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.

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

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 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 from Jerusalem He utters His voice; And the shepherds’ pasture grounds mourn, And the summit of Carmel dries up.”

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

Go, say to Jeroboam,‘ This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says:“ Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over My people Israel,and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you— yet you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, to do only that which was right in My sight;you also have done more evil than all who were before you, and you have gone and made for yourself other gods and cast metal images to provoke Me to anger, and have thrown Me behind your back—therefore behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and I will eliminate from Jeroboam every male person, both bond and free in Israel, and I will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam, just as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone.Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city, the dogs will eat. And anyone who dies in the field, the birds of the sky will eat; for the Lord has spoken it.” ’Now you, arise, go to your house. When your feet enter the city the child will die.Then all Israel will mourn for him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam’s family will come to the grave, because in him something good was found toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.Moreover, the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will eliminate the house of Jeroboam this day and from now on.“ For the Lord will strike Israel, just as a reed sways in the water; and He will uproot Israel from this good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the Lord to anger.

Let me sing now for my beloved A song of my beloved about His vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.He dug it all around, cleared it of stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it, And also carved out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.“ And now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard.What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned nor hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I will also command the clouds not to rain on it.”For the vineyard of the Lord of armies is the house of Israel, And the people of Judah are His delightful plant. So He waited for justice, but behold, there was bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.Woe to those who attach house to house and join field to field, Until there is no more room, And you alone are a landowner in the midst of the land!

On the other hand, I am filled with power— With the Spirit of the Lord— And with justice and courage To make known to Jacob his rebellious act, And to Israel his sin.Now hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel, Who despise justice And twist everything that is straight,Who build Zion with bloodshed, And Jerusalem with malice.Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, Her priests teach for pay, And her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, saying,“ Is the Lord not in our midst? Catastrophe will not come upon us.”Therefore on account of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, And the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest.

“ 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 down to take possession of it.And you shall speak to him, saying,‘ This is what the Lord says:“ Have you murdered and also taken possession?” ’ And you shall speak to him, saying,‘ The Lord says this:“ In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick up your blood, yours as well.” ’ ”Then Ahab said to Elijah,“ Have you found me, enemy of mine?” And he answered,“ I have found you, because you have given yourself over to do evil in the sight of the Lord.Behold, I am bringing disaster upon you, and I will utterly sweep you away, and will eliminate from Ahab every male, both bond and 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, because of the provocation with which you have provoked Me to anger, and because you have misled Israel into sin.The Lord has also spoken of Jezebel, saying,‘ The dogs will eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel.’The one belonging to Ahab, who dies in the city, the dogs will eat; and the one who dies in the field, the birds of the sky will 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. Then I will enter into judgment with them there On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; And they have divided up My land.They have also cast lots for My people, Traded a boy for a prostitute, And sold a girl for wine so that they may drink.Moreover, what are you to Me, Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you repaying Me with retribution? But if you are showing Me retribution, swiftly and speedily I will return your retribution on your head!Since you have taken My silver and My gold, brought My precious treasures to your temples,and sold the sons of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their territory,behold, I am going to stir them up from the place where you have sold them, and return your retribution on your head.I will also sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation,” for the Lord has spoken.Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for holy war; stir up the warriors! Have all the soldiers come forward, have them come up!Beat your plowshares into swords, And your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak man say,“ I am a warrior.”Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations, And gather yourselves there. Bring down, Lord, Your warriors.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today, that you will certainly perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to take possession of it. You will not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed.The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you.

And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat,“ There is still one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, because he does not prophesy anything good regarding me, but only bad. He is Micaiah the son of Imlah.” But Jehoshaphat said,“ May the king not say so.”

And their bows will mow down the young men, They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb, Nor will their eye pity children.

