Deuteronomy 28:26 - Your dead body shall be food to all

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Deuteronomy 28:26.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.

And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.

ASV

And thy dead body shall be food unto all birds of the heavens, and unto the beasts of the earth; and there shall be none to frighten them away.

DRA

And be thy carcass meat for all the Fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, and be there none to drive them away.

DBY

And thy carcase shall be meat unto all the fowl of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no man to scare them away.

ERV

And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to fray them away.

WBT

And thy carcass shall be food to all fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the earth, and no man shall drive them away.

YLT

and thy carcase hath been for food to every fowl of the heavens, and to the beast of the earth, and there is none causing trembling.

AKJV

And your carcass shall be meat to all fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.

BBE

Your bodies will be meat for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth; there will be no one to send them away.

JPS

And thy carcasses shall be food unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to frighten them away.

CPDV

And may your carcass be food for all the flying things of the air and the wild beasts of the land, and may there be no one to drive them away.

Latin

Erit praterea cadaver tuum esca omni volucri coeli et animali terrae, nec erit qui absterreat.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.

Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1561)

And thy carcase shall be meat. The punishment is here doubled by the disgrace which is added to death; for it is ignominious to be deprived of burial, and justly reckoned amongst the curses of God; whilst it is a sign of His paternal favor that we should be distinguished from the brutes, inasmuch as the rites of burial arouse us to the hope of resurrection and everlasting life. Wherefore, on the contrary, God deprives of burial those whom He curses. But as we have said that punishments affecting the body are common to the pious and the reprobate, so also we must think of being deprived of sepulture, since it sometimes happens that the reprobate are honorably buried, as Christ relates of the luxurious Dives, (Luke 16:22,) whilst the bodies of the pious are ignominiously cast a prey for birds and beasts; as the Prophet complains in Psalm 79:2. Still such an interchange does not prevent God from avenging the contempt of His Law by this mode of punishment, as by pestilence, famine, or sword.

Geneva Bible Translation Notes (1599)

And thy (m) carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray [them] away.
(m) You will be cursed both in your life and in your death: for the burial is a testimony of the resurrection a sign you will lack because of your wickedness.

John Gill's Exposition (1746-63)

And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth,.... Which was always reckoned a very grievous calamity, have no other burial than in the bowels of beasts and birds; and was the case of many of the Jews in the Antiochian persecution, Psalm 79:2; and in a treatise of theirs (h), which relates their many afflictions and sufferings in their present captivity, speaking of a persecution of them in Spain, in the Jewish year 5172, it is reported, how that those that fled to avoid punishment were killed in the fields, where their carcasses lying unburied became a prey to beasts:
and no man shall fray them away; the fowls and the beasts; none of their friends being left to do it, and their enemies would not show so much respect to them, and care of them.
(h) Shebat Judahm sive Hist. Jude. a Gentio, sect. 46. p. 312.

*More commentary available at chapter level.