Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 28:45
All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the LORD your God and keep the commandments and statutes He gave you.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites on the plains of Moab, concluding the covenant blessing and curse cycle immediately before their entry into Canaan. The warning functions as the structural capstone to the conditional promises detailed in the preceding verses.
The words — The Hebrew verbs רְדָפ֣וּ (redafu, "they will pursue") and הִשִּׂיג֔וּ (hisigu, "they will overtake") describe an inescapable, sequential pursuit. The preposition עַד ('ad, "until") establishes complete destruction as the fixed terminus of this process.
The thread — The text explicitly grounds the curses in covenant disobedience, mirroring the conditional warning in Deuteronomy 28:15 and extending into the perpetual sign described in Deuteronomy 28:46. The motif of rebellion triggering inescapable consequences parallels Isaiah 1:20, while the sharp division between the obedient and the disobedient aligns with Isaiah 65:14.
Why it lands — The verse first states that disobedience to God's commandments and statutes directly triggers the pursuit and eventual destruction of the covenant people. It requires the reader to acknowledge that covenant failure removes the boundary of divine protection, making the stated consequences structurally inevitable rather than arbitrary.
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
Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 28:15 If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
- Isaiah 1:20 But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
- Isaiah 65:14 My servants will shout for joy with a glad heart, but you will cry out with a heavy heart and wail with a broken spirit.
- Jeremiah 7:22 For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices,
- Jeremiah 24:9 I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.
- Lamentations 2:15 All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
- Leviticus 26:28 then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins.
- Deuteronomy 11:27 a blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today,
- Deuteronomy 28:5 Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.
- Deuteronomy 29:20 The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven