“ But suppose all of you turn away from me. You refuse to obey the rules and commands I have given you. And you go off to serve other gods and worship them.

“倘若你们转去丢弃我指示你们的律例诫命，去侍奉敬拜别神，

“倘若你们转去，离弃我摆在你们面前的律例诫命，去事奉别神，敬拜它们，

“倘若你们转去，离弃我摆在你们面前的律例诫命，去事奉别神，敬拜它们，

“然而，如果你们背弃我指示你们的律例和诫命，去供奉、祭拜别的神明，

“可是，如果你们转离我，丢弃我在你们面前颁布的律例和诫命，去事奉和敬拜别的神，

「倘若你們轉去丟棄我指示你們的律例誡命，去事奉敬拜別神，

「倘若你們轉去，離棄我擺在你們面前的律例誡命，去事奉別神，敬拜它們，

「倘若你們轉去，離棄我擺在你們面前的律例誡命，去事奉別神，敬拜它們，

「然而，如果你們背棄我指示你們的律例和誡命，去供奉、祭拜別的神明，

“可是，如果你們轉離我，丟棄我在你們面前頒布的律例和誡命，去事奉和敬拜別的神，

『但是你們、你們若轉離而撇棄我的律例誡命、就是我所擺在你們面前的，反而去服事敬拜別的神，

若爾背逆、棄我所示爾之典章誡命、往事他神、而崇拜之、

如爾背逆、棄所命之禮儀禁令、奉事他上帝、

如爾曹背逆、棄我所賜爾之律例誡命、往而奉事崇拜他神、

“ But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them,

“ But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

“ But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the decrees and commands I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods,

However, if you turn away and abandon my statutes and my commands that I have set before you and if you go and serve other gods and bow in worship to them,

“ But if you turn away and abandon My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,

“ But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them,

But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

However, if you turn away and abandon My statutes and My commands that I have set before you and if you go and serve other gods and worship them,

But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

“ But if you people ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, and decide to serve and worship other gods,

But if you turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

“‘ On the other hand, suppose you do not listen to me. Suppose you do not carry out all my commands.

But suppose you don’t obey the Lord your God. And you aren’t careful to obey all his commands and rules I’m giving you today. Then he will send curses on you. They’ll catch up with you. Here are those curses.

I will scatter you among the nations. I will pull out my sword and hunt you down. Your land and your cities will be completely destroyed.Then the deserted land will enjoy its sabbath years. It will rest. It will not be farmed. It will enjoy its sabbaths. But you will become prisoners in the country of your enemies.The land will rest the whole time it is deserted. It was not able to rest during the sabbaths you lived in it.“‘ Some of you will be left in the lands of your enemies. I will fill your hearts with fear. The sound of a leaf blown by the wind will scare you away. You will run as if you were escaping from swords. You will fall down, even though no one is chasing you.You will trip over one another as if you were running away from the battle. You will run away, even though no one is chasing you. You will not be able to stand and fight against your enemies.While you are still scattered among the nations, you will die. The lands of your enemies will destroy you.You who are left in those lands will become weaker and weaker. You will die because of your sins and the sins of your people who lived before you.“‘ But suppose you admit that both you and your people who lived before you have sinned. You admit the evil and dishonest things you have done against me. And you admit you have become my enemy.What you did made me become your enemy. I let your enemies take you into their land. But suppose you stop being stubborn. You stop being proud. And you pay for your sin.Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob. I will remember my covenant with Isaac. I will remember my covenant with Abraham. I will remember what I said to them about the land.You will leave the land. It will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies deserted because you are not there. You will pay for your sins because you said no to my laws. You turned away from my rules.But even after all that, I will not say no to you or turn away from you. I will not destroy you completely in the land of your enemies. I will not break my covenant with you. I am the Lord your God.Because of you, I will remember the covenant I made with the people of Israel who lived before you. I brought them out of Egypt to be their God. The nations saw me do it. I am the Lord.’ ”These are the orders, the laws and the rules of the covenant the Lord made on Mount Sinai. He made it between himself and the Israelites through Moses.

“ But suppose all of you turn away from me. Or your children turn away from me. You refuse to obey the commands and rules I have given you. And you go off to serve other gods and worship them.Then I will remove Israel from the land. It is the land I gave them. I will turn my back on this temple. I will do it even though I have set it apart for my Name to be there. Then Israel will be hated by all the nations. They will laugh and joke about Israel.

