Leviticus 26:26-29

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.

26:27 “‘If in spite of this ³  you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me, ⁴  26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you ⁵  and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. ⁶ 

Leviticus 26:2

26:2 You must keep my Sabbaths and reverence ⁷  my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

Leviticus 21:1

Rules for the Priests

21:1 The Lord said to Moses: “Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron – say to them, ‘For a dead person ⁸  no priest ⁹  is to defile himself among his people, ¹⁰ 

Leviticus 24:13

24:13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses:

Leviticus 24:1

Regulations for the Lampstand and Table of Bread

24:1 The Lord spoke to Moses:

Leviticus 17:1-2

The Slaughter of Animals

17:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 17:2 “Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites, and tell them: ‘This is the word that the Lord has commanded:

Leviticus 8:1

Ordination of the Priests

8:1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ¹¹ 

Lamentations 4:9

ט (Tet)

4:9 Those who died by the sword ¹²  are better off

than those who die of hunger, ¹³ 

those who ¹⁴  waste away, ¹⁵ 

struck down ¹⁶  from lack of ¹⁷  food. ¹⁸ 

Luke 4:25

4:25 But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, ¹⁹  when the sky ²⁰  was shut up three and a half years, and ²¹  there was a great famine over all the land.

[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.”

[26:27]  ³ tn Heb “And if in this.”

[26:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “with me.”

[26:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; NASB “with wrathful hostility”; NRSV “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; CEV “I’ll get really furious.”

[26:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.” The phrase “you will eat” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and my sanctuary you shall fear.” Cf. NCV “respect”; CEV “honor.”

[21:1]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 19:28 above and the literature cited there).

[21:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “no one,” but “priest” has been used in the translation to clarify that these restrictions are limited to the priests, not to the Israelites in general (note the introductory formula, “say to the priests, the sons of Aaron”).

[21:1]  ¹⁰ tc The MT has “in his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.

[8:1]  ¹¹ sn Lev 8 is the fulfillment account of the ordination legislation recorded in Exod 29, and is directly connected to the command to ordain the tabernacle and priesthood in Exod 40:1-16 as well as the partial record of its fulfillment in Exod 40:17-38.

[4:9]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “produce of the field.”

[4:25]  ¹⁹ sn Elijah’s days. Jesus, by discussing Elijah and Elisha, pictures one of the lowest periods in Israel’s history. These examples, along with v. 24, also show that Jesus is making prophetic claims as well as messianic ones. See 1 Kgs 17-18.

[4:25]  ²⁰ tn Or “the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. Since the context here refers to a drought (which produced the famine), “sky” is preferable.

[4:25]  ²¹ tn Grk “as.” The particle ὡς can also function temporally (see BDAG 1105-6 s.v. 8).