-
Psalms 107:34
and fruitful land into salty wasteland, because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.
-
Deuteronomy 28:1-68
“ Now if you faithfully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all his commands I am giving you today, the LORD your God will put you far above all the nations of the earth.All these blessings will come and overtake you, because you obey the LORD your God:You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.Your offspring will be blessed, and your land’s produce, and the offspring of your livestock, including the young of your herds and the newborn of your flocks.Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.“ The LORD will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you from one direction but flee from you in seven directions.The LORD will grant you a blessing on your barns and on everything you do; he will bless you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he swore to you, if you obey the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you bear the LORD’s name, and they will stand in awe of you.The LORD will make you prosper abundantly with offspring, the offspring of your livestock, and your land’s produce in the land the LORD swore to your ancestors to give you.The LORD will open for you his abundant storehouse, the sky, to give your land rain in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.The LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward if you listen to the LORD your God’s commands I am giving you today and are careful to follow them.Do not turn aside to the right or the left from all the things I am commanding you today, and do not follow other gods to worship them.“ But if you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all his commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake you:You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed.Your offspring will be cursed, and your land’s produce, the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks.You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.The LORD will send against you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you do until you are destroyed and quickly perish, because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning me.The LORD will make pestilence cling to you until he has exterminated you from the land you are entering to possess.The LORD will afflict you with wasting disease, fever, inflammation, burning heat, drought, blight, and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.The sky above you will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.The LORD will turn the rain of your land into falling dust; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed.The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, with no one to scare them away.“ The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, tumors, a festering rash, and scabies, from which you cannot be cured.The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness, and mental confusion,so that at noon you will grope as a blind person gropes in the dark. You will not be successful in anything you do. You will only be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will help you.You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit.Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will help you.Your sons and daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes grow weary looking for them every day. But you will be powerless to do anything.A people you don’t know will eat your land’s produce and everything you have labored for. You will only be oppressed and crushed continually.You will be driven mad by what you see.The LORD will afflict you with painful and incurable boils on your knees and thighs— from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.“ The LORD will bring you and your king that you have appointed to a nation neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone.You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the peoples where the LORD will drive you.“ You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because locusts will devour it.You will plant and cultivate vineyards but not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.You will have olive trees throughout your territory but not moisten your skin with oil, because your olives will drop off.You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will be taken prisoner.Buzzing insects will take possession of all your trees and your land’s produce.The resident alien among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower.He will lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.“ All these curses will come, pursue, and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the LORD your God and keep the commands and statutes he gave you.These curses will be a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants forever.Because you didn’t serve the LORD your God with joy and a cheerful heart, even though you had an abundance of everything,you will serve your enemies that the LORD will send against you, in famine, thirst, nakedness, and a lack of everything. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.The LORD will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you won’t understand,a ruthless nation, showing no respect for the old and not sparing the young.They will eat the offspring of your livestock and your land’s produce until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, fresh oil, young of your herds, or newborn of your flocks until they cause you to perish.They will besiege you within all your city gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your city gates throughout the land the LORD your God has given you.“ You will eat your offspring, the flesh of your sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you.The most sensitive and refined man among you will look grudgingly at his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children,refusing to share with any of them his children’s flesh that he will eat because he has nothing left during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you in all your towns.The most sensitive and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her refinement and sensitivity, will begrudge the husband she embraces, her son, and her daughter,the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you within your city gates.“ If you are not careful to obey all the words of this law, which are written in this scroll, by fearing this glorious and awe-inspiring name— the LORD, your God—he will bring wondrous plagues on you and your descendants, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses.He will afflict you again with all the diseases of Egypt, which you dreaded, and they will cling to you.The LORD will also afflict you with every sickness and plague not recorded in the book of this law, until you are destroyed.Though you were as numerous as the stars of the sky, you will be left with only a few people, because you did not obey the LORD your God.Just as the LORD was glad to cause you to prosper and to multiply you, so he will also be glad to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be ripped out of the land you are entering to possess.Then the LORD will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.You will find no peace among those nations, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despondent spirit.Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be in dread night and day, never certain of survival.In the morning you will say,‘ If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say,‘ If only it were morning!’— because of the dread you will have in your heart and because of what you will see.The LORD will take you back in ships to Egypt by a route that I said you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
-
Deuteronomy 4:6-8
Carefully follow them, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples. When they hear about all these statutes, they will say,‘ This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’For what great nation is there that has a god near to it as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call to him?And what great nation has righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?
