Bible Strands
Ezekiel 5:10
As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through Ezekiel to rebellious Israel, pronouncing unprecedented judgment immediately following the warning of Ezekiel 5:9 and preceding the declaration in Ezekiel 5:11 about a defiled sanctuary and withdrawn mercy.
The words — The Hebrew לָ/כֵ֗ן (la./Khen) functions as "therefore," linking the coming disaster to prior sins, while יֹאכְל֤וּ (yo.khe.Lu) means "they will eat," describing the literal consumption of family members.
The thread — The text echoes the famine curse of Leviticus 26:29 and the scattering motif found in Zechariah 2:6 and Deuteronomy 28:64.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that covenant rebellion triggers irreversible divine judgment, forcing the reader to confront the concrete consequences of defiling sacred space and rejecting divine authority.
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
Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.
Cross-references
- Zechariah 2:6 “Get up! Get up! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the LORD, “for I have scattered you like the four winds of heaven,” declares the LORD.
- Leviticus 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
- Deuteronomy 28:64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
- Jeremiah 19:9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’
- Ezekiel 12:14 And I will scatter to every wind all the attendants around him and all his troops, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.
- Psalms 44:11 You have given us up as sheep to be devoured; You have scattered us among the nations.
- Ezekiel 5:2 When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.
- Ezekiel 36:19 I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered throughout the lands. I judged them according to their ways and deeds.
- Leviticus 26:33 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.
- Jeremiah 9:16 I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”