"If you don't carefully follow every word of this law — if you don't fear the glorious and awesome name of the Lord your God — then He will bring extraordinary afflictions on you and your descendants. Severe, lasting afflictions. Devastating, lasting diseases. Every plague from Egypt that terrified you will come back and cling to you. Every sickness not even written in this book — He'll bring that too, until you're destroyed.
"You were once as numerous as the stars. You'll be reduced to almost nothing — because you didn't obey. And just as the Lord once delighted in blessing you and multiplying you, He will delight in ruining you and destroying you. You'll be ripped from the land you're about to enter.
"The Lord will scatter you across the earth — from one end to the other. You'll serve foreign gods of wood and stone that neither you nor your ancestors ever knew. Among those nations you'll find no rest, no peace, no stability — just a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a soul wasting away. Your life will hang by a thread. Day and night, constant dread. In the morning you'll say, 'I wish it were evening.' At evening you'll say, 'I wish it were morning.' That's how deep the fear will go.
"And the Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships — the journey He promised you'd never make again. You'll try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies, but nobody will even buy you."