Deuteronomy 28:16
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
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Malachi 4:6
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6 He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.[a]
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- 4.6 Or a ban of utter destruction
Malachi 3:9-12
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9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me—the whole nation of you! 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.(A) 11 I will rebuke the locust[a] for you, so that it will not destroy the produce of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not be barren, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Then all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
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- 3.11 Heb devourer
Malachi 2:2
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2 If you will not listen, if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings; indeed, I have already cursed them[a] because you do not lay it to heart.(A)
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- 2.2 Heb it
Haggai 2:16-17
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16 how did you fare?[a] When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty.(A) 17 I struck you and every work of your hands with blight and mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.(B)
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- 2.16 Gk: Heb since they were
Haggai 1:9-11
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9 You have looked for much, but it came to little, and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own houses.(A) 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.(B) 11 And I have called for a drought[a] on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the soil produces, on humans and animals, and on all their labors.”(C)
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- 1.11 Or ruin
Amos 4:6-9
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Israel Rejects Correction
6 I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities
and lack of bread in all your places;
yet you did not return to me,
says the Lord.(A)
7 And I also withheld the rain from you
when there were still three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city
and send no rain on another city;
one field would be rained upon,
and the field on which it did not rain withered;
8 so two or three towns wandered to one town
to drink water and were not satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,
says the Lord.(B)
9 I struck you with blight and mildew;
I laid waste[a] your gardens and your vineyards;
the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees;
yet you did not return to me,
says the Lord.(C)
Footnotes
- 4.9 Cn: Heb the multitude of
Joel 2:3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 Fire devours in front of them,
and behind them a flame burns.
Before them the land is like the garden of Eden,
but after them a desolate wilderness,
and nothing escapes them.(A)
Joel 1:8-18
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8 Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth
for the husband of her youth.(A)
9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
from the house of the Lord.
The priests mourn,
the ministers of the Lord.(B)
10 The fields are devastated,
the ground mourns,
for the grain is destroyed,
the wine dries up,
the oil fails.(C)
11 Be dismayed, you farmers;
wail, you vinedressers,
over the wheat and the barley,
for the crops of the field are ruined.(D)
12 The vine withers;
the fig tree droops.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple—
all the trees of the field are dried up;
surely, joy withers away
among the people.(E)
A Call to Repentance and Prayer
13 Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests;
wail, you ministers of the altar.
Come, pass the night in sackcloth,
you ministers of my God!
Grain offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.(F)
14 Consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.(G)
15 Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty[a] it comes.(H)
16 Is not the food cut off
before our eyes,
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?(I)
17 The seed shrivels under the clods;[b]
the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are ruined
because the grain has withered.
18 How the animals groan!
The herds of cattle wander about
because there is no pasture for them;
even the flocks of sheep are perishing.(J)
Joel 1:4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
4 What the cutting locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten;
what the swarming locust left,
the hopping locust has eaten;
and what the hopping locust left,
the destroying locust has eaten.(A)
Lamentations 5:10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
10 Our skin is black as an oven
from the scorching heat of famine.(A)
Lamentations 4:1-13
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Punishment of Zion
4 How the gold has grown dim;
how the pure gold is changed!
The sacred stones lie scattered
at the head of every street.
2 The precious children of Zion,
worth their weight in fine gold—
how they are reckoned as earthen pots,
the work of a potter’s hands!(A)
3 Even the jackals offer the breast
and nurse their young,
but my people has become cruel,
like the ostriches in the wilderness.(B)
4 The tongue of the infant sticks
to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
the children beg for food,
but there is nothing for them.(C)
5 Those who feasted on delicacies
perish in the streets;
those who were brought up in purple
cling to ash heaps.
