The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries and great kingdoms—of war and disaster and pestilence.

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Elijah Proclaims a Drought

17 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the (A)inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, (B)As the Lord God of Israel lives, (C)before whom I stand, (D)there shall not be dew nor rain (E)these years, except at my word.”

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God’s Mercy and Judgment

The [a]burden (A)against Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

God’s Wrath on His Enemies

God is (B)jealous, and the Lord avenges;
The Lord avenges and is furious.
The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries,
And He reserves wrath for His enemies;
The Lord is (C)slow to anger and (D)great in power,
And will not at all acquit the wicked.

(E)The Lord has His way
In the whirlwind and in the storm,
And the clouds are the dust of His feet.

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Footnotes

  1. Nahum 1:1 oracle, prophecy

But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord,
And of justice and might,
(A)To declare to Jacob his transgression
And to Israel his sin.
Now hear this,
You heads of the house of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Who abhor justice
And [a]pervert all equity,
10 (B)Who build up Zion with (C)bloodshed
And Jerusalem with iniquity:
11 (D)Her heads judge for a bribe,
(E)Her priests teach for pay,
And her prophets divine for [b]money.
(F)Yet they lean on the Lord, and say,
“Is not the Lord among us?
No harm can come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you
Zion shall be (G)plowed like a field,
(H)Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
And (I)the mountain of the [c]temple
Like the bare hills of the forest.

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Footnotes

  1. Micah 3:9 Lit. twist
  2. Micah 3:11 Lit. silver
  3. Micah 3:12 Lit. house

And he said:

“The Lord (A)roars from Zion,
And utters His voice from Jerusalem;
The pastures of the shepherds mourn,
And the top of (B)Carmel withers.”

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God Judges the Nations

“For behold, (A)in those days and at that time,
When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
(B)I will also gather all nations,
And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
And I (C)will enter into judgment with them there
On account of My people, My heritage Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
They have also divided up My land.
They have (D)cast lots for My people,
Have given a boy as payment for a harlot,
And sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

“Indeed, what have you to do with Me,
(E)O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia?
Will you [a]retaliate against Me?
But if you [b]retaliate against Me,
Swiftly and speedily I will return your [c]retaliation upon your own head;
Because you have taken My silver and My gold,
And have carried into your temples My [d]prized possessions.
Also the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem
You have sold to the Greeks,
That you may remove them far from their borders.

“Behold, (F)I will raise them
Out of the place to which you have sold them,
And will return your [e]retaliation upon your own head.
I will sell your sons and your daughters
Into the hand of the people of Judah,
And they will sell them to the (G)Sabeans,[f]
To a people (H)far off;
For the Lord has spoken.”

(I)Proclaim this among the nations:
“Prepare for war!
Wake up the mighty men,
Let all the men of war draw near,
Let them come up.
10 (J)Beat your plowshares into swords
And your [g]pruning hooks into spears;
(K)Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ”
11 Assemble and come, all you nations,
And gather together all around.
Cause (L)Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord.

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Footnotes

  1. Joel 3:4 Or render Me repayment
  2. Joel 3:4 Or repay Me
  3. Joel 3:4 Or repayment
  4. Joel 3:5 Lit. precious good things
  5. Joel 3:7 Or repayment
  6. Joel 3:8 Lit. Shebaites, Is. 60:6; Ezek. 27:22
  7. Joel 3:10 pruning knives

The Land Laid Waste(A)

Hear this, you elders,
And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land!
(B)Has anything like this happened in your days,
Or even in the days of your fathers?
(C)Tell your children about it,
Let your children tell their children,
And their children another generation.

(D)What the chewing [a]locust left, the (E)swarming locust has eaten;
What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;
And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

Awake, you (F)drunkards, and weep;
And wail, all you drinkers of wine,
Because of the new wine,
(G)For it has been cut off from your mouth.
For (H)a nation has come up against My land,
Strong, and without number;
(I)His teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And he has the fangs of a [b]fierce lion.
He has (J)laid waste My vine,
And [c]ruined My fig tree;
He has stripped it bare and thrown it away;
Its branches are made white.

(K)Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
For (L)the husband of her youth.
(M)The grain offering and the drink offering
Have been cut off from the house of the Lord;
The priests (N)mourn, who minister to the Lord.
10 The field is wasted,
(O)The land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
(P)The new wine is dried up,
The oil fails.

