Leviticus

Blessings

You must not create idols or erect an image, pillar, or carved stone in your land to worship, for I am the Lord, your God.

You shall observe my Sabbaths and respect my Sanctuary. I am the Lord.

If you follow my precepts and obey my commandments, carrying them out,

I will provide rain in its season, and the land will yield its produce, as will the trees in the field their fruit;

the threshing season will extend to vintage time and the vintage will last until sowing time. You will have food in abundance, and you will live securely on your land.

I will grant you peace in your land, so you can sleep peacefully. I will drive away the wild beasts and keep the sword of war from entering your territory.

You will defeat your enemies, and they will fall before your sword;

five of you will chase a hundred of them, and a hundred of you will defeat ten thousand, and they will fall before you by the sword.

I will turn toward you to make your families fruitful and your people numerous, and I will confirm my Covenant with you.

When you are still eating from the old harvest, you must discard what is stored to make room for the new.

I will make my dwelling among you and will not reject you.

I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be their slaves no longer. I have broken the bars of your yoke, allowing you to walk upright.

Curses

But if you do not listen to me and keep my commandments,

if you reject my precepts and ignore my decrees, refusing to obey all my commandments and thus breaking my covenant,

I, in turn, will do this: I will bring terror, tuberculosis, and fever upon you, weakening your eyes and draining your life. Your efforts will be in vain, for your enemies will eat what you sow.

I will turn away from you until your enemies defeat you. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.

If you do not obey me after all this, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins.

I will break the pride of your power; I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze.

Your strength will be spent in vain; your land will yield no produce, and the trees will bear no fruit.

If you defy me and refuse to obey me, I will bring upon you seven times as many plagues for your sins.

I will unleash wild animals, and they will take away your children and destroy your cattle, leaving you so few that your roads will be deserted.

If, despite all this, you do not repent but remain hostile towards me,

then I will be hostile towards you and strike you seven times for your sins.

I will bring the sword against you, and with the sword, I will avenge my Covenant with you. When you gather in your cities, I will send disease upon you, and you will be handed over to your enemies.

When I cut off your food supply, ten women will bake bread in one oven and carry back rationed bread; you will eat but still feel hungry.

But if despite all this you do not obey me and remain defiant toward me,

I will confront you in fury and punish you sevenfold for your sins.

You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.

I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars; I will cast your corpses upon those of your idols, and I will hate you.

I will lay waste to your cities and make your sanctuaries desolate. I will no longer delight in your sweet-smelling offerings.

I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle there will be amazed.

I will scatter you among the nations and draw the sword against you as your land becomes empty and your cities lie in ruins.

Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it remains desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies;

then the land will rest and observe its Sabbaths. While the land lies waste, it shall have the Sabbath rest that it did not receive when you inhabited it.

As for those of you who are left, I will make them faint-hearted in the land of their enemies. The sound of a wind-blown leaf will chase them, and even when no one pursues them,

they will flee from the sword and fall. They will stumble against each other as if running from the sword even when they are not pursued, and you cannot stand before your enemies.

You shall perish among the nations and die in the land of your enemies.

Reconciliation

Those of you who remain will wither away because of their wickedness in the land of your enemies, and due to the wickedness of their fathers, they will wither away along with them.

Then they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers. They will acknowledge that their betrayals and their hostility towards me made me hostile towards them,

and led me to bring them to the land of their enemies. Then their uncircumcised hearts may become humble, and they will accept the punishment for their sin.

Then I will remember my Covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, and I will remember the land.

For they will forsake the land and keep its Sabbath; it will be desolate without them as they atone for their sins, having rejected my ordinances and overlooked my statutes.

Yet even so, when they find themselves in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or ignore them to the point of destroying them and breaking my Covenant with them, for I am the Lord, their God.

For their sake, I will remember my Covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, so that I might be their God. I am the Lord.”

These are the statutes, ordinances, and teachings of the Lord’s Covenant with the Israelites given through Moses at Mount Sinai.