Lamentations 4:10

י (Yod)

4:10 The hands of tenderhearted women ¹ 

cooked their own children,

who became their food, ² 

when my people ³  were destroyed. ⁴ 

Leviticus 26:29

26:29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 28:53-57

28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ⁶  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ⁷  by which your enemies will constrict you. 28:54 The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. 28:55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ⁸  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁹  tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, ¹⁰  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ¹¹  and her newborn children ¹²  (since she has nothing else), ¹³  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

Deuteronomy 28:2

28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance ¹⁴  if you obey the Lord your God:

Deuteronomy 6:1

Exhortation to Keep the Covenant Principles

6:1 Now these are the commandments, ¹⁵  statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed ¹⁶ 

Deuteronomy 6:1

Exhortation to Keep the Covenant Principles

6:1 Now these are the commandments, ¹⁷  statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 19:9

19:9 I will reduce the people of this city to desperate straits during the siege imposed on it by their enemies who are seeking to kill them. I will make them so desperate that they will eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and the flesh of one another.”’” ¹⁹ 

Ezekiel 5:10

5:10 Therefore fathers will eat their sons within you, Jerusalem, ²⁰  and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you, and I will scatter any survivors ²¹  to the winds. ²² 

¹ tn Heb “the hands of compassionate women.”

² tn Heb “eating.” The infinitive construct (from I בָּרָה, barah) is translated as a noun. Three passages employ the verb (2 Sam 3:35; 12:17; 13:5,6,10) for eating when ill or in mourning.

³ tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”

⁴ tn Heb “in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵ tn Heb “and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.” The phrase “you will eat” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁶ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

⁷ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

⁸ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

⁹ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

¹⁰ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

¹¹ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

¹² tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

¹³ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “commandment.” The word מִצְוָה (mitsvah) again is in the singular, serving as a comprehensive term for the whole stipulation section of the book. See note on the word “commandments” in 5:31.

¹⁶ tn Heb “where you are going over to possess it” (so NASB); NRSV “that you are about to cross into and occupy.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “commandment.” The word מִצְוָה (mitsvah) again is in the singular, serving as a comprehensive term for the whole stipulation section of the book. See note on the word “commandments” in 5:31.

¹⁸ tn Heb “where you are going over to possess it” (so NASB); NRSV “that you are about to cross into and occupy.”

¹⁹ tn This verse has been restructured to try to bring out the proper thought and subordinations reflected in the verse without making the sentence too long and complex in English: Heb “I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. And they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and in the straits which their enemies who are seeking their lives reduce them to.” This also shows the agency through which God’s causation was effected, i.e., the siege.

²⁰ tn In context “you” refers to the city of Jerusalem. To make this clear for the modern reader, “Jerusalem” has been supplied in the translation in apposition to “you.”

²¹ tn Heb “all of your survivors.”

²² tn Heb “to every wind.”