“If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they empty it, and make it so desolate that no man may pass through because of the beasts,
Parallel translations
- WEB “If I cause evil animals to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it is made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of the animals;
- KJV If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts:
- BSB Or if I send wild beasts through the land to leave it childless and desolate, with no man passing through it for fear of the beasts,
- NASB “If I were to cause vicious animals to pass through the land and they depopulated it, and it became desolate so that no one would pass through it because of the animals,
- NLT “Or suppose I were to send wild animals to invade the country, kill the people, and make the land too desolate and dangerous to pass through.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God describes wild beasts as one of His judgments that empties a land. Sin invites desolation.
Overview
This is the first of four covenant curses (compare Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 32) that God threatens. When the LORD removes His protective restraint, even the created order turns hostile and the land becomes impassable. It underscores that ecological and social ruin can be instruments of divine discipline against persistent rebellion.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Lev 26:22I will send the wild animals among you, which will rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number. Your roads will become desolate.
- Ezek 5:17I will send on you famine and evil animals, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood will pass through you; and I will bring the sword on you. I, Yahweh, have spoken it.’”
- Jer 15:3“I will appoint over them four kinds,” says Yahweh: “the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.
- 2 Kgs 17:25So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they didn’t fear Yahweh. Therefore Yahweh sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
- 1 Kgs 20:36Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed Yahweh’s voice, behold, as soon as you have departed from me, a lion will kill you.” As soon as he had departed from him, a lion found him and killed him.
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Original language
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