-
Deuteronomy 29:18-28
Be sure there is no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Be sure there is no root among you bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.When someone hears the words of this oath, he may consider himself exempt, thinking,‘ I will have peace even though I follow my own stubborn heart.’ This will lead to the destruction of the well-watered land as well as the dry land.The LORD will not be willing to forgive him. Instead, his anger and jealousy will burn against that person, and every curse written in this scroll will descend on him. The LORD will blot out his name under heaven,and single him out for harm from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.“ Future generations of your children who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant country will see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses the LORD has inflicted on it.All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown, producing nothing, with no plant growing on it, just like the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD demolished in his fierce anger.All the nations will ask,‘ Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this intense outburst of anger?’Then people will answer,‘ It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, which he had made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.They began to serve other gods, bowing in worship to gods they had not known— gods that the LORD had not permitted them to worship.Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, and he brought every curse written in this book on it.The LORD uprooted them from their land in his anger, rage, and intense wrath, and threw them into another land where they are today.’
-
Jeremiah 2:2-25
“ Go and announce directly to Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: I remember the loyalty of your youth, your love as a bride— how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it found themselves guilty; disaster came on them.” This is the LORD’s declaration.Hear the word of the LORD, house of Jacob and all families of the house of Israel.This is what the LORD says: What fault did your ancestors find in me that they went so far from me, followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves?They stopped asking,“ Where is the LORD who brought us from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, through a land of drought and darkness, a land no one traveled through and where no one lived?”I brought you to a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but after you entered, you defiled my land; you made my inheritance detestable.The priests quit asking,“ Where is the LORD?” The experts in the law no longer knew me, and the rulers rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.Therefore, I will bring a case against you again. This is the LORD’s declaration. I will bring a case against your children’s children.Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and take a look. Send someone to Kedar and consider carefully; see if there has ever been anything like this:Has a nation ever exchanged its gods?( But they were not gods!) Yet my people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.Be appalled at this, heavens; be shocked and utterly desolated! This is the LORD’s declaration.For my people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves— cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.Is Israel a slave? Was he born into slavery? Why else has he become a prey?The young lions have roared at him; they have roared loudly. They have laid waste his land. His cities are in ruins, without inhabitants.The men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have also broken your skull.Have you not brought this on yourself by abandoning the LORD your God while he was leading you along the way?Now what will you gain by traveling along the way to Egypt to drink the water of the Nile? What will you gain by traveling along the way to Assyria to drink the water of the Euphrates?Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Recognize how evil and bitter it is for you to abandon the LORD your God and to have no fear of me. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD of Armies.For long ago I broke your yoke; I tore off your chains. You insisted,“ I will not serve!” On every high hill and under every green tree you lay down like a prostitute.I planted you, a choice vine from the very best seed. How then could you turn into a degenerate, foreign vine?Even if you wash with lye and use a great amount of bleach, the stain of your iniquity is still in front of me. This is the Lord GOD’s declaration.How can you protest,“ I am not defiled; I have not followed the Baals”? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young camel twisting and turning on her way,a wild donkey at home in the wilderness. She sniffs the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can control her passion? All who look for her will not become weary; they will find her in her mating season.Keep your feet from going bare and your throat from thirst. But you say,“ It’s hopeless; I love strangers, and I will continue to follow them.”
