Deuteronomy 28:53-56

28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ¹  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ²  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 ³  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁴  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, ⁵  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters,

Deuteronomy 28:2

28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance ⁶  if you obey the Lord your God:

Deuteronomy 4:4

4:4 But you who remained faithful to the Lord your God are still alive to this very day, every one of you.

Deuteronomy 4:2

4:2 Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to ⁷  you.

Deuteronomy 15:16

15:16 However, if the servant ⁸  says to you, “I do not want to leave ⁹  you,” because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you,

Lamentations 4:3-4

ג (Gimel)

4:3 Even the jackals ¹⁰  nurse their young

at their breast, ¹¹ 

but my people ¹²  are cruel,

like ostriches ¹³  in the desert.

ד (Dalet)

4:4 The infant’s tongue sticks

to the roof of its mouth due to thirst;

little children beg for bread, ¹⁴ 

but no one gives them even a morsel. ¹⁵ 

Lamentations 4:10

י (Yod)

4:10 The hands of tenderhearted women ¹⁶ 

cooked their own children,

who became their food, ¹⁷ 

when my people ¹⁸  were destroyed. ¹⁹ 

Hosea 13:16

13:16 (14:1) ²⁰  Samaria will be held guilty, ²¹ 

because she rebelled against her God.

They will fall by the sword,

their infants will be dashed to the ground –

their ²²  pregnant women will be ripped open.

Mark 13:17-18

13:17 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days! 13:18 Pray that it may not be in winter.

Luke 21:23

21:23 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days! For there will be great distress ²³  on the earth and wrath against this people.

Luke 23:29-30

23:29 For this is certain: ²⁴  The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’ ²⁵  23:30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ²⁶  ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ ²⁷ 

[28:53]  ¹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ² tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ³ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ⁴ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ⁵ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

[4:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “commanding.”

[15:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the indentured servant introduced in v. 12) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “go out from.” The imperfect verbal form indicates the desire of the subject here.

[4:3]  ¹⁰ tn The noun תַּנִּין (tannin) means “jackals.” The plural ending ־ִין (-in) is diminutive (GKC 242 §87.e) (e.g., Lam 1:4).

[4:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “draw out the breast and suckle their young.”

[4:3]  ¹² tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”

[4:3]  ¹³ tc The MT Kethib form כִּי עֵנִים (ki ’enim) is by all accounts a textual corruption for כַּיְעֵנִים (kay’enim, “like ostriches”) which is preserved in the Qere and the medieval Hebrew mss, and reflected in the LXX.

[4:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “bread.” The term “bread” might function as a synecdoche of specific (= bread) for general (= food); however, the following parallel line does indeed focus on the act of breaking bread in two.

[4:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “there is not a divider to them.” The term פָּרַשׂ (paras), Qal active participle ms from פָּרַס (paras, “to divide”) refers to the action of breaking bread in two before giving it to a person to eat (Isa 58:7; Jer 16:7; Lam 4:4). The form פָּרַשׂ (paras) is the alternate spelling of the more common פָּרַס (paras).

[4:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the hands of compassionate women.”

[4:10]  ¹⁷ 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.

[4:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”

[4:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

[13:16]  ²⁰ sn Beginning with 13:16, the verse numbers through 14:9 in the English Bible differ by one from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 13:16 ET = 14:1 HT, 14:1 ET = 14:2 HT, etc., through 14:9 ET = 14:10 HT. Thus ch. 14 in the Hebrew Bible has 10 verses.

[13:16]  ²¹ tn Or “must bear its guilt” (NIV similar); NLT “must bear the consequences of their guilt”; CEV “will be punished.”

[13:16]  ²² tn Heb “his.” This is a collective singular, as recognized by almost all English versions.

[21:23]  ²³ sn Great distress means that this is a period of great judgment.

[23:29]  ²⁴ tn Grk “For behold.”

[23:29]  ²⁵ tn Grk “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not nursed!”

[23:30]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ sn An allusion to Hos 10:8 (cf. Rev 6:16).