“And I will appoint over them four forms of destruction,” says the Lord: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
Parallel translations
- WEB “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.
- KJV And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.
- BSB I 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.
- NASB And I will appoint over them four kinds of doom,” declares the Lord: “the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth to devour and destroy.
- NLT “I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” says the Lord. “I will send the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the vultures to devour, and the wild animals to finish up what is left.
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 appoints four agents of destruction: the sword to kill, dogs to drag, and birds and beasts to devour. The judgment will be both deadly and utterly degrading.
Overview
The imagery of corpses left to scavenging animals signifies the deepest dishonor in the ancient world, the opposite of a proper burial. This intensifies the horror of the judgment that Judah's sin has provoked. While sobering, it magnifies by contrast the mercy of the gospel, in which Christ bore the curse and shame so that His people might be spared and honored in Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Deut 28:26Your dead body will be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there will be no one to frighten them away.
- Lev 26:16I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.
- 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 14:21For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “How much more when I send my four severe judgments on Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the evil animals, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and animal!
- Lev 26:25I will bring a sword upon you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant. You will be gathered together within your cities, and I will send the pestilence among you. You will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
- Rev 6:8And behold, a pale horse, and he who sat on it, his name was Death. Hades followed with him. Authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with death, and by the wild animals of the earth was given to him.
- Jer 7:33The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and no one shall frighten them away.
- 1 Kgs 21:23–24Yahweh also spoke of Jezebel, saying, “The dogs will eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel.
- Isa 18:6They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will summer on them, and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.
- Rev 19:17–18I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, “Come! Be gathered together to the great supper of God,
- Isa 56:9–10All you animals of the field, come to devour, all you animals in the forest.
- 2 Kgs 9:35–37They went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands.
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 15:3 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
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