Leviticus 26:29

26:29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 28:53-57

28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ²  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ³  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 ⁴  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ⁵  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, ⁶  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ⁷  and her newborn children ⁸  (since she has nothing else), ⁹  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

Isaiah 9:20-21

9:20 They devoured ¹⁰  on the right, but were still hungry,

they ate on the left, but were not satisfied.

People even ate ¹¹  the flesh of their own arm! ¹² 

9:21 Manasseh fought against ¹³  Ephraim,

and Ephraim against Manasseh;

together they fought against Judah.

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 49:15

49:15 Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast? ¹⁵ 

Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne? ¹⁶ 

Even if mothers ¹⁷  were to forget,

I could never forget you! ¹⁸ 

Lamentations 4:10

י (Yod)

4:10 The hands of tenderhearted women ¹⁹ 

cooked their own children,

who became their food, ²⁰ 

when my people ²¹  were destroyed. ²² 

Ezekiel 5:10

5:10 Therefore fathers will eat their sons within you, Jerusalem, ²³  and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you, and I will scatter any survivors ²⁴  to the winds. ²⁵ 

Matthew 24:18-21

24:18 and the one in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. 24:19 Woe ²⁶  to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days! 24:20 Pray ²⁷  that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. 24:21 For then there will be great suffering ²⁸  unlike anything that has happened ²⁹  from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen.

Luke 23:29

23:29 For this is certain: ³⁰  The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’ ³¹ 

[26:29]  ¹ 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.

[28:53]  ² tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ³ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ⁴ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ⁵ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ⁶ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ⁷ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ⁸ tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ⁹ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

[9:20]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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.

[9:21]  ¹³ tn The words “fought against” are supplied in the translation both here and later in this verse for stylistic reasons.

[9:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched” (KJV and ASV both similar); NIV “his hand is still upraised.”

[49:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “her suckling”; NASB “her nursing child.”

[49:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb?”

[49:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “these” (so ASV, NASB).

[49:15]  ¹⁸ sn The argument of v. 15 seems to develop as follows: The Lord has an innate attachment to Zion, just like a mother does for her infant child. But even if mothers were to suddenly abandon their children, the Lord would never forsake Zion. In other words, the Lord’s attachment to Zion is like a mother’s attachment to her infant child, but even stronger.

[4:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the hands of compassionate women.”

[4:10]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”

[4:10]  ²² tn Heb “in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

[5:10]  ²³ tn In context “you” refers to the city of Jerusalem. To make this clear for the modern reader, “Jerusalem” has been supplied in the translation in apposition to “you.”

[5:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “all of your survivors.”

[5:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to every wind.”

[24:19]  ²⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[24:20]  ²⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[24:21]  ²⁸ tn Traditionally, “great tribulation.”

[24:21]  ²⁹ sn Suffering unlike anything that has happened. Some refer this event to the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. While the events of a.d. 70 may reflect somewhat the comments Jesus makes here, the reference to the scope and severity of this judgment strongly suggest that much more is in view. Most likely Jesus is referring to the great end-time judgment on Jerusalem in the great tribulation.

[23:29]  ³⁰ tn Grk “For behold.”

[23:29]  ³¹ tn Grk “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not nursed!”