Study Desk

"Your fields will produce plenty of grain. But your harvest will be small, because the locusts will eat your harvest.

You will plant vineyards and work hard in them. But you will not gather the grapes or drink the wine from them, because the worms will eat them.

You will have olive trees everywhere on your land. But you will not have any of the oil to use, because the olives will drop to the ground and rot.

You will have sons and daughters. But you will not be able to keep them, because they will be captured and taken away.

The foreigners will have money to loan you, but you will not have any money to loan them. They will control you the way the head controls the body. You will be like the tail.

"The Lord your God gave you many blessings. But you did not serve him with joy and a glad heart.

"That nation will surround and attack your cities. You think that the tall, strong walls around your cities will protect you. But those walls will fall down. The enemy will surround all your cities everywhere in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

"Even the most kind and gentle woman among you will become cruel. She might be a lady so gentle and delicate that she never put her feet on the ground to walk anywhere. But she will become cruel to her husband she loves so much. And she will be cruel to her own son and daughter.

You might have as many people as the stars in the sky. But only a few of you will be left, because you did not listen to the Lord your God.

"The Lord was happy to be good to you and to make your nation grow. In the same way the Lord will be happy to ruin and destroy you. You are going to take that land to be yours. But people will take you out of that land!

The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships. I said you would never have to go to that place again, but he will send you there. In Egypt you will try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies, but no one will buy you."

But even today, you still don't understand what happened. The Lord has not let you really understand what you saw and heard.

You did not have any food with you. You did not have any wine or anything else to drink. But he took care of you so that you would understand that he is the Lord your God.

"You came to this place, and King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to fight against us. But we defeated them.

The Lord is making this agreement with its promises with you people, but not only with you.

Yes, he is making this agreement with all of you who stand here with us today before the Lord our God. But this agreement is also for our descendants who are not here with us today.

"Some people might hear these curses and comfort themselves by saying, ‘I will continue doing what I want. Nothing bad will happen to me.' But that attitude will bring total disaster.

"There are some things that the Lord our God has kept secret. Only he knows these things. But he told us about some things. And these teachings are for us and our descendants forever. And we must obey all the commands in that law.

But you must do what the Lord your God tells you to do. You must obey his commands and follow the rules that are written in this Book of Teachings. You must obey the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Then these good things will happen to you.

But if you turn away from your God and refuse to listen, if you are led away to worship and serve other gods,