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Friday, October 11th, 2024
the Week of Proper 22 / Ordinary 27
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Green's Literal Translation

Deuteronomy 32:24

I will send on them exhaustion by famine, and depletion by burning heat, and bitter destruction, and the teeth of beasts, with the venom of crawling things of the dust.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Backsliders;   Death;   Idolatry;   Instruction;   Judgments;   Psalms;   Serpent;   Thompson Chain Reference - Adversity;   Poison;   Prosperity-Adversity;   The Topic Concordance - Destruction;   Forgetting;   Hunger;   Idolatry;   Worship;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Arrows;   Beasts;   Famine;   Serpents;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Providence of God;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Poison;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Coal;   Poison;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Hunger;   Hymn;   Insects;   Pentateuch;   Poetry;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Anger (Wrath) of God;   Children (Sons) of God;   Deuteronomy;   Poetry;   Serpent;   Targums;   Zin;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Hymn;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Hymns;   Poison;   Serpent;   1910 New Catholic Dictionary - canticle;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Rock;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Deuteronomy;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Other Laws;   Moses, the Man of God;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Behemoth;   Bitter;   Poison;   Serpent;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Demonology;   Hafṭarah;   ḥayyim ben Zebulon Jacob Perlmutter;   Lilith;   Poetry;   Scroll of the Law;   Serpent;   Sidra;   Song of Moses;  

Parallel Translations

Legacy Standard Bible
They will be wasted by famine, and consumed by plagueAnd bitter destruction;And the teeth of beasts I will send upon them,With the venom of crawling things of the dust.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
'They will be wasted by famine, and consumed by plague And bitter destruction; And the teeth of beasts I will send upon them, With the venom of crawling things of the dust.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
They shalbe burnt with hunger, and consumed with heate, and with bitter destruction: I wyll also sende the teeth of beastes vpon them, with the furiousnesse of serpentes in the dust.
Easy-to-Read Version
They will become thin from hunger. Terrible diseases will destroy them. I will send wild animals against them. Poisonous snakes and lizards will bite them.
Revised Standard Version
they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and poisonous pestilence; and I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with venom of crawling things of the dust.
World English Bible
[They shall be] wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat Bitter destruction; The teeth of animals will I send on them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust.
King James Version (1611)
They shall bee burnt with hunger and deuoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts vpon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
King James Version
They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
They shal pyne awaye thorow honger, & be consumed of the feuers, and of bytter sicknesses. I wil sende amonge them ye tethe of beestes, and furious serpentes.
American Standard Version
They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat And bitter destruction; And the teeth of beasts will I send upon them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust.
Bible in Basic English
They will be wasted from need of food, and overcome by burning heat and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts I will send on them, with the poison of the worms of the dust.
Update Bible Version
[They shall be] wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat And bitter destruction; And the teeth of beasts I will send on them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust.
Webster's Bible Translation
[They shall be] burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
New English Translation
They will be starved by famine, eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; I will send the teeth of wild animals against them, along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust.
New King James Version
They shall be wasted with hunger, Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, With the poison of serpents of the dust.
Contemporary English Version
You'll be struck by starvation and deadly diseases, by the fangs of wild animals and poisonous snakes.
Complete Jewish Bible
"‘Fatigued by hunger, they will be consumed by fever and bitter defeat; I will send them the fangs of wild beasts, and the poison of reptiles crawling in the dust.
Darby Translation
They shall be consumed with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, And with poisonous pestilence; And the teeth of beasts will I send against them, With the poison of what crawleth in the dust.
Geneva Bible (1587)
They shalbe burnt with hunger, and consumed with heate, and with bitter destruction: I will also sende the teeth of beastes vpon them, with the venime of serpents creeping in the dust.
George Lamsa Translation
They shall be disabled with hunger, and I will deliver them to evil spirits, and I will deliver them to vultures; I will also stir up wild beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents which creep in the dust.
Good News Translation
They will die from hunger and fever; they will die from terrible diseases. I will send wild animals to attack them, and poisonous snakes to bite them.
Amplified Bible
'They will be wasted by hunger, and consumed by plague And a bitter destruction; And I will send the teeth of beasts against them, With the venom of crawling things of the dust.
Hebrew Names Version
[They shall be] wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat Bitter destruction; The teeth of animals will I send on them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
The wasting of hunger, and the devouring of the fiery bolt, and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts will I send upon them, with the venom of crawling things of the dust.
New Living Translation
I will weaken them with famine, burning fever, and deadly disease. I will send the fangs of wild beasts and poisonous snakes that glide in the dust.
New Life Bible
They will be wasted with hunger. They will be destroyed by burning heat and disease. I will send the teeth of wild animals against them, with the poison of things moving in the dust.
New Revised Standard
wasting hunger, burning consumption, bitter pestilence. The teeth of beasts I will send against them, with venom of things crawling in the dust.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
They shall be consumed with hunger and the devouring of birds, and there shall be irremediable destruction: I will send forth against them the teeth of wild beasts, with the rage of serpents creeping on the ground.
English Revised Version
They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat And bitter destruction; And the teeth of beasts will I send upon them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust.
Berean Standard Bible
They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
The meltings of hunger, The devourings of fever, And the dangerous pestilence, - And, the tooth of beasts, will I send among them, With the poison of crawlers of the dust:
Douay-Rheims Bible
They shall be consumed with famine, and birds shall devour them with a most bitter bite: I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground, and of serpents.
Lexham English Bible
They will become weakened by famine, and consumed by plague and bitter pestilence; and the teeth of wild animals I will send against them, with the poison of the creeping things in the dust;
English Standard Version
they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust.
New American Standard Bible
'They will be wasted by famine, and emaciated by plague And a bitter epidemic; And the teeth of beasts I will send against them, With the venom of crawling things of the dust.
New Century Version
They will be starved and sick, destroyed by terrible diseases. I will send them vicious animals and gliding, poisonous snakes.
Christian Standard Bible®
They will be weak from hunger, ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will unleash on them wild beasts with fangs, as well as venomous snakes that slither in the dust.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thei schulen be waastid with hungur, and briddis schulen deuoure hem with bitteriste bityng; Y schal sende in to hem the teeth of beestis, with the woodnesse of wormes drawynge on erthe, and of serpentis.
Young's Literal Translation
Exhausted by famine, And consumed by heat, and bitter destruction. And the teeth of beasts I send upon them, With poison of fearful things of the dust.

