“ If there is a famine in the land or a plague or crop disease or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging their towns— whatever disaster or disease there is—

“国中若有饥荒、瘟疫、旱风、霉烂、蝗虫、蚂蚱，或有仇敌犯境围困城邑，无论遭遇什么灾祸疾病，

“这地若有饥荒、瘟疫、焚风、霉烂、蝗虫、蚂蚱，或有仇敌围困这地的城门，无论遭遇什么灾祸疾病，

“这地若有饥荒、瘟疫、焚风、霉烂、蝗虫、蚂蚱，或有仇敌围困这地的城门，无论遭遇什么灾祸疾病，

“如果国中有饥荒、瘟疫、旱灾、霉病、蝗灾、虫灾，或是城邑被敌人围困，无论遭遇什么灾祸疾病，

“如果这地有饥荒、瘟疫、旱风、霉烂、蝗虫、蚂蚱，或有仇敌把他们围困在城里，无论遭遇什么灾祸，什么疾病，

「國中若有饑荒、瘟疫、旱風、霉爛、蝗蟲、螞蚱，或有仇敵犯境圍困城邑，無論遭遇甚麼災禍疾病，

「這地若有饑荒、瘟疫、焚風、霉爛、蝗蟲、螞蚱，或有仇敵圍困這地的城門，無論遭遇甚麼災禍疾病，

「這地若有饑荒、瘟疫、焚風、霉爛、蝗蟲、螞蚱，或有仇敵圍困這地的城門，無論遭遇甚麼災禍疾病，

「如果國中有饑荒、瘟疫、旱災、黴病、蝗災、蟲災，或是城邑被敵人圍困，無論遭遇什麼災禍疾病，

“如果這地有饑荒、瘟疫、旱風、霉爛、蝗蟲、螞蚱，或有仇敵把他們圍困在城裡，無論遭遇甚麼災禍，甚麼疾病，

『此地若有饑荒、瘟疫、旱風、霉爛、蝗蟲、螞蚱，若有仇敵圍困城市之地，無論甚麼災病、甚麼病痛，

若斯土有饑饉疫癘、五穀枯稿霉爛、或有蝻蝗蚱蜢、或有仇敵犯境、圍其城邑、無論何災何疾、

如於斯土有饑饉、瘟疫、風暴特甚、五穀細弱、如有蝗蟲、食其物產、如有仇敵、困其邑鄉、勿論何災、勿論何害。

如斯地有饑饉疫癘、或稼穡萎弱枯槁、或有蝗蝻蚱蜢之災、或敵人犯境、圍困城池、無論何災、無論何害、害原文作病

“ When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come,

“ Suppose there isn’t enough food in the land. And a plague strikes the land. The hot winds completely dry up our crops. Or locusts or grasshoppers come and eat them up. Or an enemy surrounds one of our cities and gets ready to attack it. Or trouble or sickness comes.

“ If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, if their enemy besieges them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,

When there is famine in the land, when there is pestilence, when there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper, when their enemy besieges them in the land and its cities, when there is any plague or illness,

“ If there is a famine in the land, if there is a plague, if there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper, if their enemy harasses them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is,

“ When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is;

If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;

When there is famine on the earth, when there is pestilence, when there is blight, mildew, locust, or grasshopper, when their enemy besieges them in the region of their fortified cities, when there is any plague or illness,

If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust,[ or] if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness[ there be];

“ The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, blight and disease, or a locust invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land, or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs.

“ If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;

I will punish you. I will bring sudden terrors upon you— wasting diseases and burning fevers that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will eat them.

The Lord will afflict you with diseases until none of you are left in the land you are about to enter and occupy.The Lord will strike you with wasting diseases, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew. These disasters will pursue you until you die.

They said,‘ Whenever we are faced with any calamity such as war, plague, or famine, we can come to stand in your presence before this Temple where your name is honored. We can cry out to you to save us, and you will hear us and rescue us.’

“ You will plant much but harvest little, for locusts will eat your crops.You will plant vineyards and care for them, but you will not drink the wine or eat the grapes, for worms will destroy the vines.You will grow olive trees throughout your land, but you will never use the olive oil, for the fruit will drop before it ripens.You will have sons and daughters, but you will lose them, for they will be led away into captivity.Swarms of insects will destroy your trees and crops.

“ Now this is what the Sovereign Lord says: How terrible it will be when all four of these dreadful punishments fall upon Jerusalem— war, famine, wild animals, and disease— destroying all her people and animals.

They will attack your cities until all the fortified walls in your land— the walls you trusted to protect you— are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the Lord your God has given you.“ The siege and terrible distress of the enemy’s attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you.The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving children.He will refuse to share with them the flesh he is devouring— the flesh of one of his own children— because he has nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.The most tender and delicate woman among you— so delicate she would not so much as touch the ground with her foot— will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or daughter.She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.“ If you refuse to obey all the words of instruction that are written in this book, and if you do not fear the glorious and awesome name of the Lord your God,then the Lord will overwhelm you and your children with indescribable plagues. These plagues will be intense and without relief, making you miserable and unbearably sick.He will afflict you with all the diseases of Egypt that you feared so much, and you will have no relief.The Lord will afflict you with every sickness and plague there is, even those not mentioned in this Book of Instruction, until you are destroyed.

As a result, there was a great famine in the city. The siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a cup of dove’s dung sold for five pieces of silver.One day as the king of Israel was walking along the wall of the city, a woman called to him,“ Please help me, my lord the king!”He answered,“ If the Lord doesn’t help you, what can I do? I have neither food from the threshing floor nor wine from the press to give you.”But then the king asked,“ What is the matter?” She replied,“ This woman said to me:‘ Come on, let’s eat your son today, then we will eat my son tomorrow.’So we cooked my son and ate him. Then the next day I said to her,‘ Kill your son so we can eat him,’ but she has hidden her son.”

The Lord says,“ I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts. It was I who sent this great destroying army against you.Once again you will have all the food you want, and you will praise the Lord your God, who does these miracles for you. Never again will my people be disgraced.

“ If there is a famine in the land or a plague or crop disease or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging their towns— whatever disaster or disease there is—and if your people Israel pray about their troubles or sorrow, raising their hands toward this Temple,then hear from heaven where you live, and forgive. Give your people what their actions deserve, for you alone know each human heart.Then they will fear you and walk in your ways as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors.

You may choose three years of famine, three months of destruction by the sword of your enemies, or three days of severe plague as the angel of the Lord brings devastation throughout the land of Israel. Decide what answer I should give the Lord who sent me.”

“ The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will attack your enemies from one direction, but you will scatter from them in seven! You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

I will send armies against you to carry out the curse of the covenant you have broken. When you run to your towns for safety, I will send a plague to destroy you there, and you will be handed over to your enemies.I will destroy your food supply, so that ten women will need only one oven to bake bread for their families. They will ration your food by weight, and though you have food to eat, you will not be satisfied.“ If in spite of all this you still refuse to listen and still remain hostile toward me,then I will give full vent to my hostility. I myself will punish you seven times over for your sins.Then you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.I will destroy your pagan shrines and knock down your places of worship. I will leave your lifeless corpses piled on top of your lifeless idols, and I will despise you.I will make your cities desolate and destroy your places of pagan worship. I will take no pleasure in your offerings that should be a pleasing aroma to me.Yes, I myself will devastate your land, and your enemies who come to occupy it will be appalled at what they see.I will scatter you among the nations and bring out my sword against you. Your land will become desolate, and your cities will lie in ruins.Then at last the land will enjoy its neglected Sabbath years as it lies desolate while you are in exile in the land of your enemies. Then the land will finally rest and enjoy the Sabbaths it missed.As long as the land lies in ruins, it will enjoy the rest you never allowed it to take every seventh year while you lived in it.“ And for those of you who survive, I will demoralize you in the land of your enemies. You will live in such fear that the sound of a leaf driven by the wind will send you fleeing. You will run as though fleeing from a sword, and you will fall even when no one pursues you.Though no one is chasing you, you will stumble over each other as though fleeing from a sword. You will have no power to stand up against your enemies.You will die among the foreign nations and be devoured in the land of your enemies.Those of you who survive will waste away in your enemies’ lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors.“ But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me.When I have turned their hostility back on them and brought them to the land of their enemies, then at last their stubborn hearts will be humbled, and they will pay for their sins.Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.For the land must be abandoned to enjoy its years of Sabbath rest as it lies deserted. At last the people will pay for their sins, for they have continually rejected my regulations and despised my decrees.“ But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out, for I am the Lord their God.For their sakes I will remember my ancient covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of all the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.”These are the decrees, regulations, and instructions that the Lord gave through Moses on Mount Sinai as evidence of the relationship between himself and the Israelites.

In January of the ninth year of King Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with his entire army to besiege Jerusalem.Two and a half years later, on July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, a section of the city wall was broken down.All the officers of the Babylonian army came in and sat in triumph at the Middle Gate: Nergal sharezer of Samgar, and Nebo sarsekim, a chief officer, and Nergal sharezer, the king’s adviser, and all the other officers of the king of Babylon.

Jerusalem was then under siege from the Babylonian army, and Jeremiah was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace.

He spoke, and hordes of locusts came— young locusts beyond number.They ate up everything green in the land, destroying all the crops in their fields.

After the cutting locusts finished eating the crops, the swarming locusts took what was left! After them came the hopping locusts, and then the stripping locusts, too!Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you wine drinkers! All the grapes are ruined, and all your sweet wine is gone.A vast army of locusts has invaded my land, a terrible army too numerous to count. Its teeth are like lions’ teeth, its fangs like those of a lioness.It has destroyed my grapevines and ruined my fig trees, stripping their bark and destroying it, leaving the branches white and bare.