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Psalm 107:34
and fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who lived there. (niv)
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5 Mose 28 1-5 Mose 28 68
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock— the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him.Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity— in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground— in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess.The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish.The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron.The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth.Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away.The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured.The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind.At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them.Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand.A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days.The sights you see will drive you mad.The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone.You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it.You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off.You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity.Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower.They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail.All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you.They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity,therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. 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 ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand,a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young.They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined.They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you.Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children,and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities.The most gentle and sensitive woman among you— so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot— will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughterthe afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name— the Lord your God—the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses.He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you.The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed.You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God.Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods— gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart.You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life.In the morning you will say,“ If only it were evening!” and in the evening,“ If only it were morning!”— because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you. (niv)
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5 Mose 4 6-5 Mose 4 8
Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say,“ Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? (niv)
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5 Mose 29 18-5 Mose 29 28
Make sure there is no man or 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; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking,“ I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.The Lord will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven.The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it.The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur— nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger.All the nations will ask:“ Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?”And the answer will be:“ It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them.Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.” (niv)
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Jeremia 2:2-25
“ Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:“ This is what the Lord says:“‘ I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown.Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,’” declares the Lord.Hear the word of the Lord, you descendants of Jacob, all you clans of Israel.This is what the Lord says:“ What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.They did not ask,‘ Where is the Lord, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, a land of drought and utter darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable.The priests did not ask,‘ Where is the Lord?’ Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.“ Therefore I bring charges against you again,” declares the Lord.“ And I will bring charges against your children’s children.Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this:Has a nation ever changed its gods?( Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols.Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord.“ My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth? Why then has he become plunder?Lions have roared; they have growled at him. They have laid waste his land; his towns are burned and deserted.Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have cracked your skull.Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the Lord your God when he led you in the way?Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Nile? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the Euphrates?Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.“ Long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said,‘ I will not serve you!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute.I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Sovereign Lord.“ How can you say,‘ I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done. You are a swift she-camel running here and there,a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving— in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her.Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said,‘ It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’ (niv)
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Richter 2:6-14
After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance.The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten.And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s angerbecause they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. (niv)
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Hesekiel 16:1-63
The word of the Lord came to me:“ Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practicesand say,‘ This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.“‘ Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you,“ Live!”I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew and developed and entered puberty. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.“‘ Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.“‘ I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you.I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put sandals of fine leather on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments.I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck,and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was honey, olive oil and the finest flour. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen.And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord.“‘ But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his.You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. You went to him, and he possessed your beauty.You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them.And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them.Also the food I provided for you— the flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat— you offered as fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign Lord.“‘ And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough?You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.In all your detestable practices and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood.“‘ Woe! Woe to you, declares the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness,you built a mound for yourself and made a lofty shrine in every public square.At every street corner you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, spreading your legs with increasing promiscuity to anyone who passed by.You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your neighbors with large genitals, and aroused my anger with your increasing promiscuity.So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked by your lewd conduct.You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied.Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied.“‘ I am filled with fury against you, declares the Sovereign Lord, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute!When you built your mounds at every street corner and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment.“‘ You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband!All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.“‘ Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord!This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your naked body in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children’s blood,therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will see you stark naked.I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger.Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you stark naked.They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords.They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers.Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; 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 surely bring down on your head what you have done, declares the Sovereign Lord. Did you not add lewdness to all your other detestable practices?“‘ Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you:“ Like mother, like daughter.”You are a true daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children; and you are a true sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.Your older sister was Samaria, who lived to the north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you with her daughters, was Sodom.You not only followed their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they.As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.“‘ Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have done more detestable things than they, and have made your sisters seem righteous by all these things you have done.Bear your disgrace, for you have furnished some justification for your sisters. Because your sins were more vile than theirs, they appear more righteous than you. So then, be ashamed and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.“‘ However, I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and of Samaria and her daughters, and your fortunes along with them,so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done in giving them comfort.And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to what they were before; and you and your daughters will return to what you were before.You would not even mention your sister Sodom in the day of your pride,before your wickedness was uncovered. Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom and all her neighbors and the daughters of the Philistines— all those around you who despise you.You will bear the consequences of your lewdness and your detestable practices, declares the Lord.“‘ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant.Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those who are older than you and those who are younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of my covenant with you.So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord.Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign Lord.’” (niv)
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Hosea 13:1
When Ephraim spoke, people trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died. (niv)
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Hesekiel 22:1-23
The word of the Lord came to me:“ Son of man, will you judge her? Will you judge this city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her detestable practicesand say:‘ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You city that brings on herself doom by shedding blood in her midst and defiles herself by making idols,you have become guilty because of the blood you have shed and have become defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close, and the end of your years has come. Therefore I will make you an object of scorn to the nations and a laughingstock to all the countries.Those who are near and those who are far away will mock you, you infamous city, full of turmoil.“‘ See how each of the princes of Israel who are in you uses his power to shed blood.In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the foreigner and mistreated the fatherless and the widow.You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths.In you are slanderers who are bent on shedding blood; in you are those who eat at the mountain shrines and commit lewd acts.In you are those who dishonor their father’s bed; in you are those who violate women during their period, when they are ceremonially unclean.In you one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor’s wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter.In you are people who accept bribes to shed blood; you take interest and make a profit from the poor. You extort unjust gain from your neighbors. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign Lord.“‘ I will surely strike my hands together at the unjust gain you have made and at the blood you have shed in your midst.Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you through the countries; and I will put an end to your uncleanness.When you have been defiled in the eyes of the nations, you will know that I am the Lord.’”Then the word of the Lord came to me:“ Son of man, the people of Israel have become dross to me; all of them are the copper, tin, iron and lead left inside a furnace. They are but the dross of silver.Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says:‘ Because you have all become dross, I will gather you into Jerusalem.As silver, copper, iron, lead and tin are gathered into a furnace to be melted with a fiery blast, so will I gather you in my anger and my wrath and put you inside the city and melt you.I will gather you and I will blow on you with my fiery wrath, and you will be melted inside her.As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her, and you will know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath on you.’”Again the word of the Lord came to me: (niv)
