Deuteronomy 32:42

Hebrew Bible

40 For I raise up my hand to heaven, and say, ‘As surely as I live forever, 41 I will sharpen my lightning-like sword, and my hand will grasp hold of the weapon of judgment; I will execute vengeance on my foes, and repay those who hate me! 42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh—the blood of the slaughtered and captured, the chief of the enemy’s leaders.’” 43 Cry out, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge his servants’ blood; he will take vengeance against his enemies, and make atonement for his land and people. 44 Then Moses went with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song to the people.

Jeremiah 46:10

Hebrew Bible

8 Egypt rises like the Nile, like its streams turbulent at flood stage. Egypt said, ‘I will arise and cover the earth. I will destroy cities and the people who inhabit them.’ 9 Go ahead and charge into battle, you horsemen! Drive furiously, you charioteers! Let the soldiers march out into battle, those from Ethiopia and Libya who carry shields, and those from Lydia who are armed with the bow. 10 But that day belongs to the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies. It is a day of reckoning when he will pay back his adversaries. His sword will devour them until its appetite is satisfied. It will drink its fill from their blood! Indeed it will be a sacrifice for the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies in the land of the north by the Euphrates River. 11 Go up to Gilead and get medicinal ointment, you dear poor people of Egypt. But it will prove useless no matter how much medicine you use; there will be no healing for you.

 Notes and References

"... Like Anat in KTU 1.3 II, here Yahweh is described as enraged, and the divine enemies are described according to the “west” and the “east,” literally “the rising of the sun” ... the battle produces heaps of corpses (Isaiah 34:2) or skulls (Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalm 110:6). The image of harvest appears in Anat’s “gleaning” and in some biblical scenes of divine war (Joel 3:13; Revelation 14:14-20; compare secular examples in Judges 8:1-2; 20:44-46; Jeremiah 6:9; compare Jeremiah 49:9; Obadiah 5). Fourth, like the second part of the Ugaritic passage given above, the aftermath of war is described as a feast, a feature attested in Isaiah 34:6-7, 49:26 and perhaps presupposed in the sacrificial language of Deuteronomy 32:43. This feast includes feeding on the flesh of captives (Deuteronomy 32:42), drinking the blood of the victims (Isaiah 49:26; LXX Zechariah 9:15; compare Numbers 23:24), called “captives” in Deuteronomy 32:42 (as in KTU 1.3 II), and wading in the blood of the vanquished (Psalms 58:11; 68:24). Isaiah 49:26 alters the motif of feeding on the captives. In this verse, the enemies will cannibalize themselves: “I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.” The image of wading in the blood may be related to the theme of the battle as bloody harvest. Because of its blood red color, the image of the wine harvest appears in biblical descriptions of divine war (Deuteronomy 32:42-43; Isaiah 49:26; 63:3; Ezek. 39:19; Joel 4:13; Lamentations 1:15; Revelation 19:15). Finally, the delight that Anat derives from her carnal destruction has biblical correspondences in the language of both divine laughter (Psalm 2:4; compare Proverbs 2:26) and drunkenness with battle (see Deuteronomy 32:43; Isaiah 34:2; 63:3-6; compare Jeremiah 46:10) ..."

Smith, Mark S. The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (p. 116) William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002

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