Limitless Word
I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”
Ezekiel 5:17 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB I 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.’”
  • KJV So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.
  • NKJV So I will send against you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”
  • NASB I will send on you famine and vicious animals, and they will bereave you of children; plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”
  • NLT And along with the famine, wild animals will attack you and rob you of your children. Disease and war will stalk your land, and I will bring the sword of the enemy against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

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 will send famine, wild beasts, plague, bloodshed, and the sword against Jerusalem. The covenant curses fall together in full measure.

Overview

The Lord lists the converging judgments of famine, predatory animals, pestilence, and war that will bereave the city. These echo the covenant curses of Leviticus 26, now coming upon a people who broke faith. The verse closes the oracle with 'I, Yahweh, have spoken it,' grounding the certainty of judgment in God's own unfailing word.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 24

  • Ezek 38:22I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed. I will pour out torrents of rain, hailstones, fire, and sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.
  • Ezek 33:27Tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘As surely as I live, those in the ruins will fall by the sword, those in the open field I will give to be devoured by wild animals, and those in the strongholds and caves will die by plague.
  • Lev 26:22I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.
  • Deut 32:24They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.
  • Ezek 14:15Or 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,
  • Ezek 14:21For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it both man and beast?
  • 2 Kgs 17:25Now when the settlers first lived there, they did not worship the LORD, so He sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
  • Ezek 21:3and tell her that this is what the LORD says: ‘I am against you, and I will draw My sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.
  • Ezek 5:15So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.
  • Ezek 5:12–13A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.
  • Ezek 37:14I will put My Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.’”
  • Ezek 34:25–28I will make with them a covenant of peace and rid the land of wild animals, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest.
  • Ezek 26:14I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread the fishing nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I, the LORD, have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.’
  • Ezek 17:21All his choice troops will fall by the sword, and those who survive will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken.’
  • Exod 23:29I will not drive them out before you in a single year; otherwise the land would become desolate and wild animals would multiply against you.
  • Ezek 21:32You will be fuel for the fire. Your blood will stain your own land. You will not be remembered, for I, the LORD, have spoken.’”
  • Matt 24:35Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
  • Jer 15:3I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
  • Ezek 6:12He who is far off will die by the plague, he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains will die by famine. So I will vent My fury upon them.
  • Ezek 14:19Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out My wrath upon it through bloodshed, cutting off from it both man and beast,
  • Ezek 23:47The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses.
  • Ezek 30:12I will make the streams dry up and sell the land to the wicked. By the hands of foreigners I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it. I, the LORD, have spoken.
  • Ezek 22:14Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will act.
  • Ezek 17:24Then all the trees of the field will know that I am the LORD. I bring the tall tree down and make the low tree tall. I dry up the green tree and make the withered tree flourish. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done it.’”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Ezekiel videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Ezekiel 5:17YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on EzekielMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 5:17 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.