Covenant curses
14 But if you do not obey me and do not carry out all these commands—
15
if you reject my rules and despise my regulations, not doing all my commands and breaking my covenant—
16
then I will do the following to you: I will bring horrific things: wasting diseases and fevers that make the eyes fail and drain life away. You will plant seed for no reason because your enemies will eat the food.
17
I will turn my face against you: you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you; and you will run away even when no one is chasing you.
18
If, despite all that, you still do not obey me, I will punish you for your sins seven more times:
19
I will destroy your prideful power. I will turn your sky to iron and your land to bronze
20
so that your strength will be spent for no reason: your land will not produce its yield, and the trees of the land won't produce their fruit.
21
If you continue to oppose me and are unwilling to obey me, I will strike you for your sins seven more times:
22
I will send wild animals against you, and they will kill your children and destroy your livestock. They will make you so few in number that your roads will seem deserted.
23
If, despite these things, you still do not accept my discipline and continue to oppose me,
24
then I will continue to oppose you. I will strike you for your sins seven more times:
25
I will bring the sword against you, avenging the breaking of the covenant. If you retreat into your cities, I will send a plague on you, and you will be handed over to the enemy.
26
When I destroy your food supply, ten women will bake bread in a single oven, and they will ration out bread by weight. You will eat but will never get full.
27
If, despite all this, you still do not obey me and continue to oppose me,
28
then I will continue to oppose you—with anger! I will punish you for your sins seven more times:
29
You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
30
I will eliminate your shrines, chop down your incense altars, and pile your dead bodies on the dead bodies of your idols. I will despise you.
31
I will turn your cities into ruins, I will devastate your sanctuaries, and I will not smell the soothing smells of your offerings.
32
I will personally devastate the land so much that your enemies who resettle it will be astonished by it.
33
I will scatter you among the nations. I will unsheathe my sword against you. Your land will be devastated and your cities will be ruins.
34
At that time, while it is devastated and you are in enemy territory, the land will enjoy its sabbaths. At that time, the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.
35
During the whole time it is devastated, it will have the rest it didn't have during the sabbaths you lived in it.
36
I will bring despair into the hearts of those of you who survive in enemy territory. Just the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to running, and they will run scared as if running from a sword! They will fall even when no one is chasing them!
37
They will stumble over each other as they would before a sword, even though no one is chasing them! You will have no power to stand before your enemies.
38
You will disappear among the nations—the land of your enemies will devour you.
39
Any of you who do survive will rot in enemy territory on account of their guilty deeds. And they will rot too on account of their ancestors' guilty deeds.