12. The Lord will open his storehouse where he keeps his rich blessings. He will send rain at the right time for your land. He will bless everything you do. You will have money to lend to many nations. And you will not need to borrow anything from them.
13. The Lord will make you be like the head, not the tail. You will be on top, not on the bottom. This will happen if you listen to the commands of the Lord your God that I tell you today. You must carefully obey these commands.
14. You must not turn away from any of the teachings that I give you today. You must not turn away to the right or to the left. You must not follow other gods to serve them.
15. “But if you don’t listen to what the Lord your God tells you—if you don’t obey all his commands and laws that I tell you today—then all these bad things will happen to you:
16. “The Lord will curse you in the city and in the field.
17. He will curse you with empty baskets and pans.
18. He will curse you, and you will not have many children. He will curse your land, and you will not have good crops. He will curse your animals, and they will not have many babies. He will curse your calves and lambs.
19. He will curse you at all times in everything you do.
20. “If you do evil and turn away from the Lord, he will make bad things happen to you. You will have frustration and trouble in everything you do. He will continue to do this until you are quickly and completely destroyed. He will do this because you turned away from him and left him.
21. The Lord will send you terrible diseases until you no longer exist, until you are completely gone from the land.
22. The Lord will punish you with diseases, fever, and swelling. He will send you terrible heat and you will have no rain. Your crops will die from the heat and disease. All these bad things will happen until you are destroyed!
23. There will be no clouds in the sky—the sky will look like polished brass. And the ground under you will be hard like iron.
24. The Lord will not send rain—only sand and dust will fall from the sky. It will come down on you until you are destroyed.
25. “The Lord will let your enemies defeat you. You will go to fight against your enemies one way, but you will run away from them seven different ways. The bad things that happen to you will make all the people on earth afraid.
26. Your dead bodies will be food for the wild birds and animals. There will be no one to scare them away from your dead bodies.
27. “The Lord will punish you with boils, like those he sent on the Egyptians. He will punish you with tumors, sores that run, and an itch that cannot be cured.
28. The Lord will punish you by making you crazy. He will make you blind and confused.