By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.
Parallel translations
- WEB In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
- KJV And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
- BSB By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.
- NASB On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.
- NLT By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone.
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
By the fourth month a severe famine left no bread in the city. Hunger broke Jerusalem's ability to resist.
Overview
The famine fulfilled the covenant curses for unfaithfulness (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28) and the specific judgments Jeremiah announced. Bread, the staff of life, failing within the walls signals total collapse. The scene of a starving city points by contrast to Christ, the Bread of Life, who alone satisfies a people otherwise perishing under judgment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Isa 3:1For, behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water;
- Jer 39:2In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city),
- Jer 38:9“My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon. He is likely to die in the place where he is, because of the famine; for there is no more bread in the city.”
- 2 Kgs 25:3On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
- Jer 19:9I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, shall distress them.”’
- Deut 32:24They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
- Deut 28:52–53They will besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which Yahweh your God has given you.
- Lam 5:10Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.
- Lam 4:4–6The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst: The young children ask bread, and no man breaks it to them.
- Ezek 5:10–12Therefore the fathers will eat the sons within you, and the sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you; and I will scatter the whole remnant of you to all the winds.
- Ezek 4:9–17“Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you shall lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it.
- 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!
- Ezek 7:15“‘The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within. He who is in the field will die by the sword. He who is in the city will be devoured by famine and pestilence.
- Lev 26:26When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight. You shall eat, and not be satisfied.
- Zech 8:19Yahweh of Armies says: “The fasts of the fourth fifth, seventh, and tenth months shall be for the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.”
- Jer 21:9He who remains in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he who goes out, and passes over to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and he will escape with his life.
- Jer 25:10Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.
- Jer 15:2It shall happen, when they tell you, ‘Where shall we go out?’ Then you shall tell them, ‘Yahweh says: “Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.”’
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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 52:6 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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