Leviticus 26:26

26:26 When I break off your supply of bread, ¹  ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, ²  and you will eat and not be satisfied.

Proverbs 13:25

13:25 The righteous has enough food to satisfy his appetite, ³ 

but the belly of the wicked lacks food. ⁴ 

Isaiah 65:13-16

65:13 So this is what the sovereign Lord says:

“Look, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry!

Look, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty!

Look, my servants will rejoice, but you will be humiliated!

65:14 Look, my servants will shout for joy as happiness fills their hearts! ⁵ 

But you will cry out as sorrow fills your hearts; ⁶ 

you will wail because your spirits will be crushed. ⁷ 

65:15 Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. ⁸ 

The sovereign Lord will kill you,

but he will give his servants another name.

65:16 Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth ⁹ 

will do so in the name of the faithful God; ¹⁰ 

whoever makes an oath in the earth

will do so in the name of the faithful God. ¹¹ 

For past problems will be forgotten;

I will no longer think about them. ¹² 

Micah 6:14

6:14 You will eat, but not be satisfied.

Even if you have the strength ¹³  to overtake some prey, ¹⁴ 

you will not be able to carry it away; ¹⁵ 

if you do happen to carry away something,

I will deliver it over to the sword.

Haggai 1:6

1:6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but are never filled. You drink, but are still thirsty. You put on clothes, but are not warm. Those who earn wages end up with holes in their money bags.’” ¹⁶ 

Malachi 2:1-3

The Sacrilege of the Priestly Message

2:1 “Now, you priests, this commandment is for you. 2:2 If you do not listen and take seriously ¹⁷  the need to honor my name,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will send judgment ¹⁸  on you and turn your blessings into curses – indeed, I have already done so because you are not taking it to heart. 2:3 I am about to discipline your children ¹⁹  and will spread offal ²⁰  on your faces, ²¹  the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it.

[26:26]  ¹ tn Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (KJV, ASV, and NASB all similar).

[26:26]  ² tn Heb “they will return your bread in weight.”

[13:25]  ³ tn The noun נֶפֶשׁ (traditionally “soul”; cf. KJV, ASV) here means “appetite” (BDB 660 s.v. 5.a).

[13:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “he will lack.” The term “food” is supplied in the translation as a clarification. The wicked may go hungry, or lack all they desire, just as the first colon may mean that what the righteous acquire proves satisfying to them.

[65:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “from the good of the heart.”

[65:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “from the pain of the heart.”

[65:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “from the breaking of the spirit.”

[65:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “you will leave your name for an oath to my chosen ones.”

[65:16]  ⁹ tn Or “in the land” (NIV, NCV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs again later in this verse, with the same options.

[65:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “will pronounce a blessing by the God of truth.”

[65:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will take an oath by the God of truth.”

[65:16]  ¹² tn Heb “for the former distresses will be forgotten, and they will be hidden from my eyes.”

[6:14]  ¹³ tc The first Hebrew term in the line (וְיֶשְׁחֲךָ, vÿyeshkhakha) is obscure. HALOT 446 s.v. יֶשַׁח understands a noun meaning “filth,” which would yield the translation, “and your filth is inside you.” The translation assumes an emendation to כֹּחַ-וְיֶשׁ (vÿyesh-koakh, “and [if] there is strength inside you”).

[6:14]  ¹⁴ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term וְתַסֵּג (vÿtasseg) is unclear. The translation assumes it is a Hiphal imperfect from נָסַג/נָשַׂג (nasag/nasag, “reach; overtake”) and that hunting imagery is employed. (Note the reference to hunger in the first line of the verse.) See D. R. Hillers, Micah (Hermeneia), 80.

[6:14]  ¹⁵ tn The Hiphal of פָּלַט (palat) is used in Isa 5:29 of an animal carrying its prey to a secure place.

[1:6]  ¹⁶ tn Some translate “pockets” (so NLT) but the Hebrew word צְרוֹר (tsÿror) refers to a bag, pouch, or purse of money (BDB 865 s.v. צְרוֹר; HALOT 1054 s.v. צְרוֹר 1). Because coinage had been invented by the Persians and was thus in use in Haggai’s day, this likely is a money bag or purse rather than pouches or pockets in the clothing. Since in contemporary English “purse” (so NASB, NIV, NCV) could be understood as a handbag, the present translation uses “money bags.”

[2:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and if you do not place upon [the] heart”; KJV, NAB, NRSV “lay it to heart.”

[2:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the curse” (so NASB, NRSV); NLT “a terrible curse.”

[2:3]  ¹⁹ tc The phrase “discipline your children” is disputed. The LXX and Vulgate suppose זְרוֹעַ (zÿroa’, “arm”) for the MT זֶרַע (zera’, “seed”; hence, “children”). Then, for the MT גֹעֵר (go’er, “rebuking”) the same versions suggest גָּרַע (gara’, “take away”). The resulting translation is “I am about to take away your arm” (cf. NAB “deprive you of the shoulder”). However, this reading is unlikely. It is common for a curse (v. 2) to fall on offspring (see, e.g., Deut 28:18, 32, 41, 53, 55, 57), but a curse never takes the form of a broken or amputated arm. It is preferable to retain the reading of the MT here.

[2:3]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew term פֶרֶשׁ (feresh, “offal”) refers to the entrails as ripped out in preparing a sacrificial victim (BDB 831 s.v. פֶּרֶשׁ). This graphic term has been variously translated: “dung” (KJV, RSV, NRSV, NLT); “refuse” (NKJV, NASB); “offal” (NEB, NIV).

[2:3]  ²¹ sn See Zech 3:3-4 for similar coarse imagery which reflects cultic disqualification.