34 Bible Verses about Judgments

For a fire breaks out in my anger burning to the deepest part of the afterlife, consuming the earth and its produce and igniting the foundations of the mountains.

So I will send down fire upon the house of Hazael, and it will devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.

So I will send down fire upon Teman, and it will devour the fortified citadels of Bozrah."

"I've come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already ablaze!

The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: "Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with everlasting flames?"

"The fugitives will stand without strength in the shadow of Heshbon, for fire will go out from Heshbon and a flame from the middle of Sihon. It will devour the forehead of Moab and the heads of the rebellious people.

He sent fire from on high, making it penetrate my bones. He stretched out a net at my feet, forcing me to turn back. He made me desolate; I'm fainting all day long.

"I'm also going to incinerate Magog, along with those who are settled down and at home in the islands. That's when they'll learn that I am the LORD.

He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, because the time for him to judge has arrived. Worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water."

Therefore strong nations will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will revere you.

Tell her: "Pay attention to me, Sidon! I'm against you, and I'm going to glorify myself right in your midst.' They'll learn that I am the LORD when I carry out these punishments and manifest my holiness in her midst.

He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, because the time for him to judge has arrived. Worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water."

Therefore strong nations will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will revere you.

Tell her: "Pay attention to me, Sidon! I'm against you, and I'm going to glorify myself right in your midst.' They'll learn that I am the LORD when I carry out these punishments and manifest my holiness in her midst.

"Look, now! In those very days and at that time, when I restore prosperity to Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations, bringing them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I will set out my case against them there, on behalf of my people, my heritage Israel, whom they scattered among the nations, apportioning my land among themselves. They cast lots for my people they sold a young boy in exchange for a prostitute, and a girl for wine, so they could drink." read more.
"Furthermore, what have you to do with me, Tyre, Sidon, and all the sea coasts of Philistia? Are you taking revenge on me? If you are taking revenge on me, I'll send it back on you swiftly and promptly, since you took my silver and gold, carried my precious treasures into your temples, and sold Judah's and Jerusalem's descendants to the Greeks, so you can remove them far from their homeland! "Look, I will bring them up from where you sold them, I will turn your revenge back upon you, and I will sell your sons and daughters into the control of the people of Judah. And they will sell them to the people of Sheba, a country far away." Indeed, the LORD has spoken." "Declare this among the nations: "Prepare for war! Wake up your elite forces! Let all the soldiers draw near! Call them up! Beat your plow blades into swords, and your pruning knives into spears! Let the frail say, "I am strong!" Hurry and come, all you gentiles! Gather yourselves together!'" "LORD, cause your mighty army to come down. "Let the nations be awakened and come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; because I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, because the harvest is ripe. Come and go down, because the winepress is full. The wine vats are overflowing, because their evil is great! "Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Judgment! For the Day of the LORD is near in the Valley of Judgment! The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will stop shining. "The LORD will roar from Zion, and shout from Jerusalem. The heavens and the earth will shake, but the LORD will be the refuge of his people, and the strength of the people of Israel." "And truly you will know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no foreigners will invade her again.

"You are not to misuse the name of the LORD your God, because the LORD will not leave unpunished the one who misuses his name.

For this reason we must pay closer attention to the things we have heard, or we may drift away, because if the message spoken by angels was reliable, and every violation and act of disobedience received its just punishment, how will we escape if we neglect a salvation as great as this? It was first proclaimed by the Lord himself, and then it was confirmed to us by those who heard him,

See to it that you do not ignore the one who is speaking. For if the hearers did not escape when they ignored the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we turn away from the one who is from heaven!

He graciously loves thousands, and forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. But he does not leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the ancestors on their children, and on their children's children to the third and fourth generation."

You snakes, you children of serpents! How can you escape being condemned to hell?

At this, Joshua tore his clothes, fell down to the ground on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening he and the leaders of Israel and they covered their heads with dust.

"Put on your mourning clothes, you priests; and cry aloud, you ministering servants at the altar! Come! Stay the night in mourner's clothes, you ministers of my God, because the grain offering and the wine offering is held back from the Temple of your God.

In response, the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and declared, "The LORD is righteous."

I am a man familiar with affliction under the rod of God's anger. He has led me brought me into darkness, not into light. He truly turned his hand against me, again and again, all day long. read more.
He made my flesh and skin prematurely old; he broke my bones. He laid siege against me, surrounding me with bitterness and suffering. He has forced me to live in darkness, like those who are long dead. He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he placed heavy chains on me. Indeed, when I cry out, calling for help, he shuts out my prayer. He impeded my way with blocks of stone, making my paths uneven. He is like a bear that lies in wait for me, a lion in hiding. He forced me off my path, tearing me to pieces and making me desolate. He bent his bow, aiming at me with his arrow. He caused his war arrows to pierce my vital organs. I have become a laughingstock to all my people, the object of their taunts throughout the day. He has filled me with bitterness, making me drink wormwood. He broke my teeth on gravel, covering me with dust. You have removed peace from my life; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, "My strength is gone as is my hope in the LORD." Remember my affliction and homelessness wormwood and gall! My mind keeps reflecting on it, and I become depressed.

The people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least important. When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, removed his royal garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in ashes.

You are righteous in all that is happening to us, because you have acted faithfully while we have practiced evil.

"After all that has happened to us because of our evil behavior, and because of our great sin considering that you our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us this deliverance

When David saw the angel who had been attacking the people, he told the LORD, "Look, I'm the one who has sinned! I did the evil. These are only sheep! What did they do? Please, let your hand fall on me and on my household!"

"And deliver this message to them: "Let tears run down my face, night and day, and don't let them stop, because my virgin daughter my people will be broken with a powerful blow, with a severe wound.

"Go through her rows of vines and destroy them, but don't completely destroy them. Strip away her branches, because they aren't the LORD's.

Look! The eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the face of the earth; but I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob," declares the LORD.

People of Israel, I'm now bringing a nation from far away to attack you," declares the LORD. "It is an enduring nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don't know. And you won't understand what they say. Their quiver is like an open grave, and all of them are powerful warriors. "They'll devour your harvest and your food. They'll devour your sons and your daughters. They'll devour your vines and your fig trees. With their swords they'll batter down your fortified cities in which you trust. read more.
"Yet even in those days," declares the LORD, "I won't destroy you completely.

For this is what the LORD says: "The entire land will be devastated, but I won't completely destroy it.

but they mocked God's messengers, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until there was no remedy for the wrath of the LORD that arose to punish his people.

"Because I called out to you and you refused to respond I appealed, but no one paid attention because you neglected all my advice and did not want my correction, I will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when what you fear comes, read more.
when what you dread comes like a storm, and your calamity comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. "Then they will call out to me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. "Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD; they did not want my advice, and they rejected all my correction. They will eat the fruit of their way, and they will be filled with their own devices.

Yet I sent all my servants the prophets to you again and again, saying, "Don't do this repulsive thing that I hate." "But they didn't listen or pay attention by turning from their wickedness and not offering sacrifices to other gods. My wrath and my anger were poured out, and they burned in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem so that they have become a ruin and a desolate place, as is the case today.'

but with righteousness he will judge the needy, and decide with equity for earth's poor. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and the wicked will be killed with the breath of his lips.

The face of the LORD is set against those who do evil, and he will remove people's recollection of them from the earth.

if not calamity that is due the unjust, and misfortune that is due those who practice iniquity?

But the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be uprooted from it.

The voice of the LORD cries out to the city wisdom fears your name: "Heed the rod, and the one who prepared it!

"Look now! I AM, and there is no other god besides me. I myself cause death and I sustain life; I wound severely and I also heal; from my power no one can deliver.

He makes nations great, and then destroys them; he enlarges nations, but then sends them away to captivity.

And when an alarm sounds in the city, the people will tremble, won't they? If there is trouble in a city, the LORD has brought it about, has he not?"

Eventually, the people began complaining about their distress, and the LORD heard them. When the LORD heard, his anger flared up and the LORD's fire incinerated some of them within the outskirts of the camp.

In response, the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people to bite them. As a result, many people of Israel died.

24,000 people died because of the plague.

But even as they were chewing the meat and before they had swallowed it, the LORD became very angry with the people and struck them with a disastrous plague. That's why the place was named Kibroth-hattaavah, because they buried the people there who had an insatiable appetite for meat.

none of those men who saw my glory and watched my miracles that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness even though they've tested me these ten times and never listened to my voice will ever see the land that I promised to their ancestors. Those who spurned me won't see it.

"Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, for then I would cry day and night for those of my people who have been killed.

If you don't listen, I'll cry secretly because of your pride. My eyes will cry bitterly, flowing tears, because the LORD's flock has been taken captive.

My eyes run with rivers of tears over the destruction of my cherished people.

when my people humble themselves the ones who are called by my name and pray, seek me, and turn away from their evil practices, I myself will listen from heaven, I will pardon their sins, and I will restore their land.

He said, "My presence will go with you, and I'll give you rest."

Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I won't go up among you, because you are an obstinate people, and otherwise I might consume you along the way." When the people heard this troubling word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.

You are not to bow down to them in worship or serve them, because I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the guilt of parents on children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

Indeed, the LORD loves justice, and he will not abandon his godly ones. They are kept safe forever, but the lawless will be chased away, and the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.

Our ancestors sinned and no longer exist yet we continue to bear the consequences of their sin.

"I'm going to display my glory among the people, and every nation will see the judgment that I administer by my own hand among them.

Indeed, this time I'm sending all my plagues against you, your officials, and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. Indeed, by now I could have sent forth my hand and struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been destroyed from the earth. However, I've kept you standing in order to show you my power and to declare my name in all the earth.

So the LORD watched for the right time to bring the calamity upon us, because the LORD our God is righteous regarding everything he does, but we have not obeyed his voice.

"So I turned my attention to the Lord God, seeking him in prayer and supplication, accompanied with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

But Moses implored the LORD his God: "LORD, why are you angry with your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a show of force? Why should the Egyptians say, "He brought them out with an evil intention to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your anger and change your mind about the calamity against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you swore by yourself as you told them, "I'll increase the number of your descendants like the stars of the heavens, I'll give your descendants all of this land about which I have spoken, and they are to possess it forever.'"

When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD and the fire stopped.

"But if you won't listen to me and obey all these commands, and if you refuse my statutes, loathe my ordinances, and fail to carry out all of my commands, thereby breaching my covenant, then I will certainly do this to you: I'll appoint sudden terror to infect you like tuberculosis and fever. Your eyes will fail and your life will waste away. You'll plant in vain, because your enemies will consume what you plant.

"But if you turn away and abandon my statutes and my commands that I have given you, and if you walk away to serve other gods and worship them, then I will tear them up by the roots from the ground that I had given them! And as for this Temple that I have set apart for my name, I will throw it out of my sight and make it the butt of jokes and a means of ridicule among people worldwide!

Joseph provided food for his father, his brothers, and all of his father's household, proportionate to the number of young children.

to deliver them from death; to keep them alive in times of famine.

They will not experience shame in times of trouble; in times of famine they will have plenty.

When I heard this, I sat down and cried, mourning for a number of days while I fasted and prayed in the presence of the God of Heaven.

In every province where the order of the king and his edict reached, among the Jewish people there was great mourning, fasting, weeping, and lamenting, and many lay down on sackcloth and ashes.

On that day the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies called for weeping and mourning, for shaving heads and wearing sackcloth.

