crops and herds, the very areas that would have flourished now blighted. Disease, drought, defeat, madness, oppression, and ruin are named at length. What the obedient would enjoy, the disobedient would lose. The same word, "overtake," is used: as blessing pursues the obedient, so judgment pursues the disobedient. The longer half of the chapter is given to the curse, a solemn warning of how much was at stake.
Gospel Focus
The sheer length of the curses, far longer than the blessings, is itself a mercy: God warns plainly and at length so that no one could say they were not told. He does not hide the consequences of turning from Him; He spells them out, pleading through the very starkness of the warning. This is the same law of sowing and reaping that runs through Scripture: what we plant, we harvest. Sin does not stay contained; like the curse here, its consequences pursue and overtake. Yet the whole weight of this chapter drives us to the gospel. The curse of the broken law is real and heavy, and it rests on all who fail to keep it, but "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). He stepped between us and the overtaking curse and bore it in Himself. Read the curses soberly, let them show you the seriousness of turning from God, and then flee to the One who took the curse upon Himself so it need not overtake you.
Served Without Joy, and Scattered (Deuteronomy 28:47-68)
A piercing reason is given for the judgment, that they served God without joy, and the curse ends in a scattering among the nations foretold long before it happened.
Because Thou Servedst Not with Joyfulness
"Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young: And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave: So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD; Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee. Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God. And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you."
Hebrew Study
A startling indictment lies at the heart of the curses: judgment comes "because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things." It was not only disobedience but joyless service that provoked God — hearts that had everything yet worshiped without gladness. God desires not grudging duty but glad devotion. The passage then foretells siege, exile, and scattering "among all people" with chilling precision — a prophecy Israel's later history tragically confirmed.
Explanation
As the curses reach their height, describing siege, exile, and unimaginable suffering, God gives a heart-searching reason: "Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things." In the day of plenty, they had served God grudgingly, without gladness, if at all. The chapter ends with the darkest word of all: "the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other." Written centuries before it happened, this foretold the scattering of Israel among the nations, a sober proof that God's warnings come to pass. The blessings had been within reach; the curses came because the people turned away.
Gospel Focus
One phrase here should search every heart: judgment came "because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart." It was not only that they failed to serve, but that when they did, they did it without joy. God is not honored by grudging, joyless religion. To go through the motions of serving Him with a cold, complaining heart, especially in a time of abundance, is itself a serious thing. God wants glad worshippers, not reluctant ones, for "God loveth a cheerful giver," and joy in Him is both our duty and our delight. This warns us against a religion of duty without gladness, going to church, giving, and praying while the heart is far from joyful. And the whole chapter finds its resolution in Christ. He bore the curse "that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Galatians 3:14). By taking the curse, He opened the way for the blessing to reach us, and He came that we "might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). Serve the Lord with joy, and rest in the One who bore the curse so the blessing could be yours.
Chapter 28 in Review
Deuteronomy 28 sets before Israel two roads. Obedience would bring blessing that overtakes every part of life, in the city and the field, coming in and going out, making them the head and not the tail. Disobedience would turn the same spheres to curse, pursuing them until they were brought low and scattered among the nations, a scattering foretold long before it came. And a piercing reason is given: judgment fell because they "servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness."
For the Apostolic reader, this chapter is both warning and gospel. It shows the seriousness of turning from God, for what we sow we reap, and it searches us with the reminder that God wants glad, joyful service, not cold, grudging religion. But its curses drive us to Christ, who "was made a curse for us" and bore what we could not, so that "the blessing of Abraham might come" on us and we might have life more abundantly. Walk with God, serve Him with gladness of heart, and rest in the Saviour who took the curse so the blessing could overtake you.
- Blessing "overtakes" the obedient; God's goodness pursues those who walk with Him (28:2, 28:6).
- Disobedience turns the same spheres to curse, which likewise overtakes (28:15).
- Judgment came "because thou servedst not the LORD... with joyfulness" (28:47).
- The scattering was foretold centuries before it happened (28:64).
- Christ bore the curse so "the blessing of Abraham" might come and we have life abundantly (Galatians 3:13-14; John 10:10).
Questions for Reflection
- Do you serve the Lord with joyfulness and gladness, or grudgingly and by mere duty?
- Do you take God's warnings seriously, knowing what we sow we reap?
- Have you rested in the Christ who bore the curse so the blessing could overtake you?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The blessings of obedience: Deuteronomy 28:1-14.
- The curses of disobedience; Christ bore the curse: Deuteronomy 28:15-46; Galatians 3:13.
- Joyless service and the scattering; the blessing through Christ: Deuteronomy 28:47-68; Galatians 3:14; John 10:10.