Reject His Statutes and He Will Strike You

¹⁴ ‘^(A)But if you do not obey Me and do not do all these commandments, ¹⁵ if, instead, you ^(B)reject My statutes, and if your soul loathes My judgments so as not to do all My commandments and so ^(C)break My covenant, ¹⁶ I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a ^(D)sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the ^(E)soul to pine away; also, ^(F)you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up. ¹⁷ And I will ^[a]set My face against you so that you will be ^[b]defeated before your enemies; and ^(G)those who hate you will have dominion over you, and ^(H)you will flee when no one is pursuing you. ¹⁸ If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will discipline you ^(I)seven times more for your sins. ¹⁹ I will also ^(J)break down your pride of strength; I will also give your sky over to become like iron and your earth like bronze. ^20 (K)And your power will be spent uselessly, for your land will not give forth its produce and the trees of the land will not give forth their fruit.

²¹ ‘If then, you ^(L)walk in hostility against Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you ^(M)seven times according to your sins. ^22 (N)And I will send out among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and cut down your cattle and reduce your number so that ^(O)your roads lie desolate.

²³ ‘^(P)And if by these things you do not accept My discipline, but walk in hostility against Me, ²⁴ then I will ^(Q)walk in hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you ^(R)seven times for your sins. ²⁵ I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute ^(S)vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send ^(T)pestilence among you so that you shall be given over into enemy hands. ^26 (U)When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread by rationed weight so that you will ^(V)eat and not become full.

²⁷ ‘Yet, if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but walk in hostility against Me, ²⁸ then ^(W)I will walk in wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will discipline you seven times for your sins. ²⁹ Further, ^(X)you will eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you will eat. ³⁰ I then ^(Y)will destroy your high places and cut down your ^(Z)incense altars and give your corpses to lie on the corpses of your idols, for My soul shall loathe you. ³¹ And I will give your cities over as a ^(AA)waste and will make your ^(AB)sanctuaries desolate, and I will not ^(AC)smell your soothing aromas. ³² And I will make ^(AD)the land desolate, ^(AE)so that your enemies who inhabit it will themselves feel desolate because of it. ³³ You, however, I ^(AF)will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.

³⁴ ‘^(AG)Then the land will make up for its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, and you will be in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and make up for its sabbaths. ³⁵ All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it. ³⁶ As for those of you who may remain, I will also bring ^(AH)weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will pursue them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee ^[c]as though from the sword, and they will fall. ^37 (AI)They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength ^[d]to stand up before your enemies. ³⁸ But ^(AJ)you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you.

Curses for Not Keeping the Commandments

¹⁵ “^(A)But it will be, if you do not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep and to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶ “^(B)Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the ^[a]field.

¹⁷ “^(C)Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

¹⁸ “^(D)Cursed shall be the ^[b]offspring of your ^[c]body and the ^[d]produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.

¹⁹ “^(E)Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

²⁰ “^(F)Yahweh will send upon you the curse, confusion, and ^(G)rebuke, in all ^[e]that you send forth your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until ^(H)you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me. ^21 (I)Yahweh will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. ^22 (J)Yahweh will strike you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with ^[f]the sword and ^(K)with scorching wind and with mildew, and they will pursue you until ^(L)you perish. ²³ And ^[g]the heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. ^24 (M)Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

²⁵ “^(N)Yahweh shall cause you to be ^[h]defeated before your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will ^(O)become an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ^26 (P)And your carcasses will be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

²⁷ “^(Q)Yahweh will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with ^(R)tumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. ²⁸ Yahweh will strike you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart; ²⁹ and you will ^[i](S)grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not succeed in your ways; but you shall only be oppressed and robbed all your days, with none to save you. ^30 (T)You shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; ^(U)you shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not ^[j]use its fruit. ³¹ Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey shall be torn away from you and will not be returned to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you will have none to save you. ^32 (V)Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and yearn for them all the day long; but there will be nothing ^[k]you can do. ^33 (W)A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed all your days. ³⁴ And you shall be driven mad by the sight of what your eyes see. ^35 (X)Yahweh will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. ^36 (Y)Yahweh will lead you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, ^(Z)wood and stone. ^37 (AA)You shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the people where Yahweh drives you.

³⁸ “^(AB)You shall bring out much seed to the field, but you will gather in little, for ^(AC)the locust will consume it. ^39 (AD)You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them. ^40 (AE)You shall have olive trees throughout your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. ^41 (AF)You shall become the father of sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. ^42 (AG)The cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground. ^43 (AH)The sojourner who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower. ^44 (AI)He shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; ^(AJ)he shall be the head, and you will be the tail.

⁴⁵ “So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you ^(AK)until you are destroyed, because you would not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. ⁴⁶ And they shall become ^(AL)a sign and a wonder on you and your seed forever.

⁴⁷ “^(AM)Because you did not serve Yahweh your God with gladness and a merry heart—because of the abundance of all things, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies whom Yahweh will send against you, ^(AN)in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He ^(AO)will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

⁴⁹ “^(AP)Yahweh will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, ^(AQ)as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose tongue you shall not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce countenance who will ^(AR)have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹ Moreover, it shall eat the ^[l]offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also will not allow grain, new wine, or oil, and the increase of your herd or the young of your flock to remain for you until they have caused you to perish. ^52 (AS)And it shall besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your gates throughout your land which Yahweh your God has given you. ^53 (AT)Then you shall eat the ^[m]offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom Yahweh your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will ^[n]oppress you. ⁵⁴ The man who is ^[o]refined and very delicate among you ^[p]shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife ^[q]he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain, ⁵⁵ so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else remaining, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will ^[r]oppress you in all your gates. ^56 (AU)The ^[s]refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and ^[t]refinement, ^[u]shall be hostile toward the husband ^[v]she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, ⁵⁷ and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her ^[w]legs and toward her children whom she bears; for ^(AV)she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will ^[x]oppress you in your gates.

⁵⁸ “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law which are written in this book, to ^[y](AW)fear this glorious and fearsome ^(AX)name, Yahweh your God, ⁵⁹ then Yahweh will bring wondrous plagues on you and plagues on those who are your seed, even great and enduring plagues, and miserable and enduring sicknesses. ^60 (AY)And He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, Yahweh will bring on you ^(AZ)until you are destroyed. ⁶² Then you shall remain few in number, ^(BA)whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. ⁶³ And it will be that as Yahweh ^(BB)delighted over you to prosper you and multiply you, so Yahweh will ^(BC)delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be ^(BD)torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. ⁶⁴ Moreover, Yahweh will ^(BE)scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall ^(BF)serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. ^65 (BG)Moreover, among those nations you shall find no relief, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there ^(BH)Yahweh will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. ⁶⁶ So your life shall ^[z]hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day and shall not have any faith in your life. ^67 (BI)In the morning you shall say, ‘Would that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Would that it were morning!’ because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and because of the sight of your eyes which you will see. ⁶⁸ And Yahweh will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

²⁴ And all the nations will say, ‘^(A)Why has Yahweh done thus to this land? Why this great burning anger?’ ²⁵ Then men will say, ‘^(B)Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which He cut with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁶ And they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not apportioned to them. ²⁷ Therefore, the anger of Yahweh was kindled against that land, ^(C)to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; ²⁸ and ^(D)Yahweh uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and He cast them into another land, as it is this day.’

^17 (A)Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and ^(B)I will forsake them and ^(C)hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will find them, so that they will say in that day, ‘^(D)Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have found us?’

⁸ “Many nations will pass by this city; and they will ^(A)say to one another, ‘Why has Yahweh done thus to this great city?’ ⁹ Then they will say, ‘Because they ^(B)forsook the covenant of Yahweh their God and worshiped other gods and served them.’”