Yesaya 5:5-6

5:5 Now I will inform you

what I am about to do to my vineyard:

I will remove its hedge and turn it into pasture, ¹ 

I will break its wall and allow animals to graze there. ² 

5:6 I will make it a wasteland;

no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, ³ 

and thorns and briers will grow there.

I will order the clouds

not to drop any rain on it.

Yesaya 5:9

5:9 The Lord who commands armies told me this: ⁴ 

“Many houses will certainly become desolate,

large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. ⁵ 

Yesaya 6:11

6:11 I replied, “How long, sovereign master?” He said,

“Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated,

and houses are uninhabited,

and the land is ruined and devastated,

Yesaya 24:10-12

24:10 The ruined town ⁶  is shattered;

all of the houses are shut up tight. ⁷ 

24:11 They howl in the streets because of what happened to the wine; ⁸ 

all joy turns to sorrow; ⁹ 

celebrations disappear from the earth. ¹⁰ 

24:12 The city is left in ruins; ¹¹ 

the gate is reduced to rubble. ¹² 

Imamat 26:34

26:34 “‘Then the land will make up for ¹³  its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths.

Ulangan 28:51

28:51 They ¹⁴  will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, ¹⁵  or lambs of your flocks ¹⁶  until they have destroyed you.

Ulangan 28:2

28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance ¹⁷  if you obey the Lord your God:

Ulangan 28:5

28:5 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed.

Ulangan 28:16-21

28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 28:18 Your children ¹⁸  will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ¹⁹ 

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you ²⁰  in everything you undertake ²¹  until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. ²²  28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases ²³  until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess.

Mazmur 107:34

107:34 and a fruitful land into a barren place, ²⁴ 

because of the sin of its inhabitants.

Mazmur 107:39

107:39 As for their enemies, ²⁵  they decreased in number and were beaten down,

because of painful distress ²⁶  and suffering.

Yeremia 6:8

6:8 So ²⁷  take warning, Jerusalem,

or I will abandon you in disgust ²⁸ 

and make you desolate,

a place where no one can live.”

[5:5]  ¹ tn Heb “and it will become [a place for] grazing.” בָּעַר (ba’ar, “grazing”) is a homonym of the more often used verb “to burn.”

[5:5]  ² tn Heb “and it will become a trampled place” (NASB “trampled ground”).

[5:6]  ³ tn Heb “it will not be pruned or hoed” (so NASB); ASV and NRSV both similar.

[5:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “in my ears, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”

[5:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “great and good [houses], without a resident.”

[24:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “the city of chaos” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV). Isaiah uses the term תֹּהוּ (tohu) rather frequently of things (like idols) that are empty and worthless (see BDB 1062 s.v.), so the word might characterize the city as rebellious or morally worthless. However, in this context, which focuses on the effects of divine judgment, it probably refers to the ruined or worthless condition in which the city is left (note the use of the word in Isa 34:11). For a discussion of the identity of this city, see R. Chisholm, “The ‘Everlasting Covenant’ and the ‘City of Chaos’: Intentional Ambiguity and Irony in Isaiah 24,” CTR 6 (1993): 237-53. In the context of universal judgment depicted in Isa 24, this city represents all the nations and cities of the world which, like Babylon of old and the powers/cities mentioned in chapters 13-23, rebel against God’s authority. Behind the stereotypical language one can detect various specific manifestations of this symbolic and paradigmatic city, including Babylon, Moab, and Jerusalem, all of which are alluded or referred to in chapters 24-27.

[24:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “every house is closed up from entering.”

[24:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “[there is] an outcry over the wine in the streets.”

[24:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “all joy turns to evening,” the darkness of evening symbolizing distress and sorrow.

[24:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the joy of the earth disappears.”

[24:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and there is left in the city desolation.”

[24:12]  ¹² tn Heb “and [into] rubble the gate is crushed.”

[26:34]  ¹³ tn There are two Hebrew roots רָצָה (ratsah), one meaning “to be pleased with; to take pleasure” (HALOT 1280-81 s.v. רצה; cf. “enjoy” in NASB, NIV, NRSV, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452), and the other meaning “to restore” (HALOT 1281-82 s.v. II רצה; cf. NAB “retrieve” and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 189).

[28:51]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).

[28:51]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “increase of herds.”

[28:51]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “growth of flocks.”

[28:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

[28:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:19]  ¹⁹ sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.

[28:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

[28:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

[28:20]  ²² tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.

[28:20]  tn Heb “the evil of your doings wherein you have forsaken me”; CEV “all because you rejected the Lord.”

[28:21]  ²³ tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”

[107:34]  ²⁴ tn Heb “a salty land.”

[107:39]  ²⁵ tn The words “As for their enemies” are not included in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity. Without such clarification, one might think that v. 39 refers to those just mentioned in v. 38 as objects of divine blessing, which would contradict the point just emphasized by the psalmist. The structure of vv. 33-42 is paneled (A-B-A-B). In vv. 33-34 the psalmist describes God’s judgment upon his enemies (perhaps those who had enslaved his people). In vv. 35-38 he contrasts this judgment with the divine blessing poured out on God’s people. (See the note on the word “people” in v. 35.) In vv. 39-40 he contrasts this blessing with the judgment experienced by enemies, before returning in vv. 41-42 to the blessing experienced by God’s people.

[107:39]  ²⁶ tn Heb “from the oppression of calamity.”

[6:8]  ²⁷ tn This word is not in the text but is supplied in the translation. Jeremiah uses a figure of speech (enallage) where the speaker turns from talking about someone to address him/her directly.

[6:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “lest my soul [= I] becomes disgusted with you.”

[6:8]  sn The wordplay begun with “sound…in Tekoa” in v. 1 and continued with “they will pitch” in v. 3 is concluded here with “turn away” (וּבִתְקוֹעַ תִּקְעוּ [uvitqoa’ tiq’u] in v. 1, תָּקְעוּ [taq’u] in v. 3 and תֵּקַע [teqa’] here).