Isaiah 29:3

29:3 I will lay siege to you on all sides; ¹ 

I will besiege you with troops; ² 

I will raise siege works against you.

Jeremiah 32:24

32:24 Even now siege ramps have been built up around the city ³  in order to capture it. War, ⁴  starvation, and disease are sure to make the city fall into the hands of the Babylonians ⁵  who are attacking it. ⁶  Lord, ⁷  you threatened that this would happen. Now you can see that it is already taking place. ⁸ 

Ezekiel 4:1-8

Ominous Object Lessons

4:1 “And you, son of man, take a brick ⁹  and set it in front of you. Inscribe ¹⁰  a city on it – Jerusalem. 4:2 Lay siege to it! Build siege works against it. Erect a siege ramp ¹¹  against it! Post soldiers outside it ¹²  and station battering rams around it. 4:3 Then for your part take an iron frying pan ¹³  and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign ¹⁴  for the house of Israel.

4:4 “Also for your part lie on your left side and place the iniquity ¹⁵  of the house of Israel on it. For the number of days you lie on your side you will bear their iniquity. 4:5 I have determined that the number of the years of their iniquity are to be the number of days ¹⁶  for you – 390 days. ¹⁷  So bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ¹⁸ 

4:6 “When you have completed these days, then lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days ¹⁹  – I have assigned one day for each year. 4:7 You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. 4:8 Look here, I will tie you up with ropes, so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you complete the days of your siege. ²⁰ 

Ezekiel 21:22-24

21:22 Into his right hand ²¹  comes the portent for Jerusalem – to set up battering rams, to give the signal ²²  for slaughter, to shout out the battle cry, ²³  to set up battering rams against the gates, to erect a siege ramp, to build a siege wall. 21:23 But those in Jerusalem ²⁴  will view it as a false omen. They have sworn solemn oaths, ²⁵  but the king of Babylon ²⁶  will accuse them of violations ²⁷  in order to seize them. ²⁸ 

21:24 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because you have brought up ²⁹  your own guilt by uncovering your transgressions and revealing your sins through all your actions, for this reason you will be taken by force. ³⁰ 

Luke 19:43-44

19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build ³¹  an embankment ³²  against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. 19:44 They will demolish you ³³  – you and your children within your walls ³⁴  – and they will not leave within you one stone ³⁵  on top of another, ³⁶  because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” ³⁷ 

[29:3]  ¹ tc The Hebrew text has כַדּוּר (khadur, “like a circle”), i.e., “like an encircling wall.” Some emend this phrase to כְּדָוִד (kÿdavid, “like David”), which is supported by the LXX (see v. 1). However, the rendering in the LXX could have arisen from a confusion of the dalet (ד) and resh (ר).

[29:3]  ² tn The meaning of מֻצָּב (mutsav) is not certain. Because of the parallelism (note “siege works”), some translate “towers.” The noun is derived from נָצַב (natsav, “take one’s stand”) and may refer to the troops stationed outside the city to prevent entrance or departure.

[32:24]  ³ tn Heb “Siege ramps have come up to the city to capture it.”

[32:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “sword.”

[32:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

[32:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “And the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it because of the sword, starvation, and disease.” The verb “has been given” is one of those perfects that view the action as good as done (the perfect of certainty or prophetic perfect).

[32:24]  ⁷ tn The word “Lord” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation as a reminder that it is he who is being addressed.

[32:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “And what you said has happened and behold you see it.”

[4:1]  ⁹ sn Ancient Near Eastern bricks were 10 to 24 inches long and 6 to 13 1/2 inches wide.

[4:1]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps “draw.”

[4:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “a barricade.”

[4:2]  ¹² tn Heb “set camps against it.”

[4:3]  ¹³ tn Or “a griddle,” that is, some sort of plate for cooking.

[4:3]  ¹⁴ tn That is, a symbolic object lesson.

[4:4]  ¹⁵ tn Or “punishment” (also in vv. 5, 6).

[4:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I have assigned for you that the years of their iniquity be the number of days.” Num 14:33-34 is an example of the reverse, where the days were converted into years, the number of days spying out the land becoming the number of years of the wilderness wanderings.

[4:5]  ¹⁷ tc The LXX reads “190 days.”

[4:5]  ¹⁸ tn Or “When you have carried the iniquity of the house of Israel,” and continuing on to the next verse.

[4:6]  ¹⁹ sn The number 40 may refer in general to the period of Judah’s exile using the number of years Israel was punished in the wilderness. In this case, however, one would need to translate, “you will bear the punishment of the house of Judah.”

[4:8]  ²⁰ sn The action surely refers to a series of daily acts rather than to a continuous period.

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

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

[21:22]  ²³ tn Heb “to raise up a voice in a battle cry.”

[21:23]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people in Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:23]  ²⁵ sn When the people of Judah realized the Babylonians’ intentions, they would object on grounds that they had made a treaty with the Babylonian king (see 17:13).

[21:23]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:23]  ²⁷ tn Or “iniquity.”

[21:23]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and he will remind of guilt for the purpose of being captured.” The king would counter their objections by pointing out that they had violated their treaty with him (see 17:18).

[21:24]  ²⁹ tn Heb “caused to be remembered.”

[21:24]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Because you have brought to remembrance your guilt when your transgressions are uncovered so that your sins are revealed in all your deeds – because you are remembered, by the hand you will be seized.”

[19:43]  ³¹ 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]  ³² sn An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.

[19:44]  ³³ tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”

[19:44]  ³⁴ 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]  ³⁵ sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.

[19:44]  ³⁶ tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”

[19:44]  ³⁷ 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.