11 (Q)Be ashamed, you farmers,
Wail, you vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley;
Because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 (R)The vine has dried up,
And the fig tree has withered;
The pomegranate tree,
The palm tree also,
And the apple tree—
All the trees of the field are withered;
Surely (S)joy has withered away from the sons of men.

Mourning for the Land

13 (T)Gird yourselves and lament, you priests;
Wail, you who minister before the altar;
Come, lie all night in sackcloth,
You who minister to my God;
For the grain offering and the drink offering
Are withheld from the house of your God.
14 (U)Consecrate a fast,
Call (V)a sacred assembly;
Gather the elders
And (W)all the inhabitants of the land
Into the house of the Lord your God,
And cry out to the Lord.

15 (X)Alas for the day!
For (Y)the day of the Lord is at hand;
It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
16 Is not the food (Z)cut off before our eyes,
(AA)Joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seed shrivels under the clods,
Storehouses are in shambles;
Barns are broken down,
For the grain has withered.
18 How (AB)the animals groan!
The herds of cattle are restless,
Because they have no pasture;
Even the flocks of sheep [d]suffer punishment.

19 O Lord, (AC)to You I cry out;
For (AD)fire has devoured the [e]open pastures,
And a flame has burned all the trees of the field.
20 The beasts of the field also (AE)cry out to You,
For (AF)the water brooks are dried up,
And fire has devoured the [f]open pastures.

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Footnotes

  1. Joel 1:4 Exact identity of these locusts unknown
  2. Joel 1:6 Or lioness
  3. Joel 1:7 Or splintered
  4. Joel 1:18 LXX, Vg. are made desolate
  5. Joel 1:19 Lit. pastures of the wilderness
  6. Joel 1:20 Lit. pastures of the wilderness

Impending Judgment on the Earth

24 Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste,
Distorts its surface
And scatters abroad its inhabitants.
And it shall be:
As with the people, so with the (A)priest;
As with the servant, so with his master;
As with the maid, so with her mistress;
(B)As with the buyer, so with the seller;
As with the lender, so with the borrower;
As with the creditor, so with the debtor.
The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered,
For the Lord has spoken this word.

The earth mourns and fades away,
The world languishes and fades away;
The (C)haughty[a] people of the earth languish.
(D)The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants,
Because they have (E)transgressed the laws,
Changed the ordinance,
Broken the (F)everlasting covenant.
Therefore (G)the curse has devoured the earth,
And those who dwell in it are [b]desolate.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are (H)burned,
And few men are left.

(I)The new wine fails, the vine languishes,
All the merry-hearted sigh.
The mirth (J)of the tambourine ceases,
The noise of the jubilant ends,
The joy of the harp ceases.
They shall not drink wine with a song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of confusion is broken down;
Every house is shut up, so that none may go in.
11 There is a cry for wine in the streets,
All joy is darkened,
The mirth of the land is gone.
12 In the city desolation is left,
And the gate is stricken with destruction.
13 When it shall be thus in the midst of the land among the people,
(K)It shall be like the shaking of an olive tree,
Like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done.

14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing;
For the majesty of the Lord
They shall cry aloud from the sea.
15 Therefore (L)glorify the Lord in the dawning light,
(M)The name of the Lord God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea.
16 From the ends of the earth we have heard songs:
“Glory to the righteous!”
But I said, [c]“I am ruined, ruined!
Woe to me!
(N)The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously,
Indeed, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.”

17 (O)Fear and the pit and the snare
Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall be
That he who flees from the noise of the fear
Shall fall into the pit,
And he who comes up from the midst of the pit
Shall be [d]caught in the snare;
For (P)the windows from on high are open,
And (Q)the foundations of the earth are shaken.

19 (R)The earth is violently broken,
The earth is split open,
The earth is shaken exceedingly.
20 The earth shall (S)reel[e] to and fro like a drunkard,
And shall totter like a hut;
Its transgression shall be heavy upon it,
And it will fall, and not rise again.

