22 Then the generation to come—your sons who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land—will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the LORD has inflicted on it. 23 All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.
24 So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’
25 And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not given to them. 27 Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book. 28 The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’
29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.
The Promise of Restoration
(Nehemiah 1:1–11)
30 “When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you, 2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today, 3 then He will restore you from captivity [1] and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you. 4 Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon,[2] He will gather you and return you from there.[3]
5 And the LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply more than your fathers. 6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
7 Then the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your enemies who hate you and persecute you. 8 And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and follow all His commandments I am giving you today. 9 So the LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land. Indeed, the LORD will again delight in your goodness, as He delighted in that of your fathers, 10 if you obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Choice of Life or Death
11 For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven [4] to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ 13 And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea [5] to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’
