Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 325
28:23-43
D e u teronom y
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Lord will strike you with wasting diseases, fever, and inflammation, with
scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew. These disasters will pursue you until you die. The skies above will be as unyielding
as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron. The Lord will
change the rain that falls on your land into powder, and dust will pour
down from the sky until you are destroyed.
“The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will attack your enemies from one direction, but you will scatter from them in
seven! You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your
corpses will be food for all the scavenging birds and wild animals, and no
one will be there to chase them away.
“The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors,
scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The Lord will
strike you with madness, blindness, and panic. You will grope around in
broad daylight like a blind person groping in the darkness, but you will not
find your way. You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one
will come to save you.
“You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her.
You will build a house, but someone else will live in it. You will plant a
vineyard, but you will never enjoy its fruit. Your ox will be butchered before your eyes, but you will not eat a single bite of the meat. Your donkey
will be taken from you, never to be returned. Your sheep and goats will be
given to your enemies, and no one will be there to help you. You will watch
as your sons and daughters are taken away as slaves. Your heart will break
for them, but you won’t be able to help them. A foreign nation you have
never heard about will eat the crops you worked so hard to grow. You will
suffer under constant oppression and harsh treatment. You will go mad
because of all the tragedy you see around you. The Lord will cover your
knees and legs with incurable boils. In fact, you will be covered from head
to foot.
“The Lord will exile you and your king to a nation unknown to you and
your ancestors. There in exile you will worship gods of wood and stone!
You will become an object of horror, ridicule, and mockery among all the
nations to which the Lord sends you.
“You will plant much but harvest little, for locusts will eat your crops.
You will plant vineyards and care for them, but you will not drink the wine
or eat the grapes, for worms will destroy the vines. You will grow olive trees
throughout your land, but you will never use the olive oil, for the fruit
will drop before it ripens. You will have sons and daughters, but you will
lose them, for they will be led away into captivity. Swarms of insects will
destroy your trees and crops.
“The foreigners living among you will become stronger and stronger,
