52 “They shall (A)besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you. 53 And (B)you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, (C)in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. 54 The man who is the most tender and refined among you will (D)begrudge food to his brother, to (E)the wife he embraces,[a] and to the last of the children whom he has left, 55 so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, (F)in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. 56 (G)The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces,[b] to her son and to her daughter, 57 her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, (H)in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:54 Hebrew the wife of his bosom
  2. Deuteronomy 28:56 Hebrew the husband of her bosom

52 They will lay siege(A) to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.(B)

53 Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you.(C) 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities.(D) 56 The most gentle and sensitive(E) woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter(F) 57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them(G) secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.

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