Deuteronomy 28:53-57

28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ¹  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ²  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 ³  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁴  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, ⁵  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁶  and her newborn children ⁷  (since she has nothing else), ⁸  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

Hosea 9:12-16

9:12 Even if they raise their children,

I will take away every last one of them. ⁹ 

Woe to them!

For I will turn away from them.

9:13 Just as lion cubs are born predators, ¹⁰ 

so Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter.

9:14 Give them, O Lord –

what will you give them?

Give them wombs that miscarry,

and breasts that cannot nurse! ¹¹ 

9:15 Because of all their evil in Gilgal,

I hate them there.

On account of their evil deeds,

I will drive them out of my land. ¹² 

I will no longer love them;

all their rulers are rebels.

9:16 Ephraim will be struck down ¹³  –

their root will be dried up;

they will not yield any fruit.

Even if they do bear children,

I will kill their precious offspring.

Hosea 13:16

13:16 (14:1) ¹⁴  Samaria will be held guilty, ¹⁵ 

because she rebelled against her God.

They will fall by the sword,

their infants will be dashed to the ground –

their ¹⁶  pregnant women will be ripped open.

¹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

² tn Heb “siege and stress.”

³ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

⁴ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

⁵ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

⁶ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

⁷ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

⁸ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

⁹ tn Heb “I will bereave them from a man”; NRSV “I will bereave them until no one is left.”

¹⁰ tc The MT is corrupt in 9:13. The BHS editors suggest emending the text to follow the LXX reading. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:250-51.

¹¹ tn Heb “breasts that shrivel up dry”; cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV “dry breasts.”

¹² tn Heb “out of my house” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV, NCV, NLT “my land.”

¹³ tn Or perhaps, following the plant metaphor, “will be blighted” (NIV similar).

¹⁴ sn Beginning with 13:16, the verse numbers through 14:9 in the English Bible differ by one from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 13:16 ET = 14:1 HT, 14:1 ET = 14:2 HT, etc., through 14:9 ET = 14:10 HT. Thus ch. 14 in the Hebrew Bible has 10 verses.

¹⁵ tn Or “must bear its guilt” (NIV similar); NLT “must bear the consequences of their guilt”; CEV “will be punished.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “his.” This is a collective singular, as recognized by almost all English versions.