9:21 ‘Death has climbed in 1 through our windows.
It has entered into our fortified houses.
It has taken away our children who play in the streets.
It has taken away our young men who gather in the city squares.’
50:27 Kill all her soldiers! 2
Let them be slaughtered! 3
They are doomed, 4 for their day of reckoning 5 has come,
the time for them to be punished.”
50:30 So her young men will fall in her city squares.
All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,”
says the Lord. 6
32:25 The sword will make people childless outside,
and terror will do so inside;
they will destroy 7 both the young man and the virgin,
the infant and the gray-haired man.
137:9 How blessed will be the one who grabs your babies
and smashes them on a rock! 8
13:10 Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations
no longer give out their light; 9
the sun is darkened as soon as it rises,
and the moon does not shine. 10
13:11 11 I will punish the world for its evil, 12
and wicked people for their sin.
I will put an end to the pride of the insolent,
I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants. 13
13:12 I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold,
and people more scarce 14 than gold from Ophir.
13:13 So I will shake the heavens, 15
and the earth will shake loose from its foundation, 16
because of the fury of the Lord who commands armies,
in the day he vents his raging anger. 17
13:14 Like a frightened gazelle 18
or a sheep with no shepherd,
each will turn toward home, 19
each will run to his homeland.
13:15 Everyone who is caught will be stabbed;
everyone who is seized 20 will die 21 by the sword.
13:16 Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes;
their houses will be looted
and their wives raped.
13:17 Look, I am stirring up the Medes to attack them; 22
they are not concerned about silver,
nor are they interested in gold. 23
13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; 24
they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, 25
they will not 26 look with pity on children.
1 sn Here Death is personified (treated as though it were a person). Some have seen as possible background to this lament an allusion to Mesopotamian mythology where the demon Lamastu climbs in through the windows of houses and over their walls to kill children and babies.
2 tn Heb “Kill all her young bulls.” Commentators are almost universally agreed that the reference to “young bulls” is figurative here for the princes and warriors (cf. BDB 831 s.v. פַּר 2.f, which compares Isa 34:7 and Ezek 39:18). This is virtually certain because of the reference to the time coming for them to be punished; this would scarcely fit literal bulls. For the verb rendered “kill” here see the translator’s note on v. 21.
3 tn Heb “Let them go down to the slaughter.”
4 tn Or “How terrible it will be for them”; Heb “Woe to them.” See the study note on 22:13 and compare the usage in 23:1; 48:1.
5 tn The words “of reckoning” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “Oracle of the
7 tn A verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text; for purposes of English style one suitable to the context is supplied.
8 sn For other references to the wholesale slaughter of babies in the context of ancient Near Eastern warfare, see 2 Kgs 8:12; Isa 13:16; Hos 13:16; Nah 3:10.
9 tn Heb “do not flash forth their light.”
10 tn Heb “does not shed forth its light.”
11 sn The Lord is definitely speaking (again?) at this point. See the note at v. 4.
12 tn Or “I will bring disaster on the world.” Hebrew רָעָה (ra’ah) could refer to the judgment (i.e., disaster, calamity) or to the evil that prompts it. The structure of the parallel line favors the latter interpretation.
13 tn Or perhaps, “the violent”; cf. NASB, NIV “the ruthless.”
14 tn The verb is supplied in the translation from the first line. The verb in the first line (“I will make scarce”) does double duty in the parallel structure of the verse.
15 tn Or “the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
16 tn Heb “from its place” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV).
17 tn Heb “and in the day of the raging of his anger.”
18 tn Or “like a gazelle being chased.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
19 tn Heb “his people” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “his nation” (cf. TEV “their own countries”).
20 tn Heb “carried off,” i.e., grabbed from the fleeing crowd. See HALOT 764 s.v. ספה.
21 tn Heb “will fall” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NLT “will be run through with a sword.”
22 tn Heb “against them”; NLT “against Babylon.”
23 sn They cannot be bought off, for they have a lust for bloodshed.
24 tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.
25 tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”
26 tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.
27 tn Grk “boasts against, exults over,” in victory.