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Ezekiel 5:16

in Ezekiel 5

When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

when I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you. And I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread;

KJV

When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:

This verse in Ezekiel 5

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Ezekiel · Written before 420.

(Verse 16.) When I send the most destructive arrows of famine (the Vulgate adds 'against them'), which will be deadly, and I will send them to destroy you, and I will gather famine upon you, and I will break the staff (or rod) of bread. Famine and pestilence, and the most terrible beasts, and whatever other evils we endure in this world, it is clear that they come because of our sins.

This site's exposition

When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine

on Ezekiel 5:16-17

The chapter closes with four judgments named together, famine pictured as evil arrows shot to destroy, then evil beasts, then pestilence and blood, then the sword, the same fourfold set the book repeats at 14:21. Famine is described as increased rather than merely sent, and the staff of bread broken again, the same figure the previous chapter used for bread's collapse as life's support. Clarke reads the four together as deliberately exhaustive, no avenue of escape left open between war, hunger, wild beasts and disease. The closing formula, I the Lord have spoken it, seals the oracle exactly as it sealed the previous unit, framing the whole chapter as one sentence delivered in two movements.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

The evil arrows of famine - Famine and pestilence are represented as poisoned arrows, inflicting death wherever they wound. The ancients represented them in the same way.

The words behind it

20 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • בְּֽשַׁלְּחִ֡יwhen shoot I

    beshalechiH7971845 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • חִצֵּי֩[the] arrows of

    chitzeiH267153 times

  • הָרָעָ֨ב<the> famine

    haraavH7458101 times

  • הָרָעִ֤ים<the> harmful

    haraimH7451662 times

  • בָּהֶם֙on them

    bahem

  • אֲשֶׁ֣רwhich

    ʾasherH8345497 times

  • הָי֣וּthey will be

    hayuH19613559 times

  • לְמַשְׁחִ֔יתfor destruction

    lemashchitH488912 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־which

    ʾasher-H8345497 times

  • אֲשַׁלַּ֥חI will shoot

    ʾashalachH7971845 times

  • אוֹתָ֖ם<obj.> them

    ʾotamH85310935 times

  • לְשַֽׁחֶתְכֶ֑םto destroy you

    leshachetkhemH7843146 times

  • וְרָעָב֙and famine

    veraavH7458101 times

  • אֹסֵ֣ףI will increase

    ʾosefH3254212 times

  • עֲלֵיכֶ֔םon you

    ʾaleikhemH59215755 times

  • וְשָׁבַרְתִּ֥יand I will break

    veshavartiH7665147 times

  • לָכֶ֖םof you

    lakhem

  • מַטֵּה־staff of

    mateh-H4294252 times

  • לָֽחֶם׃bread

    lachemH3899298 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Ezekiel 14:13

    “Son of man, if a land sins against Me by acting unfaithfully, and I stretch out My hand against it to cut off its supply of food, to send famine upon it, and to…

    it leads to

    • Leviticus 26:26

      When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Ezekiel 4:16

      Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water…

  • Through

    Ezekiel 4:16

    Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water…

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 3:1

      For behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of food and water,

    • Psalms 105:16

      He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food.

  • Through

    2 Kings 6:25

    So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for…

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 14:18

      If I go out to the country, I see those slain by the sword; if I enter the city, I see those ravaged by famine! For both prophet and priest travel to a land…

    • Jeremiah 52:6

      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.

    • 2 Kings 6:28–29

      Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’

    • Jeremiah 14:13–15

      “Ah, Lord GOD!” I replied, “Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”

About Ezekiel

The Prophet Ezekiel — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Prophet Ezekiel — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.