Text -- Deuteronomy 28:1-29 (NET)

The Covenant Blessings

28:1 “If you indeed obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. 28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance if you obey the Lord your God: 28:3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. 28:4 Your children will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:5 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. 28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction but flee from you in seven different directions. 28:8 The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do– yes, he will bless you in the land he is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments and obey him. 28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he promised your ancestors he would give you. 28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any. 28:13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his commandments which I am urging you today to be careful to do. 28:14 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship them.

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: 28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 28:18 Your children will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. 28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He will afflict you with weakness, fever, inflammation, infection, sword, blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The sky above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Curses by Defeat and Deportation

28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 28:26 Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off. 28:27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed. 28:28 The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind. 28:29 You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Deu 28:2

Those blessings which others greedily follow after, and never overtake, shall follow after thee, and shall be thrown into thy lap by special kindness.

Wesley: Deu 28:3

Whether they were husbandmen or tradesmen, whether in the town or country, they should be preserved from the dangers of both, and have the comforts of both. How constantly must we depend upon God, both for the continuance and comfort of life! We need him at every turn: we cannot be safe, if he withdraw his protection, nor easy, if he suspends his savour: but if he bless us, go where we will, 'tis well with us.

Wesley: Deu 28:5

Store - house, it shall always be well replenished and the provision thou hast there shall be preserved for thy use and service.

Wesley: Deu 28:6

That is, in all thy affairs and administrations.

Wesley: Deu 28:9

Shall confirm his covenant with thee, by which he separated thee to himself as an holy and peculiar people.

Wesley: Deu 28:10

That you are in truth his people and children: A most excellent and glorious people, under the peculiar care and countenance of the great God.

Wesley: Deu 28:11

The same things which were said before are repeated, to shew that God would repeat and multiply his blessings upon them.

Wesley: Deu 28:12

The heaven or the air, which is God's storehouse, where he treasures up rain or wind for man's use.

Wesley: Deu 28:13

The chief of all people in power, or at least in dignity and privileges; so that even they that are not under thine authority shall reverence thy greatness and excellency. So it was in David's and Solomon's time, and so it should have been much oftner and much more, if they had performed the conditions.

Wesley: Deu 28:15

So that thou shalt not be able to escape them, as thou shalt vainly hope and endeavour to do. There is no running from God, but by running to him; no flying from his justice, but by flying to his mercy.

Wesley: Deu 28:20

This seems chiefly to concern the mind, arising from the disappointment of hopes and the presages of its approaching miseries.

Wesley: Deu 28:20

Namely, from God, not so much in words as by his actions, by cross providences, by sharp and sore afflictions.

Wesley: Deu 28:23

Like brass, hard and dry, and shut up from giving rain.

Wesley: Deu 28:23

Hard and chapt and barren.

Wesley: Deu 28:24

Either thy rain shall be as unprofitable to thy ground and seed as if it were only so much dust. Or instead of rain shall come nothing but dust from heaven, which being raised and carried up by the wind in great abundance, returns, and falls upon the earth as it were in clouds or showers.

Wesley: Deu 28:27

Such boils and blains as the Egyptians were plagued with, spreading from head to foot: The emerodes - Or piles.

Wesley: Deu 28:28

Of mind, so that they shall not know what to do: Astonishment - They shall be filled with wonder and horror because of the strangeness and soreness of their calamities.

Wesley: Deu 28:29

In the most clear and evident matters thou shalt grossly mistake.

Wesley: Deu 28:29

Thy counsels and enterprizes shall be frustrated and turn to thy destruction.

JFB: Deu 28:1

In this chapter the blessings and curses are enumerated at length, and in various minute details, so that on the first entrance of the Israelites into the land of promise, their whole destiny was laid before them, as it was to result from their obedience or the contrary.

JFB: Deu 28:2

Their national obedience was to be rewarded by extraordinary and universal prosperity.

JFB: Deu 28:7

That is, in various directions, as always happens in a rout.

JFB: Deu 28:10

That they are really and actually His people (Deu 14:1; Deu 26:18).

JFB: Deu 28:11

Beside the natural capabilities of Canaan, its extraordinary fruitfulness was traceable to the special blessing of Heaven.

JFB: Deu 28:12

The seasonable supply of the early and latter rain was one of the principal means by which their land was so uncommonly fruitful.

JFB: Deu 28:12

That is, thou shalt be in such affluent circumstances, as to be capable, out of thy superfluous wealth, to give aid to thy poorer neighbors.

JFB: Deu 28:13-14

An Oriental form of expression, indicating the possession of independent power and great dignity and acknowledged excellence (Isa 9:14; Isa 19:15).

JFB: Deu 28:15-20

Curses that were to follow them in the event of disobedience are now enumerated, and they are almost exact counterparts of the blessings which were described in the preceding context as the reward of a faithful adherence to the covenant.

JFB: Deu 28:21

Some fatal epidemic. There is no reason, however, to think that the plague, which is the great modern scourge of the East, is referred to.

JFB: Deu 28:22

A wasting disorder; but the modern tuberculosis is almost unknown in Asia.

JFB: Deu 28:22

Fever is rendered "burning ague" (Lev 26:16), and the others mentioned along with it evidently point to those febrile affections which are of malignant character and great frequency in the East.

JFB: Deu 28:22

Rather, "dryness"--the effect on the human body of such violent disorders.

JFB: Deu 28:22

Two atmospheric influences fatal to grain.

JFB: Deu 28:23

Strong Oriental figures used to describe the effects of long-continued drought. This want of regular and seasonable rain is allowed by the most intelligent observers to be one great cause of the present sterility of Palestine.

JFB: Deu 28:24

An allusion probably to the dreadful effects of tornadoes in the East, which, raising the sands in immense twisted pillars, drive them along with the fury of a tempest. These shifting sands are most destructive to cultivated lands; and in consequence of their encroachments, many once fertile regions of the East are now barren deserts.

JFB: Deu 28:27

A troublesome eruption, marked by red pimples, to which, at the rising of the Nile, the Egyptians are subject.

JFB: Deu 28:27

Fistulæ or piles.

JFB: Deu 28:27

Scurvy.

JFB: Deu 28:27

The disease commonly known by that name; but it is far more malignant in the East than is ever witnessed in our part of the world.

JFB: Deu 28:28

They would be bewildered and paralyzed with terror at the extent of their calamities.

JFB: Deu 28:29-33

A general description of the painful uncertainty in which they would live. During the Middle Ages the Jews were driven from society into hiding-places which they were afraid to leave, not knowing from what quarter they might be assailed and their children dragged into captivity, from which no friend could rescue, and no money ransom them.

Clarke: Deu 28:2

All these blessings shall come on thee - God shall pour out his blessing from heaven upon thee. And overtake thee. Upright men are represented as going to the kingdom of God, and God’ s blessings as following and overtaking them in their heavenly journey. There are several things in this verse worthy of the most careful observation: - 1. If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. The voice of God must be heard; without a Divine revelation how can the Divine will be known? And if not known, it cannot be fulfilled. 2. When God speaks, men must hearken to the words of his mouth. He who does not hearken will not obey. 3. He who hearkens to the words of God must set out for the kingdom of heaven. The curse must fall on him who stands in the way of sinners, and will overtake them who loiter in the way of righteousness. 4. Those who run in the way of God’ s testimonies shall have an abundance of blessing. Blessings shall come upon them, and blessings shall overtake them - in every part of their march through life they shall continue to receive the fulfillment of the various promises of God which relate to all circumstances, vicissitudes, trials, stages of life, etc., etc., each overtaking them in the time and place where most needed.

