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The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms.(A)

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The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one other by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies anything favorable about me but only disaster.” Jehoshaphat said, “Let the king not say such a thing.”

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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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Footnotes

  1. 17.1 Gk: Heb of the settlers

An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.(A)

The Consuming Wrath of God

A jealous and avenging God is the Lord;
    the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
    and prolongs it against his enemies.(B)
The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,
    and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm,
    and the clouds are the dust of his feet.(C)

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But as for me, I am filled with power,
    with the spirit of the Lord,
    and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression
    and to Israel his sin.(A)

Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob
    and chiefs of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
    and pervert all equity,(B)
10 who build Zion with blood
    and Jerusalem with wrong!(C)
11 Its rulers give judgment for a bribe;
    its priests teach for a price;
    its prophets give oracles for money;
yet they lean upon the Lord and say,
    “Surely the Lord is with us!
    No harm shall come upon us.”(D)
12 Therefore because of you
    Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
    and the mountain of the temple a wooded height.(E)

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Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors

And he said:

The Lord roars from Zion
    and utters his voice from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds wither,
    and the top of Carmel dries up.(A)

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[a]For then, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,(A) I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations. They have divided my land(B) and cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes and sold girls for wine and drunk it down.(C)

What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will turn your deeds back upon your own heads swiftly and speedily.(D) For you have taken my silver and my gold and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.[b] You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, removing them far from their own border. But now I will rouse them to leave the places to which you have sold them, and I will turn your deeds back upon your own heads.(E) I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.(F)

Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat

Proclaim this among the nations:
Consecrate yourselves for war;
    stir up the warriors.
Let all the soldiers draw near;
    let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords
    and your pruning hooks into spears;
    let the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”(G)

11 Come quickly,[c]
    all you nations all around;
    gather yourselves there.
Bring down your warriors, O Lord.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. 3.1 4.1 in Heb
  2. 3.5 Or palaces
  3. 3.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain

Lament over the Ruin of the Country

Hear this, O elders;
    give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days
    or in the days of your ancestors?(A)
Tell your children of it,
    and let your children tell their children,
    and their children another generation.(B)

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.(C)

Wake up, you drunkards, and weep,
    and wail, all you wine drinkers,
over the sweet wine,
    for it is cut off from your mouth.
For a nation has invaded my land,
    powerful and innumerable;
its teeth are lions’ teeth,
    and it has the fangs of a lioness.(D)
It has laid waste my vines
    and splintered my fig trees;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
    their branches have turned white.(E)

Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth
    for the husband of her youth.(F)
The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
    from the house of the Lord.
The priests mourn,
    the ministers of the Lord.(G)
10 The fields are devastated,
    the ground mourns,
for the grain is destroyed,
    the wine dries up,
    the oil fails.(H)

11 Be dismayed, you farmers;
    wail, you vinedressers,
over the wheat and the barley,
    for the crops of the field are ruined.(I)
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.(J)

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.(K)

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.(L)

15 Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty[a] it comes.(M)
16 Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?(N)

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.(O)

19 To you, O Lord, I cry,
for fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
and flames have burned
    all the trees of the field.(P)
20 Even the wild animals cry to you
    because the watercourses are dried up,
and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.(Q)

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Footnotes

  1. 1.15 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
  2. 1.17 Meaning of Heb uncertain

Impending Judgment on the Earth

24 Now the Lord is about to lay waste the earth and make it desolate,
    and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.(A)
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
    as with the male slave, so with his master;
    as with the female slave, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller;
    as with the lender, so with the borrower;
    as with the creditor, so with the debtor.(B)
The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled,
    for the Lord has spoken this word.(C)

The earth dries up and withers;
    the world languishes and withers;
    the heavens languish together with the earth.
The earth lies polluted
    under its inhabitants,
for they have transgressed laws,
    violated the statutes,
    broken the everlasting covenant.(D)
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.(E)
The wine dries up;
    the vine languishes;
    all the merry-hearted sigh.(F)
The mirth of the timbrels is stilled;
    the noise of the jubilant has ceased;
    the mirth of the lyre is stilled.(G)
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.(H)
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.(I)
12 Desolation is left in the city;
    the gates are battered into ruins.
13 For thus it shall be on the earth
    and among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
    as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is ended.(J)

14 They lift up their voices; they sing for joy;
    they shout from the west over the majesty of the Lord.(K)
15 Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord;
    in the coastlands of the sea glorify the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.(L)
16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,
    of glory to the Righteous One.