The Lord will drive you out of the land. And he will drive out the king you place over yourselves. All of you will go to another nation. You and your people of long ago didn’t know anything about them. There you will worship other gods. They will be made out of wood and stone.You will look very bad to all the nations where the Lord sends you. They will be completely shocked when they see you. They will mock you and make fun of you.You will plant many seeds in your field. But you will gather very little food. Locusts will eat it up.You will plant vineyards and take care of them. But you won’t drink the wine. You won’t gather the grapes. Worms will eat them up.You will have olive trees through your whole country. But you won’t use the oil. The olives will drop off the trees.You will have children. But you won’t be able to keep them. They’ll be taken away as prisoners.Large numbers of locusts will eat up the leaves on all your trees. They will also eat up the crops on your land.Outsiders who live among you will become your leaders. They will rise higher and higher. But you will sink lower and lower.They will lend money to you. But you won’t be able to lend money to them. They will be the leaders. But you will be the followers.The Lord your God will send all these curses on you. They will follow you everywhere. They’ll catch up with you. You will be under the Lord’ s curse until you are destroyed. That’s because you didn’t obey him. You didn’t keep the commands and rules he gave you.These curses will remain as signs and awful judgments against you and your children after you forever.You didn’t serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness when times were good.So he will send enemies against you. You will have to serve them. You will be hungry and thirsty. You will be naked and poor. The Lord will put the iron chains of slavery around your necks until he has destroyed you.The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away. It will come from the ends of the earth. It will dive down on you like an eagle. You won’t understand that nation’s language.Its people will look mean. They won’t have any respect for old people. They won’t show any kindness to young people.They will eat up the young animals among your livestock. They’ll eat up the crops on your land. They’ll destroy you. They won’t leave you any grain, olive oil or fresh wine. They won’t leave you any calves or lambs. They’ll destroy you.They’ll surround all the cities throughout your whole land. They’ll attack those cities until the high, strong walls you trust in fall down. That’s what will happen to the cities in the land the Lord your God is giving you.Your enemies will surround you and attack you. They will make you suffer greatly. So you will eat your own children. You will eat the dead bodies of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you.There may be a gentle and caring man among you. But he will treat his own brother badly. He’ll be just as mean to the wife he loves and to any of his children who are still alive.He won’t give to a single one of them any part of the dead bodies of his children that he’s eating. It will be all he has left to eat. That’s how much your enemies will make you suffer when they surround all your cities and attack them.There may be a gentle and caring woman among you. She wouldn’t even touch the ground with her feet without first putting her sandals on. But she will not share anything with the husband she loves. She won’t share with her own children either.She will eat what comes out of her body after she has a baby. Then she’ll even eat her baby. She won’t share it with anyone in her family. In her great hunger she’ll plan to eat it in secret. There won’t be anything else for her to eat because the city she lives in will be surrounded. That’s an example of how much your enemies will make you suffer when they are attacking your cities.Be careful to follow all the words of this law. They are written in this scroll. Have respect for the glorious and wonderful name of the Lord your God. If you don’t,he will send terrible plagues on you and your children after you. He’ll send horrible and lasting troubles. He’ll make you very sick for a long time.He’ll bring on you all the sicknesses you were afraid of getting when you were in Egypt. You won’t be able to get rid of them.The Lord will also bring on you all other kinds of sickness and trouble. I haven’t even written those down in this Book of the Law. You will be destroyed.At one time you were as many as the stars in the sky. But there will only be a few of you left. That’s because you didn’t obey the Lord your God.It pleased the Lord to give you success and to cause there to be many of you. But it will please him just as much to wipe you out and destroy you. You will be removed from the land you are entering to take as your own.Then the Lord will scatter you among all the nations. He’ll spread you around from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship statues of gods made out of wood and stone. You and your people of long ago hadn’t known anything about those gods.Among those nations you won’t find any peace. There won’t be any place where you can make your home and rest your feet. The Lord will give you minds filled with worry. He’ll give you eyes worn out from looking for help. You won’t have any hope in your hearts.Your lives will always be in danger. You will be filled with fear night and day. You will never be sure you are safe.In the morning you will say,“ We wish it were evening!” In the evening you will say,“ We wish it were morning!” Your hearts will be filled with fear. The things you see will terrify you.The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships. He’ll send you on a journey I said you should never have to make again. You will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves in Egypt. But no one will buy you.

Every good thing has come to pass that the Lord your God has promised you. So you know that he can also bring against you all the evil things he has warned you about. He’ll do it until he has destroyed you. He’ll do it until he has removed you from this good land. It’s the land he has given you.Suppose you break the covenant the Lord your God made with you. He commanded you to obey it. But suppose you go and serve other gods. And you bow down to them. Then the Lord will be very angry with you. You will quickly be destroyed. You will be removed from the good land he has given you.”

Be careful. Don’t forget the covenant the Lord your God made with you. Don’t make for yourselves a statue of any god at all. He has told you not to. So don’t do it.The Lord your God is like a fire that burns everything up. He wants you to worship only him.So don’t make a statue of a god. Don’t commit that horrible sin. Don’t do it even after you have had children and grandchildren. Don’t do it even after you have lived in the land a long time. If you do, that will be an evil thing in the sight of the Lord your God. You will make him angry.Today I’m calling out to the heavens and the earth to be witnesses against you. Suppose you do these things. Then you will quickly die in the land you are going across the Jordan River to take over. You won’t live there very long. You will certainly be destroyed.The Lord will drive you out of your land. He will scatter you among the nations. Only a few of you will remain alive there.

But don’t be stubborn. Don’t continue to do what is evil. If you do, both you and your king will be destroyed.”

“ My son Solomon, always remember the God of your father. Serve him with all your heart. Do it with a mind that wants to obey him. The Lord looks deep down inside every heart. He understands every desire and every thought. If you look to him, you will find him. But if you desert him, he will turn his back on you forever.

As Solomon grew older, his wives turned his heart toward other gods. He didn’t follow the Lord his God with all his heart. So he wasn’t like his father David.Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth. Ashtoreth was the female god of the Sidonians. He also worshiped Molek. Molek was the god of the Ammonites. The Lord hated that god.Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He didn’t completely obey the Lord. He didn’t do what his father David had done.There is a hill east of Jerusalem. Solomon built a high place for worshiping Chemosh there. He built a high place for worshiping Molek there too. Chemosh was the god of Moab. Molek was the god of Ammon. The Lord hated both of those gods.Solomon also built high places so that all his wives from other nations could worship their gods. Those women burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.