The Wilderness Years

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

"All these curses will come on you, pursuing you and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you didn't pay attention to what ADONAI your God said, observing his mitzvot and regulations that he gave you.

These curses will be on you and your descendants as a sign and a wonder forever.

Because you didn't serve ADONAI your God with joy and gladness in your heart when you had such an abundance of everything;

ADONAI will send your enemy against you; and you will serve him when you are hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed and lacking everything; he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he destroys you.

Yes, ADONAI will bring against you a nation from far away that will swoop down on you from the end of the earth like a vulture, a nation whose language you don't understand,

a nation grim in appearance, whose people neither respect the old nor pity the young.

They will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil, until you have been destroyed. They will leave you without grain, wine, olive oil, or your young cattle and sheep - until they have caused you to perish.

They will besiege all your towns until your high, fortified walls, in which you trusted, collapse everywhere in your land, which ADONAI your God gave you.

Then, because of the severity of the siege and distress that your enemies are inflicting on you, you will eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom ADONAI your God has given you.

Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will be without pity for his brother, his beloved wife or his surviving children,

to the degree that he will refuse to share with any of them the flesh of his children whom he is eating; because if he did, he would have nothing left for himself -in the severity of the siege and distress your enemies are inflicting on you in all your towns.

The most delicate and sensitive woman among you, so sensitive and delicate that she wouldn't think of touching the sole of her foot to the ground, will so begrudge her own beloved husband, son and daughter

that she will secretly eat the afterbirth that comes out of her and even her own children as she bears them -so desperately hungry will she be in the severity of the siege and distress your enemies are inflicting on you in your towns.

"If you will not observe and obey all the words of this Torah that are written in this book, so that you will fear this glorious and awesome name, ADONAI your God;

then ADONAI will strike down you and your descendants with extraordinary plagues and severe sicknesses that go on and on.

He will bring back upon you all the diseases the Egyptians had, which you were in dread of; and they will cling to you.

Not only that, but ADONAI will bring upon you all the sicknesses and plagues that are not written in this book of the Torah - until you are destroyed.

You will be left few in number, whereas you were once as numerous as the stars in the sky -because you did not pay attention to the voice of ADONAI your God.

"Thus it will come about that just as once ADONAI took joy in seeking to do you good and increase your numbers, so now ADONAI will take joy in causing you to perish and be destroyed, and you will be plucked off the land you are entering in order to take possession of it.

ADONAI will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve other gods, made of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.

Among these nations you will not find repose, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; rather ADONAI will give you there anguish of heart, dimness of eyes and apathy of spirit.

Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be afraid night and day and have no assurance that you will stay alive.

In the morning you will say, 'Oh, how I wish it were evening!' and in the evening you will say, 'Oh, how I wish it were morning!'-because of the fear overwhelming your heart and the sights your eyes will see.

Finally, ADONAI will bring you back in ships to Egypt, the place of which I said to you, 'You will never ever see it again'; and there you will try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies, but no one will buy you."