22 My anger has started a fire. It burns down to the kingdom of the dead. It will eat up the earth and its crops. It will set the base of the mountains on fire.
23 "I will pile troubles on my people. I will shoot all of my arrows at them.
24 I will send them hunger. It will make them weak. I will send terrible sickness. I will send deadly plagues. I will send wild animals that will tear them apart. Snakes that glide through the dust will bite them.
25 In the streets their children will be killed with swords. Their homes will be filled with terror. Young men and women will die. Babies and old people will die.
26 I said I would scatter them. I said I would wipe them from human memory.
27 But I was afraid their enemies would make fun of that. I was afraid their attackers would not understand. I was sure they would say, 'We're the ones who've beaten them! The Lord isn't the one who did it.' "
28 Israel is a nation that doesn't have any sense. They can't understand anything.