Lacking food and water, people will look at one another in terror, and they will waste away under their punishment.
Parallel translations
- WEB that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
- KJV That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.
- BSB So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.
- NKJV that they may lack bread and water, and be dismayed with one another, and waste away because of their iniquity.
- NASB because bread and water will be scarce; and they will tremble with one another and waste away in their guilt.
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
Lacking bread and water, the people will waste away in their guilt and despair. Famine becomes the visible fruit of their sin.
Overview
The verse describes the people pining away, dismayed and consumed by want because of their iniquity. Physical wasting mirrors the spiritual decay that sin produces in a rebellious nation. The passage warns that unrepented sin carries its own slow ruin, while pointing to the only true Bread of Life who satisfies what famine cannot touch.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Lev 26:39Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away with them.
- Ezek 24:23Your tires shall be on your heads, and your shoes on your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.
- Ezek 33:10You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: Thus you speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 4:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.