⁴⁷ Because you did not serve^(A) the Lord your God joyfully and gladly^(B) in the time of prosperity, ⁴⁸ therefore in hunger and thirst,^(C) in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke^(D) on your neck^(E) until he has destroyed you.

⁴⁹ The Lord will bring a nation against you^(F) from far away, from the ends of the earth,^(G) like an eagle^(H) swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand,^{(I) 50} a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old^(J) or pity for the young. ⁵¹ They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine^(K) or olive oil,^(L) nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined.^{(M) 52} They will lay siege^(N) to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.^(O)

⁵³ Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you.^{(P) 54} Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, ⁵⁵ and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities.^{(Q) 56} The most gentle and sensitive^(R) woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter^{(S) 57} the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them^(T) secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.

⁵⁸ If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law,^(U) which are written in this book, and do not revere^(V) this glorious and awesome name^(W)—the Lord your God— ⁵⁹ the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. ⁶⁰ He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt^(X) that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law,^(Y) until you are destroyed.^{(Z) 62} You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky^(AA) will be left but few^(AB) in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. ⁶³ Just as it pleased^(AC) the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please^(AD) him to ruin and destroy you.^(AE) You will be uprooted^(AF) from the land you are entering to possess.

⁶⁴ Then the Lord will scatter^(AG) you among all nations,^(AH) from one end of the earth to the other.^(AI) There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.^{(AJ) 65} Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place^(AK) for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes^(AL) weary with longing, and a despairing heart.^{(AM) 66} You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. ⁶⁷ In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.^{(AN) 68} The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again.^(AO) There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.

Renewal of the Covenant

29 ^[a]These are the terms of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab,^(AP) in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb.^(AQ)

² Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them:

Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land.^{(AR) 3} With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders.^{(AS) 4} But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.^{(AT) 5} Yet the Lord says, “During the forty years that I led^(AU) you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.^{(AV) 6} You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink.^(AW) I did this so that you might know that I am the Lord your God.”^(AX)

⁷ When you reached this place, Sihon^(AY) king of Heshbon^(AZ) and Og king of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them.^{(BA) 8} We took their land and gave it as an inheritance^(BB) to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.^(BC)

⁹ Carefully follow^(BD) the terms of this covenant,^(BE) so that you may prosper in everything you do.^{(BF) 10} All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God—your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, ¹¹ together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water.^{(BG) 12} You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, ¹³ to confirm you this day as his people,^(BH) that he may be your God^(BI) as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ¹⁴ I am making this covenant,^(BJ) with its oath, not only with you ¹⁵ who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today.^(BK)

¹⁶ You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. ¹⁷ You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold.^{(BL) 18} Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns^(BM) away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.^(BN)

¹⁹ When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing^(BO) on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,”^(BP) they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. ²⁰ The Lord will never be willing to forgive^(BQ) them; his wrath and zeal^(BR) will burn^(BS) against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot^(BT) out their names from under heaven. ²¹ The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster,^(BU) according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.^(BV)

²² Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it.^{(BW) 23} The whole land will be a burning waste^(BX) of salt^(BY) and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,^(BZ) Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger.^{(CA) 24} All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land?^(CB) Why this fierce, burning anger?”

²⁵ And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.^{(CC) 26} They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. ²⁷ Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.^{(CD) 28} In furious anger and in great wrath^(CE) the Lord uprooted^(CF) them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”

²⁹ The secret things belong to the Lord our God,^(CG) but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.^(CH)

Psalm 101

Of David. A psalm.

Paul Ashore on Malta

28 Once safely on shore, we^(A) found out that the island^(B) was called Malta. ² The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. ³ Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. ⁴ When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand,^(C) they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.”^{(D) 5} But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.^{(E) 6} The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.^(F)

⁷ There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days. ⁸ His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer,^(G) placed his hands on him^(H) and healed him.^{(I) 9} When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. ¹⁰ They honored us^(J) in many ways; and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.

Paul’s Arrival at Rome

¹¹ After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island—it was an Alexandrian ship^(K) with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux. ¹² We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days. ¹³ From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. ¹⁴ There we found some brothers and sisters^(L) who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome. ¹⁵ The brothers and sisters^(M) there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these people Paul thanked God and was encouraged. ¹⁶ When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.^(N)

Paul Preaches at Rome Under Guard

¹⁷ Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders.^(O) When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers,^(P) although I have done nothing against our people^(Q) or against the customs of our ancestors,^(R) I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. ¹⁸ They examined me^(S) and wanted to release me,^(T) because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death.^{(U) 19} The Jews objected, so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar.^(V) I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people. ²⁰ For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel^(W) that I am bound with this chain.”^(X)

²¹ They replied, “We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of our people^(Y) who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you. ²² But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”^(Z)

²³ They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God,^(AA) and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets^(AB) he tried to persuade them about Jesus.^{(AC) 24} Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.^{(AD) 25} They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said^(AE) through Isaiah the prophet:

²⁸ “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation^(AH) has been sent to the Gentiles,^(AI) and they will listen!” ^[29] [b]

³⁰ For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. ³¹ He proclaimed the kingdom of God^(AJ) and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness^(AK) and without hindrance!