Clarke: Deu 28:3

In the city - In all civil employments. In the field - in all agricultural pursuits.

Clarke: Deu 28:4

Fruit of thy body - All thy children. Increase of thy kine, etc.; every animal employed in domestic and agricultural purposes shall be under the especial protection of Divine Providence.

Clarke: Deu 28:5

Thy basket - Thy olive gathering and vintage, as the basket was employed to collect those fruits

Clarke: Deu 28:5

Store - משארת mishereth , kneading-trough, or remainder; all that is laid up for future use, as well as what is prepared for present consumption. Some think that by basket all their property abroad may be meant, and by store all that they have at home, i. e., all that is in the fields, and all that is in the houses. The following note of Mr. Harmer is important: -

"Commentators seem to be at a great loss how to explain the basket and the store mentioned Deu 28:5, Deu 28:17. Why Moses, who in the other verses mentions things in general, should in this case be so minute as to mention baskets, seems strange; and they that interpret either the first or the second of these words of the repositories of their corn, etc., forget that their barns or storehouses are spoken of presently after this in Deu 28:8. Might I be permitted to give my opinion here, I should say that the basket, טנא tene , in this place means their travelling baskets, and the other word משארת mishereth , (their store), signifies their leathern bags, in both which they were wont to carry things in travelling. The first of these words occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures but in the account that is given us of the conveyance in which they were to carry their first-fruits to Jerusalem; the other nowhere but in the description of the hurrying journey of Israel out of Egypt, where it means the utensils in which they then carried their dough, which I have shown elsewhere in these papers means a piece of leather drawn together by rings, and forming a kind of bag. Agreeably to this, Hasselquist informs us that the Eastern people use baskets in travelling; for, speaking of that species of the palm tree which produces dates, and its great usefulness to the people of those countries, he tells us that of the leaves of this tree they make baskets, or rather a kind of short bags, which are used in Turkey on journeys and in their houses; pages 261,262. Hampers and panniers are English terms denoting travelling baskets, as tene seems to be a Hebrew word of the same general import, though their forms might very much differ, as it is certain that of the travelling baskets mentioned by Hasselquist now does

"In like manner as they now carry meal, figs, and raisins, in a goat’ s skin in Barbary for a viaticum, they might do the same anciently, and consequently might carry merchandise after the same manner, particularly their honey, oil, and balm, mentioned Eze 27:17. They were the proper vessels for such things. So Sir J. Chardin, who was so long in the East, and observed their customs with so much care, supposed, in a manuscript note on Gen 43:11, that the balm and the honey sent by Jacob into Egypt for a present were carried in a goat or kid’ s skin, in which all sorts of things, both dry and liquid, are wont to be carried in the East. "Understood after this manner, the passage promises Israel success in their commerce, as the next verse (the 6th) promises them personal safety in their going out and in their return. In this view the passage appears with due distinctness, and a noble extent."- Observations, vol. 2:, p. 181.

Clarke: Deu 28:6

When thou comest in - From thy employment, thou shalt find that no evil has happened to the family or dwelling in thy absence

Clarke: Deu 28:6

When thou goest out - Thy way shall be made prosperous before thee, and thou shalt have the Divine blessing in all thy labors.

Clarke: Deu 28:7

The Lord shall cause thine enemies, etc. - This is a promise of security from foreign invasion, or total discomfiture of the invaders, should they enter the land. They shall come against thee one way - in the firmest and most united manner. And flee seven ways - shall be utterly broken, confounded, and finally routed.

Clarke: Deu 28:8

The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee - Every thing that thou hast shall come by Divine appointment; thou shalt have nothing casually, but every thing, both spiritual and temporal, shall come by the immediate command of God.

Clarke: Deu 28:9

The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto himself - This is the sum of all blessings, to be made holy, and be preserved in holiness

Clarke: Deu 28:9

If thou shalt keep, etc. - Here is the solemn condition; if they did not keep God’ s testimonies, taking them for the regulators of their lives, and according to their direction walking in his ways, under the influence and aids of his grace, then the curses, and not the blessings, must be their portion. See Deu 28:15, etc.

Clarke: Deu 28:12

The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure - The clouds, so that a sufficiency of fructifying showers should descend at all requisite times, and the vegetative principle in the earth should unfold and exert itself, so that their crops should be abundant.

Clarke: Deu 28:14

Thou shalt not go aside - to the right hand or to the left - The way of obedience is a straight way; it goes right forward; he who declines either to right or left from this path goes astray and misses heaven.

Clarke: Deu 28:20

Cursing - This shall be thy state; vexation - grief, trouble, and anguish of heart; rebuke - continual judgments, and marks of God’ s displeasure.

Clarke: Deu 28:21

The pestilence cleave unto thee - ידבק יהוה בך אה הדבר yadbek Yehovah becha eth haddaber , the Lord shall cement the pestilence or plague to thee. Sept., Προσκολλησει Κυριος εις σε τον θανατον, The Lord will glue - inseparably attach, the death unto thee. How dreadful a plague it must be that ravages without intermission, any person may conceive who has ever heard the name.

Clarke: Deu 28:22

Consumption - שחפת shachepheth , atrophy through lack of food; from שחף shacaph , to be in want

Clarke: Deu 28:22

Fever - קדחת kaddachath , from קדח kadach , to be kindled, burn, sparkle; a burning inflammatory fever

Clarke: Deu 28:22

Inflammation - דלקת dalleketh , from דלק dalak , to pursue eagerly, to burn after; probably a rapidly consuming cancer

Clarke: Deu 28:22

Extreme burning - חרחר charchur , burning upon burning, scald upon scald; from חר char , to be heated, enraged, etc. This probably refers, not only to excruciating inflammations on the body, but also to the irritation and agony of a mind utterly abandoned by God, and lost to hope. What an accumulation of misery! how formidable! and especially in a land where great heat was prevalent and dreadful

Clarke: Deu 28:22

Sword - War in general, enemies without, and civil broils within. This was remarkably the case in the last siege of Jerusalem

Clarke: Deu 28:22

Blasting - שדפון shiddaphon , probably either the blighting east wind that ruined vegetation, or those awful pestilential winds which suffocate both man and beast wherever they come. These often prevail in different parts of the East, and several examples have already been given. See Gen 41:6 (note)

Clarke: Deu 28:22

Mildew - ירקון yerakon , an exudation of the vegetative juice from different parts of the stalk, by which the maturity and perfection of the plant are utterly prevented. It comes from ירק yarak , to throw out moisture

Of these seven plagues, the five former were to fall on their bodies, the two latter upon their substance. What a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God!

Clarke: Deu 28:23

Thy heaven - shall be brass, and the earth - iron - The atmosphere should not be replenished with aqueous vapours, in consequence of which they should have neither the early nor the latter rain; hence the earth - the ground, must be wholly intractable, and, through its hardness, incapable of cultivation. God shows them by this that he is Lord of nature; and that drought and sterility are not casualties, but proceed from the immediate appointment of the Lord.

Clarke: Deu 28:24

The rain of thy land powder and dust - As their heavens - atmosphere, clouds, etc., were to be as brass - yielding no rain; so the surface of the earth must be reduced to powder; and this, being frequently taken up by the strong winds, would fall down in showers instead of rain. Whole caravans have been buried under showers of sand; and Thevenot, a French traveler, who had observed these showers of dust, etc., says, "They grievously annoy all they fall on, filling their eyes, ears, nostrils, etc."- Travels in the East, part 1, book ii., chap. 80. The ophthalmia in Egypt appears to be chiefly owing to a very fine sand, the particles of which are like broken glass, which are carried about by the wind, and, entering into the ciliary glands, produce grievous and continual inflammations.

Clarke: Deu 28:27

The Lord will smite thee with the botch - שחין shechin , a violent inflammatory swelling. In Job ii., one of the Hexapla versions renders it ελεφας, the elephantiasis, a disease the most horrid that can possibly afflict human nature. In this disorder, the whole body is covered with a most loathsome scurf; the joints are all preternaturally enlarged, and the skin swells up and grows into folds like that of an elephant, whence the disease has its name. The skin, through its rigidity, breaks across at all the joints, and a most abominable ichor flows from all the chinks, etc. See an account of it in Aretaeus, whose language is sufficient to chill the blood of a maniac, could he attend to the description given by this great master, of this most loathsome and abominable of all the natural productions of death and sin. This was called the botch of Egypt, as being peculiar to that country, and particularly in the vicinity of the Nile. Hence those words of Lucretius: -

Est Elephas morbus, qui circum flumina Nil

Nascitur, Aegypto in media; nec praeterea usquam

Lib. vi., ver. 1112

Emerods - עפלים ophalim , from עפל aphal , to be elevated, raised up; swellings, protuberances; probably the bleeding piles

Clarke: Deu 28:27

Scab - brg garab does not occur as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, but gharb , in Arabic, signifies a distemper in the corner of the eye, (Castel)., and may amount to the Egyptian ophthalmia , which is so epidemic and distressing in that country: some suppose the scurvy to be intended

Clarke: Deu 28:27

Itch - חרס cheres , a burning itch, probably something of the erysipelatous kind, or what is commonly called St. Anthony’ s fire

Clarke: Deu 28:27

Whereof thou canst not be healed - For as they were inflicted by God’ s justice, they could not of course be cured by human art.

Clarke: Deu 28:28

The Lord shall smite thee with madness - שגעון shiggaon , distraction, so that thou shalt not know what to do

Clarke: Deu 28:28

And blindness - עורון ivvaron , blindness, both physical and mental; the גרב garab , (Deu 28:27), destroying their eyes, and the judgments of God confounding their understandings

Clarke: Deu 28:28

Astonishment - תמהון timmahon , stupidity and amazement. By the just judgments of God they were so completely confounded, as not to discern the means by which they might prevent or remove their calamities, and to adopt those which led directly to their ruin. How true is the ancient saying, Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ! "Those whom God is determined to destroy, he first infatuates."But this applies not exclusively to the poor Jews: how miserably infatuated have the powers of the continent of Europe been, in all their councils and measures, for several years past! And what is the result? They have fallen - most deplorably fallen!

Clarke: Deu 28:29

Thou shalt be only oppressed, etc. - Perhaps no people under the sun have been more oppressed and spoiled than the rebellious Jews. Indeed, this has been their portion, with but little intermission, for nearly 1,800 years. And still they grope at noon day, as the blind gropeth in darkness - they do not yet discover, notwithstanding the effulgence of the light by which they are encompassed, that the rejection of their own Messiah is the cause of all their calamities.

Calvin: Deu 28:1

1.And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken. He teaches the same thing as before in different words; but the diversity of expression, as well as the repetition, tends to its confirmation. First, God says that He would deal with them so bountifully that they should excel all other nations; for this is the meaning of the words, that they should be illustrious above all the rest of the world on account of the special blessings of God. He afterwards enumerates the blessings which shall never depart from them, if they persevere in the service of God; and here it must be observed that they are reminded, not only in how many ways God is bountiful towards His servants, but also to how many necessities they are exposed, which require His direct and constant aid; for if we are blessed in the city and in the field, we can no more move a foot than stand still, except by His blessing. Such also is the tendency of the whole list, that a scarcity of all things impends over us at every moment, unless God should continually succor us by remedies sent down from heaven, and that every good thing can only come from that one source.

Calvin: Deu 28:9

9.The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto himself. This refers indeed to earthly blessings, as if Moses said, that by them would be manifested God’s love towards His chosen people; still it rises higher, so that the Israelites, led on by degrees, should learn to embrace God alone, and to trust in Him according to the covenant which He had made with Abraham, “I am thy exceeding great reward.” (Gen 15:1.) For the children of Abraham were set apart and chosen to be a holy people, not only in order that, being well fed, and with a full belly, they should aspire to nothing but earthly things, but that they might be confidently assured that they would be blessed in death as well as life. Although their adoption was gratuitous, still, inasmuch as they were called unto purity, it is not without reason that God promises that what He had spoken should be sure, if by keeping the Law the Israelites themselves should continue in the covenant; as much as to say, that their sanctification ²¹⁵ should be firm and perpetual if they walked in the commandments of the Law. When He adds that it should be manifest “to ²¹⁶ all people of the earth that the name of God was called upon them,” it is equivalent to saying, that it should be known that they were under God’s defense and patronage, and that thus they should always be safe and secure in His protection.

Calvin: Deu 28:12

12.The Lord shall open to thee his good treasure. He again repeats, that the goodness of God shines forth in many ways in the life of men, since He not only supplies the bread that they eat, but that the rain which descends from heaven waters the earth; and that thus He produces whatever is required for food from His plenteous store-house or treasure. Let us learn, therefore, both above and beneath, as well in the temperature of the atmosphere, in the quickening heat of the sun, in the rain, and in other means, as in the fertility of the earth, to contemplate the manifold riches which God brings forth from His treasures. And when He declares that He will bless the work of our hands, hence, too, let us learn that we can attain nothing by our industry and hardest labors, except in so far as God vouchsafes us good success; and that all our efforts without His secret blessing are mere useless fatigue. For the figure which Paul uses in reference to the spiritual culture of the Church, is taken from nature itself:

“Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.” (1Co 3:7.)

God would not, indeed, have ²¹⁷ us lie idle, and therefore He requires the labor of our hands, but He would have the fruit of our labors attributed to Himself.

After having spoken of the whole Law, and forbidden that they should turn aside to the right or the left, He adverts to the principal point, i. e. , that they should not revolt to strange gods. Wherefore, the sum comes to this, that, in order that God may continue to shew us the favor which He has begun towards us, we ought on our sides to be altogether submissive to His rule. This indeed He demands of us by His word, and enables us to perform it by the power of His Spirit; not, it is true, fully to do our duty, but to strive to reach the goal; and, whereas we are far from attaining perfection, His indulgence supplies what is wanting in us.