-
Judges 2:6-14
Previously, when Joshua had sent the people away, the Israelites had gone to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance.The people worshiped the LORD throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived Joshua. They had seen all the LORD’s great works he had done for Israel.Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110.They buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.That whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them another generation rose up who did not know the LORD or the works he had done for Israel.The Israelites did what was evil in the LORD’s sight. They worshiped the Baalsand abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed other gods from the surrounding peoples and bowed down to them. They angered the LORD,for they abandoned him and worshiped Baal and the Ashtoreths.The LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he handed them over to marauders who raided them. He sold them to the enemies around them, and they could no longer resist their enemies.
-
Ezekiel 16:1-63
The word of the LORD came to me again:“ Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices.You are to say,‘ This is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hethite.As for your birth, your umbilical cord wasn’t cut on the day you were born, and you weren’t washed clean with water. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.No one cared enough about you to do even one of these things out of compassion for you. But you were thrown out into the open field because you were despised on the day you were born.“‘ I passed by you and saw you thrashing around in your blood, and I said to you as you lay in your blood,“ Live!” Yes, I said to you as you lay in your blood,“ Live!”I made you thrive like plants of the field. You grew up and matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were stark naked.“‘ Then I passed by you and saw you, and you were indeed at the age for love. So I spread the edge of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged myself to you, entered into a covenant with you— this is the declaration of the Lord GOD— and you became mine.I washed you with water, rinsed off your blood, and anointed you with oil.I clothed you in embroidered cloth and provided you with fine leather sandals. I also wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.I adorned you with jewelry, putting bracelets on your wrists and a necklace around your neck.I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head.So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became extremely beautiful and attained royalty.Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through my splendor, which I had bestowed on you. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.“‘ But you trusted in your beauty and acted like a prostitute because of your fame. You lavished your sexual favors on everyone who passed by. Your beauty became his.You took some of your clothing and made colorful high places for yourself, and you engaged in prostitution on them. These places should not have been built, and this should never have happened!You also took your beautiful jewelry made from the gold and silver I had given you, and you made male images so that you could engage in prostitution with them.Then you took your embroidered clothing to cover them and set my oil and incense before them.The food that I gave you— the fine flour, oil, and honey that I fed you— you set it before them as a pleasing aroma. That is what happened. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.“‘ You even took your sons and daughters you bore to me and sacrificed them to these images as food. Wasn’t your prostitution enough?You slaughtered my children and gave them up when you passed them through the fire to the images.In all your detestable practices and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were stark naked and thrashing around in your blood.“‘ Then after all your evil— Woe, woe to you!— the declaration of the Lord GOD—you built yourself a mound and made yourself an elevated place in every square.You built your elevated place at the head of every street and turned your beauty into a detestable thing. You spread your legs to everyone who passed by and increased your prostitution.You engaged in promiscuous acts with Egyptian men, your well-endowed neighbors, and increased your prostitution to anger me.“‘ Therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your provisions. I gave you over to the desire of those who hate you, the Philistine women, who were embarrassed by your indecent conduct.Then you engaged in prostitution with the Assyrian men because you were not satisfied. Even though you did this with them, you were still not satisfied.So you extended your prostitution to Chaldea, the land of merchants, but you were not even satisfied with this!“‘ How your heart was inflamed with lust— the declaration of the Lord GOD— when you did all these things, the acts of a brazen prostitute,building your mound at the head of every street and making your elevated place in every square. But you were unlike a prostitute because you scorned payment.You adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from all around for your sexual favors.So you were the opposite of other women in your acts of prostitution; no one solicited you. When you paid a fee instead of one being paid to you, you were the opposite.“‘ Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the LORD!This is what the Lord GOD says: Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness exposed by your acts of prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols and the blood of your children that you gave to them,I am therefore going to gather all the lovers you pleased— all those you loved as well as all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose your nakedness to them so they see you completely naked.I will judge you the way adulteresses and those who shed blood are judged. Then I will bring about the shedding of your blood in jealous wrath.I will hand you over to them, and they will demolish your mounds and tear down your elevated places. They will strip off your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you stark naked.They will bring a mob against you to stone you and to cut you to pieces with their swords.They will burn your houses and execute judgments against you in the sight of many women. I will stop you from being a prostitute, and you will never again pay fees for lovers.So I will satisfy my wrath against you, and my jealousy will turn away from you. Then I will be calm and no longer angry.Because you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I will also bring your conduct down on your own head. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD. Haven’t you committed depravity in addition to all your detestable practices?“‘ Look, everyone who uses proverbs will quote this proverb about you:“ Like mother, like daughter.”You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hethite and your father an Amorite.Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you, and your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to the south of you.Didn’t you walk in their ways and do their detestable practices? It was only a short time before all your ways were more corrupt than theirs.“‘ As I live— the declaration of the Lord GOD— your sister Sodom and her daughters have not behaved as you and your daughters have.Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, plenty of food, and comfortable security, but didn’t support the poor and needy.They were haughty and did detestable acts before me, so I removed them when I saw this.But Samaria did not commit even half your sins. You have multiplied your detestable practices beyond theirs and made your sisters appear righteous by all the detestable acts you have committed.You must also bear your disgrace, since you have helped your sisters out. For they appear more righteous than you because of your sins, which you committed more detestably than they did. So you also, be ashamed and bear your disgrace, since you have made your sisters appear righteous.“‘ I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and those of Samaria and her daughters. I will also restore your fortunes among them,so you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you did when you comforted them.As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state.Didn’t you treat your sister Sodom as an object of scorn when you were proud,before your wickedness was exposed? It was like the time you were scorned by the daughters of Aram and all those around her, and by the daughters of the Philistines— those who treated you with contempt from every side.You yourself must bear the consequences of your depravity and detestable practices— this is the LORD’s declaration.“‘ For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will deal with you according to what you have done, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish a permanent covenant with you.Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant.I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD,so that when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth again because of your disgrace. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.’”
-
Hosea 13:1
When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel. But he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
-
Ezekiel 22:1-23
The word of the LORD came to me:“ As for you, son of man, will you pass judgment? Will you pass judgment against the city of blood? Then explain all her detestable practices to her.You are to say,‘ This is what the Lord GOD says: A city that sheds blood within her walls so that her time of judgment has come and who makes idols for herself so that she is defiled!You are guilty of the blood you have shed, and you are defiled from the idols you have made. You have brought your judgment days near and have come to your years of punishment. Therefore, I have made you a disgrace to the nations and a mockery to all the lands.Those who are near and those far away from you will mock you, you infamous one full of turmoil.“‘ Look, every prince of Israel within you has used his strength to shed blood.Father and mother are treated with contempt, and the resident alien is exploited within you. The fatherless and widow are oppressed in you.You despise my holy things and profane my Sabbaths.There are men within you who slander in order to shed blood. People who live in you eat at the mountain shrines; they commit depraved acts within you.Men within you have sexual intercourse with their father’s wife and violate women during their menstrual impurity.One man within you commits a detestable act with his neighbor’s wife; another defiles his daughter-in-law with depravity; and yet another violates his sister, his father’s daughter.People who live in you accept bribes in order to shed blood. You take interest and profit on a loan and brutally extort your neighbors. You have forgotten me. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.“‘ Now look, I clap my hands together against the dishonest profit you have made and against the blood shed among you.Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the days when I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will act.I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you among the countries; I will purge your uncleanness.You will be profaned in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”The word of the LORD came to me:“ Son of man, the house of Israel has become merely dross to me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace; they are just dross from silver.Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: Because all of you have become dross, I am about to gather you into Jerusalem.Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to blow fire on them and melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and wrath, put you inside, and melt you.Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of my fury, and you will be melted within the city.As silver is melted inside a furnace, so you will be melted inside the city. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out my wrath on you.”The word of the LORD came to me:
