Leviticus 26:17-40

¹⁷I will turn against you, and you'll be defeated by your enemies. People who hate you will rule over you, and you'll run away even when there's no one chasing you!

¹⁸If after all this you still refuse to obey me, I will move to punishing you seven times over for your sins.

¹⁹I will break your self-reliant strength you're so proud of, and make your sky hard as iron and your land hard as bronze.

²⁰Your strength will be completely wasted because your land won't produce crops, and your trees won't produce fruit.

²¹If you go on opposing me and refusing to do what I tell you, I will make your punishments seven times worse, based on your sins.

²²I will send wild animals to kill your children, wipe out your livestock, and make you so few in number that there won't be anyone on your roads.

²³However, if in spite of all this correction you still don't change but go on opposing me,

²⁴then I will take action against you. I will punish you seven times over for your sins.

²⁵I will send enemies with swords to attack you in retaliation for breaking the agreement. Even though you retreat into your towns for defense, I will plague you with disease, and you will be handed over to your enemies.

²⁶I will send a famine so bread is in short supply. One oven will serve the needs of ten women baking bread. It will be distributed by weight so that you'll eat but won't have enough.

²⁷However, if in spite of all this you don't obey me, but go on opposing me,

²⁸then I will take action against you in a rage of fury, and I will punish you myself seven times over for your sins.

²⁹You will eat the bodies of your own sons and daughters.

³⁰I will destroy your high places of worship, smash your altars of incense, and pile up your dead bodies on what remains of your idols, which also have no life at all. I will really despise you.

³¹I will demolish your towns and destroy your pagan sanctuaries, and I will refuse to accept your sacrifices.

³²I will devastate your land myself, so that your enemies who come and live in it will be horrified at what has happened.

³³I'm going to scatter you among the nations. You will be chased out by armies with swords as your land is ruined and your towns are destroyed.

³⁴At least then the land will be able to enjoy its Sabbaths all the time it's abandoned while you are in exile in the land of your enemies. The land will finally be able to rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

³⁵The whole time it's abandoned the land will observe the Sabbaths of rest that it wasn't able to do while you were living there.

³⁶I will make those of you who survive so discouraged that as you live in the lands of your enemies even the sound of a leaf blowing in the wind will scare you into running away! You'll run away like you're being chased by someone with a sword, and fall down even though no one is after you.

³⁷You'll trip over each other as you run away from the attack, then though no one's there. You'll have no power to resist your enemies.

³⁸You'll die in exile and you'll be buried in a foreign country.

³⁹Those of you who do manage to survive in the countries of your enemies will wither away because of their guilt, decaying as they share the sins of their fathers.

⁴⁰They need to confess their sins and those of their fathers, acting in such an unfaithful way towards me, opposing me.