Deuteronomy 32:25-27

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

²⁵ In the open the sword shall bereave,
    and in the chambers shall be terror,
destroying both young man and virgin,
    the sucking child with the man of gray hairs.
²⁶ I would have said, “I will scatter them afar,
    I will make the remembrance of them cease from among men,”
²⁷ had I not feared provocation by the enemy,
    lest their adversaries should judge amiss,
lest they should say, “Our hand is triumphant,
    the Lord has not wrought all this.”’