Isaiah 9:20

9:20 They devoured ¹  on the right, but were still hungry,

they ate on the left, but were not satisfied.

People even ate ²  the flesh of their own arm! ³ 

Deuteronomy 28:33-34

28:33 As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives. 28:34 You will go insane from seeing all this.

Deuteronomy 28:53-57

28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ⁴  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ⁵  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 ⁶  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁷  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, ⁸  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁹  and her newborn children ¹⁰  (since she has nothing else), ¹¹  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 ¹²  if you obey the Lord your God:

Deuteronomy 25:3

25:3 The judge ¹³  may sentence him to forty blows, ¹⁴  but no more. If he is struck with more than these, you might view your fellow Israelite ¹⁵  with contempt.

Jeremiah 14:18

14:18 If I go out into the countryside,

I see those who have been killed in battle.

If I go into the city,

I see those who are sick because of starvation. ¹⁶ 

For both prophet and priest go about their own business

in the land without having any real understanding.’” ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 52:6

52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month ¹⁸  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ¹⁹  had no food.

Lamentations 4:4-5

ד (Dalet)

4:4 The infant’s tongue sticks

to the roof of its mouth due to thirst;

little children beg for bread, ²⁰ 

but no one gives them even a morsel. ²¹ 

ה (He)

4:5 Those who once feasted on delicacies ²² 

are now starving to death ²³  in the streets.

Those who grew up ²⁴  wearing expensive clothes ²⁵ 

are now dying ²⁶  amid garbage. ²⁷ 

Lamentations 4:9-10

ט (Tet)

4:9 Those who died by the sword ²⁸  are better off

than those who die of hunger, ²⁹ 

those who ³⁰  waste away, ³¹ 

struck down ³²  from lack of ³³  food. ³⁴ 

י (Yod)

4:10 The hands of tenderhearted women ³⁵ 

cooked their own children,

who became their food, ³⁶ 

when my people ³⁷  were destroyed. ³⁸ 

[9:20]  ¹ tn Or “cut.” The verb גָּזַר (gazar) means “to cut.” If it is understood here, then one might paraphrase, “They slice off meat on the right.” However, HALOT 187 s.v. I גזר, proposes here a rare homonym meaning “to devour.”

[9:20]  ² tn The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite without vav consecutive or an imperfect used in a customary sense, describing continual or repeated behavior in past time.

[9:20]  ³ tn Some suggest that זְרֹעוֹ (zÿro’o, “his arm”) be repointed זַרְעוֹ (zar’o, “his offspring”). In either case, the metaphor is that of a desperately hungry man who resorts to an almost unthinkable act to satisfy his appetite. He eats everything he can find to his right, but still being unsatisfied, then turns to his left and eats everything he can find there. Still being desperate for food, he then resorts to eating his own flesh (or offspring, as this phrase is metaphorically understood by some English versions, e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT). The reality behind the metaphor is the political turmoil of the period, as the next verse explains. There was civil strife within the northern kingdom; even the descendants of Joseph were at each other’s throats. Then the northern kingdom turned on their southern brother, Judah.

[28:53]  ⁴ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ⁵ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ⁶ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ⁷ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ⁸ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ⁹ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ¹¹ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

[28:2]  ¹² tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

[25:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the judge) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:3]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “your brothers” but not limited only to an actual sibling; cf. NAB) “your kinsman”; NRSV, NLT “your neighbor.”

[14:18]  ¹⁶ tn The word “starvation” has been translated “famine” elsewhere in this passage. It is the word which refers to hunger. The “starvation” here may be war induced and not simply that which comes from famine per se. “Starvation” will cover both.

[14:18]  ¹⁷ tn The meaning of these last two lines is somewhat uncertain. The meaning of these two lines is debated because of the uncertainty of the meaning of the verb rendered “go about their business” (סָחַר, sakhar) and the last phrase translated here “without any real understanding.” The verb in question most commonly occurs as a participle meaning “trader” or “merchant” (cf., e.g., Ezek 27:21, 36; Prov 31:14). It occurs as a finite verb elsewhere only in Gen 34:10, 21; 42:34 and there in a literal sense of “trading,” “doing business.” While the nuance is metaphorical here it need not extend to “journeying into” (cf., e.g., BDB 695 s.v. סָחַר Qal.1) and be seen as a reference to exile as is sometimes assumed. That seems at variance with the causal particle which introduces this clause, the tense of the verb, and the surrounding context. People are dying in the land (vv. 17-18a) not because prophet and priest have gone (the verb is the Hebrew perfect or past) into exile but because prophet and priest have no true knowledge of God or the situation. The clause translated here “without having any real understanding” (Heb “and they do not know”) is using the verb in the absolute sense indicated in BDB 394 s.v. יָדַע Qal.5 and illustrated in Isa 1:3; 56:10. For a more thorough discussion of the issues one may consult W. McKane, Jeremiah (ICC), 1:330-31.

