Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 28:46
These curses will be a sign and a wonder upon you and your descendants forever.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the assembled Israelites on the plains of Moab, concluding his recitation of covenant stipulations immediately before they cross the Jordan.
The words — The Hebrew uses לְאֹת (lə’ôt, "as a sign") and לְמוֹפֵת (ləmōp̄ēt, "as a wonder") to describe the curses' manifestation, paired with עַד־עוֹלָם (‘aḏ-‘ôlām, "until perpetuity") to mark their unending duration.
The thread — The function of divine acts as enduring signs appears in Isaiah 8:18 and Ezekiel 14:8, while Deuteronomy 28:37 extends the curse's public visibility into a permanent object of national ridicule.
Why it lands — The text states that covenant failure produces visible, generational consequences that persist without removal, requiring the reader to acknowledge that divine judgment operates as a fixed historical marker rather than a temporary discipline.
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
And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 8:18 Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
- Deuteronomy 28:37 You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- Ezekiel 14:8 I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb; I will cut him off from among My people. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
- Jeremiah 25:18 to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials;
- Deuteronomy 28:59 He will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary disasters, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses.
- 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
- Deuteronomy 29:28 The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’
- Jeremiah 19:8 I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.
- Ezekiel 23:32 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You will drink your sister’s cup, a cup deep and wide. It will bring scorn and derision, for it holds so much.
- Ezekiel 36:20 And wherever they went among the nations, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, yet they had to leave His land.’