Caution Against Disobedience

¹⁰ “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He ^[a]swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities ^(A)which you did not build, ¹¹ houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—^(B)when you have eaten and are full— ¹² then beware, lest you forget the ^(C)Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¹³ You shall ^(D)fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and ^(E)shall take oaths in His name. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods, ^(F)the gods of the peoples who are all around you ¹⁵ (for ^(G)the Lord your God is a jealous God ^(H)among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.

^16 (I)“You shall not ^[b]tempt the Lord your God ^(J)as you ^[c]tempted Him in Massah. ¹⁷ You shall ^(K)diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ And you ^(L)shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, ^19 (M)to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.

^20 (N)“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt ^(O)with a mighty hand; ²² and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. ²³ Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He ^[d]swore to our fathers. ²⁴ And the Lord commanded us to ^[e]observe all these ^[f]statutes, ^(P)to fear the Lord our God, ^(Q)for our good always, that ^(R)He might preserve us alive, as it is ^[g]this day. ²⁵ Then ^(S)it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’

Curses on Disobedience^(A)

¹⁵ “But it shall come to pass, ^(B)if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶ “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

¹⁷ “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

¹⁸ “Cursed shall be the ^[a]fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

¹⁹ “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

²⁰ “The Lord will send on you ^(C)cursing, ^(D)confusion, and ^(E)rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. ²¹ The Lord will make the ^[b]plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. ^22 (F)The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with ^(G)scorching,^[c] and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. ²³ And ^(H)your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. ²⁴ The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

^25 (I)“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 shall become ^[d]troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. ^26 (J)Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. ²⁷ The Lord will strike you with ^(K)the boils of Egypt, with ^(L)tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. ²⁸ The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and ^(M)confusion of heart. ²⁹ And you shall ^(N)grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.

^30 (O)“You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; ^(P)you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; ^(Q)you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. ³¹ Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. ³² Your sons and your daughters shall be given to ^(R)another people, and your eyes shall look and ^(S)fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be ^[e]no strength in your ^(T)hand. ³³ A nation whom you have not known shall eat ^(U)the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. ³⁴ So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. ³⁵ The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

³⁶ “The Lord will ^(V)bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and ^(W)there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. ³⁷ And you shall become ^(X)an^[f] astonishment, a proverb, ^(Y)and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.

^38 (Z)“You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for ^(AA)the locust shall ^[g]consume it. ³⁹ You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the ^(AB)wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. ⁴⁰ You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. ⁴¹ You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for ^(AC)they shall go into captivity. ⁴² Locusts shall ^[h]consume all your trees and the produce of your land.

⁴³ “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

⁴⁵ “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you ^[i]did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. ⁴⁶ And they shall be upon ^(AD)you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.

^47 (AE)“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, ^(AF)for the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in ^(AG)hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He ^(AH)will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. ^49 (AI)The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, ^(AJ)as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce countenance, ^(AK)which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹ And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.

⁵² “They shall ^(AL)besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you. ^53 (AM)You shall eat the ^[j]fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. ⁵⁴ The ^[k]sensitive and very refined man among you ^(AN)will^[l] be hostile toward his brother, toward ^(AO)the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, ⁵⁵ so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. ⁵⁶ The ^[m]tender and ^[n]delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, ^[o]will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, ⁵⁷ her ^[p]placenta which comes out ^(AP)from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.

⁵⁸ “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear ^(AQ)this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, ⁵⁹ then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants ^(AR)extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. ⁶⁰ Moreover He will bring back on you all ^(AS)the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. ⁶¹ Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. ⁶² You ^(AT)shall be left few in number, whereas you were ^(AU)as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. ⁶³ And it shall be, that just as the Lord ^(AV)rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord ^(AW)will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be ^(AX)plucked^[q] from off the land which you go to possess.