"But if you don't obey the LORD your God and faithfully carry out all his commands and statutes that I'm giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you: "Cursed will you be in the city and cursed will you be in the country. "Cursed will be your grain basket and your kneading bowl. read more.
"Cursed will your children be, as well as the produce of your land, the offspring of your beasts and cattle, and the offspring of your flock. "Cursed will you be in your comings and goings." "The LORD will send the curse among you, will confuse you, and will rebuke you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and perish quickly because of your evil deeds, since you will have forsaken him. The LORD will cause you to be ill with long-lasting diseases until you are wiped out from the land that you are entering to possess. The LORD will afflict you with tuberculosis, fever, inflammation, high fever, drought, blight, and mildew. These will attack you until you are completely destroyed. The sky above your head will become bronze while the ground beneath you will become iron. The LORD will change the rain on your land to powder and dust. It will come down from the sky until you are exterminated." "The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You'll go out against them in one direction, but you'll flee from them in seven directions. Consequently, you'll be in a state of great terror throughout all the kingdoms of the earth. Your dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, with no one to chase them away. "The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, skin disease, and festering rashes, and none of them will be curable. The LORD will afflict you with insanity, blindness, and mental confusion. As a result, you'll wander aimlessly in broad daylight just as a blind person wanders in darkness. You won't prosper in life. Instead, you'll be oppressed and plundered all day long, with no deliverer. "You'll be engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You'll build a house, but you won't live in it. You'll plant a vineyard, but you won't harvest it. Your ox will be slaughtered in front of you, and you won't be able to eat it. Your donkey will be stolen from you while you watch and won't be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be handed to your enemies, and there will be no deliverer. Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you watch. You won't be able to approach them at all, and you'll be powerless to help. "A people whom you don't know will devour what your land and labor produces. You'll be only oppressed and discouraged continuously until you are driven insane from what your eyes will see. "The LORD will afflict you with incurable boils on your knees and legs, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. "The LORD will banish you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you'll serve other gods of wood and stone. You'll become a desolation and a proverb, and you'll be mocked among the people where the LORD will drive you." "You'll plant many seeds in a field, but your harvest will be small because the locust will consume it. You'll plant a vineyard, but you won't drink wine or harvest any grapes because worms will consume it. You'll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won't be able to anoint yourself with oil because the olives will drop off the trees. You'll bear sons and daughters, but they won't belong to you because they'll go into captivity. Whirling locusts will consume every tree and the produce of your land. The foreigner in your midst will be elevated higher and higher over you, while you are brought low little by little. He will lend to you, but you won't lend to him. He'll be the head, but you'll be the tail. All these curses will come upon you and will overwhelm you until you are exterminated, because you didn't obey the LORD your God to keep his commands and statutes, which he had commanded you. These curses will serve as a sign and wonder for you and your descendants as long as you live." "Because you didn't serve the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly, despite the abundance of everything you have, you'll serve your enemies whom the LORD your God will send against you. You will serve in famine and in drought, in nakedness, and in lack of everything. They'll set a yoke of iron upon your neck until they have exterminated you. "The LORD will raise a distant nation against you from the other side of the earth. Swooping down like a vulture, it will be a nation whose language you don't understand, whose stern appearance neither shows regard nor extends grace to anyone whether old or young. Its army will consume the offspring of your animals and the produce of your soil until you are exterminated. They will leave you without your grain, wine, oil, the increase of your cattle, and the lamb of your flock, until you are completely destroyed. They'll besiege all your cities until your high and fortified walls in which you have trusted collapse throughout the land. Indeed, they will besiege all your cities, which the LORD your God gave you." "You'll eat your own children the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God gave you on account of the siege and the distress with which your enemy will oppress you. Even the compassionate man among you the very sensitive one will look with evil in his eyes toward his brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving sons, whom he spared. He will withhold from each of them the flesh of his sons that he is eating since there will be nothing left on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in all your cities. The most tender and sensitive lady among you, who doesn't venture to touch the soles of her feet to the ground on account of her daintiness, will look with hostility in her eyes against her beloved husband, her sons, and her daughters. She will eat her afterbirth and her newborn children secretly since there will be nothing left on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in your cities." "If you aren't careful to observe all the words of this Law that have been written in this book, instructing you to fear this glorious and awesome name of the LORD your God, then he will inflict extraordinary plagues on you and your children great and lasting plagues and severe and lasting illnesses. He will inflict on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they won't be curable. Moreover, the LORD will inflict you with illnesses and plagues that were not written in this Book of the Law, until you are exterminated. Because you will not have obeyed the LORD your God, very few of you will be left instead of you being as numerous as the stars in the heavens. Just as the LORD delighted to prosper and increase you, so now the LORD will delight to destroy, exterminate, and banish you from the land that you are about to enter to possess." "He'll scatter you among the nations from one end of the earth to the other, and there you'll serve other gods made of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. Among those nations you'll have no rest. There'll be no resting place for the soles of your feet. Instead, the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a despairing spirit. You'll cling to life, being fearful by both night and day, with no assurance of survival. In the morning you'll say, "I wish it were evening.' Yet in the evening you'll say, "I wish it were morning,' on account of what you'll dread and what you'll see. Finally, the LORD will bring you back to Egypt by ship, a place that I said you'd never see again. There you'll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you."

"But if you won't listen to me and obey all these commands, and if you refuse my statutes, loathe my ordinances, and fail to carry out all of my commands, thereby breaching my covenant, then I will certainly do this to you: I'll appoint sudden terror to infect you like tuberculosis and fever. Your eyes will fail and your life will waste away. You'll plant in vain, because your enemies will consume what you plant. read more.
I'll set my face against you so that you'll be defeated before your enemies. Those who hate you will have dominion over you and you'll keep fleeing even when no one is pursuing you. "If, despite all of this, you still don't listen to me, then I'll punish you seven times more on account of your sins. I'll break your mighty pride. I'll make the heavens to be like iron and the ground like bronze. Your strength will be spent in vain, because your land won't yield its produce and the trees of the land won't yield their fruit. "If you live life contrary to me and remain unwilling to listen to me, then I'll add to your wounds seven times more on account of your sins. I'll send wild beasts against you from the open country to deprive you of your children, destroy your cattle, and decrease your number so that your roads become desolate. "If, despite these things, you still won't return to me, but live life contrary to me, then I'll certainly oppose you. I'll take vengeance against you seven fold on account of your sins. I'll bring the sword against you to execute the vengeance of my covenant. When you gather in your cities, I'll send a pestilence. As a result, you'll be delivered into the control of your enemies. When I destroy the source of your bread, ten women will bake bread in one oven. Then they'll return back your bread by weight. You'll eat but won't be satisfied. "If, after all of this time, you don't listen to me, but instead live life contrary to me, I'll oppose you with vicious rage. Indeed, I myself will punish you seven fold on account of your sins. At that time, you'll eat the flesh of your sons and you'll eat the flesh of your daughters. I'll destroy your high places and cut down your sun pillars. Then I'll cast your dead bodies on top of the bodies of your idols. I'll loathe you. I'll lay your cities to waste and destroy your sanctuaries so I don't have to smell the scent of your soothing odors. I'll make the land so desolate that your enemies who live in it will be astonished." "I'll scatter you among the nations and draw the sword after you so that your land becomes desolate and your towns become ruins. Then the land will finally be pleased with its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time, the land will rest and take its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate, it will have rest that it will not have had during your Sabbaths when you were living in it. "As for the remnants among you, I'll bring despair in their hearts in the land of their enemies so that even the sound of a blown leaf will chase them and they flee as though pursued by the sword and fall when no one is pursuing. They'll stumble over each other as though fleeing before the sword, even though no one is pursuing. "You won't have power to resist your enemies. You'll perish among the nations and the land of your enemies will consume you. The remnants among you will waste away in the land of your enemies due to their iniquity. Indeed, they'll also waste away on account of the iniquities of their ancestors with them."

The LORD saw it and became jealous, provoked by his sons and daughters. So he said: "Let me hide my face from them. I will observe what their end will be, because they are a perverted generation, children within whom there is no loyalty. They provoked me to jealousy over non-gods, and to be angry over their vanity. Now I'll provoke them to jealousy over a non-people; and over a foolish nation I'll provoke them to anger. read more.
For a fire breaks out in my anger burning to the deepest part of the afterlife, consuming the earth and its produce and igniting the foundations of the mountains. I'll bury them in misfortunes and bring them to an end with my arrows. Emaciated from famine, feverish from plague, and destroyed by bitterness, I'll send fanged beasts against them, along with poisonous snakes that glide through the dust. Outside, the sword will cause bereavement; within, there will be terror for the young man and virgin alike, also for the nursing infant and the aged man." "I said, "I will scatter them, erasing their memory from the human race, if it weren't for dreading the taunting of their enemies otherwise, their adversary might misinterpret and say, "Our power is great. It isn't the LORD who made all of this happen."'" They are a nation devoid of purpose and without insight. O, that they were wise to understand this and consider their future! How can one person chase a thousand of them and two put a myriad to flight, unless their Rock delivers them and the LORD gives them up? For their rock isn't like our Rock, as even our enemies admit. Instead, their vine is from the vines of Sodom and the vineyards of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous, their clusters bitter. Their wine is the venom of serpents, a poisonous cobra. "Is this not kept in reserve, sealed up with me in my treasury? To me belong vengeance and recompense. In due time their feet will slip, because their time of calamity is near and the things prepared for them draw near. For the LORD will vindicate his people and bring comfort to his servants, because he will observe that their power has waned, when neither prisoner nor free person remain. "He will say, "Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge? Who ate the fat of their offerings and drank the wine that was their drink offering? Let them rise and help you and be your hiding place!' "Look now! I AM, and there is no other god besides me. I myself cause death and I sustain life; I wound severely and I also heal; from my power no one can deliver. "I solemnly swear to heaven I say "As certainly as I'm alive and living forever, I'll whet my shining sword, with my hands in firm grasp of judgment. I'll show vengeance on my adversary and repay those who keep on hating me. I'll make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword will devour flesh, along with the blood of the slain, and I'll take their enemy leaders captive.' "Sing for joy, nations! Sing for joy, people who belong to him! For he'll avenge the blood of his servants, turn on his adversary, and cleanse both his land and his people."

