Jeremiah 18:21

¹⁹ Attend to me, O LORD. Hear what my accusers are saying!

²⁰ Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your wrath from them.

Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

²² Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.

²³ But You, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me. Do not wipe out their guilt or blot out their sin from Your sight. Let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.

This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.
KJV: Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
WEB: Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives become childless and widows. Let their men be killed and their young men struck by the sword in battle.
ASV: Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, [and] their young men smitten of the sword in battle.
DARBY: Therefore give up their children to the famine, and deliver them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of children and be widows; and let their men be swept off by death, their young men be smitten by the sword in battle.
BLB: Therefore give over their children to the famine, and pour out by the hand of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows, and let their men be put to death, and their young men struck down by the sword in the battle!

ÅB: Gi derfor deres barn til hungeren, og overgi dem selv i sverdets vold, og la deres hustruer bli barnløse og enker, og deres menn bli drept av pesten, deres ungdom bli slått ihjel av sverdet i krigen!
OTB: Derfor, overgi deres barn til hungersnød, og overgi dem til sverdets makt; la deres koner bli barnløse og enker. La deres menn bli drept, deres unge menn slått ned av sverdet i kamp.
B1930: Gi derfor deres barn til hungeren, og overgi dem selv i sverdets vold, og la deres hustruer bli barnløse og enker, og deres menn bli drept av pesten, deres ungdom bli slått ihjel av sverdet i krigen!

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Psalms 109:9–20
May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
Read in context
Deuteronomy 32:25
Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man.
Read in context
Jeremiah 9:21
For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the town squares.
Read in context
Jeremiah 16:3–4
For this is what the LORD says concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and the mothers who bore them, and the fathers who fathered them in this land:
Read in context
Amos 4:10
“I sent plagues among you like those of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
Read in context
Lamentations 5:3
We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.
Read in context
Exodus 22:24
My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will become widows and your children will be fatherless.
Read in context
Jeremiah 15:8
I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. I will bring a destroyer at noon against the mothers of young men. I will suddenly bring upon them anguish and dismay.
Read in context