6 For the chastisement of my people has been greater
than the punishment of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,
though no hand was laid on it.[a](D)
7 Her princes were purer than snow,
whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
their form cut like sapphire.[b](E)
8 Now their visage is blacker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets.
Their skin has shriveled on their bones;
it has become as dry as wood.(F)
9 Happier were those pierced by the sword
than those pierced by hunger,
whose life drains away, deprived
of the produce of the field.(G)
10 The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children;
they became their food
in the destruction of my people.(H)
11 The Lord gave full vent to his wrath;
he poured out his hot anger
and kindled a fire in Zion
that consumed its foundations.(I)
12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor did any of the inhabitants of the world,
that foe or enemy could enter
the gates of Jerusalem.(J)
13 It was for the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed the blood of the righteous
in her midst.(K)
Lamentations 2:11-22
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
11 My eyes are spent with weeping;
my stomach churns;
my bile is poured out on the ground
because of the destruction of my people,[a]
because infants and babes faint
in the streets of the city.(A)
12 They cry to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers’ bosoms.(B)
13 What can I say for you, to what compare you,
O daughter Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter Zion?
For vast as the sea is your ruin;
who can heal you?(C)
14 Your prophets have seen for you
false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
to restore your fortunes
but have seen oracles for you
that are false and misleading.(D)
15 All who pass along the way
clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their heads
at daughter Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of all the earth?”(E)
16 All your enemies
open their mouths against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
they cry: “We have devoured her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
at last we have seen it!”(F)
17 The Lord has done what he purposed;
he has carried out his threat;
as he ordained long ago,
he has demolished without pity;
he has made the enemy rejoice over you
and exalted the might of your foes.(G)
18 Cry aloud[b] to the Lord!
O wall of daughter Zion!
Let tears stream down like a torrent
day and night!
Give yourself no rest,
your eyes no respite!(H)
19 Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the watches!
Pour out your heart like water
before the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
who faint for hunger
at the head of every street.(I)
20 Look, O Lord, and consider!
To whom have you done this?
Should women eat their offspring,
the children they have borne?
Should priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?(J)
21 The young and the old are lying
on the ground in the streets;
my young women and my young men
have fallen by the sword;
in the day of your anger you have killed them,
slaughtering without mercy.(K)
22 You invited my enemies from all around
as if for a day of festival;
and on the day of the anger of the Lord,
no one escaped or survived;
those whom I bore and reared,
my enemy has destroyed.(L)
Lamentations 1:1
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Deserted City
1 How lonely sits the city
that once was full of people!
How like a widow she has become,
she that was great among the nations!
She that was a princess among the provinces
has become subject to forced labor.(A)
Jeremiah 44:22
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
22 The Lord could no longer bear the sight of your evil doings, the abominations that you committed; therefore your land became a desolation and a waste and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is to this day.(A)
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Jeremiah 26:6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
6 then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.(A)
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Jeremiah 14:18
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18 If I go out into the field,
look—those killed by the sword!
And if I enter the city,
look—those sick with[a] famine!
For both prophet and priest ply their trade throughout the land
and have no knowledge.(A)
Footnotes
- 14.18 Heb look—the sicknesses of
Jeremiah 14:2-5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 Judah mourns,
and her gates languish;
they lie in gloom on the ground,
and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.(A)
3 Her[a] nobles send their servants for water;
they come to the cisterns;
they find no water;
they return with their vessels empty.
They are ashamed and dismayed
and cover their heads,(B)
4 because the ground is cracked.
Because there has been no rain on the land,
the farmers are dismayed;
they cover their heads.(C)
5 Even the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn
because there is no grass.
Footnotes
- 14.3 Gk: Heb their
Jeremiah 9:11
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
a lair of jackals,
and I will make the towns of Judah a desolation,
without inhabitant.(A)
Isaiah 43:28
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28 Therefore I profaned the princes of the sanctuary;
I delivered Jacob to utter destruction
and Israel to reviling.(A)
Isaiah 24:6-12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled,
and few people are left.(A)
7 The wine dries up;
the vine languishes;
all the merry-hearted sigh.(B)
8 The mirth of the timbrels is stilled;
the noise of the jubilant has ceased;
the mirth of the lyre is stilled.(C)
9 No longer do they drink wine with singing;
strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of chaos is broken down;
every house is shut up so that no one can enter.(D)
11 There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;
all joy has reached its eventide;
the gladness of the earth is banished.(E)
12 Desolation is left in the city;
the gates are battered into ruins.
Proverbs 3:33
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33 The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked,
but he blesses the abode of the righteous.(A)
1 Kings 17:12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
12 But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.”(A)
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1 Kings 17:5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
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1 Kings 17:1
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Elijah Predicts a Drought
17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe[a] in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”(A)
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- 17.1 Gk: Heb of the settlers
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