The First Series of Curses (Deuteronomy 28:15-46).
There now follows a series of five sixfold curses, the sixfold curses paralleling the six tribes on the Mount of cursing. Whereas the sixfold blessing was limited to one, for God's blessing is total, the sixfold curses are multiplied. It is possible to discern seven sets of sixfold curses in all in what follows (two in the second series). This multiplying of curses as against blessings follows the pattern in ancient treaties and law codes. For this whole section compare Leviticus 26:14-39.
Analysis based on the words of Moses.
a But it shall come about that, if you will not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God (Deuteronomy 28:15 a).
b To observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you this day (Deuteronomy 28:15 b).
c That all these curses shall come on you, and overtake you, cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field, cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock, cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out, Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion (discomfiture), and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to, to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly, “because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me” (Deuteronomy 28:15-20).
d Yahweh will make the pestilence cleave to you, until He has consumed you from off the land, to which you go in to possess it. Yahweh will smite you with consumption, and with burning fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword (or ‘drought'), and with blasting, and with mildew; and they will pursue you until you perish, and your heaven that is over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron (Deuteronomy 28:21-23).
e Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder, and dust from heaven shall come down on you, until you are destroyed (Deuteronomy 28:24).
f Yahweh will cause you to be smitten before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them, and you will be tossed to and fro (or ‘will be an object of horror') among all the kingdoms of the earth, and your dead body will be food to all birds of the heavens, and to the beasts of the earth, and there will be none to frighten them away (Deuteronomy 28:25-26).
g Yahweh will smite you with the boil of Egypt, and with plague boils (or ‘tumours'), and with the scurvy (or ‘eczema', etc.), and with the itch (or scabies, etc.), of which you cannot be healed (Deuteronomy 28:27).
h Yahweh will smite you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart, and you will grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways, and you will be only oppressed and robbed always, and there will be none to save you (Deuteronomy 28:28-29).
i You will betroth a wife, and another man will lie with her; You will build a house, and you will not dwell in it; You will plant a vineyard, and will not use its fruit (Deuteronomy 28:30).
j Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you will not eat of it; Your ass will be violently taken away from before your face, and will not be restored to you; Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have none to save you. (Deuteronomy 28:31)
j Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, and your eyes will look, and fail with longing for them all the day, and there shall be nought in the power of your hand(Deuteronomy 28:32).
i The fruit of your ground, and all your labours, will a nation which you know not eat up, and you will be only oppressed and crushed always (Deuteronomy 28:33).
h So that you will be mad because of the sight of your eyes which you will see (Deuteronomy 28:34).
g Yahweh will smite you in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore boil, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head (Deuteronomy 28:35).
f Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you will set over you, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers, and there will you serve other gods, wood and stone, and you will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples to whom Yahweh will lead you away (Deuteronomy 28:36-37).
e You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in, for the locust shall consume it (Deuteronomy 28:38). d You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes, for the worm will eat them, you will have olive-trees throughout all your borders, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olive will cast its fruit (Deuteronomy 28:39-40).
c You will beget sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity, all your trees and the fruit of your ground will the locust possess, the resident alien who is in the midst of you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower, he will lend to you, and you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail (Deuteronomy 28:41-44).
b And all these curses will come on you, and will pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed (4D; eu 28:5 a).
a Because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you, and they will be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed for ever (Deuteronomy 28:45).
Note that in ‘a' and parallel and ‘b' and parallel the similar thought is expressed in almost the same words. In ‘c' we have a list of cursings which come together and parallel the blessings in Deuteronomy 28:2-6, and in the parallel similar thoughts are expressed. In ‘d' we have pestilence and disease and in the parallel diseased vineyards and olive tree. In ‘e' there is lack of rain (which will destroy the vegetation) and in the parallel locusts devouring the vegetation. In ‘f' they will be smitten before their enemies and they will be ‘an object of horror' and in the parallel a similar thing is described and they will be ‘an astonishment, a proverb and a byword'. In ‘g' they will be smitten with boils as in the parallel. In ‘h' they will be smitten with blindness and in the parallel they will be mad because of the sight of their eyes. In ‘i' they will not use its fruit and in the parallel other nations will eat of its fruit. In ‘j' they will lose their herds and flocks and in the parallel their sons and daughters.
‘ But it shall come about that, if you will not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come on you, and overtake you.'
For if they refuse to listen to the voice of Yahweh their God, and fail to obey His commandments and His statutes as commanded by Moses that day, then all the curses outlined will come on them and overtake them. (Note the parallel in reverse order in Deuteronomy 28:45).
They will not be able to avoid these curses. They will pile on, one on top of another. The curses are the opposite of the blessings. Again their intensified completeness is indicated by the number six, and again they parallel the six tribes on the Mount of cursing (Deuteronomy 27:13).