Blessings of Obedience

26 ‘You shall not make for yourselves ^(A)idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves ^(B)a carved image or ^(C)a memorial stone, nor shall you place a ^(D)figured stone in your land to bow down ^[a]to it; for I am the Lord your God. ^2 (E)You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am the Lord. ^3 (F)If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, ⁴ then ^(G)I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. ^5 (H)Indeed, your threshing season will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. So you will eat your ^[b]food to the full and ^(I)live securely in your land. ^6 (J)I shall also grant peace in the land, so that ^(K)you may lie down, with no one to make you afraid. ^(L)I shall also eliminate harmful animals from the land, and ^(M)no sword will pass through your land. ⁷ Instead, you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword; ^8 (N)five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand; and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. ⁹ So I will turn toward you and ^(O)make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will ^(P)confirm My covenant with you. ¹⁰ And ^(Q)you will eat the old supply, and clear out the old because of the new. ^11 (R)Moreover, I will make My ^[c]dwelling among you, and My soul will not ^[d]reject you. ^12 (S)I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. ^13 (T)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and ^(U)I broke your yoke and made you walk erect.

Penalties of Disobedience

¹⁴ ‘^(V)But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, ¹⁵ if, instead, you ^(W)reject My statutes, and if your soul loathes My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, but rather to ^(X)break My covenant, ¹⁶ I, in turn, will do this to you: I will ^[e]summon a ^(Y)sudden terror against you, consumption and fever that will make the eyes fail and the ^(Z)soul languish; also, ^(AA)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 ^(AB)those who hate you will rule over you, and ^(AC)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 ^(AD)seven times more for your sins. ¹⁹ I will also ^(AE)break down your pride of power; and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. ^20 (AF)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 ^[f](AG)show hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you ^(AH)seven times according to your sins. ^22 (AI)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 ^(AJ)your roads become deserted.

²³ ‘^(AK)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 ^(AL)show hostility toward you; and I, even I, will strike you ^(AM)seven times for your sins. ²⁵ I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute ^(AN)vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send a ^(AO)plague among you, so that you will be handed over to the enemy. ^26 (AP)When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread ^[g]in rationed amounts, so that you will ^(AQ)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 ^(AR)I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I for My part will punish you seven times for your sins. ²⁹ Further, ^(AS)you will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰ I then ^(AT)will destroy your high places, and cut down your ^(AU)incense altars, and ^[h]pile your ^[i]remains on the ^[j]remains of your idols, for My soul will loathe you. ³¹ I will turn your cities into ^(AV)ruins as well and make your ^(AW)sanctuaries desolate, and I will not ^(AX)smell your soothing aromas. ³² And I will make ^(AY)the land desolate ^(AZ)so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it. ³³ You, however, I ^(BA)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 ‘^(BB)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 ^(BC)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 ^[k]as though from the sword, and they will fall. ^37 (BD)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, ^(BE)you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. ^39 (BF)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.

⁴⁰ ‘But ^(BG)if they confess their wrongdoing and the wrongdoing of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me— ⁴¹ I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—^(BH)or if their uncircumcised heart is humbled so that ^(BI)they then make amends for their wrongdoing, ⁴² then I will remember ^(BJ)My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also ^(BK)My covenant with Isaac, and ^(BL)My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. ^43 (BM)For the land will be abandoned by them, and will restore its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their wrongdoing, ^[l]because they rejected My ordinances and their ^(BN)soul loathed My statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so ^(BO)loathe them as ^(BP)to destroy them, ^(BQ)breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ But I will remember for them the ^(BR)covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, so that ^(BS)I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”

^46 (BT)These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the sons of Israel ^[m]through Moses on Mount Sinai.