Deuteronomy 28:15

Bible in Basic English (1941)

But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to do all his orders and his laws which I give you today, then all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְהָיָ֗ה אִם־לֹ֤א תִשְׁמַע֙ בְּקוֹל֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ לִשְׁמֹ֤ר לַעֲשׂוֹת֙ אֶת־כָּל־מִצְוֺתָ֣יו וְחֻקֹּתָ֔יו אֲשֶׁ֛ר אָנֹכִ֥י מְצַוְּךָ֖ הַיּ֑וֹם וּבָ֧אוּ עָלֶ֛יךָ כָּל־הַקְּלָל֥וֹת הָאֵ֖לֶּה וְהִשִּׂיגֽוּךָ׃

Transliteration

And hāyāh if-not tišmaʿ in qôl YHWH ʾĕlōhêkā to lišmōr to laʿăśôt ʾet-all-miṣwōtāyw and ḥuqqōtāyw which ʾānōkî mĕṣawwĕkā the hayyôm and they will bāʾû upon ʿālêkā all-the qĕlālôt the hāʾēlleh and they will hiśśîgûkā.

Grammar Details

• *hāyāh*: perfect, consecutive, Qal, 3rd masculine singular - and it will happen
• *tišmaʿ*: imperfect, Qal, 2nd masculine singular - you will listen/obey
• *qôl*: masculine singular construct - voice of
• *YHWH*: proper name - the LORD
• *ʾĕlōhêkā*: masculine plural construct with 2nd masculine singular suffix - your God
• *lišmōr*: infinitive construct - to keep
• *laʿăśôt*: infinitive construct - to do
• *ʾet*: direct object marker
• *miṣwōtāyw*: feminine plural noun with 3rd masculine singular suffix - his commandments
• *ḥuqqōtāyw*: feminine plural noun with 3rd masculine singular suffix - his statutes
• *ʾānōkî*: 1st person singular pronoun - I
• *mĕṣawwĕkā*: participle, Piel, masculine singular with 2nd masculine singular suffix - commanding you
• *hayyôm*: definite article + masculine singular noun - the day/today
• *bāʾû*: perfect, consecutive, Qal, 3rd plural - and they will come
• *ʿālêkā*: preposition with 2nd masculine singular suffix - upon you
• *qĕlālôt*: feminine plural noun with definite article - the curses
• *hāʾēlleh*: definite article + demonstrative adjective - these
• *hiśśîgûkā*: perfect, consecutive, Hiphil, 3rd plural with 2nd masculine singular suffix - and they will overtake you

Word Meanings

• *lišmōr laʿăśôt*: to observe to do/to carefully perform
• *miṣwōtāyw wĕḥuqqōtāyw*: his commandments and his statutes [complete legal corpus]
• *qĕlālôt*: curses/maledictions
• *hiśśîgûkā*: overtake you/reach you/catch up with you

