52 “They shall (A)besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you. 53 (B)You shall eat the [a]fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. 54 The [b]sensitive and very refined man among you (C)will[c] be hostile toward his brother, toward (D)the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, 55 so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. 56 The [d]tender and [e]delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, [f]will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, 57 her [g]placenta which comes out (E)from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.

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Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 28:53 offspring
  2. Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit. tender
  3. Deuteronomy 28:54 Lit. his eye shall be evil toward
  4. Deuteronomy 28:56 sensitive
  5. Deuteronomy 28:56 refined
  6. Deuteronomy 28:56 Lit. her eye shall be evil toward
  7. Deuteronomy 28:57 afterbirth

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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