²⁰ Like the nations that the Lord eliminates from you, so ^(A)you shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.

Consequences of Disobedience

¹⁵ “^(A)But it shall come about, if you do not ^[a]obey the Lord your God, to be careful to ^[b]follow all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶ “^(B)Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the ^[c]country.

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

¹⁸ “^(D)Cursed will be the ^[d]children of your womb, the ^[e]produce of your ground, the newborn of your herd, and the offspring of your flock.

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

²⁰ “^(F)The Lord will send against you curses, panic, and ^(G)rebuke, in ^[f]everything you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until ^(H)you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have abandoned Me. ^21 (I)The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has eliminated you from the land where you are entering to take possession of it. ^22 (J)The Lord will strike you with consumption, inflammation, fever, feverish heat, and with ^[g]the sword, ^(K)with blight, and with mildew, and they will pursue you until ^(L)you perish. ^23 [h]The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. ^24 (M)The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

²⁵ “^(N)The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways from their presence, and you will ^(O)be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ^26 (P)Your dead bodies will ^[i]serve as food for all birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

²⁷ “^(Q)The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with ^(R)tumors, the festering rash, and with scabies, from which you cannot be healed. ²⁸ The Lord will strike you with insanity, blindness, and with confusion of ^[j]mind; ²⁹ and you will be ^(S)groping about at noon, just as a person who is blind gropes in the darkness, and you will not be successful in your ways; but you will only be ^[k]oppressed and robbed all the time, with no one to save you. ^30 (T)You will ^[l]betroth a woman, but another man will ^[m]violate her; ^(U)you will build a house, but you will not live in it; you will plant a vineyard, but you will not make use of its fruit. ³¹ Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey will be snatched away from you, and will not ^[n]be restored to you; your ^[o]sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you. ^32 (V)Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes look on and long for them constantly; but there will be nothing ^[p]you can do. ^33 (W)A people whom you do not know will eat the produce of your ground and every product of your labor, and you will never be anything but oppressed and mistreated continually. ³⁴ You will also be driven insane by the sight of ^[q]what you see. ^35 (X)The Lord will strike you on the knees and thighs with severe boils from which you cannot be healed, and strike you from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. ^36 (Y)The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you appoint over you, to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, made of ^(Z)wood and stone. ³⁷ And ^(AA)you will become an object of horror, a song of mockery, and an object of taunting among all the peoples where the Lord drives you.

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

⁴⁵ “So all these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you ^(AK)until you are destroyed, because you would not ^[r]obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. ⁴⁶ And they will become ^(AL)a sign and a wonder ^[s]against you and your ^[t]descendants forever.

⁴⁷ “^(AM)Since you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, in gratitude for the abundance of all things, ⁴⁸ you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, ^(AN)in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and devoid of all things; and He ^(AO)will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

⁴⁹ “^(AP)The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, ^(AQ)as the eagle swoops down; a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation ^[u]with a defiant attitude, who will ^(AR)have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹ Furthermore, it will eat the ^[v]offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed; a nation that will leave you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the newborn of your cattle or the young of your flock, until they have eliminated you. ^52 (AS)And it will besiege you in all your ^[w]towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it will besiege you in all your ^[x]towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you. ^53 (AT)Then you will eat the ^[y]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 hardship by which your enemy will ^[z]oppress you. ⁵⁴ The man who is ^[aa]refined and very delicate among you ^[ab]will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife ^[ac]he cherishes, and toward the rest of his children who are left, 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 hardship by which your enemy will ^[ad]oppress you in all your ^[ae]towns. ^56 (AU)The ^[af]refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and tenderness, ^[ag]will be hostile toward the husband ^[ah]she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, ⁵⁷ and toward her afterbirth that comes from between her ^[ai]legs, and toward her children to whom she gives birth, because ^(AV)she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the hardship with which your enemy will ^[aj]oppress you in your ^[ak]towns.

⁶² Then you will be left few in ^[a]number, ^(A)whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not ^[b]obey the Lord your God.

¹⁵ “^(A)The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen; to him you shall listen.

^19 (A)And it shall come about that whoever does not listen to My words which he speaks in My name, I Myself will ^[a]require it of him.

¹⁰ if it does ^(A)evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will ^(B)relent of the good with which I said ^[a]that I would bless it. ¹¹ So now, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am ^(C)forming a disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Now ^(D)turn back, each of you from his evil way, and ^[b]correct your ways and your deeds!”’ ¹² But ^(E)they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will ^[c]persist in the ^(F)stubbornness of his evil heart.’

¹³ The Lord said, “Because they have ^(A)abandoned My Law which I put before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, ¹⁴ but have ^(B)followed the stubbornness of their heart and the ^(C)Baals, ^[a]as their ^(D)fathers taught them,” ¹⁵ therefore this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, ^(E)I will feed this people wormwood; and I will give them ^(F)poisoned water to drink. ¹⁶ I will also ^(G)scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the ^(H)sword after them until I have put an end to them.”