17. I will turn against you, and you will be beaten down before your enemies and your foes will lord it over you. You will flee though no one pursues you.
18. If even after this you do not obey me, I will increase the chastisement for your sins sevenfold,
19. to break your proud strength. I will make the sky above you as hard as iron, and your soil as hard as bronze,
20. so that your strength will be spent in vain; your land will bear no crops, and its trees no fruit.
21. If then you continue hostile, unwilling to obey me, I will multiply my blows sevenfold, as your sins deserve.
22. I will unleash wild beasts against you, to rob you of your children and wipe out your livestock, till your population dwindles away and your roads become deserted.
23. If, with all this, you still do not accept my discipline and continue hostile to me,
24. I, too, will continue to be hostile to you and I, for my part, will smite you for your sins sevenfold.
25. I will bring against you the sword, the avenger of my covenant. Though you then huddle together in your cities, I will send pestilence among you, till you are delivered to the enemy.
26. When I break your staff of bread, ten women will need but one oven for baking your bread, and they shall dole it out to you by weight; and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied.
27. If, despite all this, you disobey and continue hostile to me,