Ezekiel 5:16

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.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Yahweh addresses the exiled prophet Ezekiel to pronounce judgment against Jerusalem and its inhabitants. The declaration functions as the third clause in a sequence detailing the city's impending desolation and the surrounding nations' response to divine wrath.

The words — The phrase חִצֵּי הָרָעִים (chi.Tzei ha.ra.'Im) literally renders "arrows of the harmful" or "deadly arrows." It is syntactically bound to בְּשַׁלְּחִי (be./sha.le.Ch/i), meaning "when I shoot/send," which frames famine as a directed weapon rather than a natural occurrence.

The thread — The arrow imagery for disaster aligns with Deuteronomy 32:23, where God spends arrows as disasters, and mirrors the measured bread in Leviticus 26:26 and Ezekiel 4:16. The judgment escalates in Ezekiel 5:17, where famine, wild beasts, plague, and bloodshed compound the cut-off of sustenance.

Why it lands — The text states that God actively intensifies famine and severs food supply to execute destruction. It requires the reader to acknowledge that scarcity and starvation are deliberate instruments of divine judgment, not accidental circumstances.

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

בְּֽשַׁלְּחִ֡יbe./sha.le.Ch/iwhen/ shoot/ I אֶת־'et-<obj.>חִצֵּי֩chi.Tzei[the] arrows of הָרָעָ֨בha./ra.'Av<the>/ famine הָרָעִ֤יםha./ra.'Im<the>/ harmfulבָּהֶם֙ba./Hemon/ themאֲשֶׁ֣ר'a.Sherwhich הָי֣וּha.Yuthey will be לְמַשְׁחִ֔יתle./mash.Chitfor/ destruction אֲשֶׁר־'a.Sher-which אֲשַׁלַּ֥ח'a.sha.LachI will shoot אוֹתָ֖ם'o.Ta/m<obj.>/ them לְשַֽׁחֶתְכֶ֑םle./sha.chet./Khemto/ destroy/ you וְרָעָב֙ve./ra.'Avand/ famine אֹסֵ֣ף'o.SefI will increase עֲלֵיכֶ֔ם'a.lei./Khemon/ you וְשָׁבַרְתִּ֥יve./sha.var.Tiand/ I will breakלָכֶ֖םla./Khemof/ youמַטֵּה־ma.teh-staff of לָֽחֶם׃La.chembread

King James Version

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:

Cross-references

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 by measure.
Deuteronomy 32:23 I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.
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.
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 five shekels of silver.
Psalms 7:13 He has prepared His deadly weapons; He ordains His arrows with fire.
Psalms 91:5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
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,
Lamentations 3:12 He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.
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 cut off from it both man and beast,