The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms.

从古以来，在你我以前的先知，向多国和大邦说预言，论到争战、灾祸、瘟疫的事。

从古以来，在你我以前的众先知，向多国和大邦说预言，论到战争、灾祸、瘟疫的事。

从古以来，在你我以前的众先知，向多国和大邦说预言，论到战争、灾祸、瘟疫的事。

在你我之前的古代先知曾预言许多地方和强国要遭遇战争、灾祸和瘟疫。

自古以来，在你我以前的先知，已经预言有战争、灾祸和瘟疫要临到许多地方和强国。

從古以來，在你我以前的先知，向多國和大邦說預言，論到爭戰、災禍、瘟疫的事。

從古以來，在你我以前的眾先知，向多國和大邦說預言，論到戰爭、災禍、瘟疫的事。

從古以來，在你我以前的眾先知，向多國和大邦說預言，論到戰爭、災禍、瘟疫的事。

在你我之前的古代先知曾預言許多地方和強國要遭遇戰爭、災禍和瘟疫。

自古以來，在你我以前的先知，已經預言有戰爭、災禍和瘟疫要臨到許多地方和強國。

從古以來、你我以前的神言人向許多地區許多大國傳神言、都是論到戰爭、災禍、或瘟疫的。

爾我以前之先知、自古對多國大邦、預言戰爭、災害疫癘、

粵稽古昔、爾我之前、有先知、或言眾國大邦、必遇戰鬥、遘災害、罹疫癘、

自亙古以來、爾我前之先知、言諸國與大邦未來之事、有先知預言將有爭戰、災害、瘟疫、

From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms.

There have been prophets long before you and I were ever born. They have prophesied against many countries and great kingdoms. They have spoken about war, trouble and plague.

The ancient prophets who preceded you and me spoke against many nations, always warning of war, disaster, and disease.

The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, disaster, and plague against many lands and great kingdoms.

The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times also prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms regarding war, disaster, and plague.

The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries and great kingdoms— of war and disaster and pestilence.

The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.

The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, disaster, and plague against many lands and great kingdoms.

The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.

From earliest times, the prophets who preceded you and me invariably prophesied war, disaster, and plagues against many countries and great kingdoms.

The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, of evil, and of pestilence.

And he said:“ The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.”

Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab,“ As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

Go, tell Jeroboam,‘ Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel:“ Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over my people Israeland tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, and yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in my eyes,but you have done evil above all who were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods and metal images, provoking me to anger, and have cast me behind your back,therefore behold, I will bring harm upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will burn up the house of Jeroboam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone.Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat, for the Lord has spoken it.”’Arise therefore, go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die.And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.Moreover, the Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam today. And henceforth,the Lord will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land that he gave to their fathers and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the Lord to anger.

Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.

But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight,who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say,“ Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.”Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

“ Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession.And you shall say to him,‘ Thus says the Lord,“ Have you killed and also taken possession?”’ And you shall say to him,‘ Thus says the Lord:“ In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.”’”Ahab said to Elijah,“ Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered,“ I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord.Behold, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel.And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the anger to which you have provoked me, and because you have made Israel to sin.And of Jezebel the Lord also said,‘ The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel.’Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat.”

“ For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land,and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.“ What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily.For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border.Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head.I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.”Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say,“ I am a warrior.”Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you.

And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat,“ There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said,“ Let not the king say so.”

Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children.

“ But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you.And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins,and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.“ Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins.And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.“ And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me,then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.“ But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me,then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins.You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you.And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas.And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it.And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.“ Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths.As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies’ lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.“ But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me,so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies— if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes.Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God.But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.”These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai.

And he said,“ Go, and say to this people:“‘ Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”Then I said,“ How long, O Lord?” And he said:“ Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord.The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes.Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man.Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up.How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer.To you, O Lord, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field.Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit,one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying,‘ I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven.And the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, will say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick—the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath—all the nations will say,‘ Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’Then people will say,‘ It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt,and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them.Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book,and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.’

Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the Lord has spoken this word.The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish.The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh.The mirth of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled.No more do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.The wasted city is broken down; every house is shut up so that none can enter.There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown dark; the gladness of the earth is banished.Desolation is left in the city; the gates are battered into ruins.For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west.Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say,“ I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.”Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken.The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.On that day the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth.They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.

“ But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger.They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded.You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.“ The Lord saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.And he said,‘ I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be, For they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.“‘ And I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend my arrows on them;they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust.Outdoors the sword shall bereave, and indoors terror, for young man and woman alike, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.I would have said,“ I will cut them to pieces; I will wipe them from human memory,”had I not feared provocation by the enemy, lest their adversaries should misunderstand, lest they should say,“ Our hand is triumphant, it was not the Lord who did all this.”’“ For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them.If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern their latter end!How could one have chased a thousand, and two have put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had given them up?For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves.For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison; their clusters are bitter;their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of asps.“‘ Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my treasuries?Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free.Then he will say,‘ Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection!“‘ See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, As I live forever,if I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me.I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh— with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the enemy.’“ Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people’s land.”Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.

“ But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.“ The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.The Lord will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.The Lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish.And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron.The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.“ The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed.The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind,and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you.You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit.Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you.Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless.A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually,so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see.The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.“ The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone.And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away.You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it.You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them.You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off.You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity.The cricket shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground.The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.“ All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever.Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things,therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young.It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.“ They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you.And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces, and to the last of the children whom he has left,so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns.The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces, to her son and to her daughter,her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns.“ If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting.And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you.Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you, until you are destroyed.Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God.And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.“ And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul.Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life.In the morning you shall say,‘ If only it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say,‘ If only it were morning!’ because of the dread that your heart shall feel, and the sights that your eyes shall see.And the Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him,“ Thus says the Lord,‘ Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh?Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel.Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares:‘ I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares:‘ Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.

And the Lord said to Moses,“ Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day,‘ Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’

Then the Lord said to Samuel,“ Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”