Study Desk

Because you didn’t serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, even though you had an abundance of everything,

They will besiege you within all your city gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your city gates throughout the land the Lord your God has given you.

“You will eat your offspring, the flesh of your sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you.

“If you are not careful to obey all the words of this law, which are written in this scroll, by fearing this glorious and awe-inspiring name—the Lord, your God—

Though you were as numerous as the stars of the sky, you will be left with only a few people, because you did not obey the Lord your God.

you did not eat food or drink wine or beer—so that you might know that I am the Lord your God.

“All of you are standing today before the Lord your God—your leaders, tribes, elders, officials, all the men of Israel,

so that you may enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, which he is making with you today, so that you may enter into his oath

and so that he may establish you today as his people and he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

but also with those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God and with those who are not here today.

Be sure there is no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Be sure there is no root among you bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.

Then people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he had made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

“When all these things happen to you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you come to your senses while you are in all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you,

and you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and all your soul by doing everything I am commanding you today,

then he will restore your fortunes, have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.

The Lord your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply you more than he did your fathers.

The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live.

The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you.

The Lord your God will make you prosper abundantly in all the work of your hands, your offspring, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land. Indeed, the Lord will again delight in your prosperity, as he delighted in that of your fathers,