Deuteronomy 28:63

Hebrew Bible

62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, because you will have disobeyed the Lord your God. 63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, so he will also take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. 64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone.

Ezekiel 33:11

Hebrew Bible

10 “And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what you have said: “Our rebellious acts and our sins have caught up with us, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?”’ 11 Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but prefer that the wicked change his behavior and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil deeds! Why should you die, O house of Israel?’ 12 “And you, son of man, say to your people, ‘The righteousness of the righteous will not deliver him if he rebels. As for the wicked, his wickedness will not make him stumble if he turns from it. The righteous will not be able to live by his righteousness if he sins.’

 Notes and References

"... Deuteronomy 28:63 is unique in this list in that it is the only place where God rejoices over a negative activity with regard to his people, which affirms the above principle that God’s natural state is love and wrath only arises when there is a problem. Ezekiel 33:11 relates a similar idea: in the words of God, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” Furthermore, in Jeremiah 9:24, the Lord declares: “I am the Lord who exercises loving-kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things.” This establishes a significant pattern. Something drastic must have happened to make God do an about face from looking upon them as objects of joy to objects of wrath ..."

Ellison, Eric "Not a Tame Lion": An Exposition of the Wrath of God as Exemplified in Deuteronomy 28:63 (pp. 189-201) Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 16/1–2, 2005

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