20. He said: I will hide my face from them—I will see what becomes of them—because they are a confused generation;they are children lacking loyalty.
21. They provoked me with "no-gods,"aggravated me with their pieces of junk.So I am going to provoke them with "No-People,"aggravate them with a nation of fools.
22. A fire burns in me—it will blaze to the depths of the grave;it will destroy the land and its crops;it will blacken the base of the mountains.
23. I’ll throw on them disaster after disaster;I’ll destroy them with my arrows:
24. devastating hunger, consuming plague, bitter sickness.I’ll send animal fangs after them,venom from dust crawlers too.
25. Outside, in the streets, the sword will bereave!Inside, in the safest room, there will be terrorfor young men and women,nursing baby and senior citizen.
26. I thought about it: I could have struck them down,erased them from human memory,
27. but their enemies’ rage concerned me;their opponents might misunderstand.They might say, "Our strong hands,not the Lord’s, did all this,"