Deuteronomy 32:35

To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(35) To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence.—In the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 10:30) this sentence is quoted with the first clause of Deuteronomy 32:36, “For we know Him that said, Vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the Lord.” And so in Romans 12:19.

Their foot shall slide in due time.—Rather, for the time when their foot shall slide.

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 32:35. To me belongeth vengeance — As the supreme Lord and Judge of the world, whose power no force can resist, from whose knowledge no secret can be concealed, and from whose justice no art can escape. Their feet shall slide — Though they think themselves immoveably fixed in their power and prosperity, they shall certainly be visited with national judgments, and overthrown. In due time — Though not so soon as some may expect, yet in that time when it shall be thought most proper, when they have filled up the measure of their sins. At hand — Hebrew, is near. So the Scripture often speaks of those things which are at many hundred years’ distance, to signify, that though they may be afar off as to our measures of time, yet in God’s account they are near, they are as near as may be; when the measure of their sins is once full, the judgment shall not be deferred.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

32:26-38 The idolatry and rebellions of Israel deserved, and the justice of God seemed to demand, that they should be rooted out. But He spared Israel, and continues them still to be living witnesses of the truth of the Bible, and to silence unbelievers. They are preserved for wise and holy purposes and the prophecies give us some idea what those purposes are. The Lord will never disgrace the throne of his glory. It is great wisdom, and will help much to the return of sinners to God, seriously to consider their latter end, or the future state. It is here meant particularly of what God foretold by Moses, about this people in the latter days; but it may be applied generally. Oh that men would consider the happiness they will lose, and the misery they will certainly plunge into, if they go on in their trespasses! What will be in the end thereof? Jer 5:31. For the Lord will in due time bring down the enemies of the church, in displeasure against their wickedness. When sinners deem themselves most secure, they suddenly fall into destruction. And God's time to appear for the deliverance of his people, is when things are at the worst with them. But those who trust to any rock but God, will find it fail them when they most need it. The rejection of the Messiah by the Jewish nation, is the continuance of their ancient idolatry, apostacy, and rebellion. They shall be brought to humble themselves before the Lord, to repent of their sins, and to trust in their long-rejected Mediator for salvation. Then he will deliver them, and make their prosperity great.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Rather: "Vengeance is mine and recompence, at the time when their foot slideth.

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

It is my office to punish sin, and therefore as I know their sins, so I will assuredly punish them. Their feet shall slide; they who now think they stand fast and unmovable, they shall fall into utter destruction.

In due time; though not so soon as some may expect it, yet in that time when it shall be most proper and seasonable, when they have filled up the measure of their sins. This due time may be the same with that fulness of time, Galatians 4:4, when Christ came into the world, whom this people by wicked hands crucified and slew, Acts 2:23, for which wrath came upon them to the uttermost, 1 Thessalonians 2:15,16.

Is at hand, Heb. is near. So the Scripture oft speaks of those things which are at many hundred years’ distance, to meet with objections arising in men’s minds from the delays of them, and to signify, that though they may be afar off as to our measures of time and expectation of the things, yet in God’s account they are near, they are as near as may be; as soon as ever the fit and the full time is come, they come instantly, they are nearer than sinners would have them; when the measure of their sins is once full, the judgment shall not be deferred.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense,.... Or, I will repay, or recompence, as it is quoted in Romans 12:19; and so all the three Targums, the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, here, and so Jarchi interprets it. Vengeance belongs only to a divine Person, not to an Heathen deity called Dice, or vengeance, Acts 28:4; nor to Satan and his spiteful angels, nor to any of the sons of men in a private capacity; though magistrates, being in public office, and representing God, are revengers to execute wrath on them that do evil, Romans 13:4; otherwise it is peculiar to God; and there is a great deal of reason to believe he will recompence it, as it may be concluded from his hatred of sin, his strict justice, and his faithfulness to his threatenings as well as his promises; from the instances of his vengeance on the old world, on Sodom and Gomorrah, and others; and from his taking vengeance on the inventions even of good men, whose sins he pardons, and especially from his sparing his own Son, when standing in the legal place and, stead of sinners: and this is applicable to Christ, who not only in the days of his flesh took vengeance Satan, and his principalities and powers; and, when he came in his kingdom and power, took vengeance on the Jews his enemies, who would not have him to rule over them; but also, at his spiritual coming, he will take vengeance on antichrist, whom he will destroy with the breath of his mouth, and send that son of perdition into the perdition appointed for him; and pour out the vials of his wrath on all the antichristian states, the time of which is next pointed at:

their foot shall slide in due time; there is a time fixed for the reign of antichrist, when it will end, forty two months, or 1260 days; that is, so many years; see Revelation 11:2; and a little before the expiration of them, his foot will begin to slide, as the slipping of the foot is just before a fall; and then will the foot of antichrist slip and slide, when the witnesses slain by him shall revive and stand upon their feet, and cause fear to fall on them that are on the earth; and when they shall ascend up into heaven, or rise to superior power and authority, greatness and splendour, than they formerly had, and this in the sight of their enemies; and when there will be earthquakes and revolutions in the several antichristian states; and the tenth part of the great city shall fall, and many persons of renown be slain, and others frightened, and will give glory to the God of heaven; when an angel, or a set of Gospel ministers, shall fly in the midst of heaven, with the everlasting Gospel, to preach to all nations; which will be immediately followed by another, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; when the kings of the earth will dislike and resent various things done by the pope of Rome, and shall hate him, and meditate his ruin, and then may his foot be said to slide; see. Revelation 11:11,

for the day of their calamity is at hand; a cloudy day, as the word signifies, when the kingdom of the beast will be full of darkness and confusion, Revelation 16:10; and when all those calamities shall come upon Babylon, expressed in Revelation 14:8,

and the things that shall come upon them make haste; even all those evil things God has determined in his counsels and purposes, and which are foretold in prophecy, these shall come upon antichrist in haste; for, though his judgment and damnation may seem to linger and slumber, it shall not; God will hasten it in his due time, and all his judgments will come on Babylon in one day, Revelation 18:8.

Geneva Study Bible

To me belongeth vengeance and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

35. Mine are vengeance, etc.] Sam. and LXX read for the day of vengeance, etc.; and perhaps rightly, see Ginsburg, Intr. p. 168. Here intended as an assurance to Israel, but in Romans 12:19 as a warning against undertaking revenge oneself, cp. Hebrews 10:30.

day of their disaster] Jeremiah 18:17; Jeremiah 46:21, Obadiah 1:13, Psalm 18:18 (19).

things destined for them] A late expression.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 35. - Render: Vengeance is mine, and retribution for the time when their feet shall totter; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and that which is prepared for them maketh haste. The tottering of the feet represents the incipient fall. God would manifest himself as the Avenger when their calamity began to come upon them. Deuteronomy 32:35

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"Vengeance is Mine, and retribution for the time when their foot shall shake: for the day of their destruction is near, and that which is determined for them cometh hastily. For the Lord will judge His people, and have compassion upon His servants, when He seeth that every hold has disappeared, and the fettered and the free are gone." - The Lord will punish the sins of His people in due time. "Vengeance is Mine:" it belongs to Me, it is My part to inflict. שׁלּם is a noun here for the usual שׁלּוּם, retribution (vid., Ewald, 156, b.). The shaking of the foot is a figure representing the commencement of a fall, or of stumbling vid., Psalm 38:17; Psalm 94:18). The thought in this clause is not, "At or towards the time when their misfortune begins, I will plunge them into the greatest calamity," as Kamphausen infers from the fact that the shaking denotes the beginning of the calamity; and yet the vengeance can only be completed by plunging them into calamity, - a though which he justly regards as unsuitable, though he resorts to emendations of the text in consequence. But the supposed unsuitability vanishes, if we simply regard the words, "Vengeance is Mine, and retribution," not as the mere announcement of a quality founded in the nature of God, and residing in God Himself, but as an expression of the divine energy, with this signification, I will manifest Myself as an avenger and recompenser, when their foot shall shake. Then what had hitherto been hidden with God, lay sealed up as it were in His treasures, should come to light, and be made manifest to the sinful nation. God would not delay in this; for the day of their destruction was near. איד signifies misfortune, and sometimes utter destruction. The primary meaning of the word cannot be determined with certainty. That it does not mean utter destruction, we may see from the parallel clause. "The things that shall come upon them," await them, or are prepared for them, are, according to the context, both in Deuteronomy 32:26 and also in Deuteronomy 32:36., not destruction, but simply a calamity or penal judgment that would bring them near to utter destruction. Again, these words do not relate to the punishment of "the wicked deeds of the inhuman horde," or the vengeance of God upon the enemies of Israel (Ewald, Kamphausen), but to the vengeance or retribution which God would inflict upon Israel. This is evident, apart from what has been said above against the application of Deuteronomy 32:33, Deuteronomy 32:34, to the heathen, simply from Deuteronomy 32:36, which unquestionably refers to Israel, and has been so interpreted by every commentator. - The first clause is quoted in Romans 12:19 and Hebrews 10:30, in the former to warn against self-revenge, in the latter to show the energy with which God will punish those who fall away from the faith, in connection with Deuteronomy 32:36, "the Lord will judge His people." - In Deuteronomy 32:36 the reason is given for the thought in Deuteronomy 32:35. דּין is mostly taken here in the sense of "procure right," help to right, which it certainly often has (e.g., Psalm 54:3), and which is not to be excluded here; but this by no means exhausts the idea of the word. The parallel יתנחם does not compel us to drop the idea of punishment, which is involved in the judging; for it is a question whether the two clauses are perfectly synonymous. "Judging His people" did not consist merely in the fact that Jehovah punished the heathen who oppressed Israel, but also in the fact that He punished the wicked in Israel who oppressed the righteous. "His people" is no doubt Israel as a whole (as, for example, in Isaiah 1:3), but this whole was composed of righteous and wicked, and God could only help the righteous to justice by punishing and destroying the wicked. In this way the judging of His people became compassion towards His servants. "His servants" are the righteous, or, speaking more correctly, all who in the time of judgment are found to be the servants of God, and are saved. Because Israel was His nation, the Lord judged it in such a manner as not to destroy it, but simply to punish it for its sins, and to have compassion upon His servants, when He saw that the strength of the nation was gone. יד, the hand, with which one grasps and works, is a figure employed to denote power and might (vid., Isaiah 28:2). אזל, to run out, or come to an end (1 Samuel 9:7; Job 14:11). The meaning is, "when every support is gone," when all the rotten props of its might, upon which it has rested, are broken (Ewald). The noun אפס, cessation, disappearance, takes the place of a verb. The words עזוּב עצוּר are a proverbial phrase used to denote all men, as we may clearly see from 1 Kings 14:10; 1 Kings 21:21; 2 Kings 4:8; 2 Kings 14:6. The literal meaning of this form, however, cannot be decided with certainty. The explanation given by L. de Dieu is the most plausible one, viz., the man who is fettered, restrained, i.e., married, and the single or free. For עזוּב the meaning caelebs is established by the Arabic, though the Arabic can hardly be appealed to as proving that עצוּר means paterfamilias, as this meaning, which Roediger assigns to the Arabic word, is founded upon a mistaken interpretation of a passage in Kamus.