My anger will blaze against you, and I will kill you with the sword. Then your wives will be widows and your children fatherless.
Parallel translations
- WEB and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
- KJV And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
- BSB 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.
- NKJV and My wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
- NASB and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God warns that His wrath will fall on oppressors, making their own wives widows and children fatherless. Injustice against the weak provokes God's judgment.
Overview
The severe warning shows how seriously God takes the oppression of the defenseless, threatening fitting judgment on the cruel. His justice ensures that mistreatment of the vulnerable will not go unanswered. This holy wrath against injustice magnifies the mercy of Christ, who bore divine judgment so that sinners might find refuge.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 109:9Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
- Jer 15:8Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday. I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.
- Ps 78:63–64Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.
- Ps 69:24Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.
- Ps 76:7You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?
- Lam 5:3We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
- Ps 90:11Who knows the power of your anger, your wrath according to the fear that is due to you?
- Heb 10:31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
- Rom 2:5–9But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;
- Job 27:13–15“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.
- Job 31:23For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because his majesty, I can do nothing.
- Luke 6:38“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you. For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you.”
- Jer 18:21Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men struck by the sword in battle.
- Nah 1:6Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him.
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 22:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.