Deuteronomy 32:42

I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(42) My sword shall devour flesh.—Comp. Isaiah 66:16 : “For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many”

With blood.—Literally, from the blood of the slain and of the captivity, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. Judgment must begin at the house of God, as it did in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 9:6), “and begin at my sanctuary;” but it will not end there.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

32:39-43 This conclusion of the song speaks, 1. Glory to God. No escape can be made from his power. 2. It speaks terror to his enemies. Terror indeed to those who hate him. The wrath of God is here revealed from heaven against them. 3. It speaks comfort to his own people. The song concludes with words of joy. Whatever judgments are brought upon sinners, it shall go well with the people of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

32. vine of Sodom … grapes of gall—This fruit, which the Arabs call "Lot's Sea Orange," is of a bright yellow color and grows in clusters of three or four. When mellow, it is tempting in appearance, but on being struck, explodes like a puffball, consisting of skin and fiber only.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Of the captives; whom my sword hath sorely wounded, though not utterly killed.

From the beginning of revenges upon the enemy, i.e. when once I begin to revenge myself and my people upon mine and their enemies, I will go on and make a full end. Or, with the head, or with the blood of the head, i.e. of the chief or chiefs, of the revenges of the enemy, i. e. of the revengeful or malicious enemy of God and of his people. The noun substantive is oft put for the adjective; as Genesis 17:5, a multitude of nations is put for many nations, Romans 4:17 Genesis 45:22, changes of raiment, i.e. changeable raiment; and Psalm 99:4, the king’s strength, i.e. the strong and mighty king; and so here, the revenges of the enemy, i.e. the revengeful enemy. And by the head may be here understood either the devil, or the beads and rulers of those empires which were enemies to God’s people. Or, of the head shall be the revenges upon the enemies, i.e. I will take vengeance upon all mine enemies, yea, upon the head or heads of them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I will make mine arrows drunk with blood,.... Signifying, that by various judgments he would bring upon them, which, like arrows, would come suddenly, fly swiftly, and pierce deeply, there would be a prodigious effusion of blood like that in Revelation 14:20; so that these arrows, which cause it, being plunged and soaked, and covered in it, may be said to be inebriated with it, just as the sword is said to be bathed and filled with blood, Isaiah 34:5; which prophecy respects the same vengeance of Christ on the selfsame enemies of his as here; and as the whore of Rome is said to be drunken with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus, the arrows of her destruction are represented in just retaliation as drunk with her blood, Revelation 17:6,

and my sword shall devour flesh: the flesh of kings, of captains, of mighty men, of horses, and of them that sit on them the flesh of all men, bond and free, small and great, Revelation 19:18; that is, shall destroy great multitudes of men:

and that with the blood of the slain, and of the captives; that is, his arrows should be drunk not only with the blood of these that were wounded and killed, but of the captives; who commonly are spared, but in this case should not, their blood should be shed: it may be rendered, "because of the blood of the slain", &c. (y); because of the blood of the saints whom they have killed, and carried captive, and who have died in prisons:

from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy; or "of the enemy"; that is, from the time the enemy began to oppress the saints, and take revenge on them, and shed their blood; all that blood shall be found in them that has been from the beginning shed, and charged to their account, and revenged on them; just as the blood of all the righteous, from the beginning of the world, was brought upon the Jews, Matthew 23:35. The Targum of Jerusalem is,"from the heads of their mighty men, the generals of their armies;''to, which agrees the Septuagint version,"from the head of the princes of the enemies;''and so may refer to the head or heads of the antichristian people, the pope of Rome, and his princes, the cardinals, and all the antichristian kings and states, the captains and generals of their armies, which will be brought to Armageddon, and there destroyed, see Psalm 68:21.

(y) "propter sanguinem", Pagninus, Tigurine version.

Geneva Study Bible

I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

42. and the captives] Assigned to death later.

leaders] So LXX ἀρχόντων, Heb. para‘ôth, Ar. fara‘, to excel; A.V. beginning of revenges from the analogy of Aram. phara. In Numbers 6:5, Ezekiel 44:20, pere‘ = flowing locks. Cp. W. R. Smith on Jdg 5:2, in Black’s Judges, in Smaller Cambridge Bible for Schools.

