‘Go and enquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah about the words in this book that has been found. For great is the Lord’s wrath that is kindled against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this book in order to do everything written about us.’
“This is what the Lord says: I am about to bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants, fulfilling all the curses written in the book that they read in the presence of the king of Judah,
However, if you turn away and abandon my statutes and my commands that I have set before you and if you go and serve other gods and bow in worship to them,
Yet they would not obey or pay attention; each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant, because they had not done what I commanded them to do.’
But if you do not listen to me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, I will set fire to its gates, and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem and not be extinguished.” ’
They entered and possessed it, but they did not obey you or live according to your instructions. They failed to perform all you commanded them to do, and so you have brought all this disaster on them.
The Lord is just, for I have rebelled against his command. Listen, all you people; look at my pain. My young women and young men have gone into captivity.
The Lord has done what he planned; he has accomplished his decree, which he ordained in days of old. He has demolished without compassion, letting the enemy gloat over you and exalting the horn of your adversaries.
Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favour of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquities and paying attention to your truth.
As they are going, I will spread my net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the sky. I will discipline them in accordance with the news that reaches their assembly.
If you don’t listen, and if you don’t take it to heart to honour my name,’ says the Lord of Armies, ‘I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. In fact, I have already begun to curse them because you are not taking it to heart.
See to it that you do not reject the one who speaks. For if they did not escape when they rejected him who warned them on earth, even less will we if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven.
Just as every good thing the Lord your God promised you has come about, so he will bring on you every bad thing until he has annihilated you from this good land the Lord your God has given you.
Whenever the Israelites went out, the Lord was against them and brought disaster on them, just as he had promised and sworn to them. So they suffered greatly.