1 Kings 14:11

14:11 Dogs will eat the members of your family ¹  who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”’ Indeed, the Lord has announced it!

1 Kings 16:4

16:4 Dogs will eat the members of Baasha’s family ²  who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”

Isaiah 14:19

14:19 But you have been thrown out of your grave

like a shoot that is thrown away. ³ 

You lie among ⁴  the slain,

among those who have been slashed by the sword,

among those headed for ⁵  the stones of the pit, ⁶ 

as if you were a mangled corpse. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 15:3

15:3 “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. ⁸ 

Ezekiel 32:4-5

32:4 I will leave you on the ground,

I will fling you on the open field,

I will allow ⁹  all the birds of the sky to settle ¹⁰  on you,

and I will permit ¹¹  all the wild animals ¹²  to gorge themselves on you.

32:5 I will put your flesh on the mountains,

and fill the valleys with your maggot-infested carcass. ¹³ 

Ezekiel 39:18-20

39:18 You will eat the flesh of warriors ¹⁴  and drink the blood of the princes of the earth – the rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan. 39:19 You will eat fat until you are full, and drink blood until you are drunk, ¹⁵  at my slaughter ¹⁶  which I have made for you. 39:20 You will fill up at my table with horses and charioteers, ¹⁷  with warriors and all the soldiers,’ declares the sovereign Lord.

Revelation 19:18

19:18 to eat ¹⁸  your fill ¹⁹  of the flesh of kings,

the flesh of generals, ²⁰ 

the flesh of powerful people,

the flesh of horses and those who ride them,

and the flesh of all people, both free and slave, ²¹ 

and small and great!”

¹ tn The Hebrew text has “belonging to Jeroboam” here.

² tn Heb “the ones belonging to Baasha.”

³ tn Heb “like a shoot that is abhorred.” The simile seems a bit odd; apparently it refers to a small shoot that is trimmed from a plant and tossed away. Some prefer to emend נֵצֶר (netser, “shoot”); some propose נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”). In this case one might paraphrase: “like a horrible-looking fetus that is delivered when a woman miscarries.”

⁴ tn Heb “are clothed with.”

⁵ tn Heb “those going down to.”

⁶ tn בּוֹר (bor) literally means “cistern”; cisterns were constructed from stones. On the metaphorical use of “cistern” for the underworld, see the note at v. 15.

⁷ tn Heb “like a trampled corpse.” Some take this line with what follows.

⁸ tn The translation attempts to render in understandable English some rather unusual uses of terms here. The verb translated “punish” is often used that way (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.A.3 and compare usage in Jer 11:22, 13:21). However, here it is accompanied by a direct object and a preposition meaning “over” which is usually used in the sense of appointing someone over someone (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.B.1 and compare usage in Jer 51:27). Moreover the word translated “different ways” normally refers to “families,” “clans,” or “guilds” (cf. BDB 1046-47 s.v. מִשְׁפָּחָה for usage). Hence the four things mentioned are referred to figuratively as officers or agents into whose power the Lord consigns them. The Hebrew text reads: “I will appoint over them four guilds, the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the birds of the skies and the beasts of the earth to devour and to destroy.”

⁹ tn Or “cause.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “live.”

¹¹ tn Or “cause.”

¹² tn Heb “the beasts of the field,” referring to wild as opposed to domesticated animals.

¹³ tc The Hebrew text is difficult here, apparently meaning “your height.” Following Symmachus and the Syriac, it is preferable to emend the text to read “your maggots.” See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:203.

¹⁴ sn See Rev 19:17-18.

¹⁵ sn Eating the fat and drinking blood were God’s exclusive rights in Israelite sacrifices (Lev 3:17).

¹⁶ tn Or “sacrifice” (so also in the rest of this verse).

¹⁷ tn Heb “chariots.”

¹⁸ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause, insofar as it is related to the first imperative, has the force of an imperative.

¹⁹ tn The idea of eating “your fill” is evident in the context with the use of χορτάζω (cortazw) in v. 21.

²⁰ tn Grk “chiliarchs”; normally a chiliarch was a military officer commanding a thousand soldiers, but here probably used of higher-ranking commanders like generals (see L&N 55.15; cf. Rev 6:15).

²¹ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.