"I will give you peace in your land, and you can sleep without being afraid of anyone. I will get rid of the dangerous animals in the land, and there will be no more war there.

They will die from hunger and fever; they will die from terrible diseases. I will send wild animals to attack them, and poisonous snakes to bite them.

When they first settled there, they did not worship the LORD, and so he sent lions, which killed some of them.

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.

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.

Elisha turned around, glared at them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys to pieces.

In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, caravans no longer went through the land, and travelers used the back roads.

In those days no one could come and go in safety, because there was trouble and disorder in every land.

So God has pronounced a curse on the earth. Its people are paying for what they have done. Fewer and fewer remain alive.

The highways are so dangerous that no one travels on them. Treaties are broken and agreements are violated. No one is respected any more.

No one comes to the Temple now to worship on the holy days. The young women who sang there suffer, and the priests can only groan. The city gates stand empty, and Zion is in agony.

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

I will make the country a desolate wasteland, and the power they were so proud of will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so wild that no one will be able to travel through them.

And so, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.

Like a storm I swept them away to live in foreign countries. This good land was left a desolate place, with no one living in it."