Chapter 26

Blessings of Obedience

1 ‘You shall not make for yourselves 1aidols, nor shall you set up for yourselves ban image or ca sacred pillar, nor shall you place a dfigured stone in your land to bow down 2to it; for I am the Lord your God.

2 ‘aYou shall keep My sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the Lord.

3 ‘aIf you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out,

4 then aI shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.

5 ‘aIndeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. You will thus eat your 1food to the full and blive securely in your land.

6 ‘aI shall also grant peace in the land, so that byou may lie down with no one making you tremble. cI shall also eliminate harmful beasts from the land, and dno sword will pass through your land.

7 ‘But you will chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword;

8 afive of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

9 ‘So I will turn toward you and amake you fruitful and multiply you, and I will bconfirm My covenant with you.

10 ‘aYou will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the new.

11 ‘aMoreover, I will make My 1dwelling among you, and My soul will not 2reject you.

12 ‘aI will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

13 ‘aI am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and bI broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

Penalties of Disobedience

14 ‘aBut if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments,

15 if, instead, you areject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so bbreak My covenant,

16 I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a asudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the bsoul to pine away; also, cyou will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up.

17 ‘I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and athose who hate you will rule over you, and byou will flee when no one is pursuing you.

18 ‘If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you aseven times more for your sins.

19 ‘I will also abreak down your pride of power; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze.

20 ‘aYour strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

21 ‘If then, you 1aact with hostility against Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you bseven times according to your sins.

22 ‘aI will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that byour roads lie deserted.

23 ‘aAnd if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility against Me,

24 then I will aact with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you bseven times for your sins.

25 ‘I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute avengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send bpestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands.

26 ‘aWhen I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread 1in rationed amounts, so that you will beat and not be satisfied.

27 ‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me,

28 then aI will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins.

29 ‘Further, ayou will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.

30 ‘I then awill destroy your high places, and cut down your bincense altars, and heap your 1remains on the 1remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you.

31 ‘I will 1lay awaste your cities as well and will make your bsanctuaries desolate, and I will not csmell your soothing aromas.

32 ‘I will make athe land desolate bso that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it.

33 ‘You, however, I awill scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.

34 ‘aThen the land will 1enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and 1enjoy its sabbaths.

35 ‘All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it.

36 ‘As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring aweakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee 1as though from the sword, and they will fall.

37 ‘aThey will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength 1to stand up before your enemies.

38 ‘But ayou will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you.

39 ‘aSo those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers they will rot away with them.

40 ‘aIf they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me—

41 I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—aor if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that bthey then make amends for their iniquity,

42 then I will remember aMy covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also bMy covenant with Isaac, and cMy covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.

43 ‘aFor the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, 1because they rejected My ordinances and their bsoul abhorred My statutes.

44 ‘Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so aabhor them as bto destroy them, cbreaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.

45 ‘But I will remember for them the acovenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that bI might be their God. I am the Lord.’ ”

46 aThese are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the sons of Israel 1through Moses at Mount Sinai.