Deuteronomy 32:22

Summary

The verse describes a fire kindled by divine anger that spreads progressively: it burns down to the lowest Sheol, consumes the earth and its produce, and sets ablaze the very foundations of the mountains. The Hebrew presents this as a chain of consequential actions following the initial kindling.

Key words

• 'esh ("a fire", H0784) — the grammatical subject of the entire verse; all following verbs describe its actions.
• ka.de.Chah ("it has been kindled", H6919) — qal perfect, marking the fire's ignition as a completed, initiating event.
• 'a.P-i ("my anger", H0639G + H9020) — construct noun with 1st person suffix; the fire's origin is tied directly to "my anger," not a separate entity.
• va.ti.Kad ("and it has burned", H3344) — narrative vav + verb, the first in a three-part chain marking sequential consequence ("and then...and then...and then").
• te.la.Het ("it has set ablaze", H3857) — piel (intensive) stem, narrative form; the intensive binyan marks a stronger or more thorough burning than the simple qal forms used earlier in the verse.

What the text says

The verse opens with the particle ki (H3588A), here functioning to introduce the reason or basis for what precedes it in the surrounding context, followed by the noun 'esh ("fire") as subject and kadechah ("it has been kindled") in the qal perfect — a completed action establishing the initial state. The phrase be'appi ("by my anger") uses a construct chain with a first-person suffix, tying the fire's origin directly to the speaker's anger.

After this opening clause, three verbs are joined by the narrative vav (va-), a grammatical form that chains actions in sequence: vattiqad ("and it has burned") reaches 'ad-she'ol tachtit ("to the lowest Sheol"); vattokhal ("and it has consumed") acts upon 'eretz ("the earth") and yevulah ("its produce," construct + suffix); vattelahet ("and it has set ablaze") targets mosdei harim ("the foundations of the mountains"). Note that the final verb, telahet, shifts to the piel (intensive) stem, distinguishing it grammatically from the two preceding qal (simple) verbs — the Hebrew morphology marks an escalation in intensity for this final action, a nuance not preserved when all three verbs are rendered with equivalent English verbs like "burns," "consumes," and "scorches."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders be'appi ("by my anger") as ἐκ τοῦ θυμοῦ μου ("from my wrath"), using a source/origin construction rather than the Hebrew's instrumental "by." The Vulgate's in furore meo ("in my fury") similarly shifts the preposition's sense compared to the Hebrew be- ("by/in"). Both LXX and Vulgate render the sequence of three Hebrew narrative-vav verbs with future or future-oriented tenses (καυθήσεται, "it will burn"; ardebit, "it will burn"), where the Hebrew narrative forms present the actions as a completed sequential chain rather than as future events.