Deuteronomy 31:17

17 And {my anger shall flare up against them} on that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall become as prey, and disasters and troubles shall find them, and they shall say on that day, '[Is it] not because our God is not in our midst [that] these disasters have found us?'

Deuteronomy 31:17 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 31:17

Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day
As the anger of a man is against his wife who has treacherously departed from him: and jealousy, which is the rage of such a man, is very cruel; and much more the wrath and anger of a jealous God, who is a consuming fire:

and I will forsake them;
withdraw his favours from them, and his protection of them:

and I will hide my face from them;
take no notice of them in a providential way for good, nor hear their cries, to deliver them from evil:

and they shall be devoured;
by their enemies, or by the sore judgments of God, by famine, sword, pestilence, and evil beasts, they and their substance:

and many evils and troubles shall befall them;
both in their own land, and in other countries, where they would be, and have been carried captive:

so that they will say in that day, are not these evils come upon us,
because our God [is] not amongst us?
of which they would be sensible by their being exposed to their enemies for want of his protection, and by the evils upon them through his displeasure, and by their being deprived of the good things that came from him; but no intimation is given of their being sensible of their sins as the cause of all this.

Deuteronomy 31:17 In-Context

15 And Yahweh appeared in the tent in a column of cloud, and the column of the cloud stood at the entrance of the tent.
16 And Yahweh said to Moses, "Look, you [are] about to lie [down] with your ancestors, and this people will arise and they will play the prostitute after {the foreign gods} of the land {to which they are going}.
17 And {my anger shall flare up against them} on that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall become as prey, and disasters and troubles shall find them, and they shall say on that day, '[Is it] not because our God is not in our midst [that] these disasters have found us?'
18 But I will certainly hide my face on that day, because [of] all of the evil that they did because they turned to other gods.
19 "And so then write this song for yourselves and teach it to the {Israelites}; put it in their mouth, so that this song may be for me as a witness against the {Israelites}.

Footnotes 9

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.