Yeremia 15:3

15:3 “I will punish them in four different ways: I will have war kill them. I will have dogs drag off their dead bodies. I will have birds and wild beasts devour and destroy their corpses. ¹ 

Yehezkiel 5:17

5:17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. ²  Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, ³  and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Yehezkiel 33:27

33:27 “This is what you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, those living in the ruins will die ⁴  by the sword, those in the open field I will give to the wild beasts for food, and those who are in the strongholds and caves will die of disease.

Amos 4:6-10

4:6 “But surely I gave ⁵  you no food to eat in any of your cities;

you lacked food everywhere you live. ⁶ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:7 “I withheld rain from you three months before the harvest. ⁷ 

I gave rain to one city, but not to another.

One field ⁸  would get rain, but the field that received no rain dried up.

4:8 People from ⁹  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ¹⁰  water,

but remained thirsty. ¹¹ 

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:9 “I destroyed your crops ¹²  with blight and disease.

Locusts kept ¹³  devouring your orchards, ¹⁴  vineyards, fig trees, and olive trees.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

4:10 “I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. ¹⁵ 

I killed your young men with the sword,

along with the horses you had captured.

I made the stench from the corpses ¹⁶  rise up into your nostrils.

Still you did not come back to me.”

The Lord is speaking!

Amos 6:8

6:8 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. ¹⁷ 

The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking:

“I despise Jacob’s arrogance;

I hate their ¹⁸  fortresses.

I will hand over to their enemies ¹⁹  the city of Samaria ²⁰  and everything in it.”

[15:3]  ¹ tn The translation attempts to render in understandable English some rather unusual uses of terms here. The verb translated “punish” is often used that way (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.A.3 and compare usage in Jer 11:22, 13:21). However, here it is accompanied by a direct object and a preposition meaning “over” which is usually used in the sense of appointing someone over someone (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.B.1 and compare usage in Jer 51:27). Moreover the word translated “different ways” normally refers to “families,” “clans,” or “guilds” (cf. BDB 1046-47 s.v. מִשְׁפָּחָה for usage). Hence the four things mentioned are referred to figuratively as officers or agents into whose power the Lord consigns them. The Hebrew text reads: “I will appoint over them four guilds, the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the birds of the skies and the beasts of the earth to devour and to destroy.”

[5:17]  ² tn Heb “will bereave you.”

[5:17]  ³ tn Heb “will pass through you.” This threat recalls the warning of Lev 26:22, 25 and Deut 32:24-25.

[33:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “fall.”

[4:6]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic (pronoun + verb). It underscores the stark contrast between the judgments that the Lord had been sending with the God of blessing Israel was celebrating in its worship (4:4-5).

[4:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “But I gave to you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of food in all your places.” The phrase “cleanness of teeth” is a vivid way of picturing the famine Israel experienced.

[4:7]  ⁷ sn Rain…three months before the harvest refers to the rains of late March-early April.

[4:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “portion”; KJV, ASV “piece”; NASB “part.” The same word occurs a second time later in this verse.

[4:8]  ⁹ tn The words “people from” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to drink.”

[4:8]  ¹¹ tn Or “were not satisfied.”

[4:9]  ¹² tn Heb “you.” By metonymy the crops belonging to these people are meant. See the remainder of this verse, which describes the agricultural devastation caused by locusts.

[4:9]  ¹³ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct is taken adverbially (“kept”) and connected to the activity of the locusts (NJPS). It also could be taken with the preceding sentence and related to the Lord’s interventions (“I kept destroying,” cf. NEB, NJB, NIV, NRSV), or it could be understood substantivally in construct with the following nouns (“Locusts devoured your many orchards,” cf. NASB; cf. also KJV, NKJV).

[4:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or “gardens.”

[4:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in the manner [or “way”] of Egypt.”

[4:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “of your camps [or “armies”].”

[6:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “swears by his life”; or “swears by himself.”

[6:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “his,” referring to Jacob, which stands here for the nation of Israel.

[6:8]  ¹⁹ tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[6:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the city”; this probably refers to the city of Samaria (cf. 6:1), which in turn, by metonymy, represents the entire northern kingdom.