^19 (A)“But if you^[a] turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

Curses for Disobedience

¹⁵ “But ^(A)if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and ^(B)overtake you.

Punishment for Disobedience

^14 (A)“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,

³³ And ^(A)I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

^34 (B)“Then the land shall enjoy^[a] its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. ³⁵ As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it. ³⁶ And as for those of you who are left, ^(C)I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The ^(D)sound of a ^(E)driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. ³⁷ They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And ^(F)you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. ³⁸ And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. ³⁹ And those of you who are left shall ^(G)rot away in your enemies' lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.

⁴⁰ “But if ^(H)they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they ^(I)committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, ⁴¹ so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their ^(J)uncircumcised heart is ^(K)humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, ⁴² then I will ^(L)remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will ^(M)remember the land. ⁴³ But ^(N)the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, ^(O)I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and ^(P)break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, ^(Q)whom I brought out of the land of Egypt ^(R)in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.”

^46 (S)These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses ^(T)on Mount Sinai.

David's Charge to Solomon

⁹ “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a ^(A)whole heart and with a willing mind, ^(B)for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. ^(C)If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

⁴ For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and ^(A)his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, ^(B)as was the heart of David his father. ⁵ For Solomon went after ^(C)Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after ^(D)Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. ⁶ So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. ⁷ Then Solomon built a high place for ^(E)Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for ^(F)Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. ⁸ And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

^6 (A)But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, ^7 (B)then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, ^(C)and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, ^(D)and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

²⁵ But if you still do wickedly, ^(A)you shall be swept away, ^(B)both you and your king.”

¹⁵ But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you ^(A)all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, ¹⁶ if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”