They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the sky; ¹  the flesh of your loyal followers to the beasts of the earth.

“I will punish them in four different ways: I will have war kill them. I will have dogs drag off their dead bodies. I will have birds and wild beasts devour and destroy their corpses. ¹ 

I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. ¹  Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, ²  and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth, in its shade all the great ¹  nations lived.

“‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and will rid the land of wild beasts, so that they can live securely ¹  in the wilderness and even sleep in the woods. ² 

These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

Thus they will have towns in which to live, and their grazing lands will be for their cattle, for their possessions, and for all their animals.

They were scattered because they had no shepherd, and they became food for every wild beast. ¹ 

Listen to the cattle groan! ¹  The herds of livestock wander around in confusion ²  because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

Then the dead bodies of these people will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. ¹  There will not be any survivors to scare them away.

I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals. ¹ 

“For this is what the sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send my four terrible judgments – sword, famine, wild animals, and plague – to Jerusalem ¹  to kill both people and animals!

I will leave you on the ground, I will fling you on the open field, I will allow ¹  all the birds of the sky to settle ²  on you, and I will permit ³  all the wild animals ⁴  to gorge themselves on you.

They will no longer be prey for the nations and the wild beasts will not devour them. They will live securely and no one will make them afraid.

Wherever human beings, ¹  wild animals, ²  and birds of the sky live – he has given them into your power. ³  He has given you authority over them all. You are the head of gold.

Therefore the land will mourn, and all its inhabitants will perish. ¹  The wild animals, ²  the birds of the sky, and even the fish in the sea will perish.

But ¹  these men, ²  like irrational animals – creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed ³  – do not understand whom ⁴  they are insulting, and consequently ⁵  in their destruction they will be destroyed, ⁶ 

“After these things, as I was watching in the night visions ¹  a fourth beast appeared – one dreadful, terrible, and very strong. ²  It had two large rows ³  of iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and anything that was left it trampled with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that came before it, and it had ten horns.

I will send the wild animals ¹  against you and they will bereave you of your children, ²  annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population ³  so that your roads will become deserted.

He, ¹  the God who leads you, will expel the nations little by little. You will not be allowed to destroy them all at once lest the wild animals overrun you.