Jeremiah 8:1-2

8:1 The Lord says, “When that time comes, ¹  the bones of the kings of Judah and its leaders, the bones of the priests and prophets and of all the other people who lived in Jerusalem will be dug up from their graves. 8:2 They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon and the stars. ²  These are things they ³  adored and served, things to which they paid allegiance, ⁴  from which they sought guidance, and worshiped. The bones of these people ⁵  will never be regathered and reburied. They will be like manure used to fertilize the ground. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 9:22

9:22 Tell your daughters and neighbors, ‘The Lord says,

“The dead bodies of people will lie scattered everywhere

like manure scattered on a field.

They will lie scattered on the ground

like grain that has been cut down but has not been gathered.”’” ⁷ 

Jeremiah 12:9

12:9 The people I call my own attack me like birds of prey or like hyenas. ⁸ 

But other birds of prey are all around them. ⁹ 

Let all the nations gather together like wild beasts.

Let them come and destroy these people I call my own. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 16:4

16:4 They will die of deadly diseases. No one will mourn for them. They will not be buried. Their dead bodies will lie like manure spread on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation. Their corpses will be food for the birds and wild animals.

Jeremiah 22:19

22:19 He will be left unburied just like a dead donkey.

His body will be dragged off and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.’” ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 25:33

25:33 Those who have been killed by the Lord at that time

will be scattered from one end of the earth to the other.

They will not be mourned over, gathered up, or buried. ¹² 

Their dead bodies will lie scattered over the ground like manure.

Jeremiah 34:20

34:20 I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals. ¹³ 

Deuteronomy 28:26

28:26 Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off.

Psalms 79:2-3

79:2 They have given the corpses of your servants

to the birds of the sky; ¹⁴ 

the flesh of your loyal followers

to the beasts of the earth.

79:3 They have made their blood flow like water

all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury them. ¹⁵ 

Ezekiel 39:4

39:4 You will fall dead on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the people who are with you. I give you as food to every kind of bird and every wild beast.

Ezekiel 39:18-20

39:18 You will eat the flesh of warriors ¹⁶  and drink the blood of the princes of the earth – the rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan. 39:19 You will eat fat until you are full, and drink blood until you are drunk, ¹⁷  at my slaughter ¹⁸  which I have made for you. 39:20 You will fill up at my table with horses and charioteers, ¹⁹  with warriors and all the soldiers,’ declares the sovereign Lord.

Revelation 19:17-18

19:17 Then ²⁰  I saw one angel standing in ²¹  the sun, and he shouted in a loud voice to all the birds flying high in the sky: ²² 

“Come, gather around for the great banquet ²³  of God,

19:18 to eat ²⁴  your fill ²⁵  of the flesh of kings,

the flesh of generals, ²⁶ 

the flesh of powerful people,

the flesh of horses and those who ride them,

and the flesh of all people, both free and slave, ²⁷ 

and small and great!”

[8:1]  ¹ tn Heb “At that time.”

[8:2]  ² tc MT, 4QJer^a and LXX read “the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven,” but 4QJer^c reads “the sun and all the stars.”

[8:2]  ³ tn Heb “the sun, moon, and host of heaven which they…”

[8:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

[8:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “they will not” but the referent is far enough removed that it might be ambiguous.

[8:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “like dung/manure on the surface of the ground.”

[9:22]  ⁷ tn Or “‘Death has climbed…city squares. And the dead bodies of people lie scattered…They lie scattered…but has not been gathered.’ The Lord has told me to tell you this.” Or “For death will climb…It will enter…It will take away…who gather in the city squares. So tell your daughters and neighbors, ‘The Lord wants you to say, “The dead bodies of people lie scattered…They lie scattered…has not been gathered.”’” The main causes of ambiguity are the particle כִּי (ki) introducing v. 21 and the verb form דַּבֵּר (dabber) at the beginning of v. 22. כִּי may be interpreted as introducing a causal sentence giving Jeremiah’s grounds for the commands of v. 19 in which case the verbs would best be understood as prophetic perfects (as in the second alternate translation). Or it may be interpreted as introducing the content of the lament the women are to teach their daughters and neighbors (as in the translation adopted and in the first alternate translation). The form דַּבֵּר may be interpreted as a Piel masculine singular imperative addressed to Jeremiah (as in the first alternate translation where it is placed at the end for the sake of clarity) or as a Piel infinitive absolute either explaining what the woman are to teach their daughters and neighbors (as in the second alternate translation; cf. GKC 341 §113.h, i for this use of the infinitive absolute) or as equivalent to an imperative addressed to the women telling them to tell their daughters and neighbors the reason for the lament, i.e., the Lord’s promise of widespread death (cf. GKC 346 §113.bb for this use of the infinitive absolute). The translation chosen has opted for v. 21 as the content of the lament and v. 22 as the further explanation that Jeremiah has the women pass on to their neighbors and daughters. This appears to this interpreter to create the least confusion and dislocation in the flow of the passage.

