Jeremiah 32:24

32:24 Even now siege ramps have been built up around the city ¹  in order to capture it. War, ²  starvation, and disease are sure to make the city fall into the hands of the Babylonians ³  who are attacking it. ⁴  Lord, ⁵  you threatened that this would happen. Now you can see that it is already taking place. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 34:17

34:17 So I, the Lord, say: “You have not really obeyed me and granted freedom to your neighbor and fellow countryman. ⁷  Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom ⁸  to die in war, or by starvation or disease. I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁹  I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to you. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 42:22

42:22 So now be very sure of this: You will die from war, starvation, or disease in the place where you want to go and live.”

Ezekiel 5:12-13

5:12 A third of your people will die of plague or be overcome by the famine within you. ¹¹  A third of your people will fall by the sword surrounding you, ¹²  and a third I will scatter to the winds. I will unleash a sword behind them. 5:13 Then my anger will be fully vented; I will exhaust my rage on them, and I will be appeased. ¹³  Then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy ¹⁴  when I have fully vented my rage against them.

Ezekiel 7:15

7:15 The sword is outside; pestilence and famine are inside the house. Whoever is in the open field will die by the sword, and famine and pestilence will consume everyone in the city.

Ezekiel 12:16

12:16 But I will let a small number of them survive the sword, famine, and pestilence, so that they can confess all their abominable practices to the nations where they go. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

¹ tn Heb “Siege ramps have come up to the city to capture it.”

² tn Heb “sword.”

³ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

⁴ tn Heb “And the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it because of the sword, starvation, and disease.” The verb “has been given” is one of those perfects that view the action as good as done (the perfect of certainty or prophetic perfect).

⁵ tn The word “Lord” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation as a reminder that it is he who is being addressed.

⁶ tn Heb “And what you said has happened and behold you see it.”

⁷ tn The Hebrew text has a compound object, the two terms of which have been synonyms in vv. 14, 15. G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 189) make the interesting observation that these two terms (Heb “brother” and “neighbor”) emphasize the relationships that should have taken precedence over their being viewed as mere slaves.

⁸ sn This is, of course, a metaphorical and ironical use of the term “to grant freedom to.” It is, however, a typical statement of the concept of talionic justice which is quite often operative in God’s judgments in the OT (cf., e.g., Obad 15).

⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

¹⁰ sn Compare Jer 15:4; 24:9; 29:18.

¹¹ sn The judgment of plague and famine comes from the covenant curse (Lev 26:25-26). As in v. 10, the city of Jerusalem is figuratively addressed here.

¹² sn Judgment by plague, famine, and sword occurs in Jer 21:9; 27:13; Ezek 6:11, 12; 7:15.

¹³ tn Or “calm myself.”

¹⁴ tn The Hebrew noun translated “jealousy” is used in the human realm to describe suspicion of adultery (Num 5:14ff.; Prov 6:34). Since Israel’s relationship with God was often compared to a marriage this term is appropriate here. The term occurs elsewhere in Ezekiel in 8:3, 5; 16:38, 42; 23:25.