2 Samuel 20:15

20:15 So Joab’s men ¹  came and laid siege against him in Abel of Beth Maacah. They prepared a siege ramp outside the city which stood against its outer rampart. As all of Joab’s soldiers were trying to break through ²  the wall so that it would collapse,

Ezekiel 21:22

21:22 Into his right hand ³  comes the portent for Jerusalem – to set up battering rams, to give the signal ⁴  for slaughter, to shout out the battle cry, ⁵  to set up battering rams against the gates, to erect a siege ramp, to build a siege wall.

Luke 19:43-44

19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build ⁶  an embankment ⁷  against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. 19:44 They will demolish you ⁸  – you and your children within your walls ⁹  – and they will not leave within you one stone ¹⁰  on top of another, ¹¹  because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” ¹² 

¹ tn Heb “they.” The following context makes it clear that this refers to Joab and his army.

² tc The LXX has here ἐνοοῦσαν (enoousan, “were devising”), which apparently presupposes the Hebrew word מַחֲשָׁבִים (makhashavim) rather than the MT מַשְׁחִיתִם (mashkhitim, “were destroying”). With a number of other scholars Driver thinks that the Greek variant may preserve the original reading, but this seems to be an unnecessary conclusion (but see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 346).

³ tn Or “on the right side,” i.e., the omen mark on the right side of the liver.

⁴ tn Heb “to open the mouth” for slaughter.

⁵ tn Heb “to raise up a voice in a battle cry.”

⁶ sn Jesus now predicted the events that would be fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. The details of the siege have led some to see Luke writing this after Jerusalem’s fall, but the language of the verse is like God’s exilic judgment for covenant unfaithfulness (Hab 2:8; Jer 6:6, 14; 8:13-22; 9:1; Ezek 4:2; 26:8; Isa 29:1-4). Specific details are lacking and the procedures described (build an embankment against you) were standard Roman military tactics.

⁷ sn An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.

⁸ tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”

⁹ tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.

¹⁰ sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.

¹¹ tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”

¹² tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.