Ulangan 28:20

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you ¹  in everything you undertake ²  until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. ³ 

Yesaya 3:8-11

3:8 Jerusalem certainly stumbles,

Judah falls,

for their words and their actions offend the Lord; ⁴ 

they rebel against his royal authority. ⁵ 

3:9 The look on their faces ⁶  testifies to their guilt; ⁷ 

like the people of Sodom they openly boast of their sin. ⁸ 

Too bad for them! ⁹ 

For they bring disaster on themselves.

3:10 Tell the innocent ¹⁰  it will go well with them, ¹¹ 

for they will be rewarded for what they have done. ¹² 

3:11 Too bad for the wicked sinners!

For they will get exactly what they deserve. ¹³ 

Yeremia 4:4

4:4 Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin

as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment,

you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord

and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me, ¹⁴ 

people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

If you do not, ¹⁵  my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you

that no one will be able to extinguish.

That will happen because of the evil you have done.”

Yeremia 18:8-11

18:8 But if that nation I threatened stops doing wrong, ¹⁶  I will cancel the destruction ¹⁷  I intended to do to it. 18:9 And there are times when I promise to build up and establish ¹⁸  a nation or kingdom. 18:10 But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it. 18:11 So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem ¹⁹  this: The Lord says, ‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. ²⁰  So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. ²¹  Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.’ ²² 

Yehezkiel 20:43

20:43 And there you will remember your conduct ²³  and all your deeds by which you defiled yourselves. You will despise yourselves ²⁴  because of all the evil deeds you have done.

Hosea 9:15

9:15 Because of all their evil in Gilgal,

I hate them there.

On account of their evil deeds,

I will drive them out of my land. ²⁵ 

I will no longer love them;

all their rulers are rebels.

Hosea 2:6-11

The Lord’s Discipline Will Bring Israel Back

2:6 Therefore, I will soon ²⁶  fence her in ²⁷  with thorns;

I will wall her in ²⁸  so that ²⁹  she cannot find her way. ³⁰ 

2:7 Then she will pursue her lovers, but she will not catch ³¹  them;

she will seek them, but she will not find them. ³² 

Then she will say,

“I will go back ³³  to my husband, ³⁴ 

because I was better off then than I am now.” ³⁵ 

Agricultural Fertility Withdrawn from Israel

2:8 Yet ³⁶  until now ³⁷  she has refused to acknowledge ³⁸  that I ³⁹  was the one

who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil;

and that it was I who ⁴⁰  lavished on her the silver and gold –

which they ⁴¹  used in worshiping Baal! ⁴² 

2:9 Therefore, I will take back ⁴³  my grain during the harvest time ⁴⁴ 

and my new wine when it ripens; ⁴⁵ 

I will take away my wool and my flax

which I had provided ⁴⁶  in order to clothe her. ⁴⁷ 

2:10 Soon ⁴⁸  I will expose her lewd nakedness ⁴⁹  in front of her lovers,

and no one will be able to rescue her from me! ⁵⁰ 

2:11 I will put an end to all her celebration:

her annual religious festivals,

monthly new moon celebrations,

and weekly Sabbath festivities –

all her appointed festivals.

[28:20]  ¹ tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

[28:20]  ² tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

[28:20]  ³ tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.

[28:20]  tn Heb “the evil of your doings wherein you have forsaken me”; CEV “all because you rejected the Lord.”

[3:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “for their tongue and their deeds [are] to the Lord.”

[3:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “to rebel [against] the eyes of his majesty.” The word כָּבוֹד (kavod) frequently refers to the Lord’s royal splendor that is an outward manifestation of his authority as king.

[3:9]  ⁶ sn This refers to their proud, arrogant demeanor.

[3:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “answers against them”; NRSV “bears witness against them.”

[3:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “their sin, like Sodom, they declare, they do not conceal [it].”

[3:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “woe to their soul.”

[3:10]  ¹⁰ tn Or “the righteous” (KJV, NASB, NIV, TEV); NLT “those who are godly.”

[3:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “that it is good.”

[3:10]  ¹² tn Heb “for the fruit of their deeds they will eat.”

[3:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “for the work of his hands will be done to him.”

[4:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskin of your heart.” The translation is again an attempt to bring out the meaning of a metaphor. The mention of the “foreskin of the heart” shows that the passage is obviously metaphorical and involves heart attitude, not an external rite.

[4:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “lest.”

[18:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “turns from its wickedness.”

[18:8]  ¹⁷ tn There is a good deal of debate about how the word translated here “revoke” should be translated. There is a good deal of reluctance to translate it “change my mind” because some see that as contradicting Num 23:19 and thus prefer “relent.” However, the English word “relent” suggests the softening of an attitude but not necessarily the change of course. It is clear that in many cases (including here) an actual change of course is in view (see, e.g., Amos 7:3, 6; Jonah 3:9; Jer 26:19; Exod 13:17; 32:14). Several of these passages deal with “conditional” prophecies where a change in behavior of the people or the mediation of a prophet involves the change in course of the threatened punishment (or the promised benefit). “Revoke” or “forgo” may be the best way to render this in contemporary English idiom.

[18:8]  sn There is a wordplay here involving the word “evil” (רָעָה, ra’ah) which refers to both the crime and the punishment. This same play is carried further in Jonah 3:10-4:1 where Jonah becomes very displeased (Heb “it was very evil to Jonah with great evil”) when God forgoes bringing disaster (evil) on Nineveh because they have repented of their wickedness (evil).

