This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming!
Parallel translations
- WEB “Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘An evil! A unique evil! Behold, it comes.
- KJV Thus saith the Lord GOD; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.
- NKJV “Thus says the Lord God: ‘A disaster, a singular disaster; Behold, it has come!
- NASB “This is what the Lord God says: ‘A disaster, a unique disaster, behold, it is coming!
- NLT “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Disaster after disaster is coming your way!
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 announces a singular, unprecedented disaster is coming. The judgment will be unlike anything before.
Overview
The Lord declares an evil, a uniquely severe calamity, is about to arrive. The emphatic language stresses the gravity and finality of this judgment on Judah. Such warnings of unparalleled disaster heighten the urgency of repentance and foreshadow the truth that sin's wages are uniquely dreadful apart from God's mercy.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Nah 1:9Whatever you plot against the LORD, He will bring to an end. Affliction will not rise up a second time.
- Ezek 5:9Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.
- 2 Kgs 21:12–13this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah that the news will reverberate in the ears of all who hear it.
- Dan 9:12You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.
- Matt 24:21For at that time there will be great tribulation, unmatched from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again.
- Amos 3:2“Only you have I known from all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 7:5 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.