16. They stirred up his jealousy by worshiping foreign gods;they provoked his fury with detestable deeds.
17. They offered sacrifices to demons, which are not God,to gods they had not known before,to new gods only recently arrived,to gods their ancestors had never feared.
18. You neglected the Rock who had fathered you;you forgot the God who had given you birth.
19. “The lord saw this and drew back,provoked to anger by his own sons and daughters.
20. He said, ‘I will abandon them;then see what becomes of them.For they are a twisted generation,children without integrity.
21. They have roused my jealousy by worshiping things that are not God;they have provoked my anger with their useless idols.Now I will rouse their jealousy through people who are not even a people;I will provoke their anger through the foolish Gentiles.
22. For my anger blazes forth like fireand burns to the depths of the grave.It devours the earth and all its cropsand ignites the foundations of the mountains.
23. I will heap disasters upon themand shoot them down with my arrows.
24. I will weaken them with famine,burning fever, and deadly disease.I will send the fangs of wild beastsand poisonous snakes that glide in the dust.
25. Outside, the sword will bring death,and inside, terror will strikeboth young men and young women,both infants and the aged.
26. I would have annihilated them,wiping out even the memory of them.
27. But I feared the taunt of Israel’s enemy,who might misunderstand and say,“Our own power has triumphed!The lord had nothing to do with this!”’
28. “But Israel is a senseless nation;the people are foolish, without understanding.
29. Oh, that they were wise and could understand this!Oh, that they might know their fate!
30. How could one person chase a thousand of them,and two people put ten thousand to flight,unless their Rock had sold them,unless the lord had given them up?