25 “When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, ^lif you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and ^mby doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26 I ⁿcall heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord ^owill scatter you among the peoples, ^pand you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And ^qthere you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, ^rthat neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 ^sBut from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you ^tin the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. 31 For the Lord your God is ^ua merciful God. ^vHe will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.