And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
- BSB But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.
- NKJV I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.
- NASB You, however, I will scatter among the nations, and I will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become ruins.
- NLT I will scatter you among the nations and bring out my sword against you. Your land will become desolate, and your cities will lie in ruins.
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 scatter Israel among the nations while their land lies waste. Exile is the climactic covenant curse.
Overview
Scattering among the nations describes the exile, the ultimate covenant judgment, with the sword pursuing and the land left desolate. This prophecy was fulfilled in the Assyrian and Babylonian deportations. Even so, the dispersion is not God's last word, for He promises to remember His covenant and gather a people, fulfilled in Christ who gathers the scattered into one.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Zech 7:14But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.
- Ezek 20:23I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries;
- Deut 28:64–66And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
- Deut 4:27And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.
- Ps 44:11Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
- Ezek 22:15And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.
- Lam 4:15They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.
- Luke 21:24And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
- Jer 9:16I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.
- Lam 1:3Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.
- Ezek 12:14–16And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.
- Jas 1:1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 26:33 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.