"When your enemies are besieging your towns, you will become so desperate for food that you will even eat the children that the LORD your God has given you.

When I go out in the fields, I see the bodies of men killed in war; when I go into the towns, I see people starving to death. Prophets and priests carry on their work, but they don't know what they are doing."

They let their babies die of hunger and thirst; children are begging for food that no one will give them.

My people have been punished even more than the inhabitants of Sodom, which met a sudden downfall at the hands of God.

Now they lie unknown in the streets, their faces blackened in death; their skin, dry as wood, has shriveled on their bones.

Hunger has made us burn with fever until our skin is as hot as an oven.

Hailstones and flashes of fire came from the lightning before him and broke through the dark clouds.

He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies; with flashes of lightning he sent them running.

With a soldier's sharp arrows, with red-hot coals!

He sends disease before him and commands death to follow him.

I will send dangerous animals among you, and they will kill your children, destroy your livestock, and leave so few of you that your roads will be deserted.

I, the LORD, have decided that four terrible things will happen to them: they will be killed in war; their bodies will be dragged off by dogs; birds will eat them, and wild animals will devour what is left over.

They will die of terrible diseases, and no one will mourn for them or bury them. Their bodies will lie like piles of manure on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation, and their bodies will be food for the birds and the wild animals.

I will send hunger and wild animals to kill your children, and will send sickness, violence, and war to kill you. I, the LORD, have spoken."

"Or I might send wild animals to kill the people, making the land so dangerous that no one could travel through it,

This is what the Sovereign LORD is saying: "I will send my four worst punishments on Jerusalem---war, famine, wild animals, and disease---to destroy people and animals alike.

Then the LORD God said to the snake, "You will be punished for this; you alone of all the animals must bear this curse: From now on you will crawl on your belly, and you will have to eat dust as long as you live.

But he sees that the resting place is good And that the land is delightful. So he bends his back to carry the load And is forced to work as a slave.

Wolves and lambs will eat together; lions will eat straw, as cattle do, and snakes will no longer be dangerous. On Zion, my sacred hill, there will be nothing harmful or evil."

If they hide on the top of Mount Carmel, I will search for them and catch them. If they hide from me at the bottom of the sea, I will command the sea monster to bite them.