43 Sing, O ye nations, His people,

For His servants’ blood He avengeth,

And vengeance He wreaks on His foes,

And assoils the land of His people.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 42. - My sword shall devour flesh; literally, shall eat flesh; "the edge of the sword is called its mouth, because, like a mouth, it is said to eat and devour" (Gesenius). From the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. Different renderings of this have been given: LXX., ἀπὸ κεφαλῆς ἀρχόντων ἐχθρῶν, "from the head of the hostile princes;" "from the head of the chiefs of the enemy" (Geseuius, Furst, Rosenmüller); "from the hairy head of the foe" (Keil, Herxheimer, Knobel). פְרַעות, the plural of פֶרַע, hair, locks, signifies primarily hairs, and a head of hairs, and may be taken as equivalent to "a hairy head;" but the word is also used in the sense of "princes" or "chiefs" (probably because such were distinguished by copious flowing locks; cf. Judges 5:2); hence the rendering, "head of the chiefs." The former is to be preferred here, for why chiefs or princes should be referred to in this connection does not appear (cf. Psalm 68:22). The rendering of the Authorized Version is wholly unauthorized. This verse presents an instance of alternate parallelism; each half falls into two members, and of the four members thus constituted, the third corresponds to the first, and the fourth to the second; thus -

a "I will make my arrows drunk with blood,

b And my sword shall devour flesh;

a' With the blood of the slain and the captives,

b' From the hairy head of the foe." Deuteronomy 32:42

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Lord will show Himself as the only true God, who slays and makes alive, etc. He will take vengeance upon His enemies, avenge the blood of His servants, and expiate His land, His people. With this promise, which is full of comfort for all the servants of the Lord, the ode concludes. "For I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, As truly as I live for ever, if I have sharpened My flashing sword, and My hand grasps for judgment, I will repay vengeance to My adversaries, and requite My haters. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword will eat flesh; with the blood of the slain and prisoners, with the hairy head of the foe." Lifting up the hand to heaven was a gesture by which a person taking an oath invoked God, who is enthroned in heaven, as a witness of the truth and an avenger of falsehood (Genesis 14:22). Here, as in Exodus 6:8 and Numbers 14:30, it is used anthropomorphically of God, who is in heaven, and can swear by no greater than Himself (vid., Isaiah 45:23; Jeremiah 22:5; Hebrews 6:17). The oath follows in Deuteronomy 32:41 and Deuteronomy 32:42. אם, however, is not the particle employed in swearing, which has a negative meaning (vid., Genesis 14:23), but is conditional, and introduces the protasis. As the avenger of His people upon their foes, the Lord is represented as a warlike hero, who whets His sword, and has a quiver filled with arrows (as in Psalm 7:13). "As long as the Church has to make war upon the world, the flesh, and the devil, it needs a warlike head" (Schultz). חרב בּרק, the flash of the sword, i.e., the flashing sword (vid., Genesis 3:24; Nahum 3:3; Habakkuk 3:11). In the next clause, "and My hand grasps judgment," mishpat (judgment) does not mean punishment or destruction hurled by God upon His foes, nor the weapons employed in the execution of judgment, but judgment is introduced poetically as the thing which God takes in hand for the purpose of carrying it out. נקם השׁיב, to lead back vengeance, i.e., to repay it. Punishment is retribution for evil done. By the enemies and haters of Jehovah, we need not understand simply the heathen enemies of the Israelites, for the ungodly in Israel were enemies of God quite as much as the ungodly heathen. If it is evident from Deuteronomy 32:25-27, where God is spoken of as punishing Israel to the utmost when it had fallen into idolatry, but not utterly destroying it, that the punishment which God would inflict would also fall upon the heathen, who would have made an end of Israel; it is no less apparent from Deuteronomy 32:37 and Deuteronomy 32:38, especially from the appeal in Deuteronomy 32:38, Let your idols arise and help you (Deuteronomy 32:38), which is addressed, as all admit, to the idolatrous Israelites, and not to the heathen, that those Israelites who had made worthless idols their rock would be exposed to the vengeance and retribution of the Lord. In Deuteronomy 32:42 the figure of the warrior is revived, and the judgment of God is carried out still further under this figure. Of the four different clauses in this verse, the third is related to the first, and the fourth to the second. God would make His arrows drunk with the blood not only of the slain, but also of the captives, whose lives are generally spared, but were not to be spared in this judgment. This sword would eat flesh of the hairy head of the foe. The edge of the sword is represented poetically as the mouth with which it eats (2 Samuel 2:26; 2 Samuel 18:8, etc.); "the sword is said to devour bodies when it slays them by piercing" (Ges. thes. p. 1088). פּרעות, from פּרע, a luxuriant, uncut growth of hair (Numbers 6:5; see at Leviticus 10:6). The hairy head is not a figure used to denote the "wild and cruel foe" (Knobel), but a luxuriant abundance of strength, and the indomitable pride of the foe, who had grown fat and forgotten his Creator (Deuteronomy 32:15). This explanation is confirmed by Psalm 68:22; whereas the rendering ἄρχοντες, princes, leaders, which is given in the Septuagint, has no foundation in the language itself, and no tenable support in Judges 5:2.