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.”

1 Kings 21:24

21:24 As for Ahab’s family, dogs will eat the ones ³  who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”

1 Kings 21:2

21:2 Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard so I can make a vegetable garden out of it, for it is adjacent to my palace. I will give you an even better vineyard in its place, or if you prefer, ⁴  I will pay you silver for it.” ⁵ 

1 Kings 9:1

The Lord Gives Solomon a Promise and a Warning

9:1 After Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the other construction projects he had planned, ⁶ 

Psalms 83:10

83:10 They were destroyed at Endor; ⁷ 

their corpses were like manure ⁸  on the ground.

Jeremiah 8:2

8:2 They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon and the stars. ⁹  These are things they ¹⁰  adored and served, things to which they paid allegiance, ¹¹  from which they sought guidance, and worshiped. The bones of these people ¹²  will never be regathered and reburied. They will be like manure used to fertilize the ground. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 9:22

9:22 Tell your daughters and neighbors, ‘The Lord says,

“The dead bodies of people will lie scattered everywhere

like manure scattered on a field.

They will lie scattered on the ground

like grain that has been cut down but has not been gathered.”’” ¹⁴ 

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. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 16:4

16:4 They will die of deadly diseases. No one will mourn for them. They will not be buried. Their dead bodies will lie like manure spread on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation. Their corpses will be food for the birds and wild animals.

Zephaniah 1:17

1:17 I will bring distress on the people ¹⁶ 

and they will stumble ¹⁷  like blind men,

for they have sinned against the Lord.

Their blood will be poured out like dirt;

their flesh ¹⁸  will be scattered ¹⁹  like manure.

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

² tn Heb “the ones belonging to Baasha.”

³ tn “Dogs will eat the ones who belonging to Ahab who die in the city.”

⁴ tn Heb “if it is good in your eyes.”

⁵ tc The Old Greek translation includes the following words: “And it will be mine as a garden of herbs.”

⁶ tn Heb “and all the desire of Solomon which he wanted to do.”

⁷ sn Endor is not mentioned in the accounts of Gideon’s or Barak’s victories, but both battles took place in the general vicinity of the town. (See Y. Aharoni and M. Avi-Yonah, The Macmillan Bible Atlas, 46, 54.) Because Sisera and Jabin are mentioned in v. 9b, many understand them to be the subject of the verbs in v. 10, though they relate v. 10 to Gideon’s victory, which is referred to in v. 9a, 11. (See, for example, Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, 263.)

⁸ tn Heb “they were manure.” In addition to this passage, corpses are compared to manure in 2 Kgs 9:37; Jer 8:2; 9:21; 16:4; 25:33.

⁹ tc MT, 4QJer^a and LXX read “the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven,” but 4QJer^c reads “the sun and all the stars.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the sun, moon, and host of heaven which they…”

¹¹ tn Heb “followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

¹² tn Heb “they will not” but the referent is far enough removed that it might be ambiguous.

¹³ tn Heb “like dung/manure on the surface of the ground.”

¹⁴ tn Or “‘Death has climbed…city squares. And the dead bodies of people lie scattered…They lie scattered…but has not been gathered.’ The Lord has told me to tell you this.” Or “For death will climb…It will enter…It will take away…who gather in the city squares. So tell your daughters and neighbors, ‘The Lord wants you to say, “The dead bodies of people lie scattered…They lie scattered…has not been gathered.”’” The main causes of ambiguity are the particle כִּי (ki) introducing v. 21 and the verb form דַּבֵּר (dabber) at the beginning of v. 22. כִּי may be interpreted as introducing a causal sentence giving Jeremiah’s grounds for the commands of v. 19 in which case the verbs would best be understood as prophetic perfects (as in the second alternate translation). Or it may be interpreted as introducing the content of the lament the women are to teach their daughters and neighbors (as in the translation adopted and in the first alternate translation). The form דַּבֵּר may be interpreted as a Piel masculine singular imperative addressed to Jeremiah (as in the first alternate translation where it is placed at the end for the sake of clarity) or as a Piel infinitive absolute either explaining what the woman are to teach their daughters and neighbors (as in the second alternate translation; cf. GKC 341 §113.h, i for this use of the infinitive absolute) or as equivalent to an imperative addressed to the women telling them to tell their daughters and neighbors the reason for the lament, i.e., the Lord’s promise of widespread death (cf. GKC 346 §113.bb for this use of the infinitive absolute). The translation chosen has opted for v. 21 as the content of the lament and v. 22 as the further explanation that Jeremiah has the women pass on to their neighbors and daughters. This appears to this interpreter to create the least confusion and dislocation in the flow of the passage.

¹⁵ 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.”

¹⁶ tn “The people” refers to mankind in general (see vv. 2-3) or more specifically to the residents of Judah (see vv. 4-13).

¹⁷ tn Heb “walk.”

¹⁸ tn Some take the referent of “flesh” to be more specific here; cf. NEB (“bowels”), NAB (“brains”), NIV (“entrails”).

¹⁹ tn The words “will be scattered” are supplied in the translation for clarity based on the parallelism with “will be poured out” in the previous line.