24 Wasted by famine, ravaged by plague and pestilence so bitter, fangs of beasts I’ll let loose on them, with venom of creepers in the dust.
25 Outside the sword deals death, and inside terror— to both young men and young women, infants, with men of gray hair.
26 I would have said, ‘I will hack them to pieces, make the memory of them cease from mankind,’
27 except I dread the taunt of the enemy, lest their foes might misconstrue— lest they say, ‘Our hand is held high, and Adonai has not done all this.’
28 For they are a nation lacking counsel, among them there is no understanding.
29 “If they were wise, they would discern this, they would understand their hereafter.
30 How can one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them and Adonai had handed them over?