I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. I will spend mine arrows upon them - The judgments of God in general are termed the arrows of God, Job 6:4; Psalms 38:2, Psalms 38:3; Psalms 91:5; see also Ezekiel 5:16; Jeremiah 50:14; 2 Samuel 22:14, 2 Samuel 22:15. In this and the following verses, to the 28th inclusive, (Deuteronomy 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.
Deuteronomy 32:23, Deuteronomy 32:42 Reflect on the days of old; Contemplate the times of ages beyond ages;
Inquire of thy father, and he will show thee;
Thine elders, and the will instruct thee.
He gave him to suck honey out of the rock
And oil out of the flinty rock,
Butter of kine, and milk of sheep.
But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked:
Thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick;
Thou art enveloped with fatness.
I will heap mischiefs upon them,
I will spend my arrows upon them.
I will make mine arrows drunk with blood. "The fine pathetic elegy of the ninetieth psalm has been usually ascribed to Moses; and Dath imagines it was written by him a little before his death.
"Kennicott and Geddes have some doubt upon this point, chiefly because the ultimate period assigned in it to the life of man is fourscore years; while Moses was at his death a hundred and twenty years old, yet 'his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated;' Deuteronomy 34:7.
"The following comparison will, perhaps, have a tendency to confirm the general opinion, by rendering it probable that its author and the author of the Book of Job were the same person.
Job Psalm Job 14:2