Deuteronomy 28:51-57

28:51 They ¹  will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, ²  or lambs of your flocks ³  until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ⁴  until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. 28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ⁵  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ⁶  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 ⁷  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁸  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, ⁹  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ¹⁰  and her newborn children ¹¹  (since she has nothing else), ¹²  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 ¹³  if you obey the Lord your God:

Deuteronomy 25:1-3

25:1 If controversy arises between people, ¹⁴  they should go to court for judgment. When the judges ¹⁵  hear the case, they shall exonerate ¹⁶  the innocent but condemn ¹⁷  the guilty. 25:2 Then, ¹⁸  if the guilty person is sentenced to a beating, ¹⁹  the judge shall force him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of blows his wicked behavior deserves. ²⁰  25:3 The judge ²¹  may sentence him to forty blows, ²²  but no more. If he is struck with more than these, you might view your fellow Israelite ²³  with contempt.

Ezekiel 21:21-22

21:21 For the king of Babylon stands at the fork ²⁴  in the road at the head of the two routes. He looks for omens: ²⁵  He shakes arrows, he consults idols, ²⁶  he examines ²⁷  animal livers. ²⁸  21:22 Into his right hand ²⁹  comes the portent for Jerusalem – to set up battering rams, to give the signal ³⁰  for slaughter, to shout out the battle cry, ³¹  to set up battering rams against the gates, to erect a siege ramp, to build a siege wall.

Ezekiel 24:2

24:2 “Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege ³²  to Jerusalem ³³  this very day.

Luke 19:43-44

19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build ³⁴  an embankment ³⁵  against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. 19:44 They will demolish you ³⁶  – you and your children within your walls ³⁷  – and they will not leave within you one stone ³⁸  on top of another, ³⁹  because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” ⁴⁰ 

[28:51]  ¹ tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).

[28:51]  ² tn Heb “increase of herds.”

[28:51]  ³ tn Heb “growth of flocks.”

[28:52]  ⁴ tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

[28:53]  ⁵ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ⁶ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ⁷ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ⁸ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ⁹ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ¹⁰ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ¹¹ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ¹² tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

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

[25:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “men.”

[25:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the judges) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “declare to be just”; KJV, NASB “justify the righteous”; NAB, NIV “acquitting the innocent.”

[25:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “declare to be evil”; NIV “condemning the guilty (+ party NAB).”

[25:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and it will be.”

[25:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “if the evil one is a son of smiting.”

[25:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “according to his wickedness, by number.”

[25:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the judge) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:3]  ²² tn Heb “Forty blows he may strike him”; however, since the judge is to witness the punishment (v. 2) it is unlikely the judge himself administered it.

[25:3]  ²³ tn Heb “your brothers” but not limited only to an actual sibling; cf. NAB) “your kinsman”; NRSV, NLT “your neighbor.”

[21:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “mother.”

[21:21]  ²⁵ sn Mesopotamian kings believed that the gods revealed the future through omens. They employed various divination techniques, some of which are included in the list that follows. A particularly popular technique was the examination and interpretation of the livers of animals. See R. R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 90-110.

[21:21]  ²⁶ tn This word refers to personal idols that were apparently used for divination purposes (Gen 31:19; 1 Sam 19:13, 16).

[21:21]  ²⁷ tn Heb “sees.”

[21:21]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the liver.”

[21:22]  ²⁹ tn Or “on the right side,” i.e., the omen mark on the right side of the liver.

[21:22]  ³⁰ tn Heb “to open the mouth” for slaughter.

[21:22]  ³¹ tn Heb “to raise up a voice in a battle cry.”

[24:2]  ³² tn Heb “lean on, put pressure on.”

[24:2]  ³³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[19:43]  ³⁴ sn Jesus now predicted the events that would be fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. The details of the siege have led some to see Luke writing this after Jerusalem’s fall, but the language of the verse is like God’s exilic judgment for covenant unfaithfulness (Hab 2:8; Jer 6:6, 14; 8:13-22; 9:1; Ezek 4:2; 26:8; Isa 29:1-4). Specific details are lacking and the procedures described (build an embankment against you) were standard Roman military tactics.

[19:43]  ³⁵ sn An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.

[19:44]  ³⁶ tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”

[19:44]  ³⁷ tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.

[19:44]  ³⁸ sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.

[19:44]  ³⁹ tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”

[19:44]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.