Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
42. and the captives ] Assigned to death later.
leaders ] So LXX , Heb. para‘th, Ar. fara‘, to excel; A.V. beginning of revenges from the analogy of Aram. phara. In Num 6:5, Eze 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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 42. From the beginning of revenges] The word paroth, rendered revenges, a sense in which it never appears to be taken, has rendered this place very perplexed and obscure. Mr. Parkhurst has rendered the whole passage thus: –
I will make my arrows drunk with blood;
And my sword shall devour flesh,
With the blood of the slain and captive
From the hairy head of the enemy.
Probably merosh paroth may be more properly translated, from the naked head – the enemy shall have nothing to shield him from my vengeance; the crown of dignity shall fall off, and even the helmet be no protection against the sword and arrows of the Lord.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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 Gen 17:5, a multitude of nations is put for many nations, Rom 4:17; Gen 45:22, changes of raiment, i.e. changeable raiment; and Psa 99:4, the kings 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 Gods 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
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 Re 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, Isa 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, Re 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, Re 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, Mt 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 Ps 68:21.
y “propter sanguinem”, Pagninus, Tigurine version.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood. In these words He describes a horrible massacre, as though He had said, There shall be no end to my vengeance, until the earth shall be full of blood and corpses. Elsewhere (296) also, God’s sword is said to be “drunk with blood,” as here His arrows, when His wrath proceeds to inflict great acts of carnage; and in the same sense it is here said to “devour flesh.”
The second מדם, midam, some render, “on account of the blood;” and I admit that מ, mem, is sometimes the causalparticle. They understand it, then, that this would be the just recompense of their cruelty, when the wicked, who had slain the Israelites, or led them away captive, should be cut off by God. But I do not see why the same word should be expounded in two different senses; and I have no doubt but that it is a repetition of the same thing, that God will make His “arrows drunk with blood;” (297) but He says, “the blood both of the slain and of the captives,” since, when an army is put to the sword, some fall in the battle itself, whilst others, maimed and wounded, make an effort to escape.
The conclusion of the verse is twisted into various senses; some expound the word “head” by change of number, “heads,” as though it were said, “I will cut off the heads of the enemies;” it would, however, be more plausible to apply it metaphorically to the leaders. But others translate it more correctly, “the beginning,” not, indeed, with reference to time, but as though it were said, the flower, or best of the multitude, according to the common phrase, “from the first to the last.” My interpretation of “the revenges of the enemy” is, not those which God will inflict upon His enemies, but such as are capital, or deadly, as though He had said that He would deal as an enemy with the wicked, so that there should be no place for mercy. (298)
(296) Jer 46:10.
(297) Addition in Fr., “pour confermer le propos avee plus grand vehemence;” to confirm the point in question with greater vehemence.
(298) מראש פרעות אויב A.V. , “From the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.” S.M. ,”From the head of revenges of the enemy.” V. and Luther,” Of the bare head of the enemies.’ LXX., “From the head of the chief enemies.” The word ראש is either the head of a body, or the beginning of an event. פרעות comes from a verb signifying to deal out retribution, and has therefore been taken by some to mean revenge, and by others to mean chiefs or rulers, whose office it is to avenge wrongs; there are, however, instances in which פרע is acknowledged to be the hair of the head. — W.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(42) My sword shall devour flesh.Comp. Isa. 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 Ezekiels vision (Eze. 9:6), and begin at my sanctuary; but it will not end there.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
42. From the beginning of revenges upon the enemy The translation in our Authorized Version is manifestly incorrect. From the heads of the leaders of the enemy is a literal translation.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 42. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, &c. Houbigant very justly observes, that the order is here transposed. He translates it, my sword shall devour flesh: I will make mine arrows drunk with blood; with the blood of the slain and of the captives, with the flesh of the impious and the enemy. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, is a strong poetical figure, implying the abundance of blood which should be shed. Le Clerc translates it thus, they shall be captives from the head of the enemies’ domination; i.e. from him who is invested with the supreme dominion; to make sense of which, to men of the lowest rank must be understood. This interpretation is in agreement with that of the LXX. It would be endless to recount the variety of conjectures on this text. Patrick, Jackson, Martin, Vitringa, Venema, Schultens, have all a different exposition. That given by Parkhurst, in his Lexicon, seems to us as probable as any. peraot, says he, the word here used, signifies locks of hair growing freely, without being cut or shaved; Eze 44:20 as in this place; I will make mine arrows drunk with bloodwith the blood of the slain and captives, (with blood coming) peraot merosh, from the hairy head, (or, as we say, from the head of hair,) of the enemy. Schultens in his Animad. Philolog. gives nearly the same interpretation.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Deu 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.
Ver. 42. From the beginning of revenges. ] I will begin my revenges at the beginning of theirs. Esau began early with his brother Jacob, even in the very womb, and so held on; but God was even with him.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
arrows. Figure of speech Prosopopatheia. App-6.
drunk = devour. Figure of speech Prosopopoeia. App-6.
From the beginning = from [the flesh] of the chief leader of. Note the alternation: “I will make Mine arrows drunk with blood, And My sword shall devour much flesh; With the blood of the slain and of the captives, With [the flesh] of the chief leader of the enemy. “Compare Rev 19:17-21, to which this refers. See also Eze 39:17-20.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
make mine: Deu 32:23, Psa 45:5, Psa 68:23, Isa 34:6-8, Jer 16:10, Eze 35:6-8, Eze 38:21, Eze 38:22
revenges: The word paroth, rendered revenges, a sense in which it never seems to be used, has rendered this passage very obscure. As the word paira signifies the hair of the head, both in Hebrew and Arabic, Mr. Parkhurst and others render mairosh paroth, “from the hairy head;” but to have this sense, the words should rather have been mipparoth rosh, according the Hebrew idiom. The word farou, in Arabic, however, also denotes a prince or chief; and the words may be literally rendered, with the LXX, , “from the head of the chiefs of the enemies.” The hyperbaton, or transposition of words from their grammatical order, is very observable in this verse; the third member forming a continuation of the first, and the fourth of the second. Job 13:24, Jer 30:14, Lam 2:5
Reciprocal: Gen 34:26 – edge Num 14:9 – are bread Num 24:8 – pierce Job 6:4 – the arrows Psa 7:13 – ordaineth Psa 18:14 – Yea Psa 35:2 – General Psa 64:7 – God Psa 94:1 – General Psa 144:6 – shoot out Psa 149:9 – to execute Isa 27:1 – with his Isa 34:5 – my sword Jer 25:27 – because Jer 46:10 – the sword Jer 47:6 – thou sword Eze 21:3 – will draw Eze 21:9 – A sword Eze 30:24 – and put Nah 1:2 – revengeth Zec 13:7 – O sword 2Th 1:8 – taking Rev 16:6 – they have Rev 18:20 – God