Add parallel Print Page Options

Punishments for Disobedience

14 “However, if you do not listen to me or obey all these commands, 15 and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands, 16 I will punish you. I will bring sudden terrors upon you—wasting diseases and burning fevers that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will eat them. 17 I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you!

18 “And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins. 19 I will break your proud spirit by making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze. 20 All your work will be for nothing, for your land will yield no crops, and your trees will bear no fruit.

21 “If even then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey me, I will inflict disaster on you seven times over for your sins. 22 I will send wild animals that will rob you of your children and destroy your livestock. Your numbers will dwindle, and your roads will be deserted.

23 “And if you fail to learn the lesson and continue your hostility toward me, 24 then I myself will be hostile toward you. I will personally strike you with calamity seven times over for your sins. 25 I will send armies against you to carry out the curse of the covenant you have broken. When you run to your towns for safety, I will send a plague to destroy you there, and you will be handed over to your enemies. 26 I will destroy your food supply, so that ten women will need only one oven to bake bread for their families. They will ration your food by weight, and though you have food to eat, you will not be satisfied.

Read full chapter

Punishment for Disobedience

14 (A)“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but (B)break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with (C)wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And (D)you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will (E)set my face against you, and (F)you shall be struck down before your enemies. (G)Those who hate you shall rule over you, and (H)you shall flee when none pursues you. 18 And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again (I)sevenfold for your sins, 19 and I will break (J)the pride of your power, and I (K)will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And (L)your strength shall be spent in vain, for (M)your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

21 (N)“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. 22 And (O)I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that (P)your roads shall be deserted.

23 “And (Q)if by this discipline you are not turned to me (R)but walk contrary to me, 24 (S)then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. 25 And (T)I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, (U)I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 (V)When I break your supply[a] of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and (W)you shall eat and not be satisfied.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 26:26 Hebrew staff