David ordered Joab and the commanders of the army, "Go take a census of Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan, and bring me a report so I can be aware of the total number."

Either three years of famine, or three months of reversals as you are swept away by your enemies while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or three days with the sword of the LORD, consisting of pestilence infecting the land, with the angel of the LORD wreaking destruction from border to border throughout all of Israel.' Decide right now what I am to answer to the one who sent me."

"I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for a sacrificial temple to me. Whenever I close the skies so there is no rain, or whenever I command locusts to lay waste to the land, or whenever I send epidemics among my people, when my people humble themselves the ones who are called by my name and pray, seek me, and turn away from their evil practices, I myself will listen from heaven, I will pardon their sins, and I will restore their land.

When the Israelis cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up Othniel son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz, to deliver them, and he did. The Spirit of the LORD was on him, and he governed Israel. When Othniel went out to battle, the LORD handed king Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim into his control, and Othniel's domination of Cushan-rishathaim was strong. As a result, the land was quiet for 40 years. Then Kenaz' son Othniel died.

"The LORD won't forgive such a person. Instead, the zealous anger of the LORD will blaze against him. All the curses that were written in this book will fall on him. Then the LORD will wipe out his memory from under heaven.

"As for the prophet, the priest, or the people who say, "I have an oracle of the LORD,' I'll judge that person and his household.

So this has been a list of those who were registered by Moses and Eleazar the priest when they numbered the Israelis in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. But none of these men among these numbered by Moses and by Aaron the priest (that is, when they numbered the Israelis in the wilderness of Sinai) survived to enter the land, because the LORD had said about them, "They'll certainly die in the wilderness. No man will survive from them except Jephunneh's son Caleb and Nun's son Joshua."

Then the LORD told Moses and Aaron, "How long will this wicked assembly keep complaining about me? I've heard the complaints of the Israelis that they've been murmuring against me. So tell them that as long as I live consider this to be an oracle from the LORD as certainly as you've spoken right into my ears, that's how I'm going to treat you. read more.
Your corpses will fall in this wilderness every single one of you who has been counted among you, according to your number from 20 years and above, who complained against me. You will certainly never enter the land about which I made an oath with my uplifted hand to settle you in it, except for Jephunneh's son Caleb and Nun's son Joshua. However, I'll bring your little ones the ones whom you claimed would become war victims into the land so that they'll know by experience the land that you've rejected. "Now as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness and your children will wander throughout the wilderness for 40 years. They'll bear the consequences of your idolatries until your bodies are entirely consumed in the wilderness. Just as you explored the land for 40 days, you'll bear the consequences of your iniquities for 40 years one year for each day as you experience my hostility. I, the LORD, have spoken. I will indeed do this to this evil congregation, who gathered together against me. They'll be eliminated in this wilderness and will surely die." After this, the men whom Moses sent out to explore the land, who returned and made the whole congregation complain against him by bringing an evil report concerning the land, and who produced an evil report about the land, died of pestilence in the LORD's presence. However, Nun's son Joshua and Jephunneh's son Caleb, who had explored the land, remained alive. After Moses had told all of this to the Israelis, the people deeply mourned.

Now from the time we left Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Wadi Zered was 38 years. All of that generation, the soldiers in the camp, were destroyed just as the LORD swore they would be. Indeed, the hand of the LORD was against them to root them out from the camp until they were utterly destroyed." "And so all the soldiers among the people died. read more.
Then the LORD spoke to me,

The nations will also learn that because of Israel's sin the house of Israel went into captivity, since they were unfaithful in their behavior toward me. As a result, I hid my presence from them, turned them over to the control of their enemies, and they died by violence.

You'll bear sons and daughters, but they won't belong to you because they'll go into captivity.

"You'll plant many seeds in a field, but your harvest will be small because the locust will consume it. You'll plant a vineyard, but you won't drink wine or harvest any grapes because worms will consume it. You'll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won't be able to anoint yourself with oil because the olives will drop off the trees.

"I therefore have withheld the rain from you three months before the harvest, causing rain to come upon one city, but not upon another, and upon one field but not upon another, so that it would wither. So the people of two or three cities staggered away to another city in order to obtain drinking water, but you have not returned to me," declares the LORD. "I afflicted you with blight and fungus; and the locust swarm devoured the harvest of your gardens, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, but you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.

However, I will judge the nation that they serve, and later they will leave there with many possessions.

"You are my war-club and weapons of war. I'll smash nations with you and destroy kingdoms with you. I'll smash the horse and its rider with you. I'll smash the chariot and its rider with you.

For see, the LORD is coming from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their sins; the earth will reveal the blood that has been shed on it, and will no longer conceal its slain."

There is wickedness in your obscene conduct. Even though I've cleansed you, you uncleanness cannot be washed away. You cannot be cleansed again until my rage against you has subsided.' ""I, the LORD have spoken. It will happen, because I'm going to do it. I won't hold back, have compassion, or change my mind. They'll judge you according to your ways and deeds,' declares the Lord GOD."

First I'll repay them double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the dead bodies of their detestable images, and they have filled my inheritance with their abominations."

because they have abandoned me, burned incense to other gods, and they have provoked me to anger with everything that they've done. Therefore my anger is kindled against this place and it won't be quenched!'"

A man of God came to Eli, saying to him, "This is what the LORD says: "When they were in Egypt and slaves to the house of Pharaoh, did I not reveal to the family of your ancestor Aaron that I had chosen him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer up burnt offerings on my altar, burn incense, and carry the ephod in my presence? And did I not give to your ancestors' family all the Israeli fire-offerings? Why, then, do all of you show contempt for my sacrifice and offering that I've commanded for my dwelling? And you honor your sons more than me in order to fatten yourselves from the best of all the offerings of my people Israel.' read more.
"Therefore, the LORD God of Israel has declared, "I did, in fact, say that your family and your ancestor's family would walk before me forever,' but now the LORD declares, "Far be it from me! The one who honors me I'll honor, and the one who despises me is to be treated with contempt. The time is coming when I'll cut away at your family and your ancestor's family until there are no old men left in your family. Distress will settle down to live in your household, and despite all the good that I do for Israel, there will never be an old man in your family forever, and you will never again have an old man in my house. Any of you whom I don't eliminate from serving at my altar will grow tired from weeping, and their souls will grieve. All the increase of your family will die by violence. Here's a sign for you your two sons Hophni and Phineas will both die on the same day! And I'll raise up for myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in my heart and according to my desire. I'll build for him an enduring house and he will walk before my anointed one forever. Anyone who remains in your family will come and prostrate themselves before him for a small wage or a loaf of bread and will say, "Please put me in one of the priest's offices so I can eat a piece of bread."'"

