These verses are the opposites of verses 4 and 6. Verse 18 is not quite as full as verse 4; it does not include “and the fruit of your beasts.”

A possible alternative translation model for these verses is:

• Yahweh will punish you by giving you few children and poor crops. Your cattle and sheep won’t produce many young. He will make you fail [or, be unsuccessful] in everything you do.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .