²⁵ I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute ^(A)vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send ^(B)pestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands.

^43 (A)The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower. ^44 (B)He shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; ^(C)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 ^(D)until you are destroyed, because you would not ^[a]obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. ⁴⁶ They shall become ^(E)a sign and a wonder on you and your ^[b]descendants forever.

⁴⁷ “^(F)Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, ^(G)in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He ^(H)will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

⁴⁹ “^(I)The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, ^(J)as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce countenance who will ^(K)have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹ Moreover, it shall eat the ^[c]offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. ^52 (L)It shall besiege you in all your ^[d]towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your ^[e]towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you. ^53 (M)Then you shall eat the ^[f]offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will ^[g]oppress you. ⁵⁴ The man who is ^[h]refined and very delicate among you ^[i]shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife ^[j]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 left, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will ^[k]oppress you in all your ^[l]towns. ^56 (N)The ^[m]refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and ^[n]refinement, ^[o]shall be hostile toward the husband ^[p]she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, ⁵⁷ and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her ^[q]legs and toward her children whom she bears; for ^(O)she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will ^[r]oppress you in your ^[s]towns.

⁵⁸ “If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to ^[t](P)fear this honored and awesome ^(Q)name, ^[u]the Lord your God, ⁵⁹ then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and ^[v]your descendants, even ^[w]severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. ^60 (R)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, not written in the book of this law, the Lord will bring on you ^(S)until you are destroyed. ⁶² Then you shall be left few in number, ^(T)whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not ^[x]obey the Lord your God. ⁶³ It shall come about that as the Lord ^(U)delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the Lord will ^(V)delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be ^(W)torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. ⁶⁴ Moreover, the Lord will ^(X)scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall ^(Y)serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. ^65 (Z)Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there ^(AA)the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. ⁶⁶ So your life shall ^[y]hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. ^67 (AB)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 for the sight of your eyes which you will see. ⁶⁸ The Lord 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.”

Philistines Oppress Again

13 Now the sons of Israel ^(A)again did evil in the sight of the Lord, so that the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines forty years.

⁴ However, his father and mother did not know that ^(A)it was of the Lord, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.