The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated; each of them fled to his own tent. It was a very great slaughter, and 30,000 soldiers of Israel died. The Ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, died. That very same day, a man who was a descendant of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh, with his garments torn and dirt on his head. read more.
When he arrived, Eli was sitting there on a seat beside the road, watching because his heart trembled for the Ark of God. The man went into the town to give the report, and the whole town cried out. Eli heard the sound of the cry and asked, "What is the meaning of this commotion?" Then the man quickly came and told Eli. Now Eli was 98 years old, and his vision had failed. The man told Eli, "I've just come from the battle line, and I escaped from the battle today." He asked, "What happened, my son?" The messenger answered, "Israel fled from the Philistines and the people suffered a great defeat as well. Moreover, your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead, and the Ark of God was captured." When he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli fell off the seat backwards by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, since he was old and heavy. Eli had judged Israel for 40 years. Eli's daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and ready to give birth. When she heard the report about the capture of the Ark of God and that her father-in-law and husband were dead, she crouched down and gave birth, because her labor pains suddenly began. As she was about to die, the women standing around her said, "Don't be afraid! You've given birth to a son." But she did not respond or pay attention. She had named the boy Ichabod,saying, "Glory has departed from Israel," because the Ark of God had been captured and because her father-in-law and husband were dead. She said, "Glory has departed from Israel, because the Ark of God has been captured."

The wicked have many sorrows, but gracious love surrounds those who trust in the LORD.

In spite of all of this, they kept on sinning and didn't believe in his marvelous deeds. So he made their days end in futility, and their years with sudden terror.

And I'll be angry and will kill you with swords, and your wives will become widows and your children orphans.

I'll shatter the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I'll make them fall by the sword before their enemies and at the hands of those seeking their lives. I'll give their dead bodies as food to the birds of the sky and to the animals of the land.

In response, the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people to bite them. As a result, many people of Israel died.

Your corpses will fall in this wilderness every single one of you who has been counted among you, according to your number from 20 years and above, who complained against me.

I'll pass through the land of Egypt that night and strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I'll execute judgments on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.

while they were burying their firstborn, whom the LORD had killed among them. The LORD also executed justice against their gods.

Then the LORD told Noah, "Come you and all your household into the ark, because I've seen that you alone are righteous in this generation.

The males and females of each living creature entered the ark, just as God had commanded. Then the LORD sealed them inside.

So the LORD said, "I will annihilate these human beings whom I've created from the earth, including people, animals, crawling things, and flying creatures, because I'm grieving that I made them."

"For my part, I'm about to flood the earth with water and destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die.

whether for discipline on his land or to demonstrate his gracious love, he causes it to be realized."

For I'll be with you to save you,' declares the LORD. "For I'll put an end to all the nations where I scattered you; but I won't make an end of you. I'll discipline you justly, but I certainly won't leave you unpunished.'

Egypt will be desolate, and Edom will be a desert, because of violence against the people of Judah since they shed innocent blood in their land.

"Then they'll learn that I am the LORD, when I've turned their land into a desolate wasteland because of all of the loathsome deeds that they've committed.'"

The land has been defiled, so I brought the punishment of its iniquity to it. As a result, the land is vomiting out its inhabitants.

"When the LORD your God eliminates the nations that you are about to dispossess so you can live in their land, after they have been destroyed in your sight, be careful not to be ensnared as they were. Otherwise, you will seek their gods and ask yourselves, "How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.' You must not do the same to the LORD your God, because they practiced in the presence of their gods every sort of abomination that the LORD hates. Moreover, they sacrificed their sons and daughters to their gods. read more.
Now as to everything I'm commanding you, you must be careful to observe it. Don't add to or subtract from it."

God, who is enthroned from long ago, will hear me and humble them. Interlude Because they do not repent, they do not fear God.

They say to themselves, "We will not be moved throughout all time, and we will not experience adversity."

These things you did, and I kept silent, because you assumed that I was like you. But now I am going to rebuke you, and I will set forth my case before your very own eyes."

The LORD will cause you to be ill with long-lasting diseases until you are wiped out from the land that you are entering to possess. The LORD will afflict you with tuberculosis, fever, inflammation, high fever, drought, blight, and mildew. These will attack you until you are completely destroyed.

Absolutely not, I tell you! But if you don't repent, then you, too, will all die.

Absolutely not, I tell you! But if you don't repent, then you, too, will all die."

As they serve between the porch and the altar, let the priests and ministers of the LORD weep and pray: "Spare your people, LORD, and do not make your heritage a disgrace so that nations ridicule them. Why should they say among the people, "Where is their God?"'"

"When you speak all these words to this people, they'll say to you, "Why has the LORD pronounced all this disaster against us? What is our iniquity, and what is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?'

"When all these things happen to you both the blessings and the curses that I've presented to you and you take them seriously in all the nations where the LORD your God will deport you, and when you you and your descendants, that is will have returned to him and obeyed all the commands that I'm giving you today with all your heart and soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and will show compassion to you. He will gather you from among the nations where he had scattered you.

He is the LORD our God. His justice is in all of the land.

"Sing for joy, nations! Sing for joy, people who belong to him! For he'll avenge the blood of his servants, turn on his adversary, and cleanse both his land and his people."

"The LORD won't forgive such a person. Instead, the zealous anger of the LORD will blaze against him. All the curses that were written in this book will fall on him. Then the LORD will wipe out his memory from under heaven.

"If evil comes upon us, such as war as punishment, disease, or famine and we stand in your presence in this Temple (because your Name is in this Temple) and cry out to you in our distress, then you will hear and deliver.'

Elisha returned to Gilgal during a time of famine in the land. While the Guild of Prophets were having a meal with him, he instructed his attendant, "Put a large pot on the fire and boil some stew for the Guild of Prophets." Somebody went out into the fields to grab some herbs, found a wild vine, and gathered a lap full of wild gourds, which he came and sliced up into the stew pot, but nobody else knew. When they served the men, they began to eat the stew. But they cried out, "That pot of stew is deadly, you man of God!" So they couldn't eat the stew. read more.
But he replied, "Bring me some flour." He tossed it into the pot and said, "Serve the people so they can eat." Then there was nothing harmful in the pot.

Now you're more cursed than the ground, which has opened to receive your brother's blood from your hand. Whenever you work the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you, and you'll wander throughout the earth as a fugitive."

At one moment I may speak about a nation or a kingdom to uproot it, pull it down, or destroy it. But if that nation about which I spoke turns from its evil way, I'll change my mind about the disaster that I had planned for it.