Referenced Verses

• Mal 2:2 : 2 If you will not give ear and take it to heart, to give glory to my name, says the Lord of armies, then I will send the curse on you and will put a curse on your blessing: truly, even now I have put a curse on it, because you do not take it to heart.
• Deut 28:2 : 2 And all these blessings will come on you and overtake you, if your ears are open to the voice of the Lord your God.
• Deut 29:20 : 20 The Lord will have no mercy on him, but the wrath of the Lord will be burning against that man, and all the curses recorded in this book will be waiting for him, and the Lord will take away his name completely from the earth.
• Josh 23:15 : 15 And you will see that, as all the good things which the Lord your God undertook to do for you, have come to you, so the Lord will send down on you all the evil things till he has made your destruction complete, and you are cut off from the good land which the Lord your God has given you.
• Lam 2:17 : 17 The Lord has done that which was his purpose; he has put into force the orders which he gave in the days which are past; pulling down without pity, he has made your hater glad over you, lifting up the horn of those who were against you.
• Rom 2:8-9 : 8 But to those who, from a love of competition, are not guided by what is true, will come the heat of his wrath, 9 Trouble and sorrow on all whose works are evil, to the Jew first and then to the Greek;
• Gal 3:10 : 10 For all who are of the works of the law are under a curse: because it is said in the Writings, A curse is on everyone who does not keep on doing all the things which are ordered in the book of the law.
• Dan 9:11-13 : 11 And all Israel have been sinners against your law, turning away so as not to give ear to your voice: and the curse has been let loose on us, and the oath recorded in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have done evil against him. 12 And he has given effect to his words which he said against us and against those who were our judges, by sending a great evil on us: for under all heaven there has not been done what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 As it was recorded in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us: but we have made no prayer for grace from the Lord our God that we might be turned from our evil doings and come to true wisdom.
• Lev 26:14-46 : 14 But if you do not give ear to me, and do not keep all these my laws; 15 And if you go against my rules and if you have hate in your souls for my decisions and you do not do all my orders, but go against my agreement; 16 This will I do to you: I will put fear in your hearts, even wasting disease and burning pain, drying up the eyes and making the soul feeble, and you will get no profit from your seed, for your haters will take it for food. 17 And my face will be turned from you, and you will be broken before those who are against you, and your haters will become your rulers, and you will go in flight when no man comes after you. 18 And if, even after these things, you will not give ear to me, then I will send you punishment seven times more for your sins. 19 And the pride of your strength will be broken, and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass; 20 And your strength will be used up without profit; for your land will not give her increase and the trees of the field will not give their fruit. 21 And if you still go against me and will not give ear to me, I will put seven times more punishments on you because of your sins. 22 I will let loose the beasts of the field among you, and they will take away your children and send destruction on your cattle, so that your numbers will become small and your roads become waste. 23 And if by these things you will not be turned to me, but still go against me; 24 Then I will go against you, and I will give you punishment, I myself, seven times for all your sins. 25 And I will send a sword on you to give effect to the punishment of my agreement; and when you come together into your towns I will send disease among you and you will be given up into the hands of your haters. 26 When I take away your bread of life, ten women will be cooking bread in one oven, and your bread will be measured out by weight; you will have food but never enough. 27 And if, after all this, you do not give ear to me, but go against me still, 28 Then my wrath will be burning against you, and I will give you punishment, I myself, seven times for your sins. 29 Then you will take the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters for food; 30 And I will send destruction on your high places, overturning your perfume altars, and will put your dead bodies on your broken images, and my soul will be turned from you in disgust. 31 And I will make your towns waste and send destruction on your holy places; I will take no pleasure in the smell of your sweet perfumes; 32 And I will make your land a waste, a wonder to your haters living in it. 33 And I will send you out in all directions among the nations, and my sword will be uncovered against you, and your land will be without any living thing, and your towns will be made waste. 34 Then will the land take pleasure in its Sabbaths while it is waste and you are living in the land of your haters; then will the land have rest. 35 All the days while it is waste will the land have rest, such rest as it never had in your Sabbaths, when you were living in it. 36 And as for the rest of you, I will make their hearts feeble in the land of their haters, and the sound of a leaf moved by the wind will send them in flight, and they will go in flight as from the sword, falling down when no one comes after them; 37 Falling on one another, as before the sword, when no one comes after them; you will give way before your haters. 38 And death will overtake you among strange nations, and the land of your haters will be your destruction. 39 And those of you who are still living will be wasting away in their sins in the land of your haters; in the sins of their fathers they will be wasting away. 40 And they will have grief for their sins and for the sins of their fathers, when their hearts were untrue to me, and they went against me; 41 So that I went against them and sent them away into the land of their haters: if then the pride of their hearts is broken and they take the punishment of their sins, 42 Then I will keep in mind the agreement which I made with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will keep in mind the land. 43 And the land, while she is without them, will keep her Sabbaths; and they will undergo the punishment of their sins, because they were turned away from my decisions and in their souls was hate for my laws. 44 But for all that, when they are in the land of their haters I will not let them go, or be turned away from them, or give them up completely; my agreement with them will not be broken, for I am the Lord their God. 45 And because of them I will keep in mind the agreement which I made with their fathers, whom I took out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord. 46 These are the rules, decisions, and laws, which the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.
• Deut 27:15-26 : 15 Cursed is the man who makes any image of wood or stone or metal, disgusting to the Lord, the work of man's hands, and puts it up in secret. And let all the people say, So be it. 16 Cursed is he who does not give honour to his father or mother. And let all the people say, So be it. 17 Cursed is he who takes his neighbour's landmark from its place. And let all the people say, So be it. 18 Cursed is he by whom the blind are turned out of the way. And let all the people say, So be it. 19 Cursed is he who gives a wrong decision in the cause of a man from a strange land, or of one without a father, or of a widow. And let all the people say, So be it. 20 Cursed is he who has sex relations with his father's wife, for he has put shame on his father. And let all the people say, So be it. 21 Cursed is he who has sex relations with any sort of beast. And let all the people say, So be it. 22 Cursed is he who has sex relations with his sister, the daughter of his father or of his mother. And let all the people say, So be it. 23 Cursed is he who has sex relations with his mother-in-law. And let all the people say, So be it. 24 Cursed is he who takes his neighbour's life secretly. And let all the people say, So be it. 25 Cursed is he who for a reward puts to death one who has done no wrong. And let all the people say, So be it. 26 Cursed is he who does not take this law to heart to do it. And let all the people say, So be it.
• Isa 3:11 : 11 Unhappy is the sinner! for the reward of his evil doings will come on him.