Bible Strands
Leviticus 26:29
You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — YHWH speaks this declaration to Israel through Moses during the covenant curse sequence in the wilderness. The statement follows the promise of sevenfold punishment and precedes the desecration of their worship sites.
The words — The Hebrew verbs אֲכַלְתֶּם (’ăḵaltem) and תֹאכֵלוּ (’ōḵēlū) both translate literally as "you will eat," reinforcing the inevitability of the action. The noun בְּשַׂר (bəśar) means "flesh," specifying that the consumption involves human tissue.
The thread — The same famine curse appears in Deuteronomy 28:53, Lamentations 4:10, and Ezekiel 5:10. Each passage applies the identical phrase to Israel’s historical or prophetic judgment.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to acknowledge covenant violation as the direct cause of extreme physical devastation. It demands acceptance of the statement as a factual warning of consequence before any theological or moral application.
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 ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 28:53 Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you.
- 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.
- 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.’
- Matthew 24:19 How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
- 2 Kings 6:28 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 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.’
- Lamentations 2:20 Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- Luke 23:29 Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’