And they will become a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants forever.
Parallel translations
- WEB They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your offspring forever.
- KJV And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.
- BSB These curses will be a sign and a wonder upon you and your descendants forever.
- NKJV And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.
- NLT These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever.
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
These curses will stand as a lasting sign and warning to Israel and their descendants.
Overview
The judgments serve a teaching purpose, marking the seriousness of the covenant for generations. They become enduring testimony to God's faithfulness to his word, in warning as well as promise. This perpetual sign calls later generations to fear God and obey.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Isa 8:18Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Yahweh of Armies, who dwells in Mount Zion.
- Deut 28:37You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away.
- Ezek 14:8I will set my face against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from among my people; and you will know that I am Yahweh.
- Jer 25:18Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and its kings, and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is today;
- Jer 19:8I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.
- Deut 28:59then Yahweh will make your plagues fearful, and the plagues of your offspring, even great plagues, and of long duration, and severe sicknesses, and of long duration.
- Deut 29:20Yahweh will not pardon him, but then Yahweh’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky.
- Deut 29:28Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and thrust them into another land, as it is today.”
- 1 Cor 10:11Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
- Ezek 23:32–33“Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘You will drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large. You will be ridiculed and held in derision. It contains much.
- Ezek 36:20When they came to the nations, where they went, they profaned my holy name; in that men said of them, These are the people of Yahweh, and are gone out of his land.
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 28:46 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.