²⁷“ ‘If you still refuse to listen to me and still turn against me, ²⁸I will show my great anger; I will punish you seven more times for your sins. ²⁹You will eat the bodies of your sons and daughters. ³⁰I will destroy your places where gods are worshiped and cut down your incense altars. I will pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols. I will hate you. ³¹I will destroy your cities and make your holy places empty, and I will not smell the pleasing smell of your offerings. ³²I will make the land empty so that your enemies who come to live in it will be shocked at it. ³³I will scatter you among the nations, and I will pull out my sword and destroy you. Your land will become empty, your cities a waste. ³⁴When you are taken to your enemy’s country, your land will finally get its rest. It will enjoy its time of rest all the time it lies empty. ³⁵During the time the land is empty, it will have the rest you should have given it while you lived in it.

³⁶“ ‘Those of you who are left alive will lose their courage in the land of their enemies. They will be frightened by the sound of a leaf being blown by the wind. They will run as if someone were chasing them with a sword, and they will fall even when no one is chasing them. ³⁷They will fall over each other, as if someone were chasing them with a sword, even though no one is chasing them. You will not be strong enough to stand up against your enemies. ³⁸You will die among other nations and disappear in your enemies’ countries. ³⁹So those who are left alive will rot away in their enemies’ countries because of their sins. They will also rot away because of their ancestors’ sins.

There Is Always Hope

⁴⁰“ ‘But maybe the people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors; maybe they will admit they turned against me and sinned against me, ⁴¹which made me turn against them and send them into the land of their enemies. If these disobedient people are sorry for what they did and accept punishment for their sin, ⁴²I will remember my agreement with Jacob, my agreement with Isaac, and my agreement with Abraham, and I will remember the land. ⁴³The land will be left empty by its people, and it will enjoy its time of rest as it lies bare without them. Then those who are left alive will accept the punishment for their sins. They will learn that they were punished because they hated my laws and refused to obey my rules. ⁴⁴But even though this is true, I will not turn away from them when they are in the land of their enemies. I will not hate them so much that I completely destroy them and break my agreement with them, because I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵For their good I will remember the agreement with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt so I could become their God; the other nations saw these things. I am the Lord.’ ”

⁴⁶These are the laws, rules, and teachings the Lord made between himself and the Israelites through Moses at Mount Sinai.

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