Study Desk

'^(C1)But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments,

if, instead, you ^(C1)reject My statutes, and if your soul loathes My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, but rather to ^(C2)break My covenant,

I, in turn, will do this to you: I will ^(F1)summon a ^(C1)sudden terror against you, consumption and fever that will make the eyes fail and the ^(C2)soul languish; also, ^(C3)you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it.

'And I will set My face against you so that you will be defeated before your enemies; and ^(C1)those who hate you will rule over you, and ^(C2)you will flee when no one is pursuing you.

'If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you ^(C1)seven times more for your sins.

'I will also ^(C1)break down your pride of power; and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze.

'^(C1)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.

'Yet if you ^(F1)(C1)show hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you ^(C2)seven times according to your sins.

'^(C1)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 ^(C2)your roads become deserted.

'^(C1)And if by these things you do not learn your lesson regarding Me, but you show hostility toward Me,

then I in turn will ^(C1)show hostility toward you; and I, even I, will strike you ^(C2)seven times for your sins.

'I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute ^(C1)vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send a ^(C2)plague among you, so that you will be handed over to the enemy.

'^(C1)When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread ^(F1)in rationed amounts, so that you will ^(C2)eat and not be satisfied.

'Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me,

then ^(C1)I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I for My part will punish you seven times for your sins.

'Further, ^(C1)you will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.

'I then ^(C1)will destroy your high places, and cut down your ^(C2)incense altars, and ^(F1)pile your ^(F2)remains on the ^(F2)remains of your idols, for My soul will loathe you.

'I will turn your cities into ^(C1)ruins as well and make your ^(C2)sanctuaries desolate, and I will not ^(C3)smell your soothing aromas.

'And I will make ^(C1)the land desolate ^(C2)so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it.

'You, however, I ^(C1)will scatter among the nations, and I will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become ruins.

'^(C1)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.

'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.

'As for those among you who are left, I will also bring ^(C1)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 ^(F1)as though from the sword, and they will fall.

'^(C1)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.

'Instead, ^(C1)you will perish among the nations, and your enemies' land will consume you.

'^(C1)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.

'But ^(C1)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—

I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—^(C1)or if their uncircumcised heart is humbled so that ^(C2)they then make amends for their wrongdoing,

then I will remember ^(C1)My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also ^(C2)My covenant with Isaac, and ^(C3)My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.

'^(C1)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, ^(F1)because they rejected My ordinances and their ^(C2)soul loathed My statutes.

'Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so ^(C1)loathe them as ^(C2)to destroy them, ^(C3)breaking My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.

'But I will remember for them the ^(C1)covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, so that ^(C2)I might be their God. I am the LORD.'"