49
The Lord will bring against you a nation from the ends of the earth, a nation whose language you do not know. They will swoop down on you like an eagle.
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They will be ruthless and show no mercy to anyone, young or old.
51
They will eat your livestock and your crops, and you will starve to death. They will not leave you any grain, wine, olive oil, cattle, or sheep; and you will die.
52
They will attack every town in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and the high, fortified walls in which you trust will fall.
53
"When your enemies are besieging your towns, you will become so desperate for food that you will even eat the children that the Lord your God has given you.
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Even the most refined man of noble birth will become so desperate during the siege that he will eat some of his own children because he has no other food. He will not even give any to his brother or to the wife he loves or to any of his children who are left.
56
Even the most refined woman of noble birth, so rich that she has never had to walk anywhere, will behave in the same way. When the enemy besieges her town, she will become so desperate for food that she will secretly eat her newborn child and the afterbirth as well. She will not share them with the husband she loves or with any of her children.
1
58
"If you do not obey faithfully all of God's teachings that are written in this book and if you do not honor the wonderful and awesome name of the Lord your God,
59
he will send on you and on your descendants incurable diseases and horrible epidemics that can never be stopped.
60
He will bring on you once again all the dreadful diseases you experienced in Egypt, and you will never recover.
61
He will also send all kinds of diseases and epidemics that are not mentioned in this book of God's laws and teachings, and you will be destroyed.
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Although you become as numerous as the stars in the sky, only a few of you will survive, because you did not obey the Lord your God.
63
Just as the Lord took delight in making you prosper and in making you increase in number, so he will take delight in destroying you and in bringing ruin on you. You will be uprooted from the land that you are about to occupy.
64
"The Lord will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve gods made of wood and stone, gods that neither you nor your ancestors have ever worshiped before.
65
You will find no peace anywhere, no place to call your own; the Lord will overwhelm you with anxiety, hopelessness, and despair.
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Your life will always be in danger. Day and night you will be filled with terror, and you will live in constant fear of death.
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Your hearts will pound with fear at everything you see. Every morning you will wish for evening; every evening you will wish for morning.
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The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships, even though he said that you would never have to go there again. There you will try to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will want to buy you."