Contextual Overview

19 And Jehovah looked and despised them because of the provocation of His sons and of His daughters. 20 And He said, I will hide My face from them; I will see what their end will be ; for they are a perverse generation, sons in whom is no faithfulness. 21 They made Me jealous with a not-a-god; they made Me angry by their vanities; and I shall make them jealous by a not-a-people; by a foolish nation I shall make them angry. 22 For a fire has been kindled in My anger, and it burns to the lowest Sheol, and consumes the earth and its produce; and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. 23 I will heap evils on them; I will use up My arrows on them. 24 I will send on them exhaustion by famine, and depletion by burning heat, and bitter destruction, and the teeth of beasts, with the venom of crawling things of the dust. 25 The sword shall bereave from without, and terror from within, both the young man and the virgin, the suckling with the man of gray hairs.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

burnt: Deuteronomy 28:53, Jeremiah 14:18, Lamentations 4:4-9, Lamentations 5:10

burning heat: Heb. burning coals, Psalms 18:12-14, Psalms 120:4, Habakkuk 3:5

the teeth: Leviticus 26:22, Jeremiah 15:3, Jeremiah 16:4, Ezekiel 5:17, Ezekiel 14:15, Ezekiel 14:21

serpents: Genesis 3:14, Genesis 49:15, Isaiah 65:25, Amos 9:3

Reciprocal: Exodus 11:8 - a great anger 2 Kings 25:4 - fled Job 6:4 - drinketh up Job 20:14 - the gall Psalms 18:13 - coals Proverbs 13:25 - the belly Isaiah 3:24 - burning Jeremiah 8:17 - I will Jeremiah 32:24 - what Jeremiah 39:4 - when Jeremiah 52:6 - the famine Ezekiel 5:16 - the evil

Cross-References

Genesis 30:8
And Rachel said, With struggles of God I have wrestled with my sister; yea, I have been able. And she called his name Naphtali.
Genesis 32:3
And Jacob sent messengers before his face to his brother Esau, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.
Genesis 32:5
And it is mine to have oxen, and asses, flocks, and slaves and slave-girls. And I have sent to tell my lord, to find favor in your eyes.
Genesis 32:26
And He said, Send Me away, for the dawn has ascended. And he said, I will not let You go unless You bless me.
Genesis 32:27
And He said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob.
Genesis 32:28
And He said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, because you have wrestled with God and with men, and have prevailed.
Genesis 32:30
And Jacob called the name of the place Face of God, because I saw God face to face, and my life is delivered.
Genesis 48:16
The Angel that redeemed me from every evil, may He bless the youths; and may my name be called on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they like the fishes increase into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
Exodus 14:27
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its usual flow, at the turning of the morning, and the Egyptians were fleeing to meet it. And Jehovah shook off the Egyptians into the middle of the sea.
Song of Solomon 2:17
Until when does the day blow, and the shadows flee away? Turn, my Beloved, and be like a gazelle, or a young deer, the stag, on the cleft mountains.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[They shall be] burnt with hunger,.... This is the arrow of famine, Ezekiel 5:16; the force of which is such that it makes the skin black as if burnt, Lamentations 5:10; Onkelos paraphrases it,

"inflated or swelled with famine,''

which is a phrase Josephus b makes use of in describing the famine at the siege of Jerusalem. Jarchi observes, that one of their writers c interprets the words "hairs of hunger", because he says that a man that is famishing and pining, his hair grows, and he becomes hairy: this judgment was notorious among the Jews, at the siege of Jerusalem, and was very sore and dreadful: Lamentations 5:10- ::

and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction; with burning fevers, pestilential ones, with the plague, the arrow of the Lord that flies by day, the pestilence that walks in darkness, and the destruction that wastes at noonday, Psalms 91:5; and which also raged at the siege of Jerusalem, arising from the stench of dead bodies, which lay in all parts of the city, and is one of the signs of the destruction of it given by our Lord, Matthew 24:7;

I will also send the teeth, of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust; another of the arrows in the quiver of the Lord of hosts, or of his four judgments, and which he used to threaten the people of the Jews with in case of disobedience, Leviticus 26:22. And such of the Jews who fled to deserts, and caves and dens of the earth, for shelter, could not escape falling into the hands of wild beasts, and of meeting with poisonous serpents that go upon their bellies, and feed on the dust of the earth; and besides, when Titus had taken Jerusalem, he disposed of his captives some one way and some another; and, among the rest, many were cast to the wild beasts in the theatre, as Josephus relates d; add to this, that both Rome Pagan, and Roman Papal, are called beasts, Revelation 13:1; into both whose hands the Jews fell, and from whom they have suffered much; with which in part agrees the Targum of Jerusalem,

"the teeth of the four monarchies, which are like to wild beasts, I will send upon them;''

and particularly the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it,

"and the Greeks, who bite with their teeth like wild beasts, I will send upon them;''

but it would have been much better to have interpreted it of the Romans.

b απο της ενδειας πεφυσημενοι, de Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 23. sect. 4. c R. Moses Hadarsan. d De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 2. & l. 7. c. 3. sect. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Song of Moses

If Deuteronomy 32:1-3 be regarded as the introduction, and Deuteronomy 32:43 as the conclusion, the main contents of the song may be grouped under three heads, namely,

(1) Deuteronomy 32:4-18, the faithfulness of God, the faithlessness of Israel;

(2) Deuteronomy 32:19-33, the chastisement and the need of its infliction by God;

(3) Deuteronomy 32:34-42, God’s compassion upon the low and humbled state of His people.

The Song differs signally in diction and idiom from the preceding chapters; just as a lyrical passage is conceived in modes of thought wholly unlike those which belong to narrative or exhortation, and is uttered in different phraseology.

There are, however, in the Song numerous coincidences both in thoughts and words with other parts of the Pentateuch, and especially with Deuteronomy; while the resemblances between it and Psalms 90:0: “A Prayer of Moses,” have been rightly regarded as important.

The Song has reference to a state of things which did not ensue until long after the days of Moses. In this it resembles other parts of Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch which no less distinctly contemplate an apostasy (e. g. Deuteronomy 28:15; Leviticus 26:14), and describe it in general terms. If once we admit the possibility that Moses might foresee the future apostasy of Israel, it is scarcely possible to conceive how such foresight could be turned to better account by him than by the writing of this Song. Exhibiting as it does God’s preventing mercies, His people’s faithlessness and ingratitude, God’s consequent judgments, and the final and complete triumph of the divine counsels of grace, it forms the summary of all later Old Testament prophecies, and gives as it were the framework upon which they are laid out. Here as elsewhere the Pentateuch presents itself as the foundation of the religious life of Israel in after times. The currency of the Song would be a standing protest against apostasy; a protest which might well check waverers, and warn the faithful that the revolt of others was neither unforeseen nor unprovided for by Him in whom they trusted.

That this Ode must on every ground take the very first rank in Hebrew poetry is universally allowed.

Deuteronomy 32:1-3

Introduction. Heaven and earth are here invoked, as elsewhere (see the marginal references), in order to impress on the hearers the importance of what is to follow.

Deuteronomy 32:4

He is the Rock, his work is perfect - Rather, the Rock, perfect is his work. This epithet, repeated no less than five times in the Song Deuteronomy 32:15, Deuteronomy 32:18, Deuteronomy 32:30-31, represents those attributes of God which Moses is seeking to enforce, immutability and impregnable strength. Compare the expression “the stone of Israel” in Genesis 49:24; and see 1 Samuel 2:2; Psalms 18:2; Matthew 16:18; John 1:42. Zur, the original of “Rock,” enters frequently into the composition of proper names of the Mosaic time, e. g., Numbers 1:5-6, Numbers 1:10; Numbers 2:12; Numbers 3:35, etc. Our translators have elsewhere rendered it according to the sense “everlasting strength” Isaiah 26:4, “the Mighty One” Isaiah 30:29; in this chapter they have rightly adhered to the letter throughout.

Deuteronomy 32:5

Render: “It” (i. e. “the perverse and crooked generation”) “hath corrupted itself before Him (compare Isaiah 1:4); they are not His children, but their blemish:” i. e., the generation of evil-doers cannot be styled God’s children, but rather the shame and disgrace of God’s children. The other side of the picture is thus brought forward with a brevity and abruptness which strikingly enforces the contrast.

Deuteronomy 32:6

Hath bought thee - Rather perhaps, “hath acquired thee for His own,” or “possessed thee:” compare the expression “a peculiar people,” margin “a purchased people,” in 1 Peter 2:9.

Deuteronomy 32:8

That is, while nations were being constituted under God’s providence, and the bounds of their habitation determined under His government (compare Acts 17:26), He had even then in view the interests of His elect, and reserved a fitting inheritance “according to the number of the children of Israel;” i. e., proportionate to the wants of their population. Some texts of the Greek version have “according to the number of the Angels of God;” following apparently not a different reading, but the Jewish notion that the nations of the earth are seventy in number (compare Genesis 10:1 note), and that each has its own guardian Angel (compare Ecclus. 17:17). This was possibly suggested by an apprehension that the literal rendering might prove invidious to the many Gentiles who would read the Greek version.

Deuteronomy 32:9-14

These verses set forth in figurative language the helpless and hopeless state of the nation when God took pity on it, and the love and care which He bestowed on it.

