²⁵ I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute ^(A)vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send ^(B)pestilence among you so that you shall be given over into enemy hands.

^43 (A)The sojourner who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower. ^44 (B)He shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; ^(C)he shall be the head, and you will be the tail.

⁴⁵ “So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you ^(D)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. ⁴⁶ And they shall become ^(E)a sign and a wonder on you and your seed forever.

⁴⁷ “^(F)Because you did not serve Yahweh your God with gladness and a merry heart—because of the abundance of all things, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies whom Yahweh will send against you, ^(G)in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He ^(H)will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

⁴⁹ “^(I)Yahweh will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, ^(J)as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose tongue you shall not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce countenance who will ^(K)have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹ Moreover, it shall eat the ^[a]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. ^52 (L)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. ^53 (M)Then you shall eat the ^[b]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 ^[c]oppress you. ⁵⁴ The man who is ^[d]refined and very delicate among you ^[e]shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife ^[f]he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain, ⁵⁵ 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 ^[g]oppress you in all your gates. ^56 (N)The ^[h]refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and ^[i]refinement, ^[j]shall be hostile toward the husband ^[k]she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, ⁵⁷ and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her ^[l]legs and toward her children whom she bears; for ^(O)she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will ^[m]oppress you in your gates.

⁵⁸ “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law which are written in this book, to ^[n](P)fear this glorious and fearsome ^(Q)name, Yahweh your God, ⁵⁹ 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. ^60 (R)And He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, Yahweh will bring on you ^(S)until you are destroyed. ⁶² Then you shall remain few in number, ^(T)whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. ⁶³ And it will be that as Yahweh ^(U)delighted over you to prosper you and multiply you, so Yahweh will ^(V)delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be ^(W)torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. ⁶⁴ Moreover, Yahweh will ^(X)scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall ^(Y)serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. ^65 (Z)Moreover, among those nations you shall find no relief, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there ^(AA)Yahweh will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. ⁶⁶ So your life shall ^[o]hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day and shall not have any faith in your life. ^67 (AB)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. ⁶⁸ 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.”

The Birth of Samson

13 Then the sons of Israel ^(A)again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, so that Yahweh gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

⁴ However, his father and mother did not know that ^(A)it was of Yahweh, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.