[18:9]  ¹⁸ sn Heb “plant.” The terms “uproot,” “tear down,” “destroy,” “build,” and “plant” are the two sides of the ministry Jeremiah was called to (cf. Jer 1:10).

[18:11]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[18:11]  ²⁰ sn Heb “I am forming disaster and making plans against you.” The word translated “forming” is the same as that for “potter,” so there is a wordplay taking the reader back to v. 5. They are in his hands like the clay in the hands of the potter. Since they have not been pliable he forms new plans. He still offers them opportunity to repent; but their response is predictable.

[18:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “Turn, each one from his wicked way.” See v. 8.

[18:11]  ²² tn Or “Make good your ways and your actions.” See the same expression in 7:3, 5.

[20:43]  ²³ tn Heb “ways.”

[20:43]  ²⁴ tn Heb “loathe yourselves in your faces.”

[9:15]  ²⁵ tn Heb “out of my house” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV, NCV, NLT “my land.”

[2:6]  ²⁶ tn The deictic particle הִנְנִי (hinni, “Behold!”) introduces a future-time reference participle that refers to imminent future action: “I am about to” (TEV “I am going to”).

[2:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “I will hedge up her way”; NIV “block her path.”

[2:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I will wall in her wall.” The cognate accusative construction וְגָדַרְתִּי אֶת־גְּדֵרָהּ (vÿgadarti ’et-gÿderah, “I will wall in her wall”) is an emphatic literary device. The 3rd person feminine singular suffix on the noun functions as a dative of disadvantage: “as a wall against her” (A. B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax, 3, remark 2). The expression means “I will build a wall to bar her way.” Cf. KJV “I will make a wall”; TEV “I will build a wall”; RSV, NASB, NRSV “I will build a wall against her”; NLT “I will fence her in.”

[2:6]  ²⁹ tn The disjunctive clause (object followed by negated verb) introduces a clause which can be understood as either purpose or result.

[2:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “her paths” (so NAB, NRSV).

[2:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “overtake” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NLT “be able to catch up with.”

[2:7]  ³² tn In the Hebrew text the accusative direct object pronoun אֹתָם (’otam, “them”) is omitted/elided for balanced poetic parallelism. The LXX supplies αὐτους (autous, “them”); but it is not necessary to emend the MT because this is a poetic literary convention rather than a textual problem.

[2:7]  ³³ tn Heb “I will go and return” (so NRSV). The two verbs joined with vav form a verbal hendiadys. Normally, the first verb functions adverbially and the second retains its full verbal sense (GKC 386-87 §120.d, h). The Hebrew phrase אֵלְכָה וְאָשׁוּבָה (’elkhah vÿ’ashuvah, “I will go and I will return”) connotes, “I will return again.” As cohortatives, both verbs emphasize the resolution of the speaker.

[2:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “to my man, the first.” Many English translations (e.g., KJV, NAB, NRSV, TEV) take this as “my first husband,” although this implies that there was more than one husband involved. The text refers to multiple lovers, but these were not necessarily husbands.

[2:7]  ³⁵ tn Or “because it was better for me then than now” (cf. NCV).

[2:8]  ³⁶ tn Or “For” (so KJV, NASB); or “But” (so NCV).

[2:8]  ³⁷ tn The phrase “until now” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[2:8]  ³⁸ tn Heb “she does not know” (so NASB, NCV); or “she does not acknowledge.”

[2:8]  ³⁹ tn The 1st person common singular independent personal pronoun אָנֹכִי (’anokhi, “I”) is emphatic, since the subject of this verbal clause is already explicit in the verb נָתַתִּי (natatti, Qal perfect 1st person common singular: “I gave”).

[2:8]  ⁴⁰ tn The phrase “that it was I who” does not appear in the Hebrew text here, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[2:8]  ⁴¹ sn The third person plural here is an obvious reference to the Israelites who had been unfaithful to the Lord in spite of all that he had done for them. To maintain the imagery of Israel as the prostitute, a third person feminine singular would be called for; in the interest of literary consistency this has been supplied in some English translations (e.g., NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[2:8]  ⁴² tn Heb “for Baal” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); cf. TEV “in the worship of Baal.”

[2:9]  ⁴³ tn Heb “I will return and I will take.” The two verbs joined with vav conjunction form a verbal hendiadys in which the first verb functions adverbially and the second retains its full verbal sense (GKC 386-87 §120.d, h): אָשׁוּב וְלָקַחְתִּי (’ashuv vÿlaqakhti) means “I will take back.”

[2:9]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “in its time” (so NAB, NRSV).

[2:9]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “in its season” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[2:9]  ⁴⁶ tn The words “which I had provided” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons; cf. NIV “intended to cover.”

[2:9]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “to cover her nakedness” (so KJV and many other English versions); TEV “for clothing.”

[2:9]  sn This announcement of judgment is extremely ironic and forcefully communicates poetic justice: The punishment will fit the crime. The Israelites were literally uncovering their nakedness in temple prostitution in the Baal fertility cult rituals. Yahweh will, in effect, give them what they wanted (nakedness) but not in the way they wanted it: Yahweh will withhold the agricultural fertility they sought from Baal which would lead to nakedness caused by impoverishment.

[2:10]  ⁴⁸ tn The particle עַתָּה (’attah) often refers to the imminent or the impending future: “very soon” (BDB 774 s.v. עַתָּה 1.b). In Hosea it normally introduces imminent judgment (Hos 2:12; 4:16; 5:7; 8:8, 13; 10:2).

[2:10]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “her lewdness” (so KJV, NIV); NAB, NRSV “her shame.”

[2:10]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “out of my hand” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); TEV “save her from my power.”