Deuteronomy 7:16

Exhortation to Destroy Canaanite Paganism

7:16 You must destroy ¹  all the people whom the Lord your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship ²  their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

Deuteronomy 19:13

19:13 You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent ³  from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

Deuteronomy 19:21

19:21 You must not show pity; the principle will be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot. ⁴ 

Isaiah 13:18

13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; ⁵ 

they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, ⁶ 

they will not ⁷  look with pity on children.

Ezekiel 7:4

7:4 My eye will not pity you; I will not spare ⁸  you. ⁹  For I will hold you responsible for your behavior, ¹⁰  and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. ¹¹  Then you will know that I am the Lord!

Ezekiel 7:9

7:9 My eye will not pity you; I will not spare ¹²  you. For your behavior I will hold you accountable, ¹³  and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. Then you will know that it is I, the Lord, who is striking you. ¹⁴ 

Ezekiel 9:5

9:5 While I listened, he said to the others, ¹⁵  “Go through the city after him and strike people down; do no let your eye pity nor spare ¹⁶  anyone!

Ezekiel 20:17

20:17 Yet I had pity on ¹⁷  them and did not destroy them, so I did not make an end of them in the wilderness.

[7:16]  ¹ tn Heb “devour” (so NRSV); KJV, NAB, NASB “consume.” The verbal form (a perfect with vav consecutive) is understood here as having an imperatival or obligatory nuance (cf. the instructions and commands that follow). Another option is to take the statement as a continuation of the preceding conditional promises and translate “and you will destroy.”

[7:16]  ² tn Or “serve” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[19:13]  ³ sn Purge out the blood of the innocent. Because of the corporate nature of Israel’s community life, the whole community shared in the guilt of unavenged murder unless and until vengeance occurred. Only this would restore spiritual and moral equilibrium (Num 35:33).

[19:21]  ⁴ sn This kind of justice is commonly called lex talionis or “measure for measure” (cf. Exod 21:23-25; Lev 24:19-20). It is likely that it is the principle that is important and not always a strict application. That is, the punishment should fit the crime and it may do so by the payment of fines or other suitable and equitable compensation (cf. Exod 22:21; Num 35:31). See T. S. Frymer-Kensky, “Tit for Tat: The Principle of Equal Retribution in Near Eastern and Biblical Law,” BA 43 (1980): 230-34.

[13:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.

[13:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”

[13:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.

[7:4]  ⁸ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[7:4]  ⁹ tn The pronoun “you” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[7:4]  ¹⁰ tn “I will set your behavior on your head.”

[7:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and your abominable practices will be among you.”

[7:9]  ¹² tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[7:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “According to your behavior I will place on you.”

[7:9]  ¹⁴ tn The MT lacks “you.” It has been added for clarification.

[9:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to these he said in my ears.”

[9:5]  ¹⁶ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[20:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my eye pitied.”