Bible Strands
Exodus 22:24
My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will become widows and your children will be fatherless.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses the Israelite community, issuing a conditional warning immediately after promising to hear the cry of oppressed widows and orphans. The speaker is Yahweh, and the audience is the covenant people bound by the preceding laws.
The words — The phrase וְ/חָרָ֣ה אַפִּ֔י (ve./cha.Rah 'a.P/i) literally renders "and my anger will burn." The verb וְ/הָרַגְתִּי (ve./ha.rag.Ti) translates "and I will kill," specifying direct divine execution.
The thread — The image of burning anger appears in Psalms 69:24, while the paired consequences of widowhood and orphanhood recur in Psalms 109:9 and Jeremiah 15:8.
Why it lands — The text states that mistreating vulnerable dependents provokes immediate divine judgment, resulting in the destruction of the oppressor's household. It requires readers to accept that social cruelty triggers irreversible, divinely enacted consequences.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
Cross-references
- Psalms 109:9 May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
- Jeremiah 15:8 I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. I will bring a destroyer at noon against the mothers of young men. I will suddenly bring upon them anguish and dismay.
- Psalms 69:24 Pour out Your wrath upon them, and let Your burning anger overtake them.
- Psalms 76:7 You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You?
- Psalms 78:63 Fire consumed His young men, and their maidens were left without wedding songs.
- Psalms 90:11 Who knows the power of Your anger? Your wrath matches the fear You are due.
- Lamentations 5:3 We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.
- Job 27:13 This is the wicked man’s portion from God—the heritage the ruthless receive from the Almighty.
- Job 31:23 For calamity from God terrifies me, and His splendor I cannot overpower.
- Jeremiah 18:21 Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.