(23) Mischiefs.--Literally, ills. Comp. Ezekiel 5:16 : "I will send upon them the evil arrows of famine . . . I will increase the famine upon them."

Verse 23. - I will spend mine arrows upon them; I will inflict on them so many calamities that none shall remain. The evils sent on men by God are represented as arrows shot on them from above. (Cf. ver. 42; Job 6:4; Psalm 7:13; Psalm 38:2; Psalm 45:5; Psalm 58:7; Zechariah 9:14; Homer, 'Iliad,' 1:45, etc.)

32:19-25 The revolt of Israel was described in the foregoing verses, and here follow the resolves of Divine justice as to them. We deceive ourselves, if we think that God will be mocked by a faithless people. Sin makes us hateful in the sight of the holy God. See what mischief sin does, and reckon those to be fools that mock at it.I will heap mischief upon them,.... One calamity upon another, which are after particularly mentioned:

I will spewed mine arrows upon them; God is here represented as an enemy to the Jews, as having bent his bow against them like an enemy, Lamentations 2:4; and as having a quiver, and that full of arrows, and as determined to draw out and spend everyone of them, in taking vengeance upon them; which arrows are his four sore judgments mentioned Ezekiel 14:21; and expressed in Deuteronomy 32:24.