25 'Outside the sword will bereave, And inside [the chambers] terror— For both young man and virgin, For the nursing child and the man of gray hair.

26 'I would have said, "I will cut them to pieces [scattering them far away], I will remove the memory of them from men,"

27 Had I not feared the provocation of the enemy, That their adversaries would misjudge, That they would say, "Our [own] hand has prevailed, And the LORD has not done all this."'