²⁵ “When you have children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, and if you act corruptly, make an idol in the form of anything, and do what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, angering him, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will quickly perish^(A) from the land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not live long there, but you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁷ The Lord will scatter you among the peoples,^(B) and you will be reduced to a few survivors^[a] among the nations where the Lord your God will drive you. ²⁸ There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, eat, or smell. ²⁹ But from there, you will search for the Lord your God, and you will find him when you seek him with all your heart and all your soul.^{(C) 30} When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, in the future you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. ³¹ He will not leave you, destroy you, or forget the covenant^(D) with your ancestors that he swore to them by oath, because the Lord your God is a compassionate God.^(E)