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 loathes My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, but rather to ^(C)break My covenant, ¹⁶ I, in turn, will do this to you: I will ^[a]summon a ^(D)sudden terror against you, consumption and fever that will make the eyes fail and the ^(E)soul languish; also, ^(F)you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it. ¹⁷ And I will set My face against you so that you will be defeated 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; and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. ^20 (K)Your strength will be consumed uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

²¹ ‘Yet if you ^[b](L)show hostility toward 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 also let loose among you the animals of the field, which will deprive you of your children and eliminate your cattle, and reduce your number so that ^(O)your roads become deserted.

²³ ‘^(P)And if by these things you do not learn your lesson regarding Me, but you show hostility toward Me, ²⁴ then I in turn will ^(Q)show hostility toward 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 a ^(T)plague among you, so that you will be handed over to the enemy. ^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 ^[c]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 for My part will punish you seven times for your sins. ²⁹ Further, ^(X)you will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰ I then ^(Y)will destroy your high places, and cut down your ^(Z)incense altars, and ^[d]pile your ^[e]remains on the ^[f]remains of your idols, for My soul will loathe you. ³¹ I will turn your cities into ^(AA)ruins as well and make your ^(AB)sanctuaries desolate, and I will not ^(AC)smell your soothing aromas. ³² And I will make ^(AD)the land desolate ^(AE)so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it. ³³ You, however, I ^(AF)will scatter among the nations, and I will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become ruins.

³⁴ ‘^(AG)Then the land will restore its Sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and restore its Sabbaths. ³⁵ All the days of its desolation it will have the rest which it did not have on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it. ³⁶ As for those among you who are left, I will also bring ^(AH)despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a scattered leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee ^[g]as though from the sword, and they will fall. ^37 (AI)They will then stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand before your enemies. ³⁸ Instead, ^(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 wrongdoing in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the wrongdoing of their forefathers they will rot away with them.

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.

⁵⁸ “If you are not careful to ^[al]follow all the words of this Law that are written in this book, to ^[am](AW)fear this honored and awesome ^(AX)name, ^[an]the Lord your God, ⁵⁹ then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and ^[ao]your descendants, ^[ap]severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. ^60 (AY)And He will bring back on you every disease of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ Also every sickness and every plague, which are not written in the book of this Law, the Lord will bring on you ^(AZ)until you are destroyed. ⁶² Then you will be left few in ^[aq]number, ^(BA)whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not ^[ar]obey the Lord your God. ⁶³ And it will come about that, just as the Lord ^(BB)rejoiced over you to be good to you, and make you numerous, so will the Lord ^(BC)rejoice over you to wipe you out and destroy you; and you will be ^(BD)torn away from the land which you are entering to possess. ⁶⁴ Furthermore, the Lord will ^(BE)scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to ^[as]the other; and there you will ^(BF)serve other gods, made of wood and stone, which you and your fathers have not known. ^65 (BG)Among those nations you will find no peace, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there ^(BH)the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. ⁶⁶ So your lives will be ^[at]hanging in doubt before you; and you will be terrified night and day, and have no assurance of your life. ^67 (BI)In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And at evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the terror of your heart which you fear, and the sight of your eyes which you will see. ⁶⁸ And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I said 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.”