21 It shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones,
And on the earth (T)the kings of the earth.
22 They will be gathered together,
As prisoners are gathered in the [f]pit,
And will be shut up in the prison;
After many days they will be punished.
23 Then the (U)moon will be disgraced
And the sun ashamed;
For the Lord of hosts will (V)reign
On (W)Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
And before His elders, gloriously.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 24:4 proud
  2. Isaiah 24:6 Or held guilty
  3. Isaiah 24:16 Lit. Leanness to me, leanness to me
  4. Isaiah 24:18 Lit. taken
  5. Isaiah 24:20 stagger
  6. Isaiah 24:22 dungeon

18 Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces,
And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
Their eye will not spare children.

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And He said, “Go, and (A)tell this people:

‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

10 “Make (B)the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
(C)Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And return and be healed.”

11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?”

And He answered:

(D)“Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,
The houses are without a man,
The land is utterly desolate,
12 (E)The Lord has removed men far away,
And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

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God’s Disappointing Vineyard

Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved (A)regarding His vineyard:

My Well-beloved has a vineyard
[a]On a very fruitful hill.
He dug it up and cleared out its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst,
And also [b]made a winepress in it;
(B)So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
But it brought forth wild grapes.

“And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
(C)Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
What more could have been done to My vineyard
That I have not done in (D)it?
Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes,
Did it bring forth wild grapes?
And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard:
(E)I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned;
And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
I will lay it (F)waste;
It shall not be pruned or [c]dug,
But there shall come up briers and (G)thorns.
I will also command the clouds
That they rain no rain on it.”

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,
And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.
He looked for justice, but behold, oppression;
For righteousness, but behold, [d]a cry for help.

Impending Judgment on Excesses

Woe to those who [e]join (H)house to house;
They add field to field,
Till there is no place
Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 5:1 Lit. In a horn, the son of fatness
  2. Isaiah 5:2 Lit. hewed out
  3. Isaiah 5:6 hoed
  4. Isaiah 5:7 wailing
  5. Isaiah 5:8 Accumulate houses

So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.”

And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say such things!”

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18 “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, (A)who lives in Samaria. There he is, in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. 19 You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Have you murdered and also taken possession?” ’ And you shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: (B)“In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours.” ’ ”

20 So Ahab said to Elijah, (C)“Have you found me, O my enemy?”

And he answered, “I have found you, because (D)you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord: 21 ‘Behold, (E)I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your (F)posterity, and will cut off from Ahab (G)every male in Israel, both (H)bond and free. 22 I will make your house like the house of (I)Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of (J)Baasha the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked Me to anger, and made Israel sin.’ 23 And (K)concerning Jezebel the Lord also spoke, saying, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the [a]wall of Jezreel.’ 24 The dogs shall eat (L)whoever belongs to Ahab and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field.”

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 21:23 So with MT, LXX; some Heb. mss., Syr., Tg., Vg. plot of ground instead of wall (cf. 2 Kin. 9:36)

Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: (A)“Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, and (B)tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, (C)who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; but you have done more evil than all who were before you, (D)for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and (E)have cast Me behind your back— 10 therefore behold! (F)I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and (G)will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, (H)bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. 11 The dogs shall eat (I)whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the Lord has spoken!” ’ 12 Arise therefore, go to your own house. (J)When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. 13 And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall [a]come to the grave, because in him (K)there is found something good toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

14 (L)“Moreover the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam; [b]this is the day. What? Even now! 15 For the Lord will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will (M)uproot Israel from this (N)good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them (O)beyond [c]the River, (P)because they have made their [d]wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 14:13 Be buried
  2. 1 Kings 14:14 Or this day and from now on
  3. 1 Kings 14:15 The Euphrates
  4. 1 Kings 14:15 Heb. Asherim, Canaanite deities

11 Then the Lord said to Samuel: “Behold, I will do something in Israel (A)at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 12 In that day I will perform against Eli (B)all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 (C)For I have told him that I will (D)judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because (E)his sons made themselves vile, and he (F)did not [a]restrain them. 14 And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house (G)shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 3:13 Lit. rebuke

27 Then a (A)man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: (B)‘Did I not clearly reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh’s house? 28 Did I not (C)choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to offer upon My altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod before Me? And (D)did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? 29 Why do you (E)kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My (F)dwelling place, and honor your sons more than (G)Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?’ 30 Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: (H)‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: (I)‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and (J)those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed. 31 Behold, (K)the days are coming that I will cut off your [a]arm and the arm of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. 32 And you will see an enemy in My dwelling place, despite all the good which God does for Israel. And there shall not be (L)an old man in your house forever.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 2:31 strength

