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)