Deuteronomy 28:16-18

28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 28:18 Your children ¹  will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.

Deuteronomy 28:53-57

28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ²  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ³  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 ⁴  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁵  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, ⁶  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁷  and her newborn children ⁸  (since she has nothing else), ⁹  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

Psalms 69:22

69:22 May their dining table become a trap before them!

May it be a snare for that group of friends! ¹⁰ 

Psalms 109:7-15

109:7 When he is judged, he will be found ¹¹  guilty! ¹² 

Then his prayer will be regarded as sinful.

109:8 May his days be few! ¹³ 

May another take his job! ¹⁴ 

109:9 May his children ¹⁵  be fatherless,

and his wife a widow!

109:10 May his children ¹⁶  roam around begging,

asking for handouts as they leave their ruined home! ¹⁷ 

109:11 May the creditor seize ¹⁸  all he owns!

May strangers loot his property! ¹⁹ 

109:12 May no one show him kindness! ²⁰ 

May no one have compassion ²¹  on his fatherless children!

109:13 May his descendants ²²  be cut off! ²³ 

May the memory of them be wiped out by the time the next generation arrives! ²⁴ 

109:14 May his ancestors’ ²⁵  sins be remembered by the Lord!

May his mother’s sin not be forgotten! ²⁶ 

109:15 May the Lord be constantly aware of them, ²⁷ 

and cut off the memory of his children ²⁸  from the earth!

Hosea 4:7-10

4:7 The more the priests increased in numbers,

the more they rebelled against me.

They have turned ²⁹  their glorious calling

into a shameful disgrace!

4:8 They feed on the sin offerings of my people;

their appetites long for their iniquity!

4:9 I will deal with the people and priests together: ³⁰ 

I will punish them both for their ways,

and I will repay them for their deeds.

4:10 They will eat, but not be satisfied;

they will engage in prostitution, but not increase in numbers;

because they have abandoned the Lord

by pursuing other gods. ³¹ 

Hosea 9:11-14

The Fertility Worshipers Will Become Infertile

9:11 Ephraim will be like a bird;

what they value ³²  will fly away.

They will not bear children –

they will not enjoy pregnancy –

they will not even conceive! ³³ 

9:12 Even if they raise their children,

I will take away every last one of them. ³⁴ 

Woe to them!

For I will turn away from them.

9:13 Just as lion cubs are born predators, ³⁵ 

so Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter.

9:14 Give them, O Lord –

what will you give them?

Give them wombs that miscarry,

and breasts that cannot nurse! ³⁶ 

Haggai 1:6

1:6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but are never filled. You drink, but are still thirsty. You put on clothes, but are not warm. Those who earn wages end up with holes in their money bags.’” ³⁷ 

Haggai 1:9

1:9 ‘You expected a large harvest, but instead ³⁸  there was little, and when you brought it home it disappeared right away. ³⁹  Why?’ asks the Lord who rules over all. ‘Because my temple remains in ruins, thanks to each of you favoring his own house! ⁴⁰ 

Haggai 2:16-17

2:16 From that time ⁴¹  when one came expecting a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty measures from it, there were only twenty. 2:17 I struck all the products of your labor ⁴²  with blight, disease, and hail, and yet you brought nothing to me,’ ⁴³  says the Lord.

Luke 23:28-30

23:28 But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, ⁴⁴  do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves ⁴⁵  and for your children. 23:29 For this is certain: ⁴⁶  The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’ ⁴⁷  23:30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ⁴⁸  ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ ⁴⁹ 

[28:18]  ¹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:53]  ² tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ³ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ⁴ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ⁵ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ⁶ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ⁷ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ⁸ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ⁹ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

[69:22]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “and to the friends for a snare.” The plural of שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”) is used in Ps 55:20 of one’s “friends.” If the reading of the MT is retained here, the term depicts the psalmist’s enemies as a close-knit group of friends who are bound together by their hatred for the psalmist. Some prefer to revocalize the text as וּלְשִׁלּוּמִים (ulÿshillumim, “and for retribution”). In this case the noun stands parallel to פַּח (pakh, “trap”) and מוֹקֵשׁ (moqesh, “snare”), and one might translate, “may their dining table become a trap before them, [a means of] retribution and a snare” (cf. NIV).

[109:7]  ¹¹ tn The prefixed verbal form could be taken as a jussive, but the use of the imperfect form in the following line suggests that v. 7 anticipates the outcome of the accusation envisioned in v. 6.

[109:7]  ¹² tn Heb “he will go out [as] a criminal” (that is, guilty).

[109:8]  ¹³ tn The prefixed verbal forms (except those with vav [ו] consecutive) in vv. 8-20 are taken as jussives of prayer. Note the distinct jussive forms used in vv. 12-13, 15, 19.

[109:8]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew noun פְּקֻדָּה (pÿquddah) can mean “charge” or “office,” though BDB 824 s.v. suggests that here it refers to his possessions.

[109:9]  ¹⁵ tn Or “sons.”

[109:10]  ¹⁶ tn Or “sons.”

[109:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and roaming, may his children roam and beg, and seek from their ruins.” Some, following the LXX, emend the term וְדָרְשׁוּ (vÿdoreshu, “and seek”) to יְגֹרְשׁוּ (yÿgoreshu; a Pual jussive, “may they be driven away” [see Job 30:5; cf. NIV, NRSV]), but דָּרַשׁ (darash) nicely parallels שִׁאֵלוּ (shi’elu, “and beg”) in the preceding line.

[109:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “lay snares for” (see Ps 38:12).

[109:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the product of his labor.”

[109:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “may there not be for him one who extends loyal love.”

[109:12]  ²¹ tn Perhaps this refers to being generous (see Ps 37:21).

[109:13]  ²² tn Or “offspring.”

[109:13]  ²³ sn On the expression cut off see Ps 37:28.

[109:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in another generation may their name be wiped out.”

[109:14]  ²⁵ tn Or “fathers’ sins.”

[109:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “not be wiped out.”

[109:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “may they [that is, the sins mentioned in v. 14] be before the Lord continually.”

[109:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “their memory.” The plural pronominal suffix probably refers back to the children mentioned in v. 13, and for clarity this has been specified in the translation.

[4:7]  ²⁹ tc The MT reads אָמִיר (’amir, “I will change, exchange”; Hiphil imperfect 1st person common singular from מוּר, mur, “to change, exchange”). However, an alternate scribal tradition (tiqquneh sopherim, that is, an intentional scribal change when the Masoretes believed that the received consonantal reading was corrupt) preserves the reading הֵמִירוּ (hemiru, “they have exchanged”; Hiphil perfect 3rd person common plural from מוּר). This alternate scribal tradition is also found in the Targum and reflected in the Syriac Peshitta. Several translations follow the MT: KJV, RSV, NASB “I will change their glory into shame” and TEV “I will turn your honor into disgrace”; however, others adopt the alternate tradition: NRSV “they changed their glory into shame” and NIV “they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful.” For discussion in favor of the MT reading, see D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:232.

[4:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “And it shall be, like people, like priest” (so ASV); NAB “The priests shall fare no better than the people.”

[4:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “by guarding harlotry.” The present translation assumes that the first word of v. 11 in the Hebrew text is to be taken with the infinitive at the end of v. 10 (so also NAB, NIV, NCV, NRSV).

[9:11]  ³² tn Heb “their glory” (so NASB); TEV “Israel’s greateness.”

[9:11]  ³³ tn Heb “no childbearing, no pregnancy, no conception.” The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to the three parallel nouns functions in a privative sense, indicating deprivation (BDB 583 s.v. מִן 7).

[9:12]  ³⁴ tn Heb “I will bereave them from a man”; NRSV “I will bereave them until no one is left.”

[9:13]  ³⁵ tc The MT is corrupt in 9:13. The BHS editors suggest emending the text to follow the LXX reading. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:250-51.

[9:14]  ³⁶ tn Heb “breasts that shrivel up dry”; cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV “dry breasts.”

[1:6]  ³⁷ tn Some translate “pockets” (so NLT) but the Hebrew word צְרוֹר (tsÿror) refers to a bag, pouch, or purse of money (BDB 865 s.v. צְרוֹר; HALOT 1054 s.v. צְרוֹר 1). Because coinage had been invented by the Persians and was thus in use in Haggai’s day, this likely is a money bag or purse rather than pouches or pockets in the clothing. Since in contemporary English “purse” (so NASB, NIV, NCV) could be understood as a handbag, the present translation uses “money bags.”

[1:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “look!” (הִנֵּה, hinneh). The term, an interjection, draws attention to the point being made.

[1:9]  ³⁹ tn Heb “I blew it away” (so NRSV, TEV, NLT). The imagery here suggests that human achievements are so fragile and temporal that a mere breath from God can destroy them (see Ezek 22:20, 21; and Isa 40:7 with נָשַׁב, nashav).

[1:9]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and each of you runs to his own house”; NIV “is busy with”; TEV “is busy working on”; NCV “work hard for.”

[2:16]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “from their being,” idiomatic for “from the time they were then,” or “since the time.” Cf. KJV “Since those days were.”

[2:17]  ⁴² tn Heb “you, all the work of your hands”; NRSV “you and all the products of your toil”; NIV “all the work of your hands.”

[2:17]  ⁴³ tn Heb “and there was not with you.” The context favors the idea that the harvests were so poor that the people took care of only themselves, leaving no offering for the Lord. Cf. KJV and many English versions “yet ye turned not to me,” understanding the phrase to refer to the people’s repentance rather than their failure to bring offerings.

[23:28]  ⁴⁴ sn The title Daughters of Jerusalem portrays these women mourning as representatives of the nation.

[23:28]  ⁴⁵ sn Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves. Judgment now comes on the nation (see Luke 19:41-44) for this judgment of Jesus. Ironically, they mourn the wrong person – they should be mourning for themselves.

[23:29]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “For behold.”

[23:29]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not nursed!”

[23:30]  ⁴⁸ sn The figure of crying out to the mountains ‘Fall on us!’ (appealing to creation itself to hide them from God’s wrath), means that a time will come when people will feel they are better off dead (Hos 10:8).

[23:30]  ⁴⁹ sn An allusion to Hos 10:8 (cf. Rev 6:16).