2 Kings 17:6

17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the people of Israel¹ to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.

2 Kings 17:23

17:23 Finally² the Lord rejected Israel³ just as he had warned he would do⁴ through all his servants the prophets. Israel was deported from its land to Assyria and remains there to this very day.

Leviticus 26:32

26:32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled.

Leviticus 26:38-39

26:38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.

Restoration through Confession and Repentance

26:39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of⁵ their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’⁶ iniquities which are with them.

Deuteronomy 4:26-27

4:26 I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you⁷ today that you will surely and swiftly be removed⁸ from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be⁹ annihilated. 4:27 Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you¹⁰ among the nations where the Lord will drive you.

Deuteronomy 28:25

Curses by Defeat and Deportation

28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror¹¹ to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Deuteronomy 28:64-65

28:64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. 28:65 Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair.

Isaiah 1:7

1:7 Your land is devastated,

your cities burned with fire.

Right before your eyes your crops

are being destroyed by foreign invaders.¹²

They leave behind devastation and destruction.¹³

Isaiah 7:20

7:20 At that time¹⁴ the sovereign master will use a razor hired from the banks of the Euphrates River,¹⁵ the king of Assyria, to shave the head and the pubic hair;¹⁶ it will also shave off the beard.

¹tn The Hebrew text has simply “Israel” as the object of the verb.

²tn Heb “until.”

³tn Heb “the Lord turned Israel away from his face.”

⁴tn Heb “just as he said.”

⁵tn Heb “in” (so KJV, ASV; also later in this verse).

⁶tn Heb “fathers’” (also in the following verse).

⁷sn I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you. This stock formula introduces what is known form-critically as a רִיב (riv) or controversy pattern. It is commonly used in the ancient Near Eastern world in legal contexts and in the OT as a forensic or judicial device to draw attention to Israel’s violation of the Lord’s covenant with them (see Deut 30:19; Isa 1:2; 3:13; Jer 2:9). Since court proceedings required the testimony of witnesses, the Lord here summons heaven and earth (that is, all creation) to testify to his faithfulness, Israel’s disobedience, and the threat of judgment.

⁸tn Or “be destroyed”; KJV “utterly perish”; NLT “will quickly disappear”; CEV “you won’t have long to live.”

⁹tn Or “be completely” (so NCV, TEV). It is not certain here if the infinitive absolute indicates the certainty of the following action (cf. NIV) or its degree.

¹⁰tn Heb “you will be left men (i.e., few) of number.”

¹¹tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).

¹²tn Heb “As for your land, before you foreigners are devouring it.”

¹³tn Heb “and [there is] devastation like an overthrow by foreigners.” The comparative preposition כְּ (kÿ, “like, as”) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the land has all the earmarks of a destructive foreign invasion because that is what has indeed happened. One could paraphrase, “it is desolate as it can only be when foreigners destroy.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x. Many also prefer to emend “foreigners” here to “Sodom,” though there is no external attestation for such a reading in the mss or ancient versions. Such an emendation finds support from the following context (vv. 9-10) and usage of the preceding noun מַהְפֵּכָה (mahpekhah, “overthrow”). In its five other uses, this noun is associated with the destruction of Sodom. If one accepts the emendation, then one might translate, “the devastation resembles the destruction of Sodom.”

¹⁴tn Heb “in that day” (so ASV, NASB); KJV “In the same day.”

¹⁵tn Heb “the river” (so KJV); NASB “the Euphrates.” The name of the river has been supplied in the present translation for clarity.

¹⁶tn Heb “the hair of the feet.” The translation assumes that the word “feet” is used here as a euphemism for the genitals. See BDB 920 s.v. רֶגֶל.