Here, however, a difficult question arises, — If all prosperity proceeds from the peculiar blessing which God vouchsafes to His servants, whence is it that many of His despisers have children, easy and happy circumstances, abundance of the fruits of fire earth, enjoyment and luxury, honors and power? I answer, that the happy condition of life, which He assigns to His servants, does not prevent Him from diffusing His bounty promiscuously over the whole human race. He is truly called in Psa 36:6, the preserver of “man and beast.” It is said elsewhere, ²¹⁸ that His mercy is extended over all His creatures, (Psa 145:17;) and justly does Christ exalt His unbounded goodness, in that “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good.” (Mat 5:45.) But equally true is the exclamation of the Prophet;

“Oh, how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up
for them that fear thee!” (Psa 31:19.)

For since all without exception enjoy all the supports of life, God’s goodness, which thus contends with the wickedness of men, shines forth universally even towards the ungodly, so that He does not cease to cherish and preserve those whom He has created, although they be unworthy. He therefore does good to the ungodly, because He is their Creator; besides, in order to keep the minds of believers in suspense in expectation of the final judgment, He now suffers many things to be confusedly mixed together, and hides His judgment in the darkness of night, as it were, or at least under clouds; whilst He also so tempers His patience towards the reprobate, as that, in this confusion of which I have spoken, some signs of His anger and favor are manifested. Thus, although the government of the world is not yet reduced to a perfect rule, still God shews by it that He is both the avenger of sins and the rewarder of righteousness, and some sparks are seen through the darkness; whilst the faithful, although they do not attain to the full enjoyment of the blessing promised them, nevertheless taste of it as far as is expedient. But to the ungodly, although they abound with all sorts of good things, not a single drop of God’s goodness is dispensed; for unless a sense of God’s paternal favor is awakened by His blessing, the blessing itself ceases to exist; nay, the more they gorge themselves, they attain to a deadly fatness; and God purposely lifts them up, that He may cast them down more heavily from their high estate. In a word, they are fed, as the Prophet says, ²¹⁹ “unto the day of slaughter.”

It must be concluded, therefore, that the blessings which God here promises to His servants are seasoned by Him with spiritual salt, lest they should be tasteless; whilst the reprobate, who are destitute of a sense of His grace, are also deprived altogether of all His blessings. There still, however, remains a difficulty, because the felicity here spoken of does not always, nor equally fall to the lot of God’s servants; nay, even under the Law they were sharply tried by many troubles and adversities. I answer, that since none, not even the most holy, was ever a perfect keeper of the Law, since none was ever free from all transgression, it is no cause of surprise that they only partially enjoyed the promised blessings; inasmuch as they were not fit recipients ( capaces) of their fullness; and, if it sometimes happens that they are chastised more severely than the ungodly, neither in this is there any absurdity, since God usually begins His judgment at His own house. (Isa 10:12; 1Pe 4:17.) Still, even in this confusion we see what the Prophet teaches, that the righteous are never forsaken, (Psa 37:25,) and that they are like green and fruitful olive-trees in the courts of the Lord, (Psa 52:8,) whilst the ungodly, although for a season they may be exalted like cedars of Lebanon, yet are plucked up in a moment by the roots, so that no trace of them remains.

Calvin: Deu 28:15

15.But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken. This list of curses is longer than the previous one which was proclaimed from Mount Sinai, undoubtedly because the Spirit of God foresaw that the sluggishness of the people had need of sharper stimulants. If they had been only moderately teachable, what they had already heard would have been even more than sufficient to alarm them; but now God redoubles His threatenings against them in their inertness and forgetfulness, that they might not only be compelled to fear, but also aroused by constant reminding. For this reason, He declares that they should be “cursed in the city and in the field,” i e. , at home and abroad, in the house or out of the house; and again, that their food should be cursed in the seed and in the meal. Afterwards, He enumerates three kinds of fruit in which they should be cursed, viz., their own offspring, the produce of the soil, and the young of their animals; for all these Scripture embraces in the word fruit, as sufficiently appears from this passage.

Calvin: Deu 28:19

19.Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in. God here pronounces that all their undertakings should meet with ill success; for going out and coming in signifies their various actions, and the whole course of their life; and this is more clearly expressed in the next verse, where He denounces against them misfortune in all their affairs, in that God would confound and mar whatever they should undertake. The words ²³⁷ מהומה , mehumah, and מגערת , migegnereth, are indeed variously explained. Still the sum comes to this, that God would be against them, so as to discomfit and overthrow all their counsels and labors. Hence we are taught that all men’s endeavors are useless and vain, unless they seek for success from God.

Calvin: Deu 28:21

21.The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee. He now proceeds to diseases which are as it were the lictors of God; and finally, His executioners, if men pertinaciously continue in their ungodliness. He does not, therefore, merely declare that He will send the pestilence, but that He will cause it to cleave to them, and when it shall have once laid hold of them, that it shall be impossible to remove it. It might also be translated, The Lord shall cause that the pestilence should seize thee; but with the same meaning, viz., that the pestilence should be fixed, or glued ( agglutinatam) upon them, until it should consume them in the Holy Land itself. He adds phthisis, or consumption, which disease emaciates the body, and gradually exhausts its juices. It is superfluous to speak particularly of the other diseases, only let us learn that, whilst the multitude of diseases is almost innumerable, they are all so many ministers ( satellites) prepared to execute God’s vengeance. It is true, indeed, that diseases are contracted in various ways, and especially by intemperance; still, this does not prevent God from smiting the transgressors of the Law with them, although no natural cause may be apparent. He adds war, which He designates by the name of “the sword,” but of this curse He will soon speak more fully.

He then unfolds in more distinct detail what He had before adverted to with respect to the curse on the produce of the land. And, first, He names two blights of the corn, which destroy it just as it is ripening, and snatch the bread, as it were, out of men’s mouths; for dryness ²³⁸ is not here used for all want of moisture in the soil, but for that emptying of the ears, which is caused by the east wind. Mildew occurs from the sudden heat of the sun, if it strikes upon the corn when moistened with cold dew. Now, although these evils arise from natural causes, still God, the Author of nature, in His supreme power, so controls the atmosphere, that its unwholesomeness is His undoubted scourge. ²³⁹

Calvin: Deu 28:23

23.And thy heaven that is over thy head. He enumerates other causes of barrenness, and especially drought. Often does God by the Prophets, desirous of giving a token of His favor towards the people, promise them the rain of autumn and of spring: the one immediately following the sowing, the other giving growth to the fruits before they begin to ripen; whilst in many passages He also threatens that it should be withheld. To this refers what He now says, that the heavens shall be of brass, and the earth of iron, because neither shall the moisture descend from heaven to fertilize the earth, whilst the earth, bound up and hardened, shall have no juice or dampness in order to production. Whence we gather, that not even a drop of rain falls to the earth except distilled by God, and that whenever it rains, the earth is irrigated as if by His hand. It must, however, be observed, as we have seen before, that the land of Canaan was not like Egypt, which was watered by the care and industry of man, but fertilized by the bounty of heaven. Thus God, by the Prophet, marks the degrees which are worthy of observation, viz., that when He is reconciled to His people, He will “hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil;” so that, finally, all these things shall hear starving men. ²⁴⁰ (Hos 2:21.)

