Deuteronomy 4:25–31

²⁵After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt^r and make any kind of idol,^s doing evil^t in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, ²⁶I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses^u against you^v this day that you will quickly perish^w from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. ²⁷The Lord will scatter^x you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive^y among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. ²⁸There you will worship man-made gods^z of wood and stone,^a which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.^{b 29}But if from there you seek^c the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart^d and with all your soul.^{e 30}When you are in distress^f and all these things have happened to you, then in later days^g you will return^h to the Lord your God and obey him. ³¹For the Lord your God is a mercifulⁱ God; he will not abandon^j or destroy^k you or forget^l the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.