Jeremiah 9:16

9:16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors ¹  have known anything about. I will send people chasing after them with swords ²  until I have destroyed them.’” ³ 

Jeremiah 15:2-3

15:2 If they ask you, ‘Where should we go?’ tell them the Lord says this:

“Those who are destined to die of disease will go to death by disease.

Those who are destined to die in war will go to death in war.

Those who are destined to die of starvation will go to death by starvation.

Those who are destined to go into exile will go into exile.” ⁴ 

15:3 “I will punish them in four different ways: I will have war kill them. I will have dogs drag off their dead bodies. I will have birds and wild beasts devour and destroy their corpses. ⁵ 

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 21:7-9

21:7 Then ⁶  I, the Lord, promise that ⁷  I will hand over King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and any of the people who survive the war, starvation, and disease. I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will slaughter them with the sword. He will not show them any mercy, compassion, or pity.’

21:8 “But ⁸  tell the people of Jerusalem ⁹  that the Lord says, ‘I will give you a choice between two courses of action. One will result in life; the other will result in death. ¹⁰  21:9 Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians who are besieging it will live. They will escape with their lives. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 24:10

24:10 I will bring war, starvation, and disease ¹²  on them until they are completely destroyed from the land I gave them and their ancestors.’” ¹³ 

Jeremiah 29:17-18

29:17 The Lord who rules over all ¹⁴  says, ‘I will bring war, ¹⁵  starvation, and disease on them. I will treat them like figs that are so rotten ¹⁶  they cannot be eaten. 29:18 I will chase after them with war, ¹⁷  starvation, and disease. I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to them. I will make them examples of those who are cursed, objects of horror, hissing scorn, and ridicule among all the nations where I exile them.

Ezekiel 5:12-17

5:12 A third of your people will die of plague or be overcome by the famine within you. ¹⁸  A third of your people will fall by the sword surrounding you, ¹⁹  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. ²⁰  Then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy ²¹  when I have fully vented my rage against them.

5:14 “I will make you desolate and an object of scorn among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. 5:15 You will be ²²  an object of scorn and taunting, ²³  a prime example of destruction ²⁴  among the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger and raging fury. ²⁵  I, the Lord, have spoken! 5:16 I will shoot against them deadly, ²⁶  destructive ²⁷  arrows of famine, ²⁸  which I will shoot to destroy you. ²⁹  I will prolong a famine on you and will remove the bread supply. ³⁰  5:17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. ³¹  Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, ³²  and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Ezekiel 14:21

14:21 “For this is what the sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send my four terrible judgments – sword, famine, wild animals, and plague – to Jerusalem ³³  to kill both people and animals!

¹ tn Heb “fathers.”

² tn Heb “I will send the sword after them.” The sword here is probably not completely literal but refers to death by violent means, including death by the sword.

³ sn He will destroy them but not completely. See Jer 5:18; 30:11; 46:28.

⁴ tn It is difficult to render the rhetorical force of this passage in meaningful English. The text answers the question “Where should we go?” with four brief staccato-like expressions with a play on the preposition “to”: Heb “Who to the death, to the death and who to the sword, to the sword and who to the starvation, to the starvation and who to the captivity, to the captivity.” The word “death” here is commonly understood to be a poetic substitute for “plague” because of the standard trio of sword, famine, and plague (see, e.g., 14:12 and the notes there). This is likely here and in 18:21. For further support see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:440. The nuance “starvation” rather than “famine” has been chosen in the translation because the referents here are all things that accompany war.

⁵ tn The translation attempts to render in understandable English some rather unusual uses of terms here. The verb translated “punish” is often used that way (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.A.3 and compare usage in Jer 11:22, 13:21). However, here it is accompanied by a direct object and a preposition meaning “over” which is usually used in the sense of appointing someone over someone (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.B.1 and compare usage in Jer 51:27). Moreover the word translated “different ways” normally refers to “families,” “clans,” or “guilds” (cf. BDB 1046-47 s.v. מִשְׁפָּחָה for usage). Hence the four things mentioned are referred to figuratively as officers or agents into whose power the Lord consigns them. The Hebrew text reads: “I will appoint over them four guilds, the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the birds of the skies and the beasts of the earth to devour and to destroy.”

⁶ tn Heb “And afterward.”

⁷ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

⁸ tn Heb “And/But unto this people you shall say…” “But” is suggested here by the unusual word order which offsets what they are to say to Zedekiah (v. 3).

⁹ tn Heb “these people.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “Behold I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.”

¹¹ tn Heb “his life will be to him for spoil.”

¹² sn See Jer 14:12 and the study note there.

¹³ tn Heb “fathers.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of this title.

¹⁵ tn Heb “the sword.”

¹⁶ tn The meaning of this word is somewhat uncertain. It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. BDB 1045 s.v. שֹׁעָר relates it to the noun “horrible thing” (translated “something shocking”) in Jer 5:30; 23:14 and defines it as “horrid, disgusting.” HALOT 1495 s.v. שֹׁעָר relates it to the same noun and define it as “rotten; corrupt.” That nuance is accepted here.

¹⁷ tn Heb “with the sword.”

¹⁸ 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.

¹⁹ sn Judgment by plague, famine, and sword occurs in Jer 21:9; 27:13; Ezek 6:11, 12; 7:15.

²⁰ tn Or “calm myself.”

²¹ 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.

²² tc This reading is supported by the versions and by the Dead Sea Scrolls (11QEzek). Most Masoretic Hebrew mss read “it will be,” but if the final he (ה) is read as a mater lectionis, as it can be with the second masculine singular perfect, then they are in agreement. In either case the subject refers to Jerusalem.

²³ tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT. A related verb means “revile, taunt” (see Ps 44:16).

²⁴ tn Heb “discipline and devastation.” These words are omitted in the Old Greek. The first term pictures Jerusalem as a recipient or example of divine discipline; the second depicts her as a desolate ruin (see Ezek 6:14).

²⁵ tn Heb “in anger and in fury and in rebukes of fury.” The heaping up of synonyms emphasizes the degree of God’s anger.

²⁶ tn The Hebrew word carries the basic idea of “bad, displeasing, injurious,” but when used of weapons has the nuance “deadly” (see Ps 144:10).

²⁷ tn Heb “which are/were to destroy.”

²⁸ tn The language of this verse may have been influenced by Deut 32:23.

²⁹ tn Or “which were to destroy those whom I will send to destroy you” (cf. NASB).

³⁰ tn Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support. See 4:16, as well as the covenant curse in Lev 26:26.

³¹ tn Heb “will bereave you.”

³² tn Heb “will pass through you.” This threat recalls the warning of Lev 26:22, 25 and Deut 32:24-25.

³³ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.