Deuteronomy 32:22

22 For a fire has been kindled out of my wrath, it shall burn to hell below; it shall devour the land, and the fruits of it; it shall set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Deuteronomy 32:22 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 32:22

For a fire is kindled in mine anger
Here begins the account of temporal and corporeal judgments inflicted on the Jews for their disbelief and rejection of the Messiah, their contempt of his Gospel, and ill treatment of his followers; and this here respects the destruction of the land of Judea in general, and the burning of the city and temple of Jerusalem in particular, as the effect of the wrath and anger of God like fire kindled against them:

and shall burn unto the lowest hell;
which denotes an entire destruction, like that of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone from heaven; which issued in a sulphurous lake, and which sulphureous matter sunk to the bottom of the Dead Sea; and to that destruction is this of the land of Judea compared, ( Deuteronomy 29:23 ) ;

and shall consume the earth with her increase:
the land of Judea, with the cities and towns in it, and buildings on it, and the fruits of the earth; which were either gathered into their barns and storehouses, or were growing in their fields, and vineyards, and oliveyards; all were destroyed and consumed at or before the destruction of Jerusalem, or quickly after it:

and set on fire the foundations of the mountains;
the city of Jerusalem, as Jarchi himself interprets it, whose foundations were by the mountains, according to ( Psalms 125:2 ) ; and the temple of Jerusalem particularly was built on Mount Moriah, and that as well as the city was utterly consumed by fire: and it is remarkable that when Julian the apostate attempted to rebuild it, as is related even by an Heathen historian F1, that flames of fire burst out from the foundations, and burnt the workmen; so that he was obliged to desist from his rash undertaking.


FOOTNOTES:

F1 Ammian. Marcellin. l. 23. in initio.

Deuteronomy 32:22 In-Context

20 and said, I will turn away my face from them, and will show what shall happen to them in the last days; for it is a perverse generation, sons in whom is no faith.
21 They have provoked me to jealousy with not God, they have exasperated me with their idols; and I will provoke them to jealousy with them that are no nation, I will anger them with a nation void of understanding.
22 For a fire has been kindled out of my wrath, it shall burn to hell below; it shall devour the land, and the fruits of it; it shall set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will gather evils upon them, and will fight with my weapons against them.
24 consumed with hunger and the devouring of birds, and there shall be irremediable destruction: I will send forth against them the teeth of wild beasts, with the rage of creeping on the ground.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.