Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 28:22
The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses Israel on the plains of Moab as they prepare to enter the Promised Land, outlining the covenant curses that will follow disobedience. The passage functions as a direct warning within the broader Deuteronomic stipulations.
The words — יַכְּ/כָ֣ה (ya.ke./Khah) denotes a divine strike or plague, while בַּ/שַּׁחֶ֨פֶת (ba./sha.Che.fet) specifies consumption or wasting disease. These terms establish the physical mechanism of the covenant penalty.
The thread — This pattern of divine affliction recurs in Leviticus 26:16, Amos 4:9, and 1 Kings 8:37. Each reference extends the Deuteronomic warning into later prophetic and liturgical contexts.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that covenant obedience carries tangible, historical consequences. It requires a reader to take the stated threats seriously as structural realities rather than abstract metaphors.
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 smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 26:16 then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.
- Amos 4:9 “I struck you with blight and mildew in your growing gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
- 1 Kings 8:37 When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemy besieges them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,
- Haggai 2:17 I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.
- 2 Chronicles 6:28 When famine or plague comes upon the land, or blight or mildew or locusts or grasshoppers, or when their enemies besiege them in their cities, whatever plague or sickness may come,
- Jeremiah 14:12 Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”