Apr 14th

Yahweh will strike you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart;

and you will grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not succeed in your ways; but you shall only be oppressed and robbed all your days, with none to save you.

You shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; you shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not use its fruit.

Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey shall be torn away from you and will not be returned to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you will have none to save you.

Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and yearn for them all the day long; but there will be nothing you can do.

A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed all your days.

And you shall be driven mad by the sight of what your eyes see.

Yahweh will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

Yahweh will lead you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone.

You shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the people where Yahweh drives you.

“You shall bring out much seed to the field, but you will gather in little, for the locust will consume it.

You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them.

You shall have olive trees throughout your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off.

You shall become the father of sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity.

The cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your ground.

The sojourner who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower.

He shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you will be the tail.

“So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.

And they shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your seed forever.

“Because you did not serve Yahweh your God with gladness and a merry heart—because of the abundance of all things,

therefore you shall serve your enemies whom Yahweh will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

“Yahweh will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose tongue you shall not understand,

a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.

Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also will not allow grain, new wine, or oil, and the increase of your herd or the young of your flock to remain for you until they have caused you to perish.

And it shall besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your gates throughout your land which Yahweh your God has given you.

Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom Yahweh your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you.

The man who is refined and very delicate among you shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain,

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 remaining, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in all your gates.

The refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and refinement, shall be hostile toward the husband she cherishes and toward her son and daughter,

and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her legs and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in your gates.

“If you are not careful to do all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this glorious and fearsome name, Yahweh your God,

then Yahweh will bring wondrous plagues on you and plagues on those who are your seed, even great and enduring plagues, and miserable and enduring sicknesses.

And He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you.

Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, Yahweh will bring on you until you are destroyed.

Then you shall remain few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

And it will be that as Yahweh delighted over you to prosper you and multiply you, so Yahweh will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it.

Moreover, Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known.

Moreover, among those nations you shall find no relief, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there Yahweh will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul.

So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day and shall not have any faith in your life.

In the morning you shall say, ‘Would that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Would that it were morning!’ because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and because of the sight of your eyes which you will see.

And Yahweh will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke 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.”

These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to cut with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had cut with them at Horeb.

And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land;

the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders.

Yet to this day Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.

And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot.

You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, in order that you might know that I am Yahweh your God.

Then you came to this place, and Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us for battle, but we struck them down;

and we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites.

So you shall keep the words of this covenant to do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

“You stand today, all of you, before Yahweh your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel,

your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water,

that you may enter into the covenant with Yahweh your God and into His oath, which Yahweh your God is cutting with you today,

in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

“Now not with you alone am I cutting this covenant and this oath,

but both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of Yahweh our God and with those who are not with us here today—

for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed;

moreover, you have seen their detestable things and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which they had with them—

lest there be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood.

And it will be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will bless himself in his heart, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to sweep away the watered land with the dry.’

Yahweh shall not be willing to pardon him, but rather the anger of Yahweh and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under heaven.

Then Yahweh will separate him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law.

“And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God,

but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.

Now when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say,

And someone from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”

But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?”

Then He said to them, “Watch out and be on your guard against every form of greed, for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”

And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive.

And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’

Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” ’

But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you prepared?’

And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.

For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.

Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!

And which of you by worrying can add a single cubit to his life span?

Therefore, if you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You of little faith!

And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying.

For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek, but your Father knows that you need these things.

But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

“Sell your possessions and give it as charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys.