Deu 32:23-28 | Clarke | STEP | Verse 23 I will spend mine arrows upon them - The judgments of God in general are termed the arrows of God, ; , ; ; see also ; ; , . In this and the following verses, to the 28th inclusive, ( ), 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! It was customary among the heathens to represent any judgment from their gods under the notion of arrows, especially a pestilence; and one of their greatest deities, Apollo, is ever represented as bearing a bow and quiver full of deadly arrows; so Homer, Il. i., ver. 43, where he represents him, in answer to the prayer of his priest Chryses, coming to smite the Greeks with the pestilence: - Ὡς εφατ' ευχομενος· του δ' εκλυε Φοιβος Απολλων· Βη δε κατ' Ουλυμποιο καρηνων χωομενος κηρ, Τοξ' ωμοισιν εχων αμφηρεφεα τε φαρετρην. - Ἑζετ' επειτ' απανευθε νεων· μετα δ' ιον ἑηκε· Δεινη δε κλαγγη γενετ' αργυρεοιο βιοιο. κ. τ. λ. "Thus Chryses pray'd; the favoring power attends, And from Olympus' lofty tops descends. Bent was his bow the Grecian hearts to wound; Fierce as he moved, his silver shafts resound; - The fleet in view, he twang'd his deadly' bow, And hissing fly the feather'd fates below. On mules and dogs the infection first began; And last the vengeful arrows fix'd in man." How frequently the same figure is employed in the sacred writings, every careful reader knows; and quotations need not be multiplied.

‏ Deuteronomy 32:23-28

Verse 23

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; 2Sam 22:14, 2Sam 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!

It was customary among the heathens to represent any judgment from their gods under the notion of arrows, especially a pestilence; and one of their greatest deities, Apollo, is ever represented as bearing a bow and quiver full of deadly arrows; so Homer, Il. i., ver. 43, where he represents him, in answer to the prayer of his priest Chryses, coming to smite the Greeks with the pestilence: - Ὡς εφατ' ευχομενος· του δ' εκλυε Φοιβος Απολλων· Βη δε κατ' Ουλυμποιο καρηνων χωομενος κηρ, Τοξ' ωμοισιν εχων αμφηρεφεα τε φαρετρην. - Ἑζετ' επειτ' απανευθε νεων· μετα δ' ιον ἑηκε· Δεινη δε κλαγγη γενετ' αργυρεοιο βιοιο. κ. τ. λ. "Thus Chryses pray'd; the favoring power attends,

And from Olympus' lofty tops descends.

Bent was his bow the Grecian hearts to wound;

Fierce as he moved, his silver shafts resound; -

The fleet in view, he twang'd his deadly' bow,

And hissing fly the feather'd fates below.

On mules and dogs the infection first began;

And last the vengeful arrows fix'd in man."

How frequently the same figure is employed in the sacred writings, every careful reader knows; and quotations need not be multiplied. Verse 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, Deu 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.'" Verse 27

Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy - Houbigant and others contend that wrath here refers not to the enemy, but to God; and that the passage should be thus translated: "Indignation for the adversary deters me, lest their enemies should be alienated, and say, The strength of our hands, and not of the Lord's, hath done this." Had not God punished them in such a way as proved that his hand and not the hand of man had done it, the heathens would have boasted of their prowess, and Jehovah would have been blasphemed, as not being able to protect his worshippers, or to punish their infidelities. Titus, when he took Jerusalem, was so struck with the strength of the place, that he acknowledged that if God had not delivered it into his hands, the Roman armies never could have taken it.