23  “‘And I will heap disasters upon them;

^hI will spend my arrows on them;

24  they shall be wasted with hunger,

and devoured by plague

and poisonous pestilence;

I will send ⁱthe teeth of beasts against them,

with the venom of ^jthings that crawl in the dust.

25  ^kOutdoors the sword shall bereave,

and indoors terror,

for young man and woman alike,

the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.

26  ^lI would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;

^mI will wipe them from human memory,”

27  had I not feared provocation by the enemy,

lest their adversaries should misunderstand,

lest they should say, ⁿ“Our hand is triumphant,

it was not the Lord who did all this.”’