24. I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
25. In the street the sword will make them childless; in their homes terror will reign. The young men and young women will perish, the infants and those with gray hair.
26. I said I would scatter them and erase their name from human memory,
27. but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed; the Lord has not done all this.’ ”
28. They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them.
29. If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!
30. How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the Lord had given them up?
31. For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede.
32. Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are filled with poison, and their clusters with bitterness.
33. Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
34. “Have I not kept this in reserve and sealed it in my vaults?
35. It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.”
36. The Lord will vindicate his people and relent concerning his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free.
37. He will say: “Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in,
38. the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up to help you! Let them give you shelter!
39. “See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.
40. I lift my hand to heaven and solemnly swear: As surely as I live forever,
41. when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.