Ezekiel 5:14-15

5:14 “I will make you desolate and an object of scorn among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. 5:15 You will be ¹  an object of scorn and taunting, ²  a prime example of destruction ³  among the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger and raging fury. ⁴  I, the Lord, have spoken!

Ezekiel 16:57

16:57 before your evil was exposed? Now you have become an object of scorn to the daughters of Aram ⁵  and all those around her and to the daughters of the Philistines – those all around you who despise you.

Ezekiel 21:28

21:28 “As for you, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says concerning the Ammonites and their coming humiliation; ⁶  say:

“‘A sword, a sword drawn for slaughter,

polished to consume, ⁷  to flash like lightning –

Leviticus 26:32

26:32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled.

Deuteronomy 28:37

28:37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.

Deuteronomy 29:24

29:24 Then all the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger ⁸  all about?”

Deuteronomy 29:1

Narrative Interlude

29:1 (28:69) ⁹  These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. ¹⁰ 

Deuteronomy 9:7

The History of Israel’s Stubbornness

9:7 Remember – don’t ever forget ¹¹  – how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert; from the time you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were constantly rebelling against him. ¹² 

Deuteronomy 9:2

9:2 They include the Anakites, ¹³  a numerous ¹⁴  and tall people whom you know about and of whom it is said, “Who is able to resist the Anakites?”

Deuteronomy 7:20

7:20 Furthermore, the Lord your God will release hornets ¹⁵  among them until the very last ones who hide from you ¹⁶  perish.

Psalms 44:13-14

44:13 You made us ¹⁷  an object of disdain to our neighbors;

those who live on our borders taunt and insult us. ¹⁸ 

44:14 You made us ¹⁹  an object of ridicule ²⁰  among the nations;

foreigners treat us with contempt. ²¹ 

Psalms 79:4

79:4 We have become an object of disdain to our neighbors;

those who live on our borders taunt and insult us. ²² 

Psalms 89:41-42

89:41 All who pass by ²³  have robbed him;

he has become an object of disdain to his neighbors.

89:42 You have allowed his adversaries to be victorious, ²⁴ 

and all his enemies to rejoice.

Jeremiah 18:16

18:16 So their land will become an object of horror. ²⁵ 

People will forever hiss out their scorn over it.

All who pass that way will be filled with horror

and will shake their heads in derision. ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 24:9

24:9 I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ²⁷  That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them. ²⁸ 

Jeremiah 44:8

44:8 That is what will result from your making me angry by what you are doing. ²⁹  You are making me angry by sacrificing to other gods here in the land of Egypt where you live. You will be destroyed for doing that! You will become an example used in curses ³⁰  and an object of ridicule among all the nations of the earth. ³¹ 

Lamentations 2:15-16

ס (Samek)

2:15 All who passed by on the road

clapped their hands to mock you. ³² 

They sneered and shook their heads

at Daughter Jerusalem.

“Ha! Is this the city they called ³³ 

‘The perfection of beauty, ³⁴ 

the source of joy of the whole earth!’?” ³⁵ 

פ (Pe)

2:16 All your enemies

gloated over you. ³⁶ 

They sneered and gnashed their teeth;

they said, “We have destroyed ³⁷  her!

Ha! We have waited a long time for this day.

We have lived to see it!” ³⁸ 

Daniel 9:16

9:16 O Lord, according to all your justice, ³⁹  please turn your raging anger ⁴⁰  away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For due to our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all our neighbors.

[5:15]  ¹ tc This reading is supported by the versions and by the Dead Sea Scrolls (11QEzek). Most Masoretic Hebrew mss read “it will be,” but if the final he (ה) is read as a mater lectionis, as it can be with the second masculine singular perfect, then they are in agreement. In either case the subject refers to Jerusalem.

[5:15]  ² tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT. A related verb means “revile, taunt” (see Ps 44:16).

[5:15]  ³ tn Heb “discipline and devastation.” These words are omitted in the Old Greek. The first term pictures Jerusalem as a recipient or example of divine discipline; the second depicts her as a desolate ruin (see Ezek 6:14).

[5:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “in anger and in fury and in rebukes of fury.” The heaping up of synonyms emphasizes the degree of God’s anger.

[16:57]  ⁵ tc So MT, LXX, and Vulgate; many Hebrew mss and Syriac read “Edom.”

[21:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “their reproach.”

[21:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “to contain, endure.” Since the Hebrew text as it stands makes little, if any, sense, most emend the text to read either “to consume” or “for destruction.” For discussion of options see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:693.

[29:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”

[29:1]  ⁹ sn Beginning with 29:1, the verse numbers through 29:29 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 29:1 ET = 28:69 HT, 29:2 ET = 29:1 HT, 29:3 ET = 29:2 HT, etc., through 29:29 ET = 29:28 HT. With 30:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[29:1]  ¹⁰ sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (which some English versions substitute here for clarity, cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[9:7]  ¹¹ tn By juxtaposing the positive זְכֹר (zekhor, “remember”) with the negative אַל־תִּשְׁכַּח (’al-tishÿkakh, “do not forget”), Moses makes a most emphatic plea.

[9:7]  ¹² tn Heb “the Lord” (likewise in the following verse with both “him” and “he”). See note on “he” in 9:3.

