| JPS | Alter | Fox | Friedman | Hebrew |
| The LORD will let loose against you calamity, panic, and frustration in all the enterprises you undertake, so that you shall soon be utterly wiped out because of your evil-doing in forsaking Me. | The LORD will send against you blight and panic and disaster in all that your hand reaches, that you do, until you are destroyed and until you perish swiftly because of the evil of your acts, as you will have forsaken Me. |
YHWH will send-forth against you Curse, Confusion and Reproach, against all the enterprises of your hand that you do, until you have been destroyed, until you have perished quickly because of the evil of your deeds by which you have abandoned me. |
YHWH will send curse and tumult and annoyance at you in everything your hand takes on that you'll do, until you're destroyed and until you perish quickly because of your bad practices, in that you left me. | כ) יְשַׁלַּ֣ח יְהוָ֣ה׀ בְּ֠ךָ אֶת־הַמְּאֵרָ֤ה אֶת־הַמְּהוּמָה֙ וְאֶת־הַמִּגְעֶ֔רֶת בְּכָל־מִשְׁלַ֥ח יָדְךָ֖ אֲשֶׁ֣ר תַּעֲשֶׂ֑ה עַ֣ד הִשָּֽׁמֶדְךָ֤ וְעַד־אֲבָדְךָ֙ מַהֵ֔ר מִפְּנֵ֛י רֹ֥עַ מַֽעֲלָלֶ֖יךָ אֲשֶׁ֥ר עֲזַבְתָּֽנִי׃ |
| The LORD will make pestilence cling to you, until he has put an end to you in the land that you are entering to possess. | The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He wipes you out from the face of the soil to which you are coming to take hold of it. |
YHWH will make-cling to you the pestilence, until it has finished you off from the soil that you are entering to possess. |
YHWH will make an epidemic cling to you until He finishes you from the land to which you're coming to take possession of it. | כא) יַדְבֵּ֧ק יְהוָ֛ה בְּךָ֖ אֶת־הַדָּ֑בֶר עַ֚ד כַּלֹּת֣וֹ אֹֽתְךָ֔ מֵעַל֙ הָֽאֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־אַתָּ֥ה בָא־שָׁ֖מָּה לְרִשְׁתָּֽהּ׃ |
| The LORD will strike you with consumption, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew; they shall hound you until you perish. | The LORD will strike you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with burning and with desiccation and with emaciation and with jaundice, and they will pursue you till you perish. |
YHWH will strike you with consumption, with fever and with inflammation, with violent-fever and with dehydration, with blight and with jaundice; they will pursue you until you are destroyed. |
YHWH will strike you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with burning and with the sword and with blight and with mildew. And they'll pursue you until you perish. | כב) יַכְּכָ֣ה יְ֠הוָה בַּשַּׁחֶ֨פֶת וּבַקַּדַּ֜חַת וּבַדַּלֶּ֗קֶת וּבַֽחַרְחֻר֙ וּבַחֶ֔רֶב וּבַשִּׁדָּפ֖וֹן וּבַיֵּרָק֑וֹן וּרְדָפ֖וּךָ עַ֥ד אָבְדֶֽךָ׃ |
| The skies above your head shall be copper and the earth under you iron. | And your heavens that are over your head will be bronze and the earth that is under you iron. | The heavens that are above your head will become bronze, and the earth that is beneath you, iron. | And your skies that are over your head will be bronze, and the land that is under you iron. | כג) וְהָי֥וּ שָׁמֶ֛יךָ אֲשֶׁ֥ר עַל־רֹאשְׁךָ֖ נְחֹ֑שֶׁת וְהָאָ֥רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־תַּחְתֶּ֖יךָ בַּרְזֶֽל׃ |
| The LORD will make the rain of your land dust, and sand shall drop on you from the sky, until you are wiped out. | The LORD will turn your land's rain into dust, and dirt from the heavens will come down upon you until you are destroyed. | YHWH will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from the heavens it will come-down upon you until you perish. |
YHWH will make your land's showers powder and dust; it will fall on you from the skies until you're destroyed. |
כד) יִתֵּ֧ן יְהוָ֛ה אֶת־מְטַ֥ר אַרְצְךָ֖ אָבָ֣ק וְעָפָ֑ר מִן־הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ יֵרֵ֣ד עָלֶ֔יךָ עַ֖ד הִשָּׁמְדָֽךְ׃ |
Verse 20
until you perish. This phrase, or a close equivalent, becomes a kind of refrain in the recitation of curses. The point is that not only will catastrophes visit the people but that they will end by destroying its very national existence. (Alter)
Verse 22
desiccation. Although the term herev looks like the ordinary word for "sword," a long tradition of interpreters, going back to Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, plausibly understands it in the present context of physical pathologies as a variest of horev, the condition of being parched. (Alter)
Verse 23
your heavens...bronze...the earth...iron. This tremendous image of devastating sterility is borrowed from the treaty of the Assyrian emperor Assarhadon with his vassals (672 B.C.E.). Other phrases in the list of curses, as Moshe Weinfeld has observe, also seem to have been inspired by the language of that treaty, such as the acts of cannibalism against one's own near kind in time of siege, the sightless stumbling, and the ravishing of the women by the enemy. (Alter)
Verse 24
turn your land's rain into dust. Without rain, as Abraham ibn Ezra notes, the winds would whip up vast clouds of dust that would cover the land. The similarity of this particular disaster with one of the Ten Plagues is pointed, and in verse 27 "the burning rash of Egypt" will be explicitly mentioned. (Alter)
(20) The LORD will send upon thee cursing, discomfiture, and rebuke, in all that thou puttest thy hand unto to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the evil of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken Me. (21) The LORD will make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until He have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest in to possess it. (22) The LORD will smite thee with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with drought, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. (23) And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. (24) The LORD will make the rain of thy land powder and dust; from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.