Yeremia 9:21

9:21 ‘Death has climbed in ¹  through our windows.

It has entered into our fortified houses.

It has taken away our children who play in the streets.

It has taken away our young men who gather in the city squares.’

Yehezkiel 9:5-6

9:5 While I listened, he said to the others, ²  “Go through the city after him and strike people down; do no let your eye pity nor spare ³  anyone! 9:6 Old men, young men, young women, little children, and women – wipe them out! But do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary!” So they began with the elders who were at the front of the temple.

[9:21]  ¹ sn Here Death is personified (treated as though it were a person). Some have seen as possible background to this lament an allusion to Mesopotamian mythology where the demon Lamastu climbs in through the windows of houses and over their walls to kill children and babies.

[9:5]  ² tn Heb “to these he said in my ears.”

[9:5]  ³ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.