15 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;
(A)You grew fat, you grew thick,
You are obese!
Then he (B)forsook God who (C)made him,
And scornfully esteemed the (D)Rock of his salvation.
16 (E)They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods;
With [a]abominations they provoked Him to anger.
17 (F)They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
To gods they did not know,
To new gods, new arrivals
That your fathers did not fear.
18 (G)Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,
And have (H)forgotten the God who fathered you.

19 “And(I) when the Lord saw it, He spurned them,
Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters.
20 And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their end will be,
For they are a perverse generation,
(J)Children in whom is no faith.
21 (K)They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God;
They have moved Me to anger (L)by their [b]foolish idols.
But (M)I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation;
I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.
22 For (N)a fire is kindled in My anger,
And shall burn to the [c]lowest [d]hell;
It shall consume the earth with her increase,
And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

23 ‘I will (O)heap disasters on them;
(P)I will spend My arrows on them.
24 They shall be wasted with hunger,
Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction;
I will also send against them the (Q)teeth of beasts,
With the poison of serpents of the dust.
25 The sword shall destroy outside;
There shall be terror within
For the young man and virgin,
The nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
26 (R)I would have said, “I will dash them in pieces,
I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,”
27 Had I not feared the wrath of the enemy,
Lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
Lest they should say, (S)“Our hand is high;
And it is not the Lord who has done all this.” ’

28 “For they are a nation void of counsel,
Nor is there any understanding in them.
29 (T)Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this,
That they would consider their (U)latter end!
30 How could one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock (V)had sold them,
And the Lord had surrendered them?
31 For their rock is not like our Rock,
(W)Even our enemies themselves being judges.
32 For (X)their vine is of the vine of Sodom
And of the fields of Gomorrah;
Their grapes are grapes of gall,
Their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is (Y)the poison of serpents,
And the cruel (Z)venom of cobras.

34 Is this not (AA)laid up in store with Me,
Sealed up among My treasures?
35 (AB)Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
(AC)For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.’

36 “For(AD) the Lord will judge His people
(AE)And have compassion on His servants,
When He sees that their power is gone,
And (AF)there is no one remaining, bond or free.
37 He will say: (AG)‘Where are their gods,
The rock in which they sought refuge?
38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices,
And drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise and help you,
And be your refuge.

39 ‘Now see that (AH)I, even I, am He,
And (AI)there is no God besides Me;
(AJ)I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.
40 For I raise My hand to heaven,
And say, “As I live forever,
41 (AK)If I [e]whet My glittering sword,
And My hand takes hold on judgment,
I will render vengeance to My enemies,
And repay those who hate Me.
42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
And My sword shall devour flesh,
With the blood of the slain and the captives,
From the heads of the leaders of the enemy.” ’

43 “Rejoice,(AL) O Gentiles, with His [f]people;
For He will (AM)avenge the blood of His servants,
And render vengeance to His adversaries;
He (AN)will provide atonement for His land and His people.”

44 So Moses came with [g]Joshua the son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 32:16 detestable acts
  2. Deuteronomy 32:21 foolishness, lit. vanities
  3. Deuteronomy 32:22 lowest part of
  4. Deuteronomy 32:22 Or Sheol
  5. Deuteronomy 32:41 sharpen
  6. Deuteronomy 32:43 DSS fragment adds And let all the gods (angels) worship Him; cf. LXX and Heb. 1:6
  7. Deuteronomy 32:44 Heb. Hoshea, Num. 13:8, 16

16 And the Lord said to Moses: “Behold, you will [a]rest with your fathers; and this people will (A)rise and (B)play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will (C)forsake Me and (D)break My covenant which I have made with them. 17 Then My anger shall be (E)aroused against them in that day, and (F)I will forsake them, and I will (G)hide My face from them, and they shall be [b]devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, (H)‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is (I)not among us?’

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 31:16 Die and join your ancestors
  2. Deuteronomy 31:17 consumed

18 so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, (A)whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, (B)and that there may not be among you a root bearing (C)bitterness or wormwood; 19 and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I [a]follow the (D)dictates of my heart’—(E)as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.

20 (F)“The Lord would not spare him; for then (G)the anger of the Lord and (H)His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord (I)would blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the Lord (J)would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the (K)Law, 22 so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they (L)see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it:

23 ‘The whole land is brimstone, (M)salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, (N)like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’ 24 All nations would say, (O)‘Why has the Lord done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?’ 25 Then people would say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt; 26 for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them. 27 Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against this land, (P)to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. 28 And the Lord (Q)uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 29:19 walk in the stubbornness or imagination

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.

64 “Then the Lord (AY)will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and (AZ)there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. 65 And (BA)among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; (BB)but there the Lord will give you a [r]trembling heart, failing eyes, and (BC)anguish of soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. 67 (BD)In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and (BE)because of the sight which your eyes see.

68 “And the Lord (BF)will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, (BG)‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:18 offspring
  2. Deuteronomy 28:21 pestilence
  3. Deuteronomy 28:22 blight
  4. Deuteronomy 28:25 a terror
  5. Deuteronomy 28:32 nothing you can do
  6. Deuteronomy 28:37 a thing of horror
  7. Deuteronomy 28:38 devour
  8. Deuteronomy 28:42 possess
  9. Deuteronomy 28:45 did not listen to
  10. Deuteronomy 28:53 offspring
  11. Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit. tender
  12. Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit. his eye shall be evil toward
  13. Deuteronomy 28:56 sensitive
  14. Deuteronomy 28:56 refined
  15. Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit. her eye shall be evil toward
  16. Deuteronomy 28:57 afterbirth
  17. Deuteronomy 28:63 torn
  18. Deuteronomy 28:65 anxious

26 (A)I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not [a]prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord (B)will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 4:26 live long on it

14 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments,

15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant,

16 I also will do this to you:

I will even appoint terror over you, (A)wasting disease and fever which shall (B)consume the eyes and (C)cause sorrow of heart.

And (D)you shall sow your seed [a]in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

17 I will [b]set (E)My face against you, and (F)you shall be defeated by your enemies.

(G)Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall (H)flee when no one pursues you.

18 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you (I)seven times more for your sins.

19 I will (J)break the pride of your power;

I (K)will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.

20 And your (L)strength shall be spent in vain;

for your (M)land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.

21 ‘Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins.

22 (N)I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number;

and (O)your highways shall be desolate.

23 ‘And if (P)by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me,

24 (Q)then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

25 And (R)I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant;

when you are gathered together within your cities (S)I will send pestilence among you;

and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

26 (T)When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, (U)and you shall eat and not be satisfied.

27 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me,

28 then I also will walk contrary to you in fury;

and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

29 (V)You[c] shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.

30 (W)I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols;

and My soul shall abhor you.

31 I will lay your (X)cities waste and (Y)bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not (Z)smell the fragrance of your [d]sweet aromas.

32 (AA)I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.

33 (AB)I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you;

your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.

34 (AC)Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land;

then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths.

35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest—

for the time it did not rest on your (AD)sabbaths when you dwelt in it.

36 ‘And as for those of you who are left, I will send (AE)faintness[e] into their hearts in the lands of their enemies;

the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee;

they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues.

37 (AF)They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues;

and (AG)you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.

38 You shall (AH)perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

39 And those of you who are left (AI)shall [f]waste away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands;

also in their (AJ)fathers’ iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.

40 But (AK)if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,

41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies;

if their (AL)uncircumcised hearts are (AM)humbled, and they (AN)accept their guilt—

42 then I will (AO)remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember;

I will (AP)remember the land.

43 (AQ)The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them;

they will accept their guilt, because they (AR)despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes.

44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, (AS)I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them;

for I am the Lord their God.

45 But (AT)for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, (AU)whom I brought out of the land of Egypt (AV)in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God:

I am the Lord.’ ”

46 (AW)These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel (AX)on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

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Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 26:16 without profit
  2. Leviticus 26:17 oppose you
  3. Leviticus 26:29 In time of famine
  4. Leviticus 26:31 pleasing
  5. Leviticus 26:36 fear
  6. Leviticus 26:39 rot away

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