But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers.

but if ye will not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah, but rebel against the commandment of Jehovah, then will the hand of Jehovah be against you, as it was against your fathers.

But if you will not hearken to the voice of the Lord, but will rebel against his words, the hand of the Lord shall be upon you, and upon your fathers.

but if ye will not hearken unto the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers.

And if ye do not hearken to the voice of Jehovah, then ye have provoked the mouth of Jehovah, and the hand of Jehovah hath been against you, and against your fathers.

But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord, but go against his orders, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and against your king for your destruction, as it was against your fathers.

But if you will not listen to the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you, and against your king to destroy you.

But if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, but instead you provoke his words, then the hand of the Lord will be over you and over your fathers.

But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as [it was] against your (i) fathers.
(i) Meaning, the governors.

But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord,.... They and their king, by sinning, disregarding his precepts, both affirmative and negative:
then shall the hand of the Lord be against you; by sending some judgments upon them, as famine, sword, or pestilence, particularly captivity and subjection to their enemies:
as it was against your fathers; who had no king; and it is suggested that their case, who had one, would be no better than theirs; their king would not be able to save them from the hand of God: the words in the original are, "and against your fathers" (m); which is interpreted in the Talmud (n) of their fathers dead, and in their graves, and of their enemies digging them up, and taking them out in contempt; but much better, by Kimchi, of their kings, who are, or should be, fathers of their subjects, as Augustus Caesar was called the father of his; and so the Septuagint version renders it, "and upon their king"; signifying that both they and their king should feel the weight of the hand of the Lord, if they rebelled against him.
(m) "et contra patres vestros", Pagninus, Tigurine version. (n) T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 63. 2.

"But if ye do not hearken to the voice of Jehovah, and strive against His commandment, the hand of Jehovah will be heavy upon you, as upon your fathers." ו in the sense of as, i.e., used in a comparative sense, is most frequently placed before whole sentences (see Ewald, 340, b.); and the use of it here may be explained, on the ground that בּאבתיכם contains the force of an entire sentence: "as it was upon your fathers." The allusion to the fathers is very suitable here, because the people were looking to the king for the removal of all the calamities, which had fallen upon them from time immemorial. The paraphrase of this word, which is adopted in the Septuagint, ἐπὶ τὸν βασιλέα ὑμῶν, is a very unhappy conjecture, although Thenius proposes to alter the text to suit it.

Your fathers - Who lived under the judges; and you shall have no advantage by the change of government, nor shall your kings be able to protect you against God's displeasure. The mistake, if we think we can evade God's justice, by shaking off his dominion. If we will not let God rule us, yet he will judge us.