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

"But if you disobey the LORD your God and do not faithfully keep all his commands and laws that I am giving you today, all these evil things will happen to you:

The LORD will not forgive such a man. Instead, the LORD's burning anger will flame up against him, and all the disasters written in this book will fall on him until the LORD has destroyed him completely.

The LORD will make an example of him before all the tribes of Israel and will bring disaster on him in accordance with all the curses listed in the covenant that is written in this book of the LORD's teachings.

then in my anger I will turn on you and again make your punishment seven times worse than before.

The LORD rejected all the Israelites, punishing them and handing them over to cruel enemies until at last he had banished them from his sight.

Trouble follows sinners everywhere, but righteous people will be rewarded with good things.

But if you defy me, you are doomed to die. I, the LORD, have spoken."

They will sing for joy, but you will cry with a broken heart.

My chosen people will use your name as a curse. I, the Sovereign LORD, will put you to death. But I will give a new name to those who obey me.

I will bring such a disaster on them that all the nations of the world will be terrified. People will make fun of them, make jokes about them, ridicule them, and use their name as a curse everywhere I scatter them.

I will bring war, starvation, and disease on them until there is not one of them left in the land that I gave to them and their ancestors."

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.

There is fighting in the streets, and sickness and hunger in the houses. Anyone who is out in the country will die in the fighting, and anyone in the city will be a victim of sickness and hunger.

This is what the Sovereign LORD is saying: "I will send my four worst punishments on Jerusalem---war, famine, wild animals, and disease---to destroy people and animals alike.

a blessing, if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today;

but a curse, if you disobey these commands and turn away to worship other gods that you have never worshiped before.

You reprimand the proud; cursed are those who disobey your commands.

I gave your ancestors no commands about burnt offerings or any other kinds of sacrifices when I brought them out of Egypt.

But they did not obey or pay any attention. Instead, they did whatever their stubborn and evil hearts told them to do, and they became worse instead of better.