[12:9]  ⁸ tn Or “like speckled birds of prey.” The meanings of these words are uncertain. In the Hebrew text sentence is a question: “Is not my inheritance to me a bird of prey [or] a hyena/a speckled bird of prey?” The question expects a positive answer and so is rendered here as an affirmative statement. The meaning of the word “speckled” is debated. It occurs only here. BDB 840 s.v. צָבוּעַ relates it to another word that occurs only once in Judg 5:30 which is translated “dyed stuff.” HALOT 936 s.v. צָבוּעַ relates a word found in the cognates meaning “hyena.” This is more likely and is the interpretation followed by the Greek which reads the first two words as “cave of hyena.” This translation has led some scholars to posit a homonym for the word “bird of prey” meaning “cave” which is based on Arabic parallels. The metaphor would then be of Israel carried off by hyenas and surrounded by birds of prey. The evidence for the meaning “cave” is weak and would involve a wordplay of a rare homonym with another word that is better known. For a discussion of the issues see J. Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament, 128-29, 153.

[12:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “Are birds of prey around her?” The question is again rhetorical and expects a positive answer. The birds of prey are of course the hostile nations surrounding her. The metaphor involved in these two lines may be interpreted differently. I.e., God considers Israel a proud bird of prey (hence the word for speckled) but one who is surrounded and under attack by other birds of prey. The fact that the sentences are divided into two rhetorical questions speaks somewhat against this.

[12:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Go, gather all the beasts of the field [= wild beasts]. Bring them to devour.” The verbs are masculine plural imperatives addressed rhetorically to some unidentified group (the heavenly counsel?) Cf. the notes on 5:1 for further discussion. Since translating literally would raise question about who the commands are addressed to, they have been turned into passive third person commands to avoid confusion. The metaphor has likewise been turned into a simile to help the modern reader. By the way, the imperatives here implying future action argue that the passage is future and that it is correct to take the verb forms as prophetic perfects.

[22:19]  ¹¹ sn A similar judgment against this ungodly king is pronounced by Jeremiah in 36:30. According to 2 Chr 36:6 he was bound over to be taken captive to Babylon but apparently died before he got there. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Nebuchadnezzar ordered his body thrown outside the wall in fulfillment of this judgment. The Bible itself, however, does not tell us that.

[25:33]  ¹² sn The intent here is to emphasize the large quantity of those who are killed – there will be too many to insure proper mourning rites and proper burial.

[34:20]  ¹³ sn See this same phrase in Jer 7:33; 16:4; 19:7.

[79:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[as] food for the birds of the sky.”

[79:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they have poured out their blood like water, all around Jerusalem, and there is no one burying.”

[39:18]  ¹⁶ sn See Rev 19:17-18.

[39:19]  ¹⁷ sn Eating the fat and drinking blood were God’s exclusive rights in Israelite sacrifices (Lev 3:17).

[39:19]  ¹⁸ tn Or “sacrifice” (so also in the rest of this verse).

[39:20]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “chariots.”

[19:17]  ²⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[19:17]  ²¹ tn The precise significance of ἐν (en) here is difficult to determine.

[19:17]  ²² tn On μεσουρανήματι (mesouranhmati) here see L&N 1.10: “high in the sky, midpoint in the sky, directly overhead, straight above in the sky.” The birds mentioned here are carrion birds like vultures, circling high overhead, and now being summoned to feast on the corpses.

[19:17]  ²³ tn This is the same Greek word (δεῖπνον, deipnon) used in 19:9.

[19:18]  ²⁴ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause, insofar as it is related to the first imperative, has the force of an imperative.

[19:18]  ²⁵ tn The idea of eating “your fill” is evident in the context with the use of χορτάζω (cortazw) in v. 21.

[19:18]  ²⁶ tn Grk “chiliarchs”; normally a chiliarch was a military officer commanding a thousand soldiers, but here probably used of higher-ranking commanders like generals (see L&N 55.15; cf. Rev 6:15).

[19:18]  ²⁷ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.