Penalties of Disobedience

¹⁴ ‘^(A)But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, ¹⁵ if, instead, you ^(B)reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out 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 I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and ^(G)those who hate you will rule 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 punish you ^(I)seven times more for your sins. ¹⁹ I will also ^(J)break down your pride of power; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. ^20 (K)Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

²¹ ‘If then, you ^[a](L)act with 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)I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that ^(O)your roads lie deserted.

²³ ‘^(P)And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility against Me, ²⁴ then I will ^(Q)act with 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 delivered 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 ^[b]in rationed amounts, so that you will ^(V)eat and not be satisfied.

²⁷ ‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, ²⁸ then ^(W)I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish 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 heap your ^[c]remains on the ^[d]remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you. ³¹ I will ^[e]lay ^(AA)waste your cities as well and will make your ^(AB)sanctuaries desolate, and I will not ^(AC)smell your soothing aromas. ³² I will make ^(AD)the land desolate ^(AE)so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over 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 ^[f]enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and ^[g]enjoy 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 be left, I will also bring ^(AH)weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee ^[h]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 ^[i]to stand up before your enemies. ³⁸ But ^(AJ)you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. ^39 (AK)So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers they will rot away with them.

¹⁵ “For the Lord will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and ^(A)He will uproot Israel from ^(B)this good land which He gave to their fathers, and ^(C)will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, ^(D)because they have made their ^[a]Asherim, provoking the Lord to anger.

Elijah Predicts Drought

17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of ^[a](A)the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “^(B)As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely ^(C)there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

¹⁷ So he said,