Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 28:26
Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the air and beasts of the earth, with no one to scare them away.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites on the plains of Moab, concluding the covenant blessings and curses just before they enter Canaan. He outlines the specific disasters that will follow their disobedience to the law.
The words — The text states that unburied bodies will serve as sustenance for scavengers. The Hebrew נִבְלָתְךָ (nivlatkha, "your corpse") and לְמַאֲכָל (lemakh'al, "as food") literally frame the dead as provision for birds and beasts.
The thread — This image of unburied corpses feeding birds and beasts recurs in Jeremiah 7:33, 16:4, and 34:20 as a marker of total judgment. Each reference repeats the same literal outcome of abandoned dead.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that covenant failure removes social order and human dignity. It requires the reader to accept that disobedience results in a death without mourning, burial, or protection.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 16:4 “They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”
- Jeremiah 34:20 I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.
- Jeremiah 7:33 The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away.
- Jeremiah 19:7 And in this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.
- Jeremiah 8:1 “At that time,” declares the LORD, “the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves.
- 1 Samuel 17:44 “Come here,” he called to David, “and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!”
- Psalms 79:1 A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
- Isaiah 34:3 Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood.
- Ezekiel 39:17 And as for you, son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: Call out to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great feast on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood.