Deuteronomy 28
Deuteronomy 28 — Commentary and Meaning
The short answer
Deuteronomy 28 comes near the end of Moses' long farewell address, delivered on the plains of Moab just before Israel crosses into the promised land. The chapter is built like a fork in the road. The first fourteen verses describe what will happen if Israel keeps God's commandments: blessing in the city and the field, fruitful families and flocks, and "abundant prosperity" in the land (28:11). The blessings are strikingly concrete—grain, children, livestock, rain. In this covenant, faithfulness and flourishing belong together.
Then the road turns dark. From verse 15 onward, the curses unfold at far greater length than the blessings: disease, drought, defeat, and finally the worst fate of all—being uprooted from the land and scattered among the nations. As N. T. Wright observes, these chapters do more than lay out two options. Moses solemnly predicts that Israel will in fact disobey and suffer the curses, with exile as the climax. The chapter reads less like a neutral contract and more like a sobering forecast of Israel's actual story.
That leaves modern readers with an honest question. If verse 11 pictures blessing as material abundance, should we conclude that wealth is the sign of God's favor? Deanna Thompson notes that prosperity preaching draws on passages like this one, and that it has many critics. She points to the theologian Sallie McFague, who reads "choosing life" differently for people who already live amid plenty. Starting from Jesus' promise of abundant life in John 10:10, McFague argues that in a world of ecological strain and deep economic inequality, abundance means loving the world and everything in it—not consuming more of it. Deuteronomy 28 still insists that our choices carry real consequences; the question is what faithful choosing looks like now.
What scholars say
N. T. Wright explains where Deuteronomy 28 falls in Moses' charge and why exile stands as the gravest of its curses; Deanna Thompson then takes up the question the chapter poses to prosperous modern readers, drawing on Sallie McFague's view that choosing life today means loving the world rather than simply enjoying material plenty.
“Deuteronomy 28, 29 and 30 come near the end of Moses’ long charge to the Israelites before they enter the promised land. These chapters tell a story of what is going to happen to Israel in the days to come. If Israel keeps God’s commandments, God promises blessings; if they don’t, he warns of curses to come. What’s more, Moses solemnly predicts that Israel will disobey, and so incur the curses. And the worst of the curses is that they will be driven out of the promised land, sent off into exile . That’s what chapters 28 and 29 are all about.”
“Prosperity preaching has many critics within and outside of Christianity. Although biblical passages like Deuteronomy 28:11 talk about God’s blessings in terms of material prosperity, Christian theologians like Sallie McFague offer a different reading of what “choosing life” means for twenty-first century Christians, especially those whose lives bear many signs of such prosperity. McFague builds off of Jesus’ words in John 10:10: “‘I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.’” For McFague, choosing life in our contemporary context of ecological strife and massive economic inequality must entail living differently: “We live to give God glory by loving the world and everything in it.”
What it means for you
Deuteronomy 28 refuses to let us treat obedience as optional or consequences as imaginary. Our choices shape our lives, our communities, and the land we live on. But the chapter also warns against a shortcut: reading material wealth as automatic proof of God's blessing.
For readers who already have much, McFague's reframing is worth sitting with. Choosing life today may mean living differently—caring for a strained creation, noticing economic inequality, and measuring abundance by love given rather than goods accumulated. The curses remind us that a way of life can quietly unravel; the blessings invite us to seek the kind of flourishing that can actually be shared.
Deuteronomy 28 in context
Deuteronomy 28 sits near the end of Moses' final charge to Israel. Chapters 12–26 spell out the covenant's laws; chapter 27 stages a ceremony of blessings and curses at Mount Ebal and Gerizim; chapter 28 then expands both lists at length. Chapters 29 and 30 carry the story forward—renewing the covenant, foreseeing exile, and ending with Moses' famous appeal to "choose life" (30:19). Read together, as Wright notes, chapters 28–30 sketch in advance the shape of Israel's future: blessing offered, disobedience foretold, exile threatened, and hope beyond it.