[9:2]  ¹³ sn Anakites. See note on this term in Deut 1:28.

[9:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “great and tall.” Many English versions understand this to refer to physical size or strength rather than numbers (cf. “strong,” NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT).

[7:20]  ¹⁵ tn The meaning of the term translated “hornets” (צִרְעָה, tsir’ah) is debated. Various suggestions are “discouragement” (HALOT 1056-57 s.v.; cf. NEB, TEV, CEV “panic”; NCV “terror”) and “leprosy” (J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy [JPSTC], 360, n. 33; cf. NRSV “the pestilence”), as well as “hornet” (BDB 864 s.v.; cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT). The latter seems most suitable to the verb שָׁלַח (shalakh, “send”; cf. Exod 23:28; Josh 24:12).

[7:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the remnant and those who hide themselves.”

[44:13]  ¹⁷ tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).

[44:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “an [object of] taunting and [of] mockery to those around us.”

[44:14]  ¹⁹ tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).

[44:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a proverb,” or “[the subject of] a mocking song.”

[44:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “a shaking of the head among the peoples.” Shaking the head was a derisive gesture (see Jer 18:16; Lam 2:15).

[79:4]  ²² tn Heb “an [object of] taunting and [of] mockery to those around us.” See Ps 44:13.

[89:41]  ²³ tn Heb “all the passersby on the road.”

[89:42]  ²⁴ tn Heb “you have lifted up the right hand of his adversaries.” The idiom “the right hand is lifted up” refers to victorious military deeds (see Pss 89:13; 118:16).

[18:16]  ²⁵ tn There may be a deliberate double meaning involved here. The word translated here “an object of horror” refers both to destruction (cf. 2:15; 4:17) and the horror or dismay that accompanies it (cf. 5:30; 8:21). The fact that there is no conjunction or preposition in front of the noun “hissing” that follows this suggests that the reaction is in view here, not the cause.

[18:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “an object of lasting hissing. All who pass that way will be appalled and shake their head.”

[24:9]  ²⁷ tn Or “an object of reproach in peoples’ proverbs…an object of ridicule in people’s curses.” The alternate translation treats the two pairs which are introduced without vavs (ו) but are joined by vavs as examples of hendiadys. This is very possible here but the chain does not contain this pairing in 25:18; 29:18.

[24:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I will make them for a terror for disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and for a proverb, for a taunt and a curse in all the places which I banish them there.” The complex Hebrew sentence has been broken down into equivalent shorter sentences to conform more with contemporary English style.

[44:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the works of your hands.” Here the phrase is qualified by the epexegetical לְ (lamed) + infinitive, לְקַטֵּר (lÿqatter, “by sacrificing [to other gods]”). For further discussion on the use of this phrase see the translator’s note on 25:6.

[44:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “a curse.” For the meaning of this phrase see the translator’s note on 24:9 and see the usage in 24:9; 25:18; 26:6; 29:22.

[44:8]  ³¹ tn Verses 7b-8 are all one long, complex sentence governed by the interrogative “Why.” The Hebrew text reads: “Why are you doing great harm to your souls [= “yourselves” (cf. BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.b[6])] so as to cut off [= destroy] from yourselves man and woman, child and baby [the terms are collective singulars and are to be interpreted as plurals] from the midst of Judah so as not to leave to yourselves a remnant by making me angry with the works of your hands by sacrificing to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live so as to cut off [an example of result rather than purpose after the particle לְמַעַן (lÿma’an; see the translator’s note on 25:7)] yourselves and so that you may become a curse and an object of ridicule among all the nations of the earth.” The sentence has been broken down and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style. An attempt has been made to retain an equivalent for all the subordinations and qualifying phrases.

[2:15]  ³² tn Heb “clap their hands at you.” Clapping hands at someone was an expression of malicious glee, derision and mockery (Num 24:10; Job 27:23; Lam 2:15).

[2:15]  ³³ tn Heb “of which they said.”

[2:15]  ³⁴ tn Heb “perfection of beauty.” The noun יֹפִי (yofi, “beauty”) functions as a genitive of respect in relation to the preceding construct noun: Jerusalem was perfect in respect to its physical beauty.

[2:15]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the joy of all the earth.” This is similar to statements found in Pss 48:2 and 50:2.

[2:16]  ³⁶ tn Heb “they have opened wide their mouth against you.”

[2:16]  ³⁷ tn Heb “We have swallowed!”

[2:16]  ³⁸ tn Heb “We have attained, we have seen!” The verbs מָצָאנוּ רָאִינוּ (matsa’nu ra’inu) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first retains its full verbal sense and the second functions as an object complement. It forms a Hebrew idiom that means something like, “We have lived to see it!” The three asyndetic 1st person common plural statements in 2:16 (“We waited, we destroyed, we saw!”) are spoken in an impassioned, staccato style reflecting the delight of the conquerors.

[9:16]  ³⁹ tn Or “righteousness.”

[9:16]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “your anger and your rage.” The synonyms are joined here to emphasize the degree of God’s anger. This is best expressed in English by making one of the terms adjectival (cf. NLT “your furious anger”; CEV “terribly angry”).