Add parallel Print Page Options

17 Therefore, thus says the Lord: You for your part did not obey me by proclaiming freedom for your families and neighbors. So I now proclaim freedom for you—oracle of the Lord—for the sword, starvation, and disease. I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18 [a]Those who violated my covenant and did not observe the terms of the covenant they made in my presence—I will make them like the calf which they cut in two so they could pass between its parts— 19 the princes of Judah and of Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf. 20 These I will hand over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives: their corpses shall become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.(A)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 34:18–19 Both the Old Testament (Gn 15:10–17) and the eighth century B.C. Sefire inscription indicate that sometimes contracting parties ratified an agreement by walking between dismembered animals, invoking upon themselves the animals’ fate if they failed to keep their word. The covenant: that mentioned in vv. 10, 15.

17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you,(A) declares the Lord—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague(B) and famine.(C) I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.(D) 18 Those who have violated my covenant(E) and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.(F) 19 The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials,(G) the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, 20 I will deliver(H) into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them.(I) Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.(J)

Read full chapter