Deuteronomy 28:48-57

28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty ¹  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ²  will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you. 28:49 The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth ³  as the eagle flies, ⁴  a nation whose language you will not understand, 28:50 a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young. 28:51 They ⁵  will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, ⁶  or lambs of your flocks ⁷  until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ⁸  until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. 28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ⁹  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ¹⁰  by which your enemies will constrict you. 28:54 The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. 28:55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ¹¹  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ¹²  tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, ¹³  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ¹⁴  and her newborn children ¹⁵  (since she has nothing else), ¹⁶  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

Isaiah 3:1

A Coming Leadership Crisis

3:1 Look, the sovereign Lord who commands armies ¹⁷ 

is about to remove from Jerusalem ¹⁸  and Judah

every source of security, including ¹⁹ 

all the food and water, ²⁰ 

Hosea 2:9-12

2:9 Therefore, I will take back ²¹  my grain during the harvest time ²² 

and my new wine when it ripens; ²³ 

I will take away my wool and my flax

which I had provided ²⁴  in order to clothe her. ²⁵ 

2:10 Soon ²⁶  I will expose her lewd nakedness ²⁷  in front of her lovers,

and no one will be able to rescue her from me! ²⁸ 

2:11 I will put an end to all her celebration:

her annual religious festivals,

monthly new moon celebrations,

and weekly Sabbath festivities –

all her appointed festivals.

2:12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees,

about which she said, “These are my wages for prostitution ²⁹ 

that my lovers gave to me!”

I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees ³⁰  into an uncultivated thicket,

so that wild animals ³¹  will devour them.

¹ tn Heb “lack of everything.”

² tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV).

³ tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”

⁴ tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.

⁵ tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).

⁶ tn Heb “increase of herds.”

⁷ tn Heb “growth of flocks.”

⁸ tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

⁹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

¹¹ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

¹² tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

¹³ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

¹⁴ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

¹⁶ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “the master, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].” On the title “the Lord who commands armies,” see the note at 1:9.

¹⁸ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁹ tn Heb “support and support.” The masculine and feminine forms of the noun are placed side-by-side to emphasize completeness. See GKC 394 §122.v.

²⁰ tn Heb “all the support of food, and all the support of water.”

²¹ tn Heb “I will return and I will take.” The two verbs joined with vav conjunction form a verbal hendiadys in which the first verb functions adverbially and the second retains its full verbal sense (GKC 386-87 §120.d, h): אָשׁוּב וְלָקַחְתִּי (’ashuv vÿlaqakhti) means “I will take back.”

²² tn Heb “in its time” (so NAB, NRSV).

²³ tn Heb “in its season” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).

²⁴ tn The words “which I had provided” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons; cf. NIV “intended to cover.”

²⁵ tn Heb “to cover her nakedness” (so KJV and many other English versions); TEV “for clothing.”

²⁶ tn The particle עַתָּה (’attah) often refers to the imminent or the impending future: “very soon” (BDB 774 s.v. עַתָּה 1.b). In Hosea it normally introduces imminent judgment (Hos 2:12; 4:16; 5:7; 8:8, 13; 10:2).

²⁷ tn Heb “her lewdness” (so KJV, NIV); NAB, NRSV “her shame.”

²⁸ tn Heb “out of my hand” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); TEV “save her from my power.”

²⁹ tn Heb “my wages.” The words “for prostitution” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied for clarity; cf. CEV “gave…as payment for sex.”

³⁰ tn Heb “I will turn them”; the referents (vines and fig trees) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

³¹ tn Heb “the beasts of the field” (so KJV, NASB); the same expression also occurs in v. 18).