Deuteronomy 28:30

28:30 You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape ¹  her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it.

Deuteronomy 28:51

28:51 They ²  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, ³  or lambs of your flocks ⁴  until they have destroyed you.

Leviticus 26:16

26:16 I for my part ⁵  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ⁶  You will sow your seed in vain because ⁷  your enemies will eat it. ⁸ 

Nehemiah 9:36-37

9:36 “So today we are slaves! In the very land you gave to our ancestors to eat its fruit and to enjoy ⁹  its good things – we are slaves! 9:37 Its abundant produce goes to the kings you have placed over us due to our sins. They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they see fit, ¹⁰  and we are in great distress!

Isaiah 1:7

1:7 Your land is devastated,

your cities burned with fire.

Right before your eyes your crops

are being destroyed by foreign invaders. ¹¹ 

They leave behind devastation and destruction. ¹² 

Jeremiah 5:17

5:17 They will eat up your crops and your food.

They will kill off ¹³  your sons and your daughters.

They will eat up your sheep and your cattle.

They will destroy your vines and your fig trees. ¹⁴ 

Their weapons will batter down ¹⁵ 

the fortified cities you trust in.

Jeremiah 8:16

8:16 The snorting of the enemy’s horses

is already being heard in the city of Dan.

The sound of the neighing of their stallions ¹⁶ 

causes the whole land to tremble with fear.

They are coming to destroy the land and everything in it!

They are coming to destroy ¹⁷  the cities and everyone who lives in them!”

[28:30]  ¹ tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.

[28:51]  ² tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).

[28:51]  ³ tn Heb “increase of herds.”

[28:51]  ⁴ tn Heb “growth of flocks.”

[26:16]  ⁵ tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).

[26:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “soul.” These expressions may refer either to the physical effects of consumption and fever as the rendering in the text suggests (e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452, 454, “diminishing eyesight and loss of appetite”), or perhaps the more psychological effects, “which exhausts the eyes” because of anxious hope “and causes depression” (Heb “causes soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] to pine away”), e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 185.

[26:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.

[26:16]  ⁸ tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.

[9:36]  ⁹ tn The expression “to enjoy” is not included in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:37]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “according to their desire.”

[1:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “As for your land, before you foreigners are devouring it.”

[1:7]  ¹² tn Heb “and [there is] devastation like an overthrow by foreigners.” The comparative preposition כְּ (kÿ, “like, as”) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the land has all the earmarks of a destructive foreign invasion because that is what has indeed happened. One could paraphrase, “it is desolate as it can only be when foreigners destroy.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x. Many also prefer to emend “foreigners” here to “Sodom,” though there is no external attestation for such a reading in the mss or ancient versions. Such an emendation finds support from the following context (vv. 9-10) and usage of the preceding noun מַהְפֵּכָה (mahpekhah, “overthrow”). In its five other uses, this noun is associated with the destruction of Sodom. If one accepts the emendation, then one might translate, “the devastation resembles the destruction of Sodom.”

[5:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “eat up.”

[5:17]  ¹⁴ tn Or “eat up your grapes and figs”; Heb “eat up your vines and your fig trees.”

[5:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “They will beat down with the sword.” The term “sword” is a figure of speech (synecdoche) for military weapons in general. Siege ramps, not swords, beat down city walls; swords kill people, not city walls.

[8:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “his stallions.”

[8:16]  ¹⁷ tn The words “They are coming to destroy” are not in the text. They are inserted to break up a long sentence in conformity with contemporary English style.