Yeremia 12:12

12:12 A destructive army ¹  will come marching

over the hilltops in the desert.

For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon ² 

against ³  everyone from one end of the land to the other.

No one will be safe. ⁴ 

Yehezkiel 14:17

14:17 “Or suppose I were to bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through the land,’ and I were to kill both people and animals.

Yehezkiel 21:4

21:4 Because I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, my sword will go out from its sheath against everyone ⁵  from the south ⁶  to the north.

[12:12]  ¹ tn Heb “destroyers.”

[12:12]  ² tn Heb “It is the Lord’s consuming sword.”

[12:12]  ³ tn Heb “For a sword of the Lord will devour.” The sword is often symbolic for destructive forces of all kinds. Here and in Isa 34:6; Jer 47:6 it is symbolic of the enemy armies that the Lord uses to carry out destructive punishment against his enemies, hence the translation “his destructive weapon.” A similar figure is use in Isa 10:5 where the figure is more clearly identified; Assyria is the rod/club that the Lord will use to discipline unfaithful Israel.

[12:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “There is no peace to all flesh.”

[21:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “all flesh” (also in the following verse).

[21:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “Negev.” The Negev is the south country.