They entered and took possession of it. However, they refused to obey you or to follow your teachings. They didn’t do anything you commanded them to do, so you brought all this disaster on them.
From our ancestors’ days until now, we have been deep in guilt. Our kings and our priests have been handed over to foreign kings to be executed. We have been taken captive, robbed, and humiliated, as we still are today because of our sins.
You gave them bread from heaven to satisfy their hunger and made water flow from a rock to quench their thirst. You told them to take possession of the land that you swore you would give them.
The Lord added, “Also say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: Suppose you don’t listen to me and don’t follow my teachings that I set in front of you.
You have not humbled yourselves even to this day. You haven’t feared me or lived your lives by my teachings or by my decrees that I gave your ancestors.
“The Lord is right in what he did, because I rebelled against his word. Please listen, all you people, and look at my pain. My young women and young men have gone into captivity.
Jerusalem has sinned so much that it has become a filthy thing. Everyone who used to honor it now despises it. They’ve seen it naked. Jerusalem groans and turns away.
I said to their children in the desert, “Don’t live by the laws of your ancestors. Don’t obey their rules or dishonor yourselves with their disgusting idols.
“ ‘But they rebelled against me. They didn’t live by my laws, and they didn’t obey my rules and follow them. If people obey them, they will live. They dishonored the days to worship me. So I was going to pour out my fury on them and unleash my anger on them in the desert.
“ ‘But they rebelled against me and refused to listen to me. Not one of them got rid of the detestable idols that they looked to for help. They didn’t abandon the disgusting idols of Egypt. So I was going to pour out my fury on them and unleash my anger on them in Egypt.
Certainly, there is a curse on all who rely on their own efforts because Scripture says, “Whoever doesn’t obey everything that is written in Moses’ Teachings is cursed.”
When you ignore the conditions placed on you by the Lord your God and follow other gods, serve them and bow down to them, the Lord will be angry with you. Then you will quickly disappear from the good land he has given you.”