Jeremiah 7:33

7:33 Then the dead bodies of these people will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. ¹  There will not be any survivors to scare them away.

Jeremiah 8:2

8:2 They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon and the stars. ²  These are things they ³  adored and served, things to which they paid allegiance, ⁴  from which they sought guidance, and worshiped. The bones of these people ⁵  will never be regathered and reburied. They will be like manure used to fertilize the ground. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 16:4

16:4 They will die of deadly diseases. No one will mourn for them. They will not be buried. Their dead bodies will lie like manure spread on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation. Their corpses will be food for the birds and wild animals.

Jeremiah 25:33

25:33 Those who have been killed by the Lord at that time

will be scattered from one end of the earth to the other.

They will not be mourned over, gathered up, or buried. ⁷ 

Their dead bodies will lie scattered over the ground like manure.

Jeremiah 25:2

25:2 So the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the people who were living in Jerusalem. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 9:1

9:1 (8:23) ⁹  I wish that my head were a well full of water ¹⁰ 

and my eyes were a fountain full of tears!

If they were, I could cry day and night

for those of my dear people ¹¹  who have been killed.

Psalms 83:10

83:10 They were destroyed at Endor; ¹² 

their corpses were like manure ¹³  on the ground.

Isaiah 5:25

5:25 So the Lord is furious ¹⁴  with his people;

he lifts ¹⁵  his hand and strikes them.

The mountains shake,

and corpses lie like manure ¹⁶  in the middle of the streets.

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ¹⁷ 

Zephaniah 1:17

1:17 I will bring distress on the people ¹⁸ 

and they will stumble ¹⁹  like blind men,

for they have sinned against the Lord.

Their blood will be poured out like dirt;

their flesh ²⁰  will be scattered ²¹  like manure.

¹ tn Heb “Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.”

² tc MT, 4QJer^a and LXX read “the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven,” but 4QJer^c reads “the sun and all the stars.”

³ tn Heb “the sun, moon, and host of heaven which they…”

⁴ tn Heb “followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

⁵ tn Heb “they will not” but the referent is far enough removed that it might be ambiguous.

⁶ tn Heb “like dung/manure on the surface of the ground.”

⁷ sn The intent here is to emphasize the large quantity of those who are killed – there will be too many to insure proper mourning rites and proper burial.

⁸ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁹ sn Beginning with 9:1, the verse numbers through 9:26 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 9:1 ET = 8:23 HT, 9:2 ET = 9:1 HT, 9:3 ET = 9:2 HT, etc., through 9:26 ET = 9:25 HT. Beginning with 10:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

¹⁰ tn Heb “I wish that my head were water.”

¹¹ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

¹² sn Endor is not mentioned in the accounts of Gideon’s or Barak’s victories, but both battles took place in the general vicinity of the town. (See Y. Aharoni and M. Avi-Yonah, The Macmillan Bible Atlas, 46, 54.) Because Sisera and Jabin are mentioned in v. 9b, many understand them to be the subject of the verbs in v. 10, though they relate v. 10 to Gideon’s victory, which is referred to in v. 9a, 11. (See, for example, Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, 263.)

¹³ tn Heb “they were manure.” In addition to this passage, corpses are compared to manure in 2 Kgs 9:37; Jer 8:2; 9:21; 16:4; 25:33.

¹⁴ tn Heb “the anger of the Lord rages.”

¹⁵ tn Or “extends”; KJV, ASV “he hath stretched forth.”

¹⁶ tn Or “garbage” (NCV, CEV, NLT); NAB, NASB, NIV “refuse.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”

¹⁸ tn “The people” refers to mankind in general (see vv. 2-3) or more specifically to the residents of Judah (see vv. 4-13).

¹⁹ tn Heb “walk.”

²⁰ tn Some take the referent of “flesh” to be more specific here; cf. NEB (“bowels”), NAB (“brains”), NIV (“entrails”).

²¹ tn The words “will be scattered” are supplied in the translation for clarity based on the parallelism with “will be poured out” in the previous line.