38 “aYou shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little, for bthe locust will consume it.

39 “aYou shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them.

40 “aYou shall have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off.

41 “aYou shall 1have sons and daughters but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity.

42 “aThe cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground.

43 “aThe alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower.

44 “aHe shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; bhe shall be the head, and you will be the tail.

45 “So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you auntil you are destroyed, because you would not 1obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.

46 “They shall become aa sign and a wonder on you and your 1descendants forever.

47 “aBecause you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things;

48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, ain hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He bwill put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

49 “aThe Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, bas the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand,

50 a nation of fierce countenance who will ahave no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.

51 “Moreover, it shall eat the 1offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish.

52 “aIt shall besiege you in all your 1towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your 1towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you.

53 “aThen you shall eat the 1offspring 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 distress by which your enemy will 2oppress you.

54 “The man who is 1refined and very delicate among you 2shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife 3he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain,

55 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 distress by which your enemy will 1oppress you in all your 2towns.

56 “aThe 1refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and 2refinement, 3shall be hostile toward the husband 4she cherishes and toward her son and daughter,

57 and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her 1legs and toward her children whom she bears; for ashe will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will 2oppress you in your 3towns.