Indeed, rebellion is the sin of divination, and arrogance is iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected this message from the LORD, he has rejected you from being king."

So Gad went to David and asked him, "Shall seven years of famine come to your land, or three months of reversals while you flee from your enemies as they pursue you, or three days of pestilence in your land? Decide right now what I am to answer to the one who sent me."

In addition, all who devour you will be devoured, and all your oppressors all of them will go into captivity. Those who plunder you will become plunder, and all who spoil you will become spoil.

God also raised up Eliada's son Rezon, who had escaped from his master King Hadadezer of Zobah.

The LORD became angry at Solomon because his heart wandered away from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and warned him about this so he would not pursue other gods. But he did not obey what the LORD had commanded, so the LORD told Solomon, "Because you have done this and haven't kept my covenant and statutes that I commanded you, I'm going to tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. read more.
I'm not going to do this during your lifetime, for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of your son's control. For the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, I won't tear away the entire kingdom. I'll leave one tribe for your son to govern." After this, the LORD allowed Hadad the Edomite to oppose Solomon. He was part of the royal line of Edom.

Meanwhile, Elisha urged the woman whose son he had restored to life, "You must get up and leave with your household to go live wherever you can, because the LORD has called for a famine, and it's going to come over the land for seven years." So the woman followed the instructions given to her by the man of God, and she went to the territory of the Philistines to live for seven years with her household.

Here's a sign for you your two sons Hophni and Phineas will both die on the same day!

They washed the chariot by the reservoir of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood near where the prostitutes went to bathe, in keeping with the message that the LORD had spoken.

Your corpses will fall in this wilderness every single one of you who has been counted among you, according to your number from 20 years and above, who complained against me.

God struck down the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the Ark of the LORD. He struck down 50,070 men among the people, and the people mourned because the LORD struck down the people with a great slaughter.

Then the LORD rained sulfur and fire out of the sky from the LORD on Sodom and Gomorrah,

Now, go and attack Amalek. Completely destroy all that they have. Don't spare them, but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, both ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'"

"Get up, move to Zarephath in Sidon, and stay there. Look! I've commanded a widow to sustain you there."

God sent me ahead of you to keep you alive on the earth, and to save you all in a magnificent way.

When he heard the man of God curse the altar in Bethel, the king pointed at the man of God from where the king was standing at the altar. "Seize him!" he ordered. But all of a sudden his hand that he had stretched out dried up, and he could not bring it back to his side!

But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing left of her except her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands.

Naaman's leprosy will plague you and your descendants forever!" As he left Elisha's presence, he was infected with leprosy that looked like white snow.

he said, "Canaan is cursed! He will be the lowest of slaves to his relatives."

Just then, the anger of the LORD blazed against Uzzah, and God struck him down right there because of his failure, and he died there beside the Ark of God.

The LORD heavily oppressed the people of Ashdod, devastating and afflicting Ashdod and its territories with tumors of the groin.

Meanwhile, all the officials who supervised the priests and the people remained unfaithful, following the detestable example of the surrounding nations. They polluted the LORD's Temple that he had consecrated in Jerusalem. The LORD God of their ancestors pleaded with them time and again through his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on the place of his residence, but they mocked God's messengers, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until there was no remedy for the wrath of the LORD that arose to punish his people. read more.
Therefore he brought up the king of the Chaldeans against them, who executed their young men in the holy Temple, showing no compassion on young man or young virgin, adult men or the aged. God gave them all into the king's control, who took back to Babylon every article in God's Temple, whether large or small, including the treasuries of the LORD's Temple, the king's assets, and those of his officers. After this, they set fire to God's Temple, demolished the wall around Jerusalem, burned all of its fortified buildings, and destroyed everything of value. Nebuchadnezzar carried off to Babylon those who survived the executions, and they served him and his descendants until the kingdom of Persia came to power. All of this fulfilled what the LORD had predicted through Jeremiah. And so the land enjoyed its Sabbaths, and the length of the land's desolation lasted until a 70-year long Sabbath had been completed.

The prophet Jeremiah told the prophet Hananiah, "Listen, Hananiah! The LORD didn't send you, and you are causing these people to trust in a lie. Therefore, this is what the LORD says: "I'm about to remove you from the face of the earth. This year you will die because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.'" So the prophet Hananiah died in the seventh month of that year.

Ask the king, "Did you commit murder? And now you're going to steal as well?' Also tell him, "This is what the LORD says: "Where the dogs were licking up Naboth's blood, dogs will also lick up your blood that's right yours!"'" Later on, Ahab asked Elijah, "Have you found me, my enemy?" But Elijah answered, "I've found you because you sold yourself to do what the LORD considers to be evil! Now pay attention! I'm going to send evil in your direction! I will completely sweep you away and eliminate from Ahab every male, whether indentured servant or free, throughout Israel. read more.
I will make your household resemble that of Nebat's son Jeroboam, or like the household of Ahijah's son Baasha, because of how you've provoked me to anger and made Israel to sin. The LORD also has this to say about Jezebel: "Dogs will eat Jezebel within the outer ramparts of Jezreel. Dogs will eat whoever belongs to Ahab and who dies in the city. The birds of the sky will eat whoever dies in the fields.'"

That very night, the angel of the LORD went out to the camp of the Assyrian army and killed 185,000 men. Early the next morning, when the army of Israel arose, all 185,000 soldiers were dead. As a result, King Sennacherib of Assyria left and returned to Nineveh where he lived. Later on, as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword and fled into the territory of Ararat. Then Sennacherib's son Esarhaddon became king in his place.

When Zimri observed that the city had been captured, he retreated into the king's palace, set fire to the citadel, and died when the palace burned down around him because of the sins that he committed by doing what the LORD considered to be evil, living like Jeroboam did, and sinning so as to lead Israel into sin.

As these words were being spoken by the king, a voice came out of heaven: "King Nebuchadnezzar, this is declared to you:

That night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was killed,

Joshua announced, "Why did you bring trouble to us? Today the LORD is bringing trouble to you!" So all Israel stoned him to death, incinerated them, and buried them with stones,

Indeed, this time I'm sending all my plagues against you, your officials, and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.

"If you don't listen, and if you don't choose to give honor to my name," says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "then I'll curse both you and your blessings. I've even cursed them already, because none of you are taking it to heart.

My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me searches for you. For when your judgments come upon the earth, the world's inhabitants learn righteousness.

