Leviticus 26:17

26:17 I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.

Leviticus 26:36

26:36 “‘As for ¹  the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer.

Deuteronomy 28:25

Curses by Defeat and Deportation

28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror ²  to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Deuteronomy 32:24-25

32:24 They will be starved by famine,

eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; ³ 

I will send the teeth of wild animals against them,

along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust.

32:25 The sword will make people childless outside,

and terror will do so inside;

they will destroy ⁴  both the young man and the virgin,

the infant and the gray-haired man.

Deuteronomy 32:30

32:30 How can one man chase a thousand of them, ⁵ 

and two pursue ten thousand;

unless their Rock had delivered them up, ⁶ 

and the Lord had handed them over?

Jeremiah 39:4-7

39:4 When King Zedekiah of Judah and all his soldiers saw them, they tried to escape. They departed from the city during the night. They took a path through the king’s garden and passed out through the gate between the two walls. ⁷  Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ⁸  39:5 But the Babylonian ⁹  army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho ¹⁰  and captured him. ¹¹  They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah ¹²  in the territory of Hamath and Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him there. 39:6 There at Riblah the king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. The king of Babylon also had all the nobles of Judah put to death. 39:7 Then he had Zedekiah’s eyes put out and had him bound in chains ¹³  to be led off to Babylon.

[26:36]  ¹ tn Heb “And.”

[28:25]  ² tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).

[32:24]  ³ tn The Hebrew term קֶטֶב (qetev) is probably metaphorical here for the sting of a disease (HALOT 1091-92 s.v.).

[32:25]  ⁴ tn A verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text; for purposes of English style one suitable to the context is supplied.

[32:30]  ⁵ tn The words “man” and “of them” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[32:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “sold them” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[39:4]  ⁷ sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.

[39:4]  ⁸ sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.

[39:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[39:5]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[39:5]  ¹¹ sn 2 Kgs 25:5 and Jer 52:8 mention that the soldiers all scattered from him. That is why the text focuses on Zedekiah here.

[39:5]  ¹² sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.

[39:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “fetters of bronze.” The more generic “chains” is used in the translation because “fetters” is a word unfamiliar to most modern readers.