²⁵ I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute ^(A)vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send a ^(B)plague among you, so that you will be handed over to the enemy.

^43 (A)The stranger who is among you will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower. ^44 (B)He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; ^(C)he will be the head, and you will be the tail.

⁴⁵ “So all these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you ^(D)until you are destroyed, because you would not ^[a]obey the Lord your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. ⁴⁶ And they will become ^(E)a sign and a wonder ^[b]against you and your ^[c]descendants forever.

⁴⁷ “^(F)Since you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, in gratitude for the abundance of all things, ⁴⁸ you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, ^(G)in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and devoid of all things; and He ^(H)will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

⁴⁹ “^(I)The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, ^(J)as the eagle swoops down; a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation ^[d]with a defiant attitude, who will ^(K)have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹ Furthermore, it will eat the ^[e]offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed; a nation that will leave you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the newborn of your cattle or the young of your flock, until they have eliminated you. ^52 (L)And it will besiege you in all your ^[f]towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it will besiege you in all your ^[g]towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you. ^53 (M)Then you will eat the ^[h]offspring 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 hardship by which your enemy will ^[i]oppress you. ⁵⁴ The man who is ^[j]refined and very delicate among you ^[k]will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife ^[l]he cherishes, and toward the rest of his children who are left, 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 hardship by which your enemy will ^[m]oppress you in all your ^[n]towns. ^56 (N)The ^[o]refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and tenderness, ^[p]will be hostile toward the husband ^[q]she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, ⁵⁷ and toward her afterbirth that comes from between her ^[r]legs, and toward her children to whom she gives birth, because ^(O)she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the hardship with which your enemy will ^[s]oppress you in your ^[t]towns.

⁵⁸ “If you are not careful to ^[u]follow all the words of this Law that are written in this book, to ^[v](P)fear this honored and awesome ^(Q)name, ^[w]the Lord your God, ⁵⁹ then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and ^[x]your descendants, ^[y]severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. ^60 (R)And He will bring back on you every disease of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ Also every sickness and every plague, which are not written in the book of this Law, the Lord will bring on you ^(S)until you are destroyed. ⁶² Then you will be left few in ^[z]number, ^(T)whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not ^[aa]obey the Lord your God. ⁶³ And it will come about that, just as the Lord ^(U)rejoiced over you to be good to you, and make you numerous, so will the Lord ^(V)rejoice over you to wipe you out and destroy you; and you will be ^(W)torn away from the land which you are entering to possess. ⁶⁴ Furthermore, the Lord will ^(X)scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to ^[ab]the other; and there you will ^(Y)serve other gods, made of wood and stone, which you and your fathers have not known. ^65 (Z)Among those nations you will find no peace, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there ^(AA)the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. ⁶⁶ So your lives will be ^[ac]hanging in doubt before you; and you will be terrified night and day, and have no assurance of your life. ^67 (AB)In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And at evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the terror of your heart which you fear, and the sight of your eyes which you will see. ⁶⁸ And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I said to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

Philistines Oppress Again

13 Now the sons of Israel ^(A)again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.

⁴ However, his father and mother did not know that ^(A)this was of the Lord, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. And at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.