It is not superfluous that He should expressly speak of the “heaven over our head,” and the earth that is “under our feet,” for He thus indicates that His weapons are prepared both above and below to execute His vengeance, so as to assail the people on all sides. Another Prophet confirms this, although only in a brief allusion:

“Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit; and I called for a drought,” etc. (Hag 1:10.)

Another mode of expression is then used to make the same thing more sure, viz., that the rain should be turned into “powder and dust;” still this clause may be explained in two ways, either that the rain shall no more fertilize the ground than as if it were ashes; or that, instead of rain, dust should fall, as though God would dry up the rich soil by scattering ashes on it.

Calvin: Deu 28:25

25.The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies. What He had briefly threatened in His mention of “the sword,” He now more fully pursues, that they should be given up to the will of their enemies, so as to be indiscriminately slaughtered. We have previously seen that those who execute punishment on the transgressors of the Law, are stirred up and armed by the just judgment of God; Moses does not now touch on that point, but merely declares that the enemies of the people should be their conquerors, should cruelly entreat them and pursue them in their flight. Moreover, in order that God’s judgment might be more conspicuous, He says, that when they have gone out to battle by one way, i e. , with their army in regular order, they should return by seven ways, because, in the confusion of their flight, they should be dispersed in all directions. Hence we gather that the bravery of men is in God’s power, so that He can make cowards of the boldest whenever He so pleases. And we must bear in mind what we shall see elsewhere, “How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except God had sold them and had shut them up” under their hand? (Deu 32:30.) And for this reason God calls Himself the God of hosts, in order that believers may live securely under His guardianship; whilst the wicked, and the despisers of the Law, should dread the slightest motion when He is wroth with them.

What follows, that they should be “for ²⁴¹ a removing in all the kingdoms of the earth,” some take to mean that they should be a laughing-stock; because we usually shake or move our heads by way of insult; but others explain it, that they should be wanderers and vagabonds in unknown places of exile. The first exposition is the one I prefer. In Ezekiel ²⁴² (Eze 23:46,) it is used for a tumultuous rout; nor am I indisposed to understand it in this way, that whatever nations shall assail them, they should be shaken by their slightest attacks.

Calvin: Deu 28:26

26.And thy carcase shall be meat. The punishment is here doubled by the disgrace which is added to death; for it is ignominious to be deprived of burial, and justly reckoned amongst the curses of God; whilst it is a sign of His paternal favor that we should be distinguished from the brutes, inasmuch as the rites of burial arouse us to the hope of resurrection and everlasting life. Wherefore, on the contrary, God deprives of burial those whom He curses. But as we have said that punishments affecting the body are common to the pious and the reprobate, so also we must think of being deprived of sepulture, since it sometimes happens that the reprobate are honorably buried, as Christ relates of the luxurious Dives, (Luk 16:22,) whilst the bodies of the pious are ignominiously cast a prey for birds and beasts; as the Prophet complains in Psa 79:2. Still such an interchange does not prevent God from avenging the contempt of His Law by this mode of punishment, as by pestilence, famine, or sword.

Calvin: Deu 28:27

27.The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt. Whether you understand this passage of the extraordinary plagues which God inflicted on the Egyptians at the time of His people’s deliverance, or of the ordinary diseases which had before prevailed among them, though the latter is more probable, still Moses signifies, that whilst the Egyptians were smitten with these plagues, God’s people escaped them, in order that this distinction might more clearly represent His favor. For it could not happen naturally that in the same place the diseases, from which the Israelites were free, should afflict the Egyptians alone. God therefore threatens, that if they should despise His Law, He would deal with them as they had seen Him deal with heathen nations. And assuredly, since God then chose to multiply His people miraculously, it can be by no means doubted but that He wonderfully privileged them by the bestowment of health and rigor. It is doubtful whether by diseases of the fundament He signifies hemorrhoids or prolapsus, or some other secret disease, such as that which attacked the Philistines when they captured the ark of the covenant. (1Sa 5:6.) He subjoins other diseases, in which there appear special marks of God’s wrath; for although they sometimes affect the children of God also, still I have shewn elsewhere that the same punishments are so dealt out to them respectively, that they widely differ from each other. When Job was smitten with terrible ulcers, so as to become corrupt, he seemed for a time to present the marks of a reprobate person; but what in that holy man was an exercise of patience, is in the transgressors of the Law the just reward of their crimes by the curse of God.

Calvin: Deu 28:28

28.The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness. This punishment is very often referred to by the Prophets, when God is said to smite the wicked with a spirit ²⁴³ of giddiness and madness, to make them drunk with astonishment. Now, whatever God declares respecting this blindness or fury of mind, has a wide application; for hence it arises that the wicked rush willfully into vile lusts, shudder at no crime, are hurried headlong to destruction, are utterly deprived of discretion, throw away the remedies which are in their hands; and although ²⁴⁴ the carnal sense is not greatly disturbed by this form of vengeance, still it is much more severe and awful than any bodily disease. The Poets imagined that wicked men were agitated and terrified by the furies, because experience taught them that it was not without a secret impulse from God that they became so senseless, when, their minds being affected, they were like beasts in the shape of men. Even heathens, then, perceived that when the wicked are given over to a reprobate mind, God thus manifests Himself as the just Avenger of their crimes. And so it is in all cases of “astonishment;” for it is plain that those who are thus stupified by their miseries, are prostrated by the hand of God.

TSK: Deu 28:1

If thou shalt : Deu 11:13, Deu 15:5, Deu 27:1; Exo 15:26; Lev 26:3-13; Psa 106:3, Psa 111:10; Isa 1:19; Isa 3:10, Isa 55:2, Isa 55:3; Jer 11:4, Jer 12:16, Jer 17:24; Luk 11:28

to do all : Psa 119:6, Psa 119:128; Luk 1:6; Joh 15:14; Gal 3:10; Jam 2:10, Jam 2:11

will set : Deu 26:19; Psa 91:14, Psa 148:14; Luk 9:48; Rom 2:7

TSK: Deu 28:2

come on thee : Deu 28:15, Deu 28:45; Zec 1:6; 1Ti 4:8

TSK: Deu 28:3

in the city : Psa 107:36, Psa 107:37, Psa 128:1-5, Psa 144:12-15; Isa 65:21-23; Zec 8:3-5

in the field : Gen 26:12, Gen 39:5; Amo 9:13, Amo 9:14; Hag 2:19; Mal 3:10, Mal 3:11

TSK: Deu 28:4

Deu 28:11, Deu 7:13; Gen 22:17, Gen 49:25; Lev 26:9; Psa 107:38, Psa 127:3, Psa 128:3; Pro 10:22; Pro 13:22, Pro 20:7; 1Ti 4:8

TSK: Deu 28:5

thy basket : By basket, may be understood the olive-gathering and vintage, in which it was employed; and by the store or remainder, all laid up for future use, or prepared for present consumption.

