Bible Strands
Isaiah 9:20
They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses Judah during a moment of national collapse where the land is scorched by God's wrath and civil conflict has destroyed brotherly loyalty.
The words — The text records וַ/יִּגְזֹ֤ר (va/i.yig.Zor, "it devoured") and עַל\־ יָמִין֙ (al ya.Min, "on the right") paired with וְ/רָעֵ֔ב (ve./ra.'Ev, "it was hungry") to describe futile consumption.
The thread — This pattern of desperate, unsatisfied eating and familial cannibalism appears in Isaiah 49:26, Jeremiah 19:9, and Leviticus 26:26.
Why it lands — The text states that people carve out what is on the right and eat what is on the left yet remain hungry and unsatisfied, and each devours his own offspring. The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that human desperation in judgment produces only self-destruction while divine anger remains fixed.
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 he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
Cross-references
- Isaiah 49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
- 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.’
- 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.
- Isaiah 8:21 They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God.
- Lamentations 4:10 The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.