But I say, “I pine away;
    I pine away. Woe is me!
For the treacherous deal treacherously;
    the treacherous deal very treacherously.”(M)
17 Terror, the pit, and the snare
    are upon you, O inhabitants of the earth!(N)
18 Whoever flees at the sound of the terror
    shall fall into the pit,
and whoever climbs out of the pit
    shall be caught in the snare.
For the windows of heaven are opened,
    and the foundations of the earth tremble.(O)
19 The earth is utterly broken;
    the earth is torn apart;
    the earth is violently shaken.(P)
20 The earth staggers like a drunkard;
    it sways like a hut;
its transgression lies heavy upon it,
    and it falls and will not rise again.(Q)

21 On that day the Lord will punish
    the host of heaven in heaven
    and on earth the kings of the earth.(R)
22 They will be gathered together
    like prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
    and after many days they will be punished.(S)
23 Then the moon will be abashed
    and the sun ashamed,
for the Lord of hosts will reign
    on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and before his elders he will be glorified.(T)

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18 Their bows will slaughter the young men;
    they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
    their eyes will not pity children.(A)

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And he said, “Go and say to this people:

‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.’(A)
10 Make the mind of this people dull,
    and stop their ears,
    and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes
    and listen with their ears
and comprehend with their minds
    and turn and be healed.”(B)
11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said,
“Until cities lie waste
    without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
    and the land is utterly desolate;(C)
12 until the Lord sends everyone far away,
    and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.(D)

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The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard

I will sing for my beloved
    my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a very fertile hill.(A)
He dug it and cleared it of stones
    and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it
    and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
    but it yielded rotten grapes.(B)

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and people of Judah,
judge between me
    and my vineyard.(C)
What more was there to do for my vineyard
    that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
    why did it yield rotten grapes?(D)

And now I will tell you
    what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
    and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
    and it shall be trampled down.(E)
I will make it a wasteland;
    it shall not be pruned or hoed,
    and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
    that they rain no rain upon it.(F)

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
    are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
    but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
    but heard a cry!(G)

Social Injustice Denounced

Woe to those who join house to house,
    who add field to field,
until there is room for no one,
    and you are left to live alone
    in the midst of the land!(H)

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18 “Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules[a] in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession.(A) 19 You shall say to him: Thus says the Lord: Have you killed and also taken possession? You shall say to him: Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood.”(B)

20 Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord,(C) 21 I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel,(D) 22 and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin. 23 Also concerning Jezebel the Lord said: The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.(E) 24 Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat.”(F)

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Footnotes

  1. 21.18 Heb who is

Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because I exalted you from among the people, made you leader over my people Israel,(A) and tore the kingdom away from the house of David to give it to you, yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in my sight,(B) but you have done evil above all those who were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods and cast images, provoking me to anger, and have thrust me behind your back,(C) 10 therefore I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will consume the house of Jeroboam, just as one burns up dung until it is all gone.(D) 11 Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat, for the Lord has spoken.’(E) 12 Therefore set out, go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die.(F) 13 All Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam’s family shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.(G) 14 Moreover the Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam today, even right now![a](H)

15 “The Lord will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water; he will root up Israel out of this good land that he gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their sacred poles,[b] provoking the Lord to anger.(I)

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Footnotes

  1. 14.14 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  2. 14.15 Or Asherahs

11 Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.(A) 12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.(B) 13 For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God,[a] and he did not restrain them.(C) 14 Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 3.13 Gk: Heb cursing for themselves

27 A man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Thus the Lord has said: I revealed[a] myself to the family of your ancestor in Egypt when they were slaves[b] to the house of Pharaoh.(A) 28 I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to offer incense, to wear an ephod before me, and I gave to the family of your ancestor all my offerings by fire[c] from the Israelites.(B) 29 Why then look[d] with greedy eye at my sacrifices and my offerings[e] and honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?(C) 30 Therefore the Lord the God of Israel declares: I promised that your family and the family of your ancestor should go in and out before me forever, but now the Lord declares: Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be treated with contempt.(D) 31 See, a time is coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your ancestor’s family.[f](E) 32 No one in your family shall ever live to old age.(F)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.27 Gk Tg Syr: Heb Did I reveal
  2. 2.27 Q ms Gk: MT lacks slaves
  3. 2.28 Or my gifts
  4. 2.29 Q ms Gk: MT then kick
  5. 2.29 Q ms Gk: MT adds that I commanded at this dwelling
  6. 2.31–32 Q ms Gk: MT adds so that no one in your family will live to old age. Then in a distressed place you will look upon all the prosperity of Israel. No one

15 Jacob ate his fill;[a]
    Jeshurun grew fat and kicked.
    You grew fat, bloated, and gorged!
He abandoned God who made him
    and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.(A)
16 They made him jealous with strange gods;
    with abhorrent things they provoked him.(B)
17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,
    to deities they had never known,
to new ones recently arrived,
    whom your ancestors had not feared.(C)
18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you;[b]
    you forgot the God who gave you birth.(D)

19 The Lord saw it and was jealous;[c]
    he spurned[d] his sons and daughters.(E)
20 He said, ‘I will hide my face from them;
    I will see what their end will be,
for they are a perverse generation,
    children in whom there is no faithfulness.(F)
21 They made me jealous with what is no god,
    provoked me with their idols.
So I will make them jealous with what is no people,
    provoke them with a foolish nation.(G)
22 For a fire is kindled by my anger
    and burns to the depths of Sheol;
it devours the earth and its increase
    and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.(H)
23 I will heap disasters upon them,
    spend my arrows against them:(I)
24 wasting hunger,
    burning consumption,
    bitter pestilence.
The teeth of beasts I will send against them,
    with venom of things crawling in the dust.(J)
25 In the street the sword shall bereave,
    and in the chambers terror
for young man and woman alike,
    nursing child and old gray head.(K)
26 I said, “I will make an end of them[e]
    and blot out the memory of them from humankind,”(L)
27 but I feared provocation by the enemy,
    for their adversaries might misunderstand
and say, “Our hand is triumphant;
    it was not the Lord who did all this.” ’(M)

28 They are a nation void of sense;
    there is no understanding in them.
29 If they were wise, they would understand this;
    they would discern what their end would be.(N)
30 How could one have routed a thousand
    and two put a myriad to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
    the Lord had given them up?(O)
31 Indeed, their rock is not like our Rock;
    our enemies are fools.[f](P)
32 Their vine comes from the vinestock of Sodom,
    from the vineyards of Gomorrah;
their grapes are grapes of poison;
    their clusters are bitter;
33 their wine is the poison of serpents,
    the cruel venom of asps.(Q)

34 Is not this laid up in store with me,
    sealed up in my treasuries,(R)
35 for the day of vengeance[g] and recompense,
    for the time when their foot shall slip?
Because the day of their calamity is at hand;
    their doom comes swiftly.(S)

36 Indeed, the Lord will vindicate his people,
    have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone,
    neither bond nor free remaining.(T)
37 Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods,
    the rock in which they took refuge,(U)
38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices
    and drank the wine of their libations?
Let them rise up and help you;
    let them be your protection!

39 See now that I, even I, am he;
    there is no god besides me.
I kill, and I make alive;
    I wound, and I heal;
    and no one can deliver from my hand.(V)
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven
    and swear, As I live forever,
41 when I whet my flashing sword
    and my hand takes hold on judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
    and will repay those who hate me.(W)
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 long-haired enemy.’(X)

43 Praise, O heavens,[h] his people;
    worship him, all you gods![i]
For he will avenge the blood of his children[j]
    and take vengeance on his adversaries;
he will repay those who hate him[k]
    and cleanse the land for his people.”[l](Y)

44 Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua[m] son of Nun.

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Footnotes

  1. 32.15 Q mss Sam Gk: MT lacks Jacob ate his fill
  2. 32.18 Or that fathered you
  3. 32.19 Q mss Gk: MT lacks was jealous
  4. 32.19 Cn: Heb he spurned because of provocation
  5. 32.26 Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
  6. 32.31 Gk: Heb judges
  7. 32.35 Sam Gk: MT vengeance is mine
  8. 32.43 Q ms Gk: MT nations
  9. 32.43 Q ms Gk: MT lacks this line
  10. 32.43 Q ms Gk: MT his servants
  11. 32.43 Q ms Gk: MT lacks this line
  12. 32.43 Q ms Sam Gk Vg: MT his land his people
  13. 32.44 Sam Gk Syr Vg: MT Hoshea

16 The Lord said to Moses, “Soon you will lie down with your ancestors. Then this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst, the gods of the land into which they are going; they will forsake me, breaking my covenant that I have made with them.(A) 17 My anger will be kindled against them on that day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them; they will become easy prey, and many terrible troubles will come upon them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these troubles come upon us because our God is not in our midst?’(B)

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18 It may be that there is among you a man or woman or a family or tribe whose heart is already turning away from the Lord our God to serve the gods of those nations. It may be that there is among you a root sprouting poisonous and bitter growth.(A) 19 All who hear the words of this oath and bless themselves, thinking in their hearts, ‘We are safe even though we go our own stubborn ways’ (thus sweeping away the moist with the dry)[a] 20 the Lord will be unwilling to pardon them, for then the Lord’s anger and passion will smoke against them. All the curses written in this book will descend on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven.(B) 21 The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.(C) 22 The next generation, your children who rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who comes from a distant country, will see the devastation of that land and the afflictions with which the Lord has afflicted it(D) 23 all its soil burned out by sulfur and salt, nothing planted, nothing sprouting, unable to support any vegetation, like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his fierce anger(E) 24 they and indeed all the nations will wonder, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused this great display of anger?’(F) 25 They will conclude, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 They turned and served other gods, worshiping them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them; 27 so the anger of the Lord was kindled against that land, bringing on it every curse written in this book. 28 The Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, fury, and great wrath and cast them into another land, as is now the case.’(G)

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Footnotes

  1. 29.19 Meaning of Heb uncertain

Warnings against Disobedience

15 “But if you will not obey the Lord your God by diligently observing all his commandments and decrees that I am commanding you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you:(A)

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

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

18 “Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock.

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

20 “The Lord will send upon you disaster, panic, and frustration in everything you attempt to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds with which you have forsaken me.(B) 21 The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until it has consumed you off the land that you are entering to possess.(C) 22 The Lord will afflict you with consumption, fever, inflammation, with fiery heat and drought,[a] and with blight and mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.(D) 23 The sky over your head shall be bronze and the earth under you iron.(E) 24 The Lord will change the rain of your land into powder, and only dust shall come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed.

25 “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out against them one way and flee before them seven ways. You shall become an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.(F) 26 Your corpses shall be food for every bird of the air and animal of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.(G) 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, scurvy, and itch, of which you cannot be healed.(H) 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind; 29 you shall grope about at noon as blind people grope in darkness, but you shall be unable to find your way, and you shall be continually abused and robbed, without anyone to help.(I) 30 You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house but not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit.(J) 31 Your ox shall be butchered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be stolen in front of you and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies without anyone to help you. 32 Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people while you look on; you will strain your eyes looking for them all day but be powerless to do anything.(K) 33 A people whom you do not know shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors; you shall be continually abused and crushed(L) 34 and driven mad by the sight that your eyes shall see. 35 The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.(M) 36 The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, where you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone.(N) 37 You shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you.(O)

38 “You shall carry much seed into the field but shall gather little in, for the locust shall consume it.(P) 39 You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm 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 have sons and daughters, but they shall not remain yours, for they shall go into captivity.(Q) 42 All your trees and the fruit of your ground the cicada shall take over.(R) 43 Aliens residing among you shall ascend above you higher and higher, while you shall descend lower and lower.(S) 44 They shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to them; they shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.(T)

45 “All these curses shall come upon you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God by observing the commandments and the decrees that he commanded you.(U) 46 They shall be among you and your descendants as a sign and a portent forever.

47 “Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything,(V) 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lack of everything. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.(W) 49 The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,(X) 50 a grim-faced nation showing no respect to the old or favor to the young. 51 It shall consume the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, leaving you neither grain, wine, and oil nor the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, until it has made you perish.(Y) 52 It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout your land; it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout the land that the Lord your God has given you.(Z) 53 In the desperate straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you.(AA) 54 Even the most refined and gentle of men among you will begrudge food to his own brother, to the wife whom he embraces, and to the last of his remaining children, 55 giving to none of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because nothing else remains to him, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in all your towns. 56 She who is the most refined and gentle among you, so gentle and refined that she does not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge food to the husband whom she embraces, to her own son, and to her own daughter,(AB) 57 begrudging even the afterbirth that comes out from between her thighs and the children that she bears, because she is eating them in secret for lack of anything else, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in your towns.

58 “If you do not diligently observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, fearing this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,(AC) 59 then the Lord will overwhelm both you and your offspring with severe and lasting afflictions and grievous and lasting maladies. 60 He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were in dread, and they shall cling to you.(AD) 61 Every other malady and affliction, even though not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will inflict on you until you are destroyed.(AE) 62 Although once you were as numerous as the stars in heaven, you shall be left few in number because you did not obey the Lord your God.(AF) 63 And just as the Lord took delight in making you prosperous and numerous, so the Lord will take delight in bringing you to ruin and destruction; you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to possess.(AG) 64 The Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.(AH) 65 Among those nations you shall find no ease, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a languishing spirit.(AI) 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall be in dread, with no assurance of your life. 67 In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sights that your eyes shall see.(AJ) 68 The Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, by a route that I promised you would never see again, and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

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Footnotes

  1. 28.22 Gk Syr Tg: MT the sword

26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to occupy; you will not live long on it but will be utterly destroyed.(A) 27 The Lord will scatter you among the peoples; only a few of you will be left among the nations where the Lord will lead you.(B)

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Penalties for Disobedience

14 “But if you will not obey me and do not observe all these commandments,(A) 15 if you spurn my statutes and abhor my ordinances, so that you will not observe all my commandments and you break my covenant, 16 I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror on you, consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.(B) 17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies; your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues you.(C) 18 And if in spite of this you will not obey me, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins. 19 I will break your proud glory, and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like copper.(D) 20 Your strength shall be spent to no purpose: your land shall not yield its produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.(E)

21 “If you continue hostile to me and will not obey me, I will continue to plague you sevenfold for your sins. 22 I will let loose wild animals against you, and they shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock; they shall make you few in number, and your roads shall be deserted.(F)

23 “If in spite of these punishments you have not turned back to me but continue hostile to me,(G) 24 then I, too, will continue hostile to you: I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.(H) 25 I will bring the sword against you, executing vengeance for the covenant, and if you withdraw into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands.(I) 26 When I cut off your supply of bread,[a] ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven, and they shall dole out your bread by weight, and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied.(J)

27 “But if, despite this, you disobey me and continue hostile to me, 28 I will continue hostile to you in fury; I in turn will punish you myself sevenfold for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.(K) 30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars; I will heap your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols. I will abhor you.(L) 31 I will lay your cities waste, will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing odors.(M) 32 I will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to settle in it shall be appalled at it.(N) 33 And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword against you; your land shall be a desolation and your cities a waste.(O)

34 “Then the land shall enjoy[b] its Sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest and enjoy[c] its Sabbath years.(P) 35 As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were living on it. 36 And as for those of you who survive, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall though no one pursues.(Q) 37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though no one pursues, and you shall have no power to stand against your enemies.(R) 38 You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall devour you.(S) 39 And those of you who survive shall languish in the land of your enemies because of their iniquities; they shall also languish because of the iniquities of their ancestors.(T)

40 “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors—their treachery against me and also their continued hostility to me,(U) 41 so that I in turn was hostile to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if, then, their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,(V) 42 then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.(W) 43 For the land shall be deserted by them and enjoy[d] its Sabbath years by lying desolate without them, while they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they dared to spurn my ordinances, and they abhorred my statutes.(X) 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God,(Y) 45 but I will remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord.”(Z)

46 These are the statutes and ordinances and laws that the Lord established between himself and the Israelites on Mount Sinai through Moses.(AA)

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Footnotes

  1. 26.26 Heb staff of bread
  2. 26.34 Or make up for
  3. 26.34 Or make up for
  4. 26.43 Or make up for