store : or, dough, or kneading troughs, Deu 28:5

TSK: Deu 28:6

Deu 31:2; Num 27:17; 2Sa 3:25; 2Ch 1:10; Psa 121:8

TSK: Deu 28:7

shall cause : Deu 28:25, Deu 32:30; Lev 26:7, Lev 26:8; 2Sa 22:38-41; Psa 89:23

flee before : Jos 8:22, Jos 10:10, Jos 10:11, Jos 10:42; 1Sa 7:3, 1Sa 7:4, 1Sa 7:10, 1Sa 7:11; 2Ch 14:2-6, 2Ch 14:9-15, 2Ch 19:4; 2Ch 20:22-25, 2Ch 31:20, 2Ch 31:21, 2Ch 32:21, 2Ch 32:22

TSK: Deu 28:8

command : Lev 25:21; Psa 42:8, Psa 44:4, Psa 133:3

storehouses : or, barns, Lev 26:4, Lev 26:5, Lev 26:10; 2Ki 6:27; Psa 144:13; Pro 3:9, Pro 3:10; Hag 2:19; Mal 3:10, Mal 3:11; Mat 6:26, Mat 13:30; Luk 12:18, Luk 12:24, Luk 12:25

settest : Deu 15:10

TSK: Deu 28:9

establish : Deu 7:6, Deu 26:18, Deu 26:19, Deu 29:13; Gen 17:7; Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6; Psa 87:5; Isa 1:26, Isa 62:12; 2Th 3:3; Tit 2:14; 1Pe 2:9-11, 1Pe 5:10

sworn : Deu 7:8, Deu 13:17, Deu 29:12; Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6; Jer 11:5; Heb 6:13-18

TSK: Deu 28:10

And all : Mal 3:12

called : Num 6:27; 2Ch 7:14; Isa 63:19; Dan 9:18, Dan 9:19

and they shall : Deu 4:6-8, Deu 11:25; Exo 12:33, Exo 14:25; Jos 5:1; 1Sa 18:12-15, 1Sa 18:28, 1Sa 18:29; 1Ch 14:17; Jer 33:9; Rev 3:9

TSK: Deu 28:11

plenteous : Deu 28:4, Deu 30:9; Lev 26:9; Pro 10:22

in goods : or, for good

body : Heb. belly, Job 19:17; Psa 132:11 *marg.

TSK: Deu 28:12

open : Deu 11:14; Lev 26:4; Job 38:22; Psa 65:9-13, Psa 135:7; Joe 2:23, Joe 2:24

to bless all : Deu 14:29, Deu 15:10

lend : Deu 28:44, Deu 15:6; Pro 22:7

TSK: Deu 28:13

the head : Num 24:18, Num 24:19; Isa 9:14, Isa 9:15

if that thou : Deu 28:1, Deu 4:6-9; Phi 1:27

TSK: Deu 28:14

thou shalt : Deu 5:32, Deu 11:16, Deu 11:26-28; Jos 23:6; 2Ki 22:2; Pro 4:26, Pro 4:27

the right : Isa 30:21

TSK: Deu 28:15

if thou wilt : Lev. 26:14-46; Lam 2:17; Dan 9:11-13; Mal 2:2; Rom 2:8, Rom 2:9

all these curses : The same variety of expression is used in these terrible curses, as in the preceding blessings, to intimate every kind of prosperity or adversity, personal, relative, and public. Consulting the marginal references will generally lead to the best exposition of the terms employed; and will frequently point out the fulfilment of the promises and threatenings. Deu 28:2, Deu 27:15-26, Deu 29:20; Isa 3:11; Gal 3:10

TSK: Deu 28:16

in the city : Deu 28:3-14; Pro 3:33; Isa 24:6-12, Isa 43:28; Jer 9:11, Jer 26:6, Jer 44:22; Lam 1:1; Lam 2:11-22, Lam 4:1-13; Mal 2:2, Mal 4:6

in the field : Deu 28:55; Gen 3:17, Gen 3:18, Gen 4:11, Gen 4:12, Gen 5:29, Gen 8:21, Gen 8:22; 1Ki 17:1, 1Ki 17:5, 1Ki 17:12; Jer 14:2-5, Jer 14:18; Lam 5:10; Joe 1:4, Joe 1:8-18, Joe 2:3; Amo 4:6-9; Hag 1:9-11; Hag 2:16, Hag 2:17; Mal 3:9-12

TSK: Deu 28:17

Deu 28:5; Psa 69:22; Pro 1:32; Hag 1:6; Zec 5:3, Zec 5:4; Mal 2:2; Luk 16:25

TSK: Deu 28:18

the fruit of thy body : Deu 28:4, Deu 5:9; Job 18:16-19; Psa 109:9-15; Lam 2:11, Lam 2:12, Lam 2:20; Hos 9:11-14; Mal 2:3; Luk 23:29, Luk 23:30

thy land : Deu 28:16; Lev 26:19, Lev 26:20, Lev 26:26; Hab 3:17

TSK: Deu 28:19

Deu 28:6; Jdg 5:6, Jdg 5:7; 2Ch 15:5

TSK: Deu 28:20

send : Psa 7:11; Mal 2:2

vexation : 1Sa 14:20; Psa 80:4-16; Isa 28:19, Isa 30:17, Isa 51:20, Isa 66:15; Zec 14:12, Zec 14:13; Joh 3:36; 1Th 2:16

for to do : Heb. which thou wouldest do

until thou be : Deu 4:26; Lev 26:31-33, Lev 26:38; Jos 23:16

TSK: Deu 28:21

Exo 5:3; Lev 26:25; Num 14:12, Num 16:46-49, Num 25:9; 2Sa 24:15; Jer 15:2, Jer 16:4; Jer 21:6, Jer 21:7, Jer 24:10; Mat 26:7

TSK: Deu 28:22

a consumption : Lev 26:16; 2Ch 6:28; Jer 14:12

sword : or, drought

blasting : 1Ki 8:37; Amo 4:9; Hag 2:17

TSK: Deu 28:23

The language here is remarkable: ""Thy heaven;""that part of the atmosphere which was over Judea, instead of being replenished with aqueous vapours, should become, with respect to moisture, like brass, and consequently their land would become as hard as iron, and wholly incapable of cultivation; while the clouds might give showers in abundance, and the earth be moist and fruitful in other regions.

Lev 26:19; 1Ki 17:1, 1Ki 18:2; Jer 14:1-6; Amo 4:7

TSK: Deu 28:24

make the rain : This was a natural consequence of their heaven’ s being brass, or yielding no rain; for the surface of the earth being reduced to powder, and frequently taken up by strong winds, would fall down in showers instead of rain. These showers of sand frequently, in the East, bury whole caravans. Deu 28:12; Gen 19:24; Job 18:15-21; Isa 5:24; Amo 4:11

TSK: Deu 28:25

cause thee : Deu 28:7, Deu 32:30; Lev 26:17, Lev 26:36, Lev 26:37; Isa 30:17

removed : Heb. for a removing, Jer 15:2-9, Jer 24:9, Jer 29:18, Jer 34:17; Eze 23:46; Luk 21:24

TSK: Deu 28:26

1Sa 17:44-46; Psa 79:1-3; Isa 34:3; Jer 7:33, Jer 8:1, Jer 16:4, Jer 19:7, Jer 34:20; Eze 39:17-20

TSK: Deu 28:27

the botch : Deu 28:35; Exo 9:9, Exo 9:11, Exo 15:26

emerods : 1Sa 5:6, 1Sa 5:9, 1Sa 5:12; Psa 78:66

scab : Lev 13:2-8, Lev 21:20; Isa 3:17

TSK: Deu 28:28

1Sa 16:14; Psa 60:3; Isa 6:9, Isa 6:10, Isa 19:11-17, Isa 43:19; Jer 4:9; Eze 4:17; Luk 21:25, Luk 21:26; Act 13:41; 2Th 2:9-11

TSK: Deu 28:29

grope : Job 5:14, Job 12:25; Psa 69:23, Psa 69:24; Isa 59:10; Lam 5:17; Zep 1:17; Rom 11:7-10, Rom 11:25; 2Co 4:3, 2Co 4:4

thou shalt be : Jdg 3:14, Jdg 4:2, Jdg 4:3, Jdg 6:1-6, Jdg 10:8, Jdg 13:1; 1Sa 13:5-7, 1Sa 13:19-22; Neh 9:26-29, Neh 9:37; Psa 106:40-42; Lam 5:8; Act 21:24

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Deu 28:1-14

A comparison of this chapter with Exo 23:20-23 and Lev. 26 will show how Moses here resumes and amplifies the promises and threats already set forth in the earlier records of the Law. The language rises in this chapter to the sublimest strains, especially in the latter part of it; and the prophecies respecting the dispersion and degradation of the Jewish nation in its later days are among the most remarkable in scripture. They are plain, precise, and circumstantial; and the fulfillment of them has been literal, complete, and undeniable.

The Blessing. The six repetitions of the word "blessed"introduce the particular forms which the blessing would take in the various relations of life.

Deu 28:5

The "basket"or bag was a customary means in the East for carrying about whatever might be needed for personal uses (compare Deu 26:2; Joh 13:29).

The "store"is rather the kneading-trough Exo 8:3; Exo 12:34. The blessings here promised relate, it will be observed, to private and personal life: in Deu 28:7 those which are of a more public and national character are brought forward.

Deu 28:9

The oath with which God vouchsafed to confirm His promises to the patriarchs (compare Gen 22:16; Heb 6:13-14) contained by implication these gifts of holiness and eminence to Israel (compare the marginal references).

Barnes: Deu 28:15-68

The curses correspond in form and number Deu 28:15-19 to the blessings Deu 28:3-6, and the special modes in which these threats should be executed are described in five groups of denunciations Deut. 28:20-68.

Deu 28:20-26

First series of judgments. The curse of God should rest on all they did, and should issue in manifold forms of disease, in famine, and in defeat in war.

Deu 28:20

Vexation - Rather, confusion: the word in the original is used Deu 7:23; 1Sa 14:20 for the panic and disorder with which the curse of God smites His foes.

Deu 28:22

"Blasting"denotes (compare Gen 41:23) the result of the scorching east wind; "mildew"that of an untimely blight falling on the green ear, withering it and marring its produce.

Deu 28:24

When the heat is very great the atmosphere in Palestine is often filled with dust and sand; the wind is a burning sirocco, and the air comparable to the glowing heat at the mouth of a furnace.

Deu 28:25

Shalt be removed - See the margin. The threat differs from that in Lev 26:33, which refers to a dispersion of the people among the pagan. Here it is meant that they should be tossed to and fro at the will of others, driven from one country to another without any certain settlement.

Deu 28:27-37

Second series of judgments on the body, mind, and outward circumstances of the sinners.

Deu 28:27

The "botch"(rather "boil;"see Exo 9:9), the "emerods"or tumors 1Sa 5:6, 1Sa 5:9, the "scab"and "itch"represent the various forms of the loathsome skin diseases which are common in Syria and Egypt.

Deu 28:28

Mental maladies shah be added to those sore bodily plagues, and should Deu 28:29-34 reduce the sufferers to powerlessness before their enemies and oppressors.

Blindness - Most probably mental blindness; compare Lam 4:14; Zep 1:17; 2Co 3:14 ff.

Deu 28:30-33

See the marginal references for the fulfillment of these judgments.

Deu 28:38-48

Third series of judgments, affecting every kind of labor and enterprise until it had accomplished the total ruin of the nation, and its subjection to its enemies.

Deu 28:39

Worms - i. e. the vine-weevil. Naturalists prescribed elaborate precautions against its ravages.

Deu 28:40

Cast ... - Some prefer "shall be spoiled"or "plundered."

Deu 28:43, Deu 28:44

Contrast Deu 28:12 and Deu 28:13.

Deu 28:46

Forever - Yet "the remnant"Rom 9:27; Rom 11:5 would by faith and obedience become a holy seed.

Deu 28:49-58

Fourth series of judgments, descriptive of the calamities and horrors which should ensue when Israel should be subjugated by its foreign foes.

Deu 28:49

The description (compare the marginal references) applies undoubtedly to the Chaldeans, and in a degree to other nations also whom God raised up as ministers of vengeance upon apostate Israel (e. g. the Medes). But it only needs to read this part of the denunciation, and to compare it with the narrative of Josephus, to see that its full and exact accomplishment took place in the wars of Vespasian and Titus against the Jews, as indeed the Jews themselves generally admit.

The eagle - The Roman ensign; compare Mat 24:28; and consult throughout this passage the marginal references.

Deu 28:54

Evil - i. e. grudging; compare Deu 15:9.

Deu 28:57

Young one - The "afterbirth"(see the margin). The Hebrew text in fact suggests an extremity of horror which the King James Version fails to exhibit. Compare 2Ki 6:29.

Deu 28:58-68

Fifth series of judgments. The uprooting of Israel from the promised land, and its dispersion among other nations. Examine the marginal references.

Deu 28:58

In this book - i. e. in the book of the Law, or the Pentateuch in so far as it contains commands of God to Israel. Deuteronomy is included, but not exclusively intended. So Deu 28:61; compare Deu 27:3 and note, Deu 31:9.

Deu 28:66

Thy life shall hang in doubt before thee - i. e. shall be hanging as it were on a thread, and that before thine own eyes. The fathers regard this passage as suggesting in a secondary or mystical sense Christ hanging on the cross, as the life of the Jews who would not believe in Him.

Deu 28:68

This is the climax. As the Exodus from Egypt was as it were the birth of the nation into its covenant relationship with God, so the return to the house of bondage is in like manner the death of it. The mode of conveyance, "in ships,"is added to heighten the contrast. They crossed the sea from Egypt with a high hand. the waves being parted before them. They should go back again cooped up in slaveships.

There ye shall be sold - Rather, "there shall ye offer yourselves, or be offered for sale."This denunciation was literally fulfilled on more than one occasion: most signally when many thousand Jews were sold into slavery and sent into Egypt by Titus; but also under Hadrian, when numbers were sold at Rachel’ s grave Gen 35:19.

No man shall buy you - i. e. no one shall venture even to employ you as slaves, regarding you as accursed of God, and to be shunned in everything.

