Leviticus 26:6

26:6 I will grant peace in the land so that ¹  you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you. ²  I will remove harmful animals ³  from the land, and no sword of war ⁴  will pass through your land.

Deuteronomy 32:24

32:24 They will be starved by famine,

eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; ⁵ 

I will send the teeth of wild animals against them,

along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust.

Deuteronomy 32:2

32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,

my sayings will drip like the dew, ⁶ 

as rain drops upon the grass,

and showers upon new growth.

Deuteronomy 17:1

17:1 You must not sacrifice to him ⁷  a bull or sheep that has a blemish or any other defect, because that is considered offensive ⁸  to the Lord your God.

Jeremiah 15:3

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. ⁹ 

Ezekiel 5:17

5:17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. ¹⁰  Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, ¹¹  and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Ezekiel 14:15

14:15 “Suppose I were to send wild animals through the land and kill its children, leaving it desolate, without travelers due to the wild animals.

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 ¹²  to kill both people and animals!

¹ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

² tn Heb “and there will be no one who terrifies.” The words “to sleep” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “harmful animal,” singular, but taken here as a collective plural (so almost all English versions).

⁴ tn Heb “no sword”; the words “of war” are supplied in the translation to indicate what the metaphor of the sword represents.

⁵ tn The Hebrew term קֶטֶב (qetev) is probably metaphorical here for the sting of a disease (HALOT 1091-92 s.v.).

⁶ tn Or “mist,” “light drizzle.” In some contexts the term appears to refer to light rain, rather than dew.

⁷ tn Heb “to the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

⁸ tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “an abomination”; cf. NAB) describes persons, things, or practices offensive to ritual or moral order. See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:314-18; see also the note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.

⁹ 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.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “will bereave you.”

¹¹ tn Heb “will pass through you.” This threat recalls the warning of Lev 26:22, 25 and Deut 32:24-25.

¹² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.