Deuteronomy 32:23
in Deuteronomy 32I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I will heap evils upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them:
KJV
I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
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This verse in Deuteronomy 32
Commentary
7 notes on this verseThe Divinity is not angry, as some suppose, but when he makes so many threats he is only making an appeal and showing humankind the things that are to be accomplished. Such a procedure is surely good, for it instills fear to keep us away from sin.
This site's exposition
For a fire has been kindled by My anger
on Deuteronomy 32:22-23
Chapter 28 gave these same judgments as the consequences of a broken covenant. The song gives them as the act of a person who is angry, and arrows spent upon them makes God the archer.
This site's exposition
I will spend My arrows against them
Verse 24 names what the arrows are, and Adam Clarke counts them one by one as famine, fever, plague, beasts and serpents. Ezekiel 5:16 calls famine an arrow in the same way. Clement of Alexandria read such threats as an appeal meant to keep people from sin.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
7 ), reaching those at a distance who flatter themselves with hopes of escaping them, Ps. xxi. They come from an unseen hand, but wound mortally, for God never misses his mark, 1 Kings xxii. The particular judgments here threatened are, (1.) Famine: they shall be burnt, or parched, with hunger.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens
I will heap mischief upon them,.... One calamity upon another, which are after particularly mentioned: I will spewed mine arrows upon them; God is here represented as an enemy to the Jews, as having bent his bow against them like an enemy, Lam 2:4; and as having a quiver, and that full of arrows, and as determined to draw out and spend everyone of them, in taking vengeance upon them; which arrows are his four sore judgments mentioned Eze 14:21; and expressed in Deu 32:24.
A promise of the destruction of their enemies and oppressors at last, and the glorious deliverance of a remnant of Israel,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
I will spend mine arrows upon them - The judgments of God in general are termed the arrows of God, Job 6:4; Psa 38:2, Psa 38:3; Psa 91:5; see also Eze 5:16; Jer 50:14; 2Sa 22:14, 2Sa 22:15. In this and the following verses, to the 28th inclusive, (Deu 32:23-28), God threatens this people with every species of calamity that could possibly fall upon man. How strange it is that, having this law continually in their hands, they should not discern those threatened judgments, and cleave to the Lord that they might be averted!
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַסְפֶּ֥ה | ʾaspeh | I will catch up | H5595 → | |
| עָלֵ֖ימוֹ | ʾaleimov | on them | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| רָע֑וֹת | raot | calamities | H7451 → | 662 times |
| חִצַּ֖י | chitzai | arrows my | H2671 → | |
| אֲכַלֶּה־ | ʾakhaleh- | I will use up | H3615 → | 208 times |
| בָּֽם׃ | bam | on <the> them |
אַסְפֶּ֥הI will catch up
ʾaspehH5595 →
עָלֵ֖ימוֹon them
ʾaleimovH5921 →5755 times
רָע֑וֹתcalamities
raotH7451 →662 times
חִצַּ֖יarrows my
chitzaiH2671 →
אֲכַלֶּה־I will use up
ʾakhaleh-H3615 →208 times
בָּֽם׃on <the> them
bam
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Ezekiel 14:21For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 14:13
“Son of man, if a land sins against Me by acting unfaithfully, and I stretch out My hand against it to cut off its supply of food, to send famine upon it, and to…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 33:27
Tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘As surely as I live, those in the ruins will fall by the sword, those in the open field I will give to be…
- Ezekiel 5:17
I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have…
- Ezekiel 14:17
Or if I bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through it,’ so that I cut off from it both man and beast,
- Ezekiel 14:15
Or if I send wild beasts through the land to leave it childless and desolate, with no man passing through it for fear of the beasts,
- Ezekiel 14:13
Through
Ezekiel 5:16When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 4:16
Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water…
- Deuteronomy 32:23–24
I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.
- Ezekiel 4:16
Through
Leviticus 26:24then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins.
it leads to
- Psalms 18:26
to the pure You show Yourself pure, but to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd.
- Psalms 18:26
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies17
About Deuteronomy
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor Book 1; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.