Poole: Deu 28:2

Those blessings which others greedily follow after, and ofttimes never overtake, they shall follow after thee, and shall be thrown into thy lap by my special kindness.

Poole: Deu 28:5

i.e. It shall always be well replenished, and the provision thou hast there shall be preserved for, and in due time brought forth to, thy use and service. See Deu 26:2,10 .

Poole: Deu 28:6

i.e. In all thy affairs and administrations, which are oft expressed by this phrase, as Num 27:17 Deu 31:2 2Sa 3:25 2Ch 1:10 Act 1:21 9:28 .

Poole: Deu 28:7

i.e. Many ways, as is usual when an army is totally overthrown and dissipated.

Poole: Deu 28:8

Shall command i.e. shall by his sovereign and powerful providence give it, even when it seems furthest from thee, and not likely to come to time without a word of command from God himself.

Poole: Deu 28:9

Shall establish thee an holy people unto himself i.e. shall confirm and establish his covenant with thee, by which he separated thee to himself as a holy and peculiar people, and shall publicly own thee for such, as it follows, Deu 28:10 .

Poole: Deu 28:10

i.e. That you are in deed and truth his people and children: see Deu 14:1 26:18 . For to be called ofttimes signifies to be, as Isa 47:1,5 56:7 Mat 5:9,19 21:13 .

Poole: Deu 28:11

The same things which were said before are repeated, to show that God would repeat and multiply his blessings upon them.

Poole: Deu 28:12

His good treasure to wit, the heaven or the air, as it here follows, which is God’ s storehouse, where he treasures up rain or wind or other things for man’ s use. See Job 38:22 Psa 33:7 .

Poole: Deu 28:13

The head the chief of all people in power, or at least in dignity and privileges; so that even they that are not under thine authority shall reverence thy greatness and excellency. So it was in David’ s and Solomon’ s time, and so it should have been much oftener and much more, if they had performed the conditions here required. For the phrase, see Isa 9:14,15 19:15 .

Poole: Deu 28:15

So as thou shalt not be able to escape them, as thou shalt vainly hope and endeavour to do.

Poole: Deu 28:20

Vexation or, disturbance . This seems chiefly to concern the mind, and its torment arising from the disappointment of hopes, the presages of its approaching miseries.

Rebuke to wit, from God, not so much in words as by his actions, by cross providences, by sharp and sore afflictions, which are oft called rebukes, as 2Ki 19:3 Psa 18:15 Psa 39:11 80:16 Isa 51:20 66:15 Eze 5:15 25:17 .

Poole: Deu 28:22

With blasting, and with mildew two plagues or evil affections of corn. See 1Ki 8:37 2Ch 6:28 Amo 4:9 Hag 2:17 .

Poole: Deu 28:23

Be brass i.e. like brass, hard and dry, and shut up from giving rain. See Lev 26:19 .

Be iron hard, and chapt, and barren.

Poole: Deu 28:24

Either,

1. Thy rain shall be as unprofitable to thy ground and seed as if it were only so much dust. Or,

2. Instead of rain shall come nothing but dust from heaven, which being raised and carried up by the wind in great abundance, doth return and fall upon the earth as it were in clouds or showers.

Until thou be destroyed to wit, by famine, following these great droughts.

Poole: Deu 28:25

Removed Heb. for a removing ; to be tossed like a football from place to place, and from people to people.

Poole: Deu 28:28

Blindness to wit, of mind, so that they shall not know what to do; see Job 5:13,14 ; so as they shall commonly choose and follow the worst counsels and courses, to their own ruin.

Astonishment of heart they shall be filled with wonder and horror, because of the strangeness and soreness of their calamities.

Poole: Deu 28:29

At noon-day i.e. in the most clear and evident matters thou shalt grossly mistake and miss thy way.

Thou shalt not prosper in thy ways thy counsels and enterprises shall be frustrated, and turn to thy destruction.

Haydock: Deu 28:1

Away. No threat could be more terrible to the Jews. They did not refuse burial to those who had been hung on the gibbet, chap. xxi. 23. Even the high priest, if he should find a corpse in the field, was obliged to bury it; though he was not allowed on other occasions, to attend the funeral of his relations. God threatens the impious king (Calmet) Joachim, that he shall be buried with the burial of an ass, Jeremias xxii. 19. (Haydock) ---

The ancient Christians allowed the sacred vessels to be sold, in order to bury the dead. "For we shall not suffer the figure and the work of God to be exposed a prey to the wild beasts and birds." (Lactantius 6.)

Haydock: Deu 28:1

Earth. Similar denunciations are made, Leviticus xxvi. (Menochius)

Haydock: Deu 28:2

All these blessings, &c. In the Old Testament God promised temporal blessings to the keepers of his law, heaven being not opened as yet; and that gross and sensual people being more moved with present and sensible things. But in the New Testament, the goods that are promised us are spiritual and eternal: and temporal evils are turned into blessings.

Haydock: Deu 28:3

Field. Wherever thou art, all thy undertakings shall prosper. (Calmet)

Haydock: Deu 28:4

Womb. This was most fully verified in the birth of the Messias, as the Holy Ghost insinuated, by causing St. Elizabeth to address these words to the mother of Jesus Christ, Luke i. 42. (Calmet)

Haydock: Deu 28:5

Barns. Hebrew tene, is translated (chap. xxvi. 2,) basket, in which bread was kept, and served up at table. Loaves were placed thus in baskets, near the altar of holocausts. ---

Stores. What thou hast laid up for thy provisions in corn, fruit, &c. (Calmet)

Haydock: Deu 28:6

Out, in all thy actions and affairs, (Menochius) at home and abroad; in peace and war.

Haydock: Deu 28:7

Down. Hebrew, "dead." Septuagint, "bruised to pieces," ver. 25. (Calmet) ---

Seven. This denotes the confusion and hurry with which the enemy shall endeavour to escape. (Menochius)

Haydock: Deu 28:10

Upon thee; so that thou art called God's people (Calmet) with truth. (Menochius) ---

He has taken thee under his protection, and defended them [thee?] against every attack. (Haydock)

Haydock: Deu 28:12

Lend. To do this with usury, is far from being a blessing; but to be able to assist those who are in distress, is a happiness; particularly for that nation which as yet does not know the merit of evangelical poverty. (Calmet)

Haydock: Deu 28:13

Tail, as he had promised, ver. 1. (Menochius) ---

You shall have dominion over others. (Calmet) ---

So Isaias (ix. 14,) says, the Lord shall destroy the head, (the magistrate) and the tail, or (ver. 15,) the lying prophet. (Haydock)

Haydock: Deu 28:15

All these curses, &c. Thus God dealt with the transgressors of his law in the Old Testament: but now he often suffers sinners to prosper in this world, rewarding them for some little good they have done, and reserving their punishment for the other world.

Haydock: Deu 28:20

Rebuke, or "curse." Septuagint, the pestilence, (Calmet) or destruction, ( analosin. ) (Haydock)

Haydock: Deu 28:22

Cold. The word occurs no where else. The Chaldean, Syriac, &c., have the reverse, "heat." ---

Blasting. In the original, either the mildew destroying the corn, (Haydock) or the jaundice, which attacks the human body, may be