[52:6]  ¹⁸ sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

[52:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the people of the land.”

[4:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “bread.” The term “bread” might function as a synecdoche of specific (= bread) for general (= food); however, the following parallel line does indeed focus on the act of breaking bread in two.

[4:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “there is not a divider to them.” The term פָּרַשׂ (paras), Qal active participle ms from פָּרַס (paras, “to divide”) refers to the action of breaking bread in two before giving it to a person to eat (Isa 58:7; Jer 16:7; Lam 4:4). The form פָּרַשׂ (paras) is the alternate spelling of the more common פָּרַס (paras).

[4:5]  ²² tn Heb “eaters of delicacies.” An alternate English gloss would be “connoisseurs of fine foods.”

[4:5]  ²³ tn Heb “are desolate.”

[4:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “were reared.”

[4:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in purple.” The term תוֹלָע (tola’, “purple”) is a figurative description of expensive clothing: it is a metonymy of association: the color of the dyed clothes (= purple) stands for the clothes themselves.

[4:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “embrace garbage.” One may also translate “rummage through” (cf. NCV “pick through trash piles”; TEV “pawing through refuse”; NLT “search the garbage pits.”

[4:5]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew word אַשְׁפַּתּוֹת (’ashpatot) can also mean “ash heaps.” Though not used as a combination elsewhere, to “embrace ash heaps” might also envision a state of mourning or even dead bodies lying on the ash heaps.

[4:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “those pierced of the sword.” The genitive-construct denotes instrumentality: “those pierced by the sword” (חַלְלֵי־חֶרֶב, khalle-kherev). The noun חָלָל (khalal) refers to a “fatal wound” and is used substantivally to refer to “the slain” (Num 19:18; 31:8, 19; 1 Sam 17:52; 2 Sam 23:8, 18; 1 Chr 11:11, 20; Isa 22:2; 66:16; Jer 14:18; 25:33; 51:49; Lam 4:9; Ezek 6:7; 30:11; 31:17, 18; 32:20; Zeph 2:12).

[4:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “those slain of hunger.” The genitive-construct denotes instrumentality: “those slain by hunger,” that is, those who are dying of hunger.

[4:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “who…” The antecedent of the relative pronoun שֶׁהֵם (shehem, “who”) are those dying of hunger in the previous line: מֵחַלְלֵי רָעָב (mekhalle ra’av, “those slain of hunger”).

[4:9]  ³¹ tn Heb “they flow away.” The verb זוּב (zuv, “to flow, gush”) is used figuratively here, meaning “to pine away” or “to waste away” from hunger. See also the next note.

[4:9]  ³² tn Heb “pierced through and through.” The term מְדֻקָּרִים (mÿduqqarim), Pual participle masculine plural from דָּקַר (daqar, “to pierce”), is used figuratively. The verb דָּקַר (daqar, “to pierce”) usually refers to a fatal wound inflicted by a sword or spear (Num 25:8; Judg 9:54; 1 Sam 31:4; 1 Chr 10:4; Isa 13:15; Jer 37:10; 51:4; Zech 12:10; 13:3). Here, it describes people dying from hunger. This is an example of hypocatastasis: an implied comparison between warriors being fatally pierced by sword and spear and the piercing pangs of hunger and starvation. Alternatively “those who hemorrhage (זוּב [zuv, “flow, gush”]) [are better off] than those pierced by lack of food” in parallel to the structure of the first line.

[4:9]  ³³ tn The preposition מִן (min, “from”) denotes deprivation: “from lack of” something (BDB 580 s.v. 2.f; HALOT 598 s.v. 6).

[4:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “produce of the field.”

[4:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the hands of compassionate women.”

[4:10]  ³⁶ tn Heb “eating.” The infinitive construct (from I בָּרָה, barah) is translated as a noun. Three passages employ the verb (2 Sam 3:35; 12:17; 13:5,6,10) for eating when ill or in mourning.

[4:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”

[4:10]  ³⁸ tn Heb “in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”