“Blessed will you be in the city, and blessed will you be in the country.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field.
- KJV Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
- BSB You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
- NKJV “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
- NLT Your towns and your fields will be blessed.
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
God promises blessing in every place, whether city or field, for the obedient.
Overview
This merism covers the whole sphere of daily life, urban and rural. No realm of Israel's existence falls outside God's blessing. It shows that covenant faithfulness touches every corner of ordinary life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Gen 39:5From the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, Yahweh blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake. Yahweh’s blessing was on all that he had, in the house and in the field.
- Ps 144:12–15Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
- Hag 2:19Is the seed yet in the barn? Yes, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree haven’t produced. From today I will bless you.’”
- Ps 107:36–37There he makes the hungry live, that they may prepare a city to live in,
- Gen 26:12Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.
- Isa 65:21–23They will build houses, and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
- Mal 3:10–11Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says Yahweh of Armies, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be room enough for.
- Ps 128:1–5A Song of Ascents. Blessed is everyone who fears Yahweh, who walks in his ways.
- Amos 9:13–14“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills.
- Zech 8:3–5Yahweh says: “I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the middle of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called ‘The City of Truth;’ and the mountain of Yahweh of Armies, ‘The Holy Mountain.’”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 28:3 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.