Blessed in the City and in the Field
1 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you today, that Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to Yahweh your God’s voice. 3 You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field. 4 You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock. 5 Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed. 6 You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out. 7 Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways. 8 Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 9 Yahweh will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and walk in his ways. 10 All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by Yahweh’s name, and they will be afraid of you. 11 Yahweh will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. 12 Yahweh will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow. 13 Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail. You will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you today, to observe and to do, 14 and shall not turn away from any of the words which I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
The blessings cover every place a person can be and everything a household can produce, and they are described as pursuing the obedient.
The chapter opens with a condition and a promise, and the promise is put in an unexpected way. All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen Deuteronomy 28:2.
Overtake is a hunting word. It is used later in this same chapter of the curses pursuing a man until he perishes Deuteronomy 28:45. Here the same verb describes good coming after somebody and catching him — a man walking through his life with blessings gaining on him from behind.
The list that follows is built to be exhaustive rather than specific.
You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field Deuteronomy 28:3 — the two places a person can be. Then the produce: children, crops, herds, flocks Deuteronomy 28:4. Then your basket and your kneading trough Deuteronomy 28:5 — the container things arrive in and the bowl they are prepared in, which is the whole of a household's food economy in two objects. Then blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out Deuteronomy 28:6 — every arrival and every departure.
Four categories covering place, produce, provision and movement. Nothing is left outside them, and the same four are about to be repeated word for word with the verb reversed Deuteronomy 28:16–19.
The specific promises are ordinary and agricultural. Enemies who come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways Deuteronomy 28:7. Full barns. Rain in its season from his good treasure in the sky Deuteronomy 28:12 — the storehouse image belongs to the country described earlier, which drinks water from the sky rather than a river Deuteronomy 11:11.
And the standing they are promised is not private. All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by Yahweh's name Deuteronomy 28:10. The blessing is public and it is meant to be read by outsiders, which is what the earlier claim about the law's visible wisdom expected Deuteronomy 4:6.
The summary image is the head, and not the tail Deuteronomy 28:13, and the condition is attached to it in the same breath.
What none of this offers is exemption from work. The blessings are on barns, fields, flocks and the work of the hands — a farming life, blessed, rather than a life without farming.
settled What this mark means