Right when Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn some incense, a man of God arrived in Bethel from Judah in obedience to a command from the LORD. He cursed the altar in this message from the LORD: "Hey altar! Hey altar! This is what the LORD says: "Pay attention to this! A son is going to be born in David's dynasty. His name will be Josiah. He will sacrifice the priests who burn incense on you in these high places. Human bones will be burned on you!'" Later that same day, he gave them a special display of power of what was to come when he said, "Here's proof that the LORD has decreed this: Look! This altar will be split apart and the ashes that are on it will spill out." read more.
When he heard the man of God curse the altar in Bethel, the king pointed at the man of God from where the king was standing at the altar. "Seize him!" he ordered. But all of a sudden his hand that he had stretched out dried up, and he could not bring it back to his side! Also, the altar broke apart and the ashes that were on it spilled out from the altar, providing just the proof that the man of God had predicted in his message from the LORD! "Please!" the king begged the man of God, "Ask the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored for me!" So the man of God asked the LORD, and the king's hand was immediately and fully restored, just like it had been before. So the king told the man of God, "Come back to my palace and rest a while. I'd like to give you a reward." But the man of God replied to the king, "Even if you were to offer me half of your house, I wouldn't go with you, and I'm sure not going to eat even a piece of bread or drink water in this place, because the LORD commanded me specifically, "You are not to eat bread, drink water, or return by the way that you came to arrive here!'" Then he left, returning a different way than the one by which he had traveled to Bethel. Now there was an old prophet who lived in Bethel, and his sons went to him and told him everything that the man of God had accomplished that day in Bethel, including the message that he had delivered to the king. "Which way did he go?" their father asked him, since his sons had observed the way that the man of God had taken to return to Judah from Bethel. "Saddle my donkey for me!" he ordered. So they saddled the donkey for him and he rode off after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. "You're the man of God who came from Judah, aren't you?" the old prophet asked him. "I am," he replied. "Come home with me and have a meal," he told him. But he replied, "I can't go back with you to your home, be in your company, or even eat food or drink water with you in this place, because I've been given a command in the form of this message from the LORD: "You are to eat no food, drink no water, and do not return to Judah by traveling the way by which you go there.'" "I'm a prophet like you," the old man replied, "and an angel spoke to me and delivered this message from the LORD: "Bring him back with you to your house and give him food and water.'" But he was lying, and the man of God accompanied the old prophet back to his house, ate some food, and drank some water. Later, while they were sitting down at the table, a message from the LORD was delivered to the prophet who had brought him back, so he cried out to the man of God from Judah: "This is what the LORD says: "Because you disobeyed a command from the LORD and haven't done what the LORD your God commanded you to do, but instead you returned to eat and drink in the very place that he told you "Eat no food and drink no water," your body will not be buried in the same grave as your ancestors.'" After the meal was over, and the man had eaten food and had drunk water, the old prophet saddled the donkey for him that is, for the man of God whom he had brought back. Not long after the man of God had left, a lion met him along the road and killed him. His body was left lying in the middle of the road with the donkey standing beside it and with the lion also standing next to the body.

As a result, during the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and took the Israelis off to Assyria, placing them in Halah, along the Habor River in Gozan, and in cities ruled by the Medes. This happened because the Israelis had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt and from the domination of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, because they were fearing other gods, and because they were following the rules of the nations whom the LORD had expelled before the Israelis and that the kings of Israel had practiced. read more.
The Israelis practiced secret things that were not right, offending the LORD their God. In addition, they built high places for use by all their towns, watchtowers, and fortified cities. They set up pillars and Asherim on every high hill and in the shade of every green tree, where they made offerings on all the high places, as did the nations whom the LORD had expelled before them. They also practiced other wickedness, provoking the LORD to become angry, and they served idols, a practice that the LORD had warned them, "You are not to do this." Nevertheless, the LORD had warned both Israel and Judah by means of every prophet and seer: "Turn away from your evil practices and keep my commandments and statutes according to the entire Law that I gave your ancestors and that I sent to you through my servants, the prophets." But they would not listen. Instead, they were stubborn, just like their ancestors had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. They rejected the LORD's statutes, the covenant that he had made with their ancestors, and his warnings that he gave them. They pursued meaninglessness and became meaningless themselves as they followed the lifestyles of the nations that surrounded them, a practice that the LORD had warned them not to do. They abandoned all of the commands given by the LORD their God, crafted for themselves cast images of two calves, constructed an Asherah, worshipped all of the stars in heaven, and served Baal. They passed their sons and daughters through fire, practiced divination, cast spells, and sold themselves to practice what the LORD considered to be evil, thereby provoking him. As a result, the LORD was angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. No one was left except for the tribe of Judah. But Judah, too, did not keep the commands of the LORD their God. Instead, they lived the lifestyle that Israel had chosen, so the LORD rejected all of the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and handed them over to the control of plunderers until he had thrown them away from his presence. He ripped them away from the heritage of David, even as the people appointed Nebat's son Jeroboam to be king. Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD and made them commit great sin. The Israelis practiced all the sins that Jeroboam had practiced, and never wavered from them until the LORD removed Israel from his presence, just as he had warned through all of his prophets who served him. So Israel was carried off into exile from their own land into Assyria, where they remain to this day. Because the king of Assyria brought captives from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sephar-vaim and settled them in the cities of Samaria to replace the Israelis, the settlers possessed Samaria and lived in its cities. When they first began to live there, the settlers did not fear the LORD, so he sent lions among them, and they killed a few of them. As a result, they reported to the king of Assyria, "Because the nations whom you exiled to live in the cities of Samaria don't know the law of the god of the land, he has sent lions among them. Look how the lions are killing them, because they don't know the law of the god of the land!" So the king of Assyria issued this order: "Take one of the priests whom you carried away and let him go back and live there. Let him teach them the law of the god of the land." So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria went to live in Bethel to teach them how they ought to fear the LORD. Nevertheless, each nation continued to craft their own gods and install them in the temples on the high places that the people of Samaria had constructed every nation in their own cities where they continued to live. Settlers from Babylon built Succoth-benoth, settlers from Cuth built Nergal, settlers from Hamath built Ashima, and settlers from Avva built Nibhaz and Tartak. The residents of Sephar-vaim burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sephar-vaim. Because they feared the LORD, they also appointed from among themselves priests for the high places who acted on their behalf in the temples on the high places. While they continued to fear the LORD, they served their own gods, following the custom of the nations whom they had carried away from there. To this very day, they still follow the former customs: they don't fear the LORD and they don't live in accordance with the statutes, ordinances, laws, or commandments that the LORD had given to the descendants of Jacob whom he renamed Israel and with whom the LORD had made a covenant when he gave these orders to them: "You are not to fear other gods, bow down to them, serve them, or sacrifice to them. Instead, it is to be the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, showing great power and public demonstrations of might, whom you are to fear, worship, and to whom you are to offer sacrifice. Furthermore, you are to be careful to observe forever the statutes, ordinances, law, and the commandment that he wrote for you. And you are not to fear other gods. You are not to forget the covenant that I've made with you, and you are not to fear other gods. But you are to fear the LORD, and he will deliver you from the control of all your enemies." But they wouldn't listen. Instead, they did what they had been doing before. These nations feared the LORD and also served their carved images. Their descendants did the same thing, as did their grandchildren. Just as their ancestors had done, they also do the same thing to this day.

"He will deliver you through six calamities; and calamity won't touch you throughout the seventh. He will deliver you from death by famine; in war from the power of the sword.

The sun had risen over the land about the time Lot reached Zoar. Then the LORD rained sulfur and fire out of the sky from the LORD on Sodom and Gomorrah, overthrowing those cities, all of the plain, and everyone who lived in the cities. He also destroyed the plants that grew out of the ground.

"Come in, wife of Jeroboam. What is this pretension at being someone else? I have some harsh news. Go tell Jeroboam: "I raised you up from among the people. "I made you Commander-in-Chief over my people Israel. "I tore the kingdom away from David's dynasty. "Then I gave it to you. But you have not lived like my servant David, who kept my commands with all his heart, and did only what I considered to be right. "Instead, you have done more evil than everyone who lived before you. "You have gone out and crafted other gods for yourself. "You made cast images. "You have provoked me to anger. "You have thrown me behind your back. read more.
"Therefore, watch while I bring calamity on Jeroboam's dynasty! "I will eliminate every male, both slave and free in Israel, from Jeroboam. "I will burn up Jeroboam's dynasty, as a man burns up manure until it is gone. Dogs will eat anyone who dies in the city that belongs to Jeroboam's household. The birds of the sky will eat anyone who dies in the open field, because the LORD has determined it.' "Now get up and go home. When your feet cross the city line, your child will die. Everyone in Israel will mourn for him and will bury him, because he alone from Jeroboam's family will receive a decent burial, because something good was observed in him with respect to the LORD God of Israel out of all the household of Jeroboam! "In addition to this, the LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will eliminate Jeroboam's dynasty, starting today and from now on. The LORD will attack Israel, and Israel will shake like a reed shakes in a river current! He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their ancestors and he will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they erected their Asherim and provoked the LORD to become angry!

The Lord is against you now, and you'll be blind and unable to see the sun for a while!" At that moment a dark mist came over him, and he went around looking for someone to lead him by the hand.

Immediately the angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.

Ephraim has become entwined with idols; leave him alone!

The LORD God told the Shining One, "Because you have done this, you are more cursed than all the livestock, and more than all the earth's animals, You'll crawl on your belly and eat dust as long as you live. "I'll place hostility between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He'll strike you on the head, and you'll strike him on the heel."

So Abimelech approached the tower, attacked it, and approached the tower's gate, intending to burn it down. But a certain woman threw an upper millstone down on Abimelech's head, fracturing his skull. So he cried out to his young armor bearer and ordered him, "Draw your sword and kill me, so no one will say about me that "A woman killed him.'" So the young man pierced him through, and he died. read more.
When the men of Israel noticed that Abimelech was dead, they each left for home. That's how God repaid Abimelech for the evil thing he did to his father by killing his 70 brothers. God also repaid the men of Shechem for their wickedness, and the curse of Jerubbaal's son Jotham came true for them.

God used Ahaziah's visit to Joram to destroy Ahaziah. As soon as he arrived, Ahaziah went out with Joram to attack Nimshi's son Jehu, whom the LORD had appointed to eliminate Ahab's dynasty. And that's exactly what happened. While Jehu was punishing Ahab's dynasty, he located the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers who were ministering to Ahaziah, and he put them to death. Jehu also searched for Ahaziah, had him apprehended while Ahaziah was hiding out in Samaria, and had Ahaziah brought to him. Jehu had Ahaziah executed and buried. It was said of Jehu, "He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all of his heart." As a result, there was no one left in the household of Ahaziah strong enough to reign in the kingdom.

Miriam and Aaron rebelled against Moses on account of the Cushite woman that he had married. They asked, "Has the LORD spoken only through Moses? Hasn't he also spoken through us?" But the LORD heard it. Now the man Moses was very humble more than any person on earth. read more.
All of a sudden, the LORD told Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, "The three of you are to come out to the Tent of Meeting." So the three of them went out. Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. So both of them went forward. Then he told the two of them: "Pay attention to what I have to say! When there is a prophet among you, won't I, the LORD, reveal myself to him in a vision? Won't I speak with him in a dream? But that's not how it is with my servant Moses, since he has been entrusted with my entire household! I speak to him audibly and in visions, not in mysteries. If he can gaze at the image of the LORD, why aren't you afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" Because the LORD was very angry with them, he left, but when the cloud ascended from the tent, Miriam had become leprous, as white as snow! Aaron turned toward Miriam, and she had leprosy! Aaron begged Moses, "I pray my lord, please don't hold this sin against us, since we've acted foolishlyand sinned in doing so. Please don't let her be like one of the living dead, who is born with a congenital skin disease." So Moses prayed to the LORD: "O LORD, please heal her." But the LORD told Moses, "If her father had merely spit in her face, wouldn't she be humiliated? She is to be placed in isolation for seven days. After that, she may be brought in." So Miriam was isolated outside the camp for seven days and the people didn't travel until Miriam was brought in.

He told the man, "Because you have listened to what your wife said, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, "You must not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you. You'll eat from it through pain-filled labor for the rest of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you'll eat the plants from the meadows. You will eat food by the sweat of your brow until you're buried in the ground, because you were taken from it. You're made from dust and you'll return to dust."

Now you're more cursed than the ground, which has opened to receive your brother's blood from your hand. Whenever you work the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you, and you'll wander throughout the earth as a fugitive." "My punishment is too great to bear," Cain told the LORD. read more.
"You're driving me from the soil today. I'll be hidden from you, and I'll wander throughout the earth as a fugitive. In the future, whoever finds me will kill me." The LORD told him, "This won't happen, because whoever kills you will suffer seven times the vengeance." Then the LORD placed a sign on Cain so that no one finding him would kill him.

Therefore, tell the Israelis, "I am the LORD. I'll bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I'll deliver you from their bondage. I'll redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.

"Look! The days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine throughout the land not a famine of food or a thirst for water but rather a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu each took his own censer, placed fire in it, covered it with incense, and brought it into the LORD's presence as unauthorized fire that he had never prescribed for them. As a result, fire came out from the LORD's presence and incinerated them. They died while in the LORD's presence. Moses spoke with Aaron about what the LORD had said: "Among those who are near me, I'll show myself holy so that I'll be glorified before all people." So Aaron remained silent.

so the LORD brought in the army commanders who worked for the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him in bronze chains, and took him off to Babylon.

Naaman's leprosy will plague you and your descendants forever!" As he left Elisha's presence, he was infected with leprosy that looked like white snow.

Then the LORD sent a plague on the people because they made the calf (the one Aaron made).

I'll send foreigners to Babylon, and they'll winnow her, and devastate her land. They'll come against her from every side on the day of her disaster.

Then the LORD told Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is hard. He has refused to let the people go.

Just then, the anger of the LORD blazed against Uzzah, and God struck him down right there because of his failure, and he died there beside the Ark of God.

He told the woman, "I'll greatly increase the pain of your labor during childbirth. It will be painful for you to bear children, "since your trust is turning toward your husband, and he will dominate you."

So the LORD said, "I will annihilate these human beings whom I've created from the earth, including people, animals, crawling things, and flying creatures, because I'm grieving that I made them."