"The LORD will bless your towns and your fields.

"The LORD will bless your grain crops and the food you prepare from them.

"The LORD will defeat your enemies when they attack you. They will attack from one direction, but they will run from you in all directions.

"If you obey the LORD your God and do everything he commands, he will make you his own people, as he has promised.

The LORD will give you many children, many cattle, and abundant crops in the land that he promised your ancestors to give you.

The LORD your God will make you the leader among the nations and not a follower; you will always prosper and never fail if you obey faithfully all his commands that I am giving you today.

The LORD puts a curse on the homes of the wicked, but blesses the homes of the righteous.

So God has pronounced a curse on the earth. Its people are paying for what they have done. Fewer and fewer remain alive.

and the joyful music of their harps and drums has ceased.

In the city everything is in chaos, and people lock themselves in their houses for safety.

The city is in ruins, and its gates have been broken down.

and your rulers profaned my sanctuary. So I brought destruction on Israel; I let my own people be insulted."

The LORD says, "I will make Jerusalem a pile of ruins, a place where jackals live; the cities of Judah will become a desert, a place where no one lives."

If you continue to disobey, then I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh, and all the nations of the world will use the name of this city as a curse."

This very day your land lies in ruins and no one lives in it. It has become a horrifying sight, and people use its name as a curse because the LORD could no longer endure your wicked and evil practices.

How lonely lies Jerusalem, once so full of people! Once honored by the world, she is now like a widow; The noblest of cities has fallen into slavery.

My eyes are worn out with weeping; my soul is in anguish. I am exhausted with grief at the destruction of my people. Children and babies are fainting in the streets of the city.

O Jerusalem, beloved Jerusalem, what can I say? How can I comfort you? No one has ever suffered like this. Your disaster is boundless as the ocean; there is no possible hope.

People passing by the city look at you in scorn. They shake their heads and laugh at Jerusalem's ruins: "Is this that lovely city? Is this the pride of the world?"

The LORD has finally done what he threatened to do: He has destroyed us without mercy, as he warned us long ago. He gave our enemies victory, gave them joy at our downfall.

All through the night get up again and again to cry out to the Lord; Pour out your heart and beg him for mercy on your children--- Children starving to death on every street corner!

Young and old alike lie dead in the streets, Young men and women, killed by enemy swords. You slaughtered them without mercy on the day of your anger.

Our glittering gold has grown dull; the stones of the Temple lie scattered in the streets.

Even a mother wolf will nurse her cubs, but my people are like ostriches, cruel to their young.

People who once ate the finest foods die starving in the streets; those raised in luxury are pawing through garbage for food.

Our princes were undefiled and pure as snow, vigorous and strong, glowing with health.

Those who died in the war were better off than those who died later, who starved slowly to death, with no food to keep them alive.

The LORD turned loose the full force of his fury; he lit a fire in Zion that burned it to the ground.

But it happened, because her prophets sinned and her priests were guilty of causing the death of innocent people.

You must honor me by what you do. If you will not listen to what I say, then I will bring a curse on you. I will put a curse on the things you receive for your support. In fact, I have already put a curse on them, because you do not take my command seriously.

He will bring fathers and children together again; otherwise I would have to come and destroy your country."

(SEE 28:54)

And he said to the man, "You listened to your wife and ate the fruit which I told you not to eat. Because of what you have done, the ground will be under a curse. You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you.

It will produce weeds and thorns, and you will have to eat wild plants.

You are placed under a curse and can no longer farm the soil. It has soaked up your brother's blood as if it had opened its mouth to receive it when you killed him.

If you try to grow crops, the soil will not produce anything; you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth."

and said, "From the very ground on which the LORD put a curse, this child will bring us relief from all our hard work"; so he named him Noah.

The odor of the sacrifice pleased the LORD, and he said to himself, "Never again will I put the earth under a curse because of what people do; I know that from the time they are young their thoughts are evil. Never again will I destroy all living beings, as I have done this time.

As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night."

A prophet named Elijah, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to King Ahab, "In the name of the LORD, the living God of Israel, whom I serve, I tell you that there will be no dew or rain for the next two or three years until I say so."

Elijah obeyed the LORD's command, and went and stayed by Cherith Brook.

She answered, "By the living LORD your God I swear that I don't have any bread. All I have is a handful of flour in a bowl and a bit of olive oil in a jar. I came here to gather some firewood to take back home and prepare what little I have for my son and me. That will be our last meal, and then we will starve to death."

"Judah is in mourning; its cities are dying, its people lie on the ground in sorrow, and Jerusalem cries out for help.

Because there is no rain and the ground is dried up, the farmers are sick at heart; they hide their faces.

Hunger has made us burn with fever until our skin is as hot as an oven.

Swarm after swarm of locusts settled on the crops; what one swarm left, the next swarm devoured.

Cry, you people, like a young woman who mourns the death of the man she was going to marry.

The fields are bare; the ground mourns because the grain is destroyed, the grapes are dried up, and the olive trees are withered.

The grapevines and fig trees have withered; all the fruit trees have wilted and died. The joy of the people is gone.

Give orders for a fast; call an assembly! Gather the leaders and all the people of Judah into the Temple of the LORD your God and cry out to him!

We look on helpless as our crops are destroyed. There is no joy in the Temple of our God.

The cattle are bellowing in distress because there is no pasture for them; the flocks of sheep also suffer.

Like fire they eat up the plants. In front of them the land is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them it is a barren desert. Nothing escapes them.

"I was the one who brought famine to all your cities, yet you did not come back to me.

Weak with thirst, the people of several cities went to a city where they hoped to find water, but there was not enough to drink. Still you did not come back to me.

"You hoped for large harvests, but they turned out to be small. And when you brought the harvest home, I blew it away. Why did I do that? Because my Temple lies in ruins while every one of you is busy working on your own house.

I have brought drought on the land---on its hills, grainfields, vineyards, and olive orchards---on every crop the ground produces, on people and animals, on everything you try to grow."

you would go to a pile of grain expecting to find twenty bushels, but there would be only ten. You would go to draw fifty gallons of wine from a vat, but find only twenty.

I sent scorching winds and hail to ruin everything you tried to grow, but still you did not repent.

A curse is on all of you because the whole nation is cheating me.

I will not let insects destroy your crops, and your grapevines will be loaded with grapes.