16. They made God jealous with foreign godsand angry with hateful idols.
17. They made sacrifices to demons, not God,to gods they had never known,new gods from nearby,gods your ancestors did not fear.
18. You left God who is the Rock, your Father,and you forgot the God who gave you birth.
19. The Lord saw this and rejected them;his sons and daughters had made him angry.
20. He said, “I will turn away from themand see what will happen to them.They are evil people,unfaithful children.
21. They used things that are not gods to make me jealousand worthless idols to make me angry.So I will use those who are not a nation to make them jealous;I will use a nation that does not understand to make them angry.
22. My anger has started a firethat burns down to the place of the dead.It will burn up the ground and its crops,and it will set fire to the base of the mountains.
23. “I will pile troubles upon themand shoot my arrows at them.
24. They will be starved and sick,destroyed by terrible diseases.I will send them vicious animalsand gliding, poisonous snakes.
25. In the streets the sword will kill;in their homes there will be terror.Young men and women will die,and so will babies and gray-haired men.
26. I will scatter them as I said,and no one will remember them.
27. But I didn’t want their enemy to brag;their enemy might misunderstandand say, ‘We have won!The Lord has done none of this.’ ”
28. Israel has no sense;they do not understand.
29. I wish they were wise and understood this;I wish they could see what will happen to them.
30. One person cannot chase a thousand people,and two people cannot fight ten thousandunless their Rock has sold them,unless the Lord has given them up.