Punishment for Disobedience

^14 (A)“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, ¹⁵ if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but ^(B)break my covenant, ¹⁶ then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with ^(C)wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And ^(D)you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. ¹⁷ I will ^(E)set my face against you, and ^(F)you shall be struck down before your enemies. ^(G)Those who hate you shall rule over you, and ^(H)you shall flee when none pursues you. ¹⁸ And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again ^(I)sevenfold for your sins, ¹⁹ and I will break ^(J)the pride of your power, and I ^(K)will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. ²⁰ And ^(L)your strength shall be spent in vain, for ^(M)your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

^21 (N)“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. ²² And ^(O)I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that ^(P)your roads shall be deserted.

²³ “And ^(Q)if by this discipline you are not turned to me ^(R)but walk contrary to me, ^24 (S)then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. ²⁵ And ^(T)I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, ^(U)I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. ^26 (V)When I break your supply^[a] of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and ^(W)you shall eat and not be satisfied.

²⁷ “But ^(X)if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, ²⁸ then I will walk contrary to you ^(Y)in fury, and I myself will discipline you ^(Z)sevenfold for your sins. ^29 (AA)You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰ And ^(AB)I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and ^(AC)cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. ³¹ And I will ^(AD)lay your cities waste and will ^(AE)make your sanctuaries desolate, and ^(AF)I will not smell your pleasing aromas. ³² And ^(AG)I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be ^(AH)appalled at it. ³³ And ^(AI)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 (AJ)“Then the land shall enjoy^[b] 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, ^(AK)I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The ^(AL)sound of a ^(AM)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 ^(AN)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 ^(AO)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.

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. ¹⁶ Cursed shall you be ^(C)in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. ¹⁷ Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ¹⁸ Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. ¹⁹ Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

²⁰ “The Lord ^(D)will send on you curses, confusion, and ^(E)frustration in all that you undertake to do, ^(F)until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. ²¹ The Lord will make ^(G)the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. ^22 (H)The Lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought^[a] and with ^(I)blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. ²³ And ^(J)the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. ²⁴ The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

^25 (K)“The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you ^(L)shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ And ^(M)your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and ^(N)there shall be no one to frighten them away. ²⁷ The Lord will strike you ^(O)with the boils of Egypt, and with tumours and ^(P)scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed. ²⁸ The Lord will strike you with ^(Q)madness and blindness and confusion of mind, ²⁹ and you shall ^(R)grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways.^[b] And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. ^30 (S)You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. ^(T)You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. ^(U)You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. ³¹ Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. ^32 (V)Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, ^(W)but you shall be helpless. ³³ A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labours, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, ³⁴ so that you are driven mad ^(X)by the sights that your eyes see. ³⁵ The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs ^(Y)with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

³⁶ “The Lord will ^(Z)bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you ^(AA)nor your fathers have known. And ^(AB)there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ And you shall become ^(AC)a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away. ^38 (AD)You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for ^(AE)the locust shall consume it. ^39 (AF)You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. ⁴⁰ You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you ^(AG)shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. ⁴¹ You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for ^(AH)they shall go into captivity. ^42 (AI)The cricket^[c] shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground. ^43 (AJ)The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. ^44 (AK)He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. ^(AL)He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

^45 (AM)“All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. ⁴⁶ They shall be ^(AN)a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring for ever. ^47 (AO)Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he ^(AP)will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. ^49 (AQ)The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, ^(AR)swooping down like the eagle, a nation ^(AS)whose language you do not understand, ⁵⁰ a hard-faced nation ^(AT)who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. ⁵¹ It shall ^(AU)eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

⁵² “They shall ^(AV)besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you. ⁵³ And ^(AW)you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, ^(AX)in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. ⁵⁴ The man who is the most tender and refined among you will ^(AY)begrudge food to his brother, to ^(AZ)the wife he embraces,^[d] and to the last of the children whom he has left, ⁵⁵ so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, ^(BA)in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. ^56 (BB)The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces,^[e] to her son and to her daughter, ⁵⁷ her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, ^(BC)in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns.

⁵⁸ “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, ^(BD)the Lord your God, ⁵⁹ then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. ⁶⁰ And he will bring upon you again all ^(BE)the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. ⁶¹ Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you, until you are destroyed. ⁶² Whereas ^(BF)you were as numerous ^(BG)as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God. ⁶³ And as the Lord ^(BH)took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will ^(BI)take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

⁶⁴ “And the Lord ^(BJ)will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and ^(BK)there you shall serve other gods ^(BL)of wood and stone, ^(BM)which neither you nor your fathers have known. ⁶⁵ And ^(BN)among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting-place for the sole of your foot, but ^(BO)the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and ^(BP)a languishing soul. ⁶⁶ Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. ^67 (BQ)In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the dread that your heart shall feel, and ^(BR)the sights that your eyes shall see. ⁶⁸ And the Lord ^(BS)will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that ^(BT)you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”