Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 28:21
The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses Israel on the plains of Moab, immediately before they cross the Jordan to possess the land. He outlines the covenant curses that will activate if the people abandon the commands he has just delivered.
The words — The Hebrew verb יַדְבֵּק (yad.Bek) literally means "he will make cling," applied to the pestilence (דָּבָר, da.var). This lexical choice frames the judgment as an inescapable force that attaches to the people until their eradication.
The thread — The pattern of persistent plague and removal from the land runs through Leviticus 26:25, Jeremiah 24:10, and Numbers 14:12. These passages consistently pair covenant breach with divine retribution that continues until the people are fully cut off from the territory.
Why it lands — The text states that the LORD will actively attach pestilence to the people until He exterminates them from the land they are about to enter. It requires the reader to acknowledge that covenant possession is contingent on obedience and that deliberate rebellion triggers a judgment that will not stop until its stated end.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 26:25 And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
- Jeremiah 24:10 And I will send against them sword and famine and plague, until they have perished from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’”
- Numbers 14:12 I will strike them with a plague and destroy them—and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are.”
- Jeremiah 15:2 If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword; those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’
- Jeremiah 16:4 “They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”
- Numbers 25:9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
- 2 Samuel 24:15 So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.
- Jeremiah 21:6 I will strike down the residents of this city, both man and beast. They will die in a terrible plague.’
- Exodus 5:3 “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they answered. “Please let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD our God, or He may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
- Numbers 16:46 Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, place fire from the altar in it, and add incense. Go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, because wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has begun.”