Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.
Parallel translations
- WEB The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed.
- KJV 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.
- BSB The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.
- NKJV “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
- NASB “Cursed will be the children of your womb, the produce of your ground, the newborn of your herd, and the offspring of your flock.
- NLT Your children and your crops will be cursed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be cursed.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Children, crops, and livestock, once fruitful, will instead be cursed with barrenness.
Overview
The blessing of fertility in verse 4 is here reversed into loss and decline. Disobedience touches family, field, and flock with futility. This sobering picture shows that life apart from God's favor cannot flourish.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Lev 26:26When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight. You shall eat, and not be satisfied.
- Ps 109:9–15Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
- Deut 28:16You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the field.
- Deut 28:4You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock.
- Job 18:16–19His roots shall be dried up beneath. Above shall his branch be cut off.
- Lev 26:19–20I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like brass.
- Hab 3:17For though the fig tree doesn’t flourish, nor fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive fails, the fields yield no food; the flocks are cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls:
- Deut 5:9You 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, and on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me;
- Lam 2:20“Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Shall the women eat their offspring, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- Lam 2:11–12My eyes fail with tears, my heart is troubled; My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.
- Hos 9:11–14As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception.
- Mal 2:3Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.
- Luke 23:29–30For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 28:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.