Deuteronomy 29:16-29 - Abandoning The Covenant

16 (for ye know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the nations which ye passed; 17 and ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them); 18 lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from Jehovah our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood, 19 and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to sweep away the drunken with the thirsty. 20 Jehovah will not pardon him, but the anger of Jehovah and his jealousy will then smoke against that man, and all the curse shall be upon him that is written in this book; and Jehovah will blot out his name from under the heavens; 21 and Jehovah will separate him for mischief out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this book of the law.

22 And the generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and its sicknesses wherewith Jehovah hath visited it, 23 that the whole ground thereof is brimstone and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, and no grass groweth in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which Jehovah overthrew in his anger and in his fury: 24 even all nations shall say, Why has Jehovah done thus to this land? whence the heat of this great anger? 25 And men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah the God of their fathers, which he had made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt; 26 and they went and served other gods, and bowed down to them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not assigned to them. 27 And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curse that is written in this book; 28 and Jehovah rooted them out of their land in anger, and in fury, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it appears this day. 29 The hidden things belong to Jehovah our God; but the revealed ones are ours and our children's for ever, to do all the words of this law.