Obey these rules
1You can’t make idols and you can’t worship them. So don’t set up statues or memorial stones or make figurines so you can bow and worship them. I am the LORD your God. 2Respect my Sabbath Day and the Most Sacred Room, [1] which is my sanctuary in the worship center. I am the LORD.God promises peace, prosperity
3I’ll make you this promise. If you respect the laws I gave you and show it by obeying them, 4I’ll send the rain when you need it. This will give you the crops and fruit you need from the fields and the trees.5I’ll nourish your fields and orchards so well that you’ll have to work on the grain harvest all the way up to the grape harvest. [2] And you’ll still be working on the grape harvest when it’s time to plant the next season’s crops. 6I’ll make sure you live in peace and sleep in safety. I’ll take care of animal control, so you don’t need to be afraid of wild animals. I’ll steer invaders away from you, too. 7Your enemies won’t come after you. You’ll go after them. And you’ll defeat them. 8Five of you will send 100 of them turning tail and running. One hundred of you will chase off 10,000 of them—and then kill them.
9I’ll be on your side, giving you lots of children, just as I promised in our agreement. [3] 10You’ll harvest so many crops that you won’t be able to eat the current season’s harvest. You’ll still be eating your way through the harvest from last year or even earlier. 11I’ll live right there with you. I won’t turn my back on you. 12I’ll walk right there among you. I’ll be your God and you’ll be my people. 13I’m the LORD your God. I’m the one who freed you from slavery in Egypt. I broke those chains so you could walk tall again.
God warns of defeat and exile
14However, if you don’t obey the rules I’ve given you, I want you to know something.15If all you can do is disobey, despising my rules clear down to your bones—if all you can do is break those rules, 16I’ll attack you. I’ll swoop down on you like a sudden night terror. I’ll bring you disease and a fever so hot it’ll blur your vision and suck the life right out of you. You’ll plant seeds in the field. But it’ll be a waste of time because your enemies will eat the harvest. 17I’ll turn my back on you and let your enemies crush you into the dirt. Your new rulers will hate you. And you’ll become so frightened that you’ll run away even though no one feels threatened enough by you to chase you. 18If you don’t come to your senses by then, and start doing what I tell you to do, I’ll punish you seven [4] times worse than I otherwise would have. [5]
19I’ll destroy the pride you feel because of your fertile land. [6] You’ll have nothing to brag about after I seal the sky with iron and cover the ground in bronze. 20You’ll work hard on the land. What a waste of time. Your fields won’t grow anything worth eating and your fruit trees will go fruitless. 21That’s what I’ll do if you show me nothing but hostility and rejection. I’ll hit seven times harder than I otherwise would have.
Wild animals will kill your kids
22I’ll turn wild animals loose on you. They’ll kill your children, eat your livestock, and leave your roads deserted. 23If you still haven't learned your lesson after all of this, and you show me nothing but hatred, 24I will hit you another seven times harder. I’ll punish you for your sins.25I’ll send invaders to punish you for breaking our agreement. And when you go into the cities, I’ll hit you with a plague. I’ll weaken you so much that your enemies will easily conquer you. 26I’ll decimate your crops. One oven will be enough for 10 women to bake their day’s bread. That’s how little flour they’ll have. They’ll weigh and ration what little bread they bake. People will eat their tiny ration, but it won't be enough to satisfy their hunger.
27If you persist in disobeying me, despite all this, 28I’ll come at you as an angry God. Once again I’ll punish you seven times more than I would have.
Parents will eat their children
29Starving, you’ll eat your own children. 30At that point, I will reach down and level the pagan shrines you built on hilltops. I’ll tear down the altars where you burned incense to fake gods. Then I’ll crush your idols and pile your bones beside the broken pieces. I will hate you for what you are doing. 31I’ll turn your cities into ghost towns and your worship centers into rubble. I won't enjoy the sweet aroma of your sacrifices anymore. They’ll smell of stink to me.32What I do to you and your land will shock the invaders. 33I’ll scatter you throughout enemy nations. There, you’ll will face the wrong end of the sword. Back home, your land will lie desolate, and your cities destroyed and abandoned.
34Finally, the land will get to make up for all the Sabbath [7] years of rest you refused to give it. While the fields lie empty, with you away in exile, the land will get to rest and recover. 35For as long as the land lies empty and unplanted, it will enjoy the Sabbath rest you never gave it.
36Those of you who survive, scattered among enemy nations, will live hopeless lives in constant terror. You’ll live life on the run from your enemies. The mere sound of a falling leaf will spook you and send you running for your life. You’ll run away from people who aren't even chasing you. 37Chaos will send you crashing into each other as you try to run away, terrified of men with swords. Yet, there will be no one chasing you—other than your own fear. When it comes time to face an enemy, you won't have the strength to fight. 38You will die in foreign lands, swallowed up by your enemies. 39Because of all you've done wrong, I'll stand back and watch you waste away, starving and dying in enemy territory. Your children will die there with you. It’s all on you. The consequences of your sins.
There’s always hope
40But I want you to know this as well. There’s still a chance your children will finally come around and confess that they and their ancestors had showed me nothing but hostility and rejection.41I had to let them experience the consequences of that hostility. If that brings them to their knees and humbles them enough to admit that what they did was wrong,
42I’ll remember the agreement I made with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham. I’ll remember the land I promised to them. 43Meanwhile, the land will enjoy a time of Sabbath rest and restoration. But the people have to suffer the consequences of their disobedience and their hateful rejection of my laws.
44Yet even when they’re exiled among enemy nations, I won't abandon them or hate them so much for breaking our agreement that I wipe them out. I won’t do that. I am the LORD their God. 45Though they may have forgotten their agreement with me, I will remember it for them. I’ll do that because of the agreement I made with their ancestors: those I led out of slavery in Egypt, while all the nations of the world watched. I did that so I could be their God. I am the LORD. 46These are the rules to live by—the laws that the LORD himself told Moses on Mount Sinai to deliver to the people of Israel.
