Deuteronomy 28:48

28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty ¹  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ²  will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you.

Deuteronomy 28:53-58

28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ³  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ⁴  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 ⁵  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁶  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, ⁷  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁸  and her newborn children ⁹  (since she has nothing else), ¹⁰  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

The Curse of Covenant Termination

28:58 “If you refuse to obey ¹¹  all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,

Deuteronomy 28:2

28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance ¹²  if you obey the Lord your God:

Deuteronomy 6:25

6:25 We will be innocent if we carefully keep all these commandments ¹³  before the Lord our God, just as he demands.” ¹⁴ 

Lamentations 4:4-5

ד (Dalet)

4:4 The infant’s tongue sticks

to the roof of its mouth due to thirst;

little children beg for bread, ¹⁵ 

but no one gives them even a morsel. ¹⁶ 

ה (He)

4:5 Those who once feasted on delicacies ¹⁷ 

are now starving to death ¹⁸  in the streets.

Those who grew up ¹⁹  wearing expensive clothes ²⁰ 

are now dying ²¹  amid garbage. ²² 

Lamentations 4:9-10

ט (Tet)

4:9 Those who died by the sword ²³  are better off

than those who die of hunger, ²⁴ 

those who ²⁵  waste away, ²⁶ 

struck down ²⁷  from lack of ²⁸  food. ²⁹ 

י (Yod)

4:10 The hands of tenderhearted women ³⁰ 

cooked their own children,

who became their food, ³¹ 

when my people ³²  were destroyed. ³³ 

Lamentations 5:9

5:9 At the risk ³⁴  of our lives ³⁵  we get our food ³⁶ 

because robbers lurk ³⁷  in the countryside. ³⁸ 

Matthew 24:7-8

24:7 For nation will rise up in arms ³⁹  against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines ⁴⁰  and earthquakes ⁴¹  in various places. 24:8 All ⁴²  these things are the beginning of birth pains.

[28:48]  ¹ tn Heb “lack of everything.”

[28:48]  ² tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV).

[28:53]  ³ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ⁴ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ⁵ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ⁷ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ⁸ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ⁹ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ¹¹ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

[28:58]  ¹¹ tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”

[28:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

[6:25]  ¹⁵ tn The term “commandment” (מִצְוָה, mitsvah), here in the singular, refers to the entire body of covenant stipulations.

[6:25]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “as he has commanded us” (so NIV, NRSV).

[4:4]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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).

[4:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “eaters of delicacies.” An alternate English gloss would be “connoisseurs of fine foods.”

[4:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “are desolate.”

[4:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “were reared.”

[4:5]  ²² tn Heb “in purple.” The term תוֹלָע (tola’, “purple”) is a figurative description of expensive clothing: it is a metonymy of association: the color of the dyed clothes (= purple) stands for the clothes themselves.

[4:5]  ²³ tn Heb “embrace garbage.” One may also translate “rummage through” (cf. NCV “pick through trash piles”; TEV “pawing through refuse”; NLT “search the garbage pits.”

[4:5]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew word אַשְׁפַּתּוֹת (’ashpatot) can also mean “ash heaps.” Though not used as a combination elsewhere, to “embrace ash heaps” might also envision a state of mourning or even dead bodies lying on the ash heaps.

[4:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “those pierced of the sword.” The genitive-construct denotes instrumentality: “those pierced by the sword” (חַלְלֵי־חֶרֶב, khalle-kherev). The noun חָלָל (khalal) refers to a “fatal wound” and is used substantivally to refer to “the slain” (Num 19:18; 31:8, 19; 1 Sam 17:52; 2 Sam 23:8, 18; 1 Chr 11:11, 20; Isa 22:2; 66:16; Jer 14:18; 25:33; 51:49; Lam 4:9; Ezek 6:7; 30:11; 31:17, 18; 32:20; Zeph 2:12).

[4:9]  ²² tn Heb “those slain of hunger.” The genitive-construct denotes instrumentality: “those slain by hunger,” that is, those who are dying of hunger.

[4:9]  ²³ tn Heb “who…” The antecedent of the relative pronoun שֶׁהֵם (shehem, “who”) are those dying of hunger in the previous line: מֵחַלְלֵי רָעָב (mekhalle ra’av, “those slain of hunger”).

[4:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they flow away.” The verb זוּב (zuv, “to flow, gush”) is used figuratively here, meaning “to pine away” or “to waste away” from hunger. See also the next note.

[4:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “pierced through and through.” The term מְדֻקָּרִים (mÿduqqarim), Pual participle masculine plural from דָּקַר (daqar, “to pierce”), is used figuratively. The verb דָּקַר (daqar, “to pierce”) usually refers to a fatal wound inflicted by a sword or spear (Num 25:8; Judg 9:54; 1 Sam 31:4; 1 Chr 10:4; Isa 13:15; Jer 37:10; 51:4; Zech 12:10; 13:3). Here, it describes people dying from hunger. This is an example of hypocatastasis: an implied comparison between warriors being fatally pierced by sword and spear and the piercing pangs of hunger and starvation. Alternatively “those who hemorrhage (זוּב [zuv, “flow, gush”]) [are better off] than those pierced by lack of food” in parallel to the structure of the first line.

[4:9]  ²⁶ tn The preposition מִן (min, “from”) denotes deprivation: “from lack of” something (BDB 580 s.v. 2.f; HALOT 598 s.v. 6).

[4:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “produce of the field.”

[4:10]  ²³ tn Heb “the hands of compassionate women.”

[4:10]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”

[4:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

[5:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “at the cost of our lives.” The preposition ב (bet) here denotes purchase price paid (e.g., Gen 30:16; Exod 34:20; 2 Sam 3:14; 24:24) (BDB 90 s.v. בְּ 3.a). The expression בְּנַפְשֵׁנוּ (bÿnafshenu) means “at the risk of our lives.” Similar expressions include בְנַפְשׁוֹ (bÿnafsho, “at the cost of his life,” 1 Kgs 2:23; Prov 7:23) and בְּנַפְשׁוֹתָם (bÿnafshotam, “at peril of their lives,” 2 Sam 23:17).

[5:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “our soul.” The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) is used as a metonymy (= soul) of association (= life) (e.g., Gen 44:30; Exod 21:23; 2 Sam 14:7; Jon 1:14).

[5:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “bread.” The term “bread” is a synecdoche of specific (= bread) for the general (= food).

[5:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “because of the sword.” The term “sword” is a metonymy of instrument (= sword) for the persons who use the instrument (= murderers or marauders).

[5:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the wilderness.”

[24:7]  ²⁷ tn For the translation “rise up in arms” see L&N 55.2.

[24:7]  ²⁸ sn See Isa 5:13-14; 13:6-16; Hag 2:6-7; Zech 14:4.

[24:7]  ²⁹ tc Most witnesses (C Θ 0102 Ë^1,13 Ï) have “and plagues” (καὶ λοιμοί, kai loimoi) between “famines” (λιμοί, limoi) and “earthquakes” (σεισμοί, seismoi), while others have “plagues and famines and earthquakes” (L W 33 pc lat). The similarities between λιμοί and λοιμοί could explain how καὶ λοιμοί might have accidentally dropped out, but since the Lukan parallel has both terms (and W lat have the order λοιμοὶ καὶ λιμοί there too, as they do in Matthew), it seems more likely that scribes added the phrase here. The shorter reading does not enjoy overwhelming support ([א] B D 892 pc, as well as versional witnesses), but it is nevertheless significant; coupled with the internal evidence it should be given preference.

[24:8]  ²⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.