Read the Bible

⁵ His people have acted corruptly toward him;^(C1)
this is their defect^(F1)—they are not his children
but a devious and crooked generation.^(C2)6 Is this how you repay the Lord,
you foolish and senseless people?^(C1)
Isn’t he your Father and Creator?^(F1)(C2)
Didn’t he make you and sustain you?⁷ Remember the days of old;
consider the years of past generations.
Ask your father, and he will tell you,
your elders, and they will teach you.⁸ When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance^(F1)
and divided the human race,^(C1)
he set the boundaries of the peoples^(C2)
according to the number of the people of Israel.^(F2)9 But the Lord’s portion is his people,
Jacob, his own inheritance.^(C1)

¹⁰ He found him in a desolate land,
in a barren, howling wilderness;
he surrounded him, cared for him,^(C1)
and protected him as the pupil of his eye.^(C2)11 He watches over^(F1) his nest like an eagle
and hovers over his young;
he spreads his wings, catches him,
and carries him on his feathers.^(C1)12 The Lord alone led him,
with no help from a foreign god.^(F1)13 He made him ride on the heights of the land^(C1)
and eat the produce of the field.
He nourished him with honey from the rock
and oil from flinty rock,¹⁴ curds from the herd and milk from the flock,
with the fat of lambs,
rams from Bashan,^(C1) and goats,
with the choicest grains of wheat;
you drank wine from the finest grapes.^(F1)

¹⁵ Then^(F1) Jeshurun^(F2)(C1) became fat and rebelled—
you became fat, bloated, and gorged.
He abandoned the God who made him
and scorned the Rock of his salvation.¹⁶ They provoked his jealousy with different gods;
they enraged him with detestable practices.^(C1)17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,
to gods they had not known,
new gods that had just arrived,
which your fathers did not fear.^(C1)18 You ignored the Rock who gave you birth;
you forgot the God who gave birth to you.

¹⁹ When the Lord saw this, he despised them,
angered by his sons and daughters.²⁰ He said: “I will hide my face from them;^(C1)
I will see what will become of them,
for they are a perverse generation—
unfaithful children.²¹ They have provoked my jealousy
with what is not a god;^(F1)
they have enraged me with their worthless idols.^(C1)
So I will provoke their jealousy
with what is not a people;^(F2)
I will enrage them with a foolish nation.^(C2)22 For fire has been kindled because of my anger
and burns to the depths of Sheol;^(C1)
it devours the land and its produce,
and scorches the foundations of the mountains.

²³ “I will pile disasters on them;
I will use up my arrows against them.²⁴ They will be weak from hunger,
ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague;
I will unleash on them wild beasts with fangs,
as well as venomous snakes that slither in the dust.²⁵ Outside, the sword will take their children,
and inside, there will be terror;
the young man and the young woman will be killed,
the infant and the gray-haired man.^(C1)

²⁶ “I would have said: I will cut them to pieces^(F1)
and blot out the memory of them from mankind,^(C1)27 if I had not feared provocation from the enemy,
or feared that these foes might misunderstand
and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed;
it wasn’t the Lord who did all this.’”

²⁸ Israel is a nation lacking sense
with no understanding at all.^(F1)(C1)29 If only they were wise, they would comprehend this;
they would understand their fate.³⁰ How could one pursue a thousand,
or two put ten thousand to flight,^(C1)
unless their Rock had sold them,
unless the Lord had given them up?^(C2)31 But their “rock” is not like our Rock,
as even our enemies concede.³² For their vine is from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poisonous;
their clusters are bitter.³³ Their wine is serpents’ venom,
the deadly poison of cobras.^(C1)

³⁴ “Is it not stored up with me,
sealed up in my vaults?³⁵ Vengeance^(F1) belongs to me; I will repay.^(F2)(C1)
In time their foot will slip,
for their day of disaster is near,
and their doom is coming quickly.”³⁶ The Lord will indeed vindicate his people
and have compassion on his servants^(C1)
when he sees that their strength is gone
and no one is left—slave or free.^(F1)37 He will say: “Where are their gods,
the ‘rock’ they found refuge in?³⁸ Who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you;
let it^(F1) be a shelter for you.³⁹ See now that I alone am he;
there is no God but me.^(C1)
I bring death and I give life;
I wound and I heal.
No one can rescue anyone from my power.^(C2)40 I raise my hand to heaven and declare:
As surely as I live forever,⁴¹ when I sharpen my flashing sword,
and my hand takes hold of judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
and repay those who hate me.⁴² I will make my arrows drunk with blood
while my sword devours flesh—
the blood of the slain and the captives,
the heads of the enemy leaders.”^(F1)

⁴³ Rejoice, you nations, concerning his people,^(F1)(C1)
for he will avenge the blood of his servants.^(F2)
He will take vengeance on his adversaries;^(F3)(C2)
he will purify his land and his people.^(F4)