What does the Bible say about blessings and curses?

Top passages, ranked by readers

Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible

• Deuteronomy 28:1-68

  [1] It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you this day, who Yahweh your God will set you on high above all the nations of the earth: [2] and all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. [3] Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. [4] Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your animals, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock. [5] Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough. [6] Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. [7] Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you: they shall come out against you one way, and shall flee before you seven ways. [8] Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to; and he will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. [9] Yahweh will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you; if you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and walk in his ways. [10] All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of Yahweh; and they shall be afraid of you. [11] Yahweh will make you plenteous for good, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. [12] Yahweh will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand: and you shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow. [13] Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath; if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day, to observe and to do [them], [14] and shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. [15] But it shall come to pass, 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. [16] Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. [17] Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough. [18] 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. [19] Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. [20] Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me. [21] Yahweh will make the pestilence cleave to you, until he have consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it. [22] Yahweh will strike you with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish. [23] Your sky that is over your head shall be brass, and the earth that is under you shall be iron. [24] Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust: from the sky shall it come down on you, until you are destroyed. [25] Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them, and shall flee seven ways before them: and you shall be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. [26] Your dead body shall be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there shall be none to frighten them away. [27] Yahweh will strike you with the boil of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed. [28] Yahweh will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart; [29] and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you. [30] You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: you shall build a house, and you shall not dwell therein: you shall plant a vineyard, and shall not use the fruit of it. [31] Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it: your donkey shall be violently taken away from before your face, and shall not be restored to you: your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have none to save you. [32] Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people; and your eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day: and there shall be nothing in the power of your hand. [33] The fruit of your ground, and all your labors, shall a nation which you don't know eat up; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always; [34] so that you shall be mad for the sight of your eyes which you shall see. [35] Yahweh will strike you in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore boil, of which you can not be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. [36] Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you shall set over you, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods, wood and stone. [37] You shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples where Yahweh shall lead you away. [38] You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather little in; for the locust shall consume it. [39] You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine, nor gather [the grapes]; for the worm shall eat them. [40] You shall have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olive shall cast [its fruit]. [41] You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. [42] All your trees and the fruit of your ground shall the locust possess. [43] The foreigner who is in the midst of you shall mount up above you higher and higher; and you shall come down lower and lower. [44] He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him: he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. [45] All these curses shall come on you, and shall pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you didn't listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you: [46] and they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever. [47] Because you didn't serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; [48] therefore shall you serve your enemies whom Yahweh shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron on your neck, until he have destroyed you. [49] Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you shall not understand; [50] a nation of fierce facial expressions, that shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young, [51] and shall eat the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; that also shall not leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your cattle, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. [52] They shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which Yahweh your God has given you. [53] You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. [54] The man who 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 whom he has remaining; [55] so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your gates. [56] The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot on 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, [57] and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your gates. [58] If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, YAHWEH YOUR GOD; [59] then Yahweh will make your plagues wonderful, and the plagues of your seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. [60] He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they shall cleave to you. [61] Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will Yahweh bring on you, until you are destroyed. [62] You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you didn't listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. [63] It shall happen that as Yahweh rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so Yahweh will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and you shall be plucked from off the land where you go in to possess it. [64] Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone. [65] Among these nations shall you find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot: but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul; [66] and your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. [67] In the morning you shall say, Would it were even! and at even you shall say, Would it were morning! for the fear of your heart which you shall fear, and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see. [68] Yahweh will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I said to you, You shall see it no more again: and there you shall sell yourselves to your enemies for bondservants and for bondmaids, and no man shall buy you.

• Deuteronomy 30:19

  I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed;

• 1 Timothy 5:8

  But if anyone doesn't provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.

• Jeremiah 17:5-8

  [5] Thus says Yahweh: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Yahweh. [6] For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. [7] Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose trust Yahweh is. [8] For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

• James 3:10

  Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

• Galatians 3:10

  For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who doesn't continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them."

• Romans 12:19

  Don't seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God's wrath. For it is written, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord."

• Exodus 20:1-26

  [1] God spoke all these words, saying, [2] "I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. [3] You shall have no other gods before me. [4] "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: [5] you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, [6] and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. [7] "You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. [8] "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. [9] You shall labor six days, and do all your work, [10] but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates; [11] for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy. [12] "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. [13] "You shall not murder. [14] "You shall not commit adultery. [15] "You shall not steal. [16] "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. [17] "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." [18] All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance. [19] They said to Moses, "Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don't let God speak with us, lest we die." [20] Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won't sin." [21] The people stayed at a distance, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. [22] Yahweh said to Moses, "This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. [23] You shall most certainly not make alongside of me gods of silver, or gods of gold for yourselves. [24] You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace-offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you. [25] If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it. [26] Neither shall you go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed to it.'

• Romans 15:13

  Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

• Malachi 3:10

  Bring the whole tithe into the store-house, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this," says Yahweh of hosts, "if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough for.

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