Deuteronomy 32:24

Summary

The verse describes a series of afflictions Yehovah declares he will send: hunger, plague, bitter destruction, the teeth of animals, and the venom of creatures that crawl in the dust. It forms part of a divine speech listing calamities directed against a people.

Key words

• me.Zei ("[people] weakened of", H4198) — masculine plural construct adjective, describing those wasted by a following noun (famine).
• le.Chu.mei ("[people] consumed of", H3898B) — Qal passive participle, masculine plural construct, paired structurally with me.Zei, describing those consumed by Re.shef.
• Ke.tev ("destruction", H6986) with me.ri.Ri ("bitter", H4815) — noun plus adjective, both singular, forming a fixed phrase "bitter destruction."
• 'a.sha.lach ("I will send", H7971G) — Piel imperfect, first person singular, the verb governing the whole verse: an intensive, ongoing/future sending action performed by the speaker.
• zo.cha.Lei ("[things which] crawl of", H2119A) — Qal participle, masculine plural construct, describing creatures characterized by crawling, linked to 'a.Far ("dust", H6083).

What the text says

The verse is built as a list of paired construct phrases in its first half, followed by a main clause with a finite verb in its second half. The first four items — me.Zei ra.'Av ("weakened of famine"), le.Chu.mei Re.shef ("consumed of plague"), and Ke.tev me.ri.Ri ("bitter destruction") — are nominal or participial constructions without a verb, functioning almost as a catalog of conditions rather than actions. The construct forms (me.Zei, le.Chu.mei) indicate people defined by the affliction attached to them: those "of hunger," those "of plague."

The syntax shifts at ve.shen-be.he.mOt 'a.sha.lach-Bam ("and tooth of animals I will send against them"), where the verb 'a.sha.lach (H7971G), a Piel imperfect first-person form, becomes the operative action for the remainder of the verse. This verb governs both shen be.he.mOt ("tooth of animals") and, through the preposition 'im ("with", H5973A), the phrase chamat zo.cha.Lei 'a.Far ("venom of the crawlers of dust"). The construct chain zo.cha.Lei 'a.Far describes creatures whose defining trait is crawling upon or through dust, without using a specific word for "serpent" in the Hebrew text itself — the identification as serpents/vipers appears only in the translations, not in the Hebrew lexical items given.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the fourth affliction as ὀπισθότονος ἀνίατος ("incurable convulsion/tetanus"), differing from the Hebrew Ke.tev me.ri.Ri ("bitter destruction"). The LXX also translates Re.shef (H7565, "plague") as βρώσει ὀρνέων ("devouring by birds"), introducing "birds," an image absent from the Hebrew noun itself. The Vulgate similarly adds "aves" (birds) with "morsu amarissimo" ("with a most bitter bite"), aligning with the LXX's bird imagery rather than the Hebrew's plague/flame sense. For zo.cha.Lei 'a.Far, the Hebrew simply says "crawlers of dust," while the LXX has συρόντων ἐπὶ γῆν ("those dragging across the earth") and the Vulgate adds "serpentium" ("of serpents"), making explicit an identification that the Hebrew construct phrase leaves unstated.