Deuteronomy 32:10

In the waste howling wilderness - literally, “in a waste, the howling of a wilderness,” i. e., a wilderness in which wild beasts howl. The word for “waste” is that used in Genesis 1:2, and there rendered “without form.”

Deuteronomy 32:11

Compare Exodus 19:4. The “so,” which the King James Version supplies in the next verse, should he inserted before “spreadeth,” and omitted from Deuteronomy 32:12. The sense is, “so He spread out His wings, took them up,” etc.

Deuteronomy 32:12

With him - i. e., with God. The Lord alone delivered Israel; Israel therefore ought to have served none other but Him.

Deuteronomy 32:13

i. e., God gave Israel possession of those commanding positions which carry with them dominion over the whole land (compare Deuteronomy 33:29), and enabled him to draw the richest provision out of spots naturally unproductive.

Deuteronomy 32:14

Breed of Bashan - Bashan was famous for its cattle. Compare Psalms 22:12; Ezekiel 39:18.

Fat of kidneys of wheat - i. e., the finest and most nutritious wheat. The fat of the kidneys was regarded as being the finest and tenderest, and was therefore specified as a part of the sacrificial animals which was to be offered to the Lord: compare Exodus 29:13, etc.

The pure blood of the qrape - Render, the blood of the grape, even wine. The Hebrew word seems (compare Isaiah 27:2) a poetical term for wine.

Deuteronomy 32:15

Jesbarun - This word, found again only in Deuteronomy 33:5, Deuteronomy 33:26, and Isaiah 44:2, is not a diminutive but an appellative (containing an allusion to the root, “to be righteous”); and describes not the character which belonged to Israel in fact, but that to which Israel was called. Compare Numbers 23:21. The prefixing of this epithet to the description of Israel’s apostasy contained in the words next following is full of keen reproof.

Deuteronomy 32:16

They provoked him to jealousy - The language is borrowed from the matrimonial relationship, as in Deuteronomy 31:16.

Deuteronomy 32:17

Devils - Render, destroyers. The application of the word to the false gods points to the trait so deeply graven in all pagan worship, that of regarding the deities as malignant, and needing to be propitiated by human sufferings.

Not to God - Rather, “not God,” i. e., which were not God; see the margin and Deuteronomy 32:21. Compare Deuteronomy 13:7; Deuteronomy 29:25.

Deuteronomy 32:19

The anger of God at the apostasy of His people is stated in general terms in this verse; and the results of it are described, in words as of God Himself, in the next and following verses. These results consisted negatively in the withdrawal of God’s favor Deuteronomy 32:20, and positively in the infliction of a righteous retribution.

Daughters - The women had their full share in the sins of the people. Compare Isaiah 3:16 ff; Isaiah 32:9 ff; Jeremiah 7:18; Jeremiah 44:15 ff.

Deuteronomy 32:20

I will see what their end shall be - Compare the similar expression in Genesis 37:20.

Deuteronomy 32:21

God would mete out to them the same measure as they had done to Him. Through chosen by the one God to be His own, they had preferred idols, which were no gods. So therefore would He prefer to His people that which was no people. As they had angered Him with their vanities, so would He provoke them by adopting in their stead those whom they counted as nothing. The terms, “not a people,” and “a foolish nation,” mean such a people as, not being God’s, would not be accounted a people at all (compare Ephesians 2:12; 1 Peter 2:10), and such a nation as is destitute of that which alone can make a really “wise and understanding people” Deuteronomy 4:6, namely, the knowledge of the revealed word and will of God (compare 1 Corinthians 1:18-28).

Deuteronomy 32:24

Burning heat - i. e., the fear of a pestilential disease. On the “four sore judgments,” famine, plague, noisome beasts, the sword, compare Leviticus 26:22; Jeremiah 15:2; Ezekiel 5:17; Ezekiel 14:21.

Deuteronomy 32:26, Deuteronomy 32:27

Rather, I would utterly disperse them, etc., were it not that I apprehended the provocation of the enemy, i. e., that I should be provoked to wrath when the enemy ascribed the overthrow of Israel to his own prowess and not to my judgments. Compare Deuteronomy 9:28-29; Ezekiel 20:9, Ezekiel 20:14, Ezekiel 20:22.

Behave themselves strangely - Rather, misunderstand it, i. e., mistake the cause of Israel’s ruin.

Deuteronomy 32:30

The defeat of Israel would be due to the fact that God, their strength, had abandoned them because of their apostasy.

Deuteronomy 32:31

Our enemies - i. e., the enemies of Moses and the faithful Israelites; the pagan, more especially those with whom Israel was brought into collision, whom Israel was commissioned to “chase,” but to whom, as a punishment for faithlessness, Israel was “sold,” Deuteronomy 32:30. Moses leaves the decision, whether “their rock” (i. e. the false gods of the pagan to which the apostate Israelites had fallen away) or “our Rock” is superior, to be determined by the unbelievers themselves. For example, see Exodus 14:25; Numbers 23:0; Numbers 24:0; Joshua 2:9 ff; 1 Samuel 4:8; 1 Samuel 5:7 ff; 1 Kings 20:28. That the pagan should thus be constrained to bear witness to the supremacy of Israel’s God heightened the folly of Israel’s apostasy.

Deuteronomy 32:32

Their vine - i. e., the nature and character of Israel: compare for similar expressions Psalms 80:8, Psalms 80:14; Jeremiah 2:21; Hosea 10:1.

Sodom ... Gomorrah - Here, as elsewhere, and often in the prophets, emblems of utter depravity: compare Isaiah 1:10; Jeremiah 23:14,

Gall - Compare Deuteronomy 29:18 note.

Deuteronomy 32:35

Rather: “Vengeance is mine and recompence, at the time when their foot slideth.

Deuteronomy 32:36

Repent himself for - Rather, have compassion upon. The verse declares that God’s judgment of His people would issue at once in the punishment of the wicked, and in the comfort of the righteous.

None shut up, or left - A proverbial phrase (compare 1 Kings 14:10) meaning perhaps “married and single,” or “guarded and forsaken,” but signifying generally “all men of all sorts.”

Deuteronomy 32:40-42

Render: For I lift up my hand to heaven and say, As I live forever, if I whet, etc. On Deuteronomy 32:40, in which God is described as swearing by Himself, compare Isaiah 45:23; Jeremiah 22:5; Hebrews 6:17. The lifting up of the hand was a gesture used in making oath (compare Genesis 14:22; Revelation 10:5).

Deuteronomy 32:42

From the beginning of revenges upon the enemy - Render, (drunk with blood) from the head (i. e. the chief) of the princes of the enemy.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Deuteronomy 32:24. They shall be burnt with hunger — Their land shall be cursed, and famine shall prevail. This is one of the arrows.

Burning heat — No showers to cool the atmosphere; or rather boils, blains, and pestilential fevers; this was a second.

Bitter destruction — The plague; this was a third.

Teeth of beasts - with the poison of serpents — The beast of the field should multiply upon and destroy them; this was a fourth: and poisonous serpents, infesting all their steps, and whose mortal bite should produce the utmost anguish, were to be a fifth arrow. Added to all these, the sword of their enemies - terror among themselves, Deuteronomy 32:25, and captivity were to complete their ruin, and thus the arrows of God were to be spent upon them. There is a beautiful saying in the Toozuki Teemour, which will serve to illustrate this point, while it exhibits one of the finest metaphors that occurs in any writer, the sacred writers excepted.

"It was once demanded of the fourth Khaleefeh, (Aaly,) on whom be the mercy of the Creator, 'If the canopy of heaven were a BOW; and if the earth were the cord thereof; and if calamities were ARROWS; if mankind were the mark for those arrows; and if Almighty GOD, the tremendous and the glorious, were the unerring ARCHER; to whom could the sons of Adam flee for protection?' The Khaleefeh answered, saying, 'The sons of Adam must flee unto the Lord.'"


 
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