‘ But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments,if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul loathes My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, but rather to break My covenant,I, in turn, will do this to you: I will summon a sudden terror against you, consumption and fever that will make the eyes fail and the soul languish; also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it.And I will set My face against you so that you will be defeated before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.I will also break down your pride of power; and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze.Your strength will be consumed uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.‘ Yet if you show hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins.I will also let loose among you the animals of the field, which will deprive you of your children and eliminate your cattle, and reduce your number so that your roads become deserted.‘ And if by these things you do not learn your lesson regarding Me, but you show hostility toward Me,then I in turn will show hostility toward you; and I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins.I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send a plague among you, so that you will be handed over to the enemy.When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts, so that you will eat and not be satisfied.‘ Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me,then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I for My part will punish you seven times for your sins.Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and pile your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul will loathe you.I will turn your cities into ruins as well and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas.And I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it.You, however, I will scatter among the nations, and I will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become ruins.‘ Then the land will restore its Sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and restore its Sabbaths.All the days of its desolation it will have the rest which it did not have on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it.As for those among you who are left, I will also bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a scattered leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall.They will then stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand before your enemies.Instead, you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you.So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their wrongdoing in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the wrongdoing of their forefathers they will rot away with them.‘ But if they confess their wrongdoing and the wrongdoing of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me—I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies— or if their uncircumcised heart is humbled so that they then make amends for their wrongdoing,then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.For the land will be abandoned by them, and will restore its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their wrongdoing, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul loathed My statutes.Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so loathe them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, so that I might be their God. I am the Lord.’ ”These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the sons of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai.

And He said,“ Go, and tell this people:‘ Keep on listening, but do not understand; And keep on looking, but do not gain knowledge.’Make the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes blind, So that they will not see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”Then I said,“ Lord, how long?” And He answered,“ Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people And the land is utterly desolate,The Lord has completely removed people, And there are many forsaken places in the midst of the land.

The pronouncement of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite:A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies.The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In the gale and the storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet.

Hear this, you elders, And listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days, Or in your fathers’ days?Tell your sons about it, And have your sons tell their sons, And their sons the next generation.What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.Awake, you heavy drinkers, and weep; And wail, all you wine drinkers, Because of the sweet wine, For it has been eliminated from your mouth.For a nation has invaded my land, Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the jaws of a lioness.It has made my vine a waste And my fig tree a stump. It has stripped them bare and hurled them away; Their branches have become white.Wail like a virgin clothed with sackcloth For the groom of her youth.The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off From the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, The ministers of the Lord.The field is ruined, The land mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine has dried up, Fresh oil has failed.Be ashamed, you farm workers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field is destroyed.The vine has dried up And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, All the trees of the field have dried up. Indeed, joy has dried up From the sons of mankind.Put on sackcloth And mourn, you priests; Wail, you ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, You ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the drink offering Have been withheld from the house of your God.Consecrate a fast, Proclaim 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.Woe for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.Has food not been cut off before our eyes, and Joy and rejoicing from the house of our God?The seeds have dried up under their shovels; The storehouses have become desolate, The grain silos are ruined, Because the grain has dried up.How the animals have groaned! The herds of cattle have wandered aimlessly Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep have suffered.To You, Lord, I cry out; For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.Even the animals of the field pant for You; For the stream beds of water are dried up, And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood.And it shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will consider himself fortunate in his heart, saying,‘ I will do well though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land along with the dry.’The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and His wrath will burn against that person, and every curse that is written in this book will lie upon him, and the Lord will wipe out his name from under heaven.Then the Lord will single him out for disaster from all the tribes of Israel, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant which is written in this Book of the Law.“ Now the future generation, your sons who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, when they see the plagues of that land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it, will say,‘ All its land is brimstone and salt, burned debris, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows on it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.’All the nations will say,‘ Why has the Lord done all this to this land? Why this great outburst of 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 they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they have not known and whom He had not assigned to them.Therefore, the anger of the Lord burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book;and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, fury, and in great wrath, and hurled them into another land, as it is this day.’

Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, twists its surface, and scatters its inhabitants.And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the female servant like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor.The earth will be completely laid waste and completely plundered, for the Lord has spoken this word.The earth dries up and crumbles away, the mainland dries out and crumbles away, the exalted of the people of the earth dwindle.The earth is also defiled by its inhabitants, for they violated laws, altered statutes, and broke the everlasting covenant.Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live on it suffer for their guilt. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth decrease in number, and few people are left.The new wine mourns, The vine decays, All the joyful hearted sigh.The joy of tambourines ceases, The noise of revelers stops, The joy of the harp ceases.They do not drink wine with song; Intoxicating drink is bitter to those who drink it.The city of chaos is broken down; Every house is shut up so that no one may enter.There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine; All joy turns to gloom. The joy of the earth is banished.Desolation is left in the city And the gate is battered to ruins.For so it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples, As the shaking of an olive tree, As the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.They raise their voices, they shout for joy; They cry out from the west concerning the majesty of the Lord.Therefore glorify the Lord in the east, The name of the Lord, the God of Israel, In the coastlands of the sea.From the ends of the earth we hear songs:“ Glory to the Righteous One,” But I say,“ I am finished! I am finished! Woe to me! The treacherous deal treacherously, And the treacherous deal very treacherously.”Terror and pit and snare Confront you, you inhabitant of the earth.Then it will be that the one who flees the sound of terror will fall into the pit, And the one who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare; For the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake.The earth is broken apart, The earth is split through, The earth is shaken violently.The earth trembles like a heavy drinker And sways like a hut, For its wrongdoing is heavy upon it, And it will fall, never to rise again.So it will happen on that day, That the Lord will punish the rebellious angels of heaven on high, And the kings of the earth on earth.They will be gathered together Like prisoners in the dungeon, And will be confined in prison; And after many days they will be punished.Then the moon will be ashamed and the sun be put to shame, For the Lord of armies will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders.

“ But Jeshurun became fat and kicked— You have become fat, thick, and obstinate— Then he abandoned God who made him, And rejected the Rock of his salvation.They made Him jealous with strange gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger.They sacrificed to demons, who were not God, To gods whom they have not known, New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers did not know.You forgot the Rock who fathered you, And forgot the God who gave you birth.“ The Lord saw this, and spurned them Because of the provocation by His sons and daughters.Then He said,‘ I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom there is no faithfulness.They have made Me jealous with what is not God; They have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation,For a fire has flared in My anger, And it burns to the lowest part of Sheol, And devours the earth with its yield, And sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.‘ I will add misfortunes to them; I will use up My arrows on them.They will be wasted by famine, and emaciated by plague And a bitter epidemic; And the teeth of beasts I will send against them, With the venom of crawling things of the dust.Outside the sword will make them childless, And inside, terror— Both young man and virgin, The nursing child with the man of gray hair.I would have said,“ I will wipe them out, I will remove the mention of their name from humanity,”Had I not feared the provocation by the enemy, That their adversaries would misjudge, That they would say,“ Our hand is triumphant, And the Lord has not performed all this.” ’“ For they are a nation destitute of counsel, And there is no understanding in them.If only they were wise and they understood this; If only they would discern their future!How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And the Lord had given them up?Indeed, their rock is not like our Rock; Even our enemies themselves judge this.For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, And from the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes are grapes of poison, Their clusters, bitter.Their wine is the venom of serpents, And the deadly poison of vipers.‘ Is it not stored up with Me, Sealed up in My treasuries?Vengeance is Mine, and retribution; In due time their foot will slip. For the day of their disaster is near, And the impending things are hurrying to them.’For the Lord will vindicate His people, And will have compassion on His servants, When He sees that their strength is gone, And there is none remaining, bond or free.And He will say,‘ Where are their gods, The rock in which they took refuge?Those 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, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can save anyone from My hand.Indeed, I raise My hand to heaven, And say, as I live forever,If I have sharpened My flashing sword, And My hand has taken hold of justice, I will return vengeance on My adversaries, And I will repay those who hate Me.I will make My arrows drunk with blood, And My sword will devour flesh, With the blood of the slain and the captives, From the long haired leaders of the enemy.’Rejoice, you nations, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And will return vengeance on His adversaries, And will atone for His land and His people.”Then Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he, with Joshua the son of Nun.

“ But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to be careful to follow all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:“ Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the country.“ Cursed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.“ Cursed will be the children of your womb, the produce of your ground, the newborn of your herd, and the offspring of your flock.“ Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go out.“ The Lord will send against you curses, panic, and rebuke, in everything you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have abandoned Me.The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has eliminated you from the land where you are entering to take possession of it.The Lord will strike you with consumption, inflammation, fever, feverish heat, and with the sword, with blight, and with mildew, and they will pursue you until you perish.The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron.The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.“ The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways from their presence, and you will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.Your dead bodies will serve as food for all birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.“ The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, the festering rash, and with scabies, from which you cannot be healed.The Lord will strike you with insanity, blindness, and with confusion of mind;and you will be groping about at noon, just as a person who is blind gropes in the darkness, and you will not be successful in your ways; but you will only be oppressed and robbed all the time, with no one to save you.You will betroth a woman, but another man will violate her; you will build a house, but you will not live in it; you will plant a vineyard, but you will not make use of its fruit.Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey will be snatched away from you, and will not be restored to you; your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you.Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes look on and long for them constantly; but there will be nothing you can do.A people whom you do not know will eat the produce of your ground and every product of your labor, and you will never be anything but oppressed and mistreated continually.You will also be driven insane by the sight of what you see.The Lord will strike you on the knees and thighs with severe boils from which you cannot be healed, and strike you from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you appoint over you, to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, made of wood and stone.And you will become an object of horror, a song of mockery, and an object of taunting among all the peoples where the Lord drives you.“ You will bring out a great amount of seed to the field, but you will gather in little, because the locust will devour it.You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor bring in the harvest, because the worm will eat it.You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, because your olives will drop off prematurely.You will father sons and daughters but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity.The cricket will take possession of all your trees and the produce of your ground.The stranger who is among you will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower.He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he will be the head, and you will be the tail.“ So all these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.And they will become a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants forever.“ Since you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, in gratitude for the abundance of all things,you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and devoid of all things; and He will put an iron yoke 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, as the eagle swoops down; a nation whose language you will not understand,a nation with a defiant attitude, who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.Furthermore, it will eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed; a nation that will leave you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the newborn of your cattle or the young of your flock, until they have eliminated you.And it will besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it will besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you.Then you will eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the hardship by which your enemy will oppress you.The man who is refined and very delicate among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife he cherishes, and toward the rest of his children who are left,so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else left, during the siege and the hardship by which your enemy will oppress you in all your towns.The refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and tenderness, will be hostile toward the husband she cherishes and toward her son and daughter,and toward her afterbirth that comes from between her legs, and toward her children to whom she gives birth, because she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the hardship with which your enemy will oppress you in your towns.“ If you are not careful to follow all the words of this Law that are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the Lord your God,then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses.And He will bring back on you every disease of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you.Also every sickness and every plague, which are not written in the book of this Law, the Lord will bring on you until you are destroyed.Then you will be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey the Lord your God.And it will come about that, just as the Lord rejoiced over you to be good to you, and make you numerous, so will the Lord rejoice over you to wipe you out and destroy you; and you will be torn away from the land which you are entering to possess.Furthermore, the Lord will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you will serve other gods, made of wood and stone, which you and your fathers have not known.Among those nations you will find no peace, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul.So your lives will be hanging in doubt before you; and you will be terrified night and day, and have no assurance of your life.In the morning you will say,‘ If only it were evening!’ And at evening you will say,‘ If only it were morning!’ because of the terror of your heart which you fear, and the sight of your eyes which you will see.And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I said to you,‘ You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him,“ This is what the Lord says:‘ Did I not indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh’s house?Did I not choose them from all the tribes of Israel to be My priests, to go up to My altar, to burn incense, to carry an ephod before Me? And did I not give to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel?Why are you showing contempt for My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded for My dwelling, and why are you honoring your sons above Me, by making yourselves fat with the choicest of every offering of My people Israel?’Therefore the Lord God of Israel declares,‘ I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father was to walk 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 will be insignificant.Behold, the days are coming when I will eliminate your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.And you will look at the distress of My dwelling, in spite of all the good that I do for Israel; and there will never be an old man in your house.

The Lord said to Moses,“ Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the prostitute with the foreign gods of the land into the midst of which they are going, and they will abandon Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.Then My anger will be kindled against them on that day, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will find them; so they will say on that day,‘ Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have found us?’

Then the Lord said to Samuel,“ Behold, I am going to do a thing in Israel, and both ears of everyone who hears about it will ring.On that day I will carry out against Eli everything that I have spoken in regard to his house, from beginning to end.For I have told him that I am going to judge his house forever for the wrongdoing that he knew, because his sons were bringing a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them.Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the wrongdoing of Eli’s house shall never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.”