40. You will have olive trees everywhere on your land. But you will not have any of the oil to use, because the olives will drop to the ground and rot.
41. You will have sons and daughters. But you will not be able to keep them, because they will be captured and taken away.
42. Locusts will destroy all your trees and the crops in your fields.
43. The foreigners living among you will get more and more power, and you will lose the power you had.
44. The foreigners will have money to loan you, but you will not have any money to loan them. They will control you the way the head controls the body. You will be like the tail.
45. “All these curses will come on you. They will keep chasing you and catching you, until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to what the Lord your God told you. You did not obey the commands and laws that he gave you.
46. These curses will show people that God judged you and your descendants forever. People will be amazed at the terrible things that happen to you.
47. “The Lord your God gave you many blessings. But you did not serve him with joy and a glad heart.
48. So you will serve the enemies the Lord will send against you. You will be hungry, thirsty, naked, and poor. He will put a load on you that cannot be removed. You will carry that load until he destroys you.
49. “The Lord will bring a nation from far away to fight you. You will not understand their language. They will come quickly, like an eagle coming down from the sky.
50. These people will be cruel. They will not care about old people or show mercy to young children.
51. They will take your animals and the food you grow. They will take everything until they destroy you. They will not leave you any grain, wine, oil, cattle, sheep, or goats. They will take everything, until they destroy you.
52. “That nation will surround and attack your cities. You think that the tall, strong walls around your cities will protect you. But those walls will fall down. The enemy will surround all your cities everywhere in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
53. You will suffer very much. The enemy will surround your cities. They will not let you have any food. You will get very hungry. You will be so hungry that you will eat your own sons and daughters—you will eat the bodies of the children the Lord your God gave you.