Deuteronomy 28:64-68

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. 28:66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next. ¹  28:67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see. 28:68 Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Isaiah 51:23

51:23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors ² 

who said to you, ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’

You made your back like the ground,

and like the street for those who walked over you.”

Isaiah 65:12

65:12 I predestine you to die by the sword, ³ 

all of you will kneel down at the slaughtering block, ⁴ 

because I called to you, and you did not respond,

I spoke and you did not listen.

You did evil before me; ⁵ 

you chose to do what displeases me.”

¹ tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.

² tn That is, to make them drink it.

³ tn Heb “I assign you to the sword.” Some emend the Qal verb form מָנִיתִי (maniti, “I assign”) to the Piel מִנִּיתִי (minniti, “ I ordain”). The verb sounds like the name of the god Meni (מְנִי, mÿni, “Destiny, Fate”). The sound play draws attention to the irony of the statement. The sinners among God’s people worship the god Meni, apparently in an effort to ensure a bright destiny for themselves. But the Lord is the one who really determines their destiny and he has decreed their demise.

⁴ tn Or “at the slaughter”; NIV “for the slaughter”; NLT “before the executioner.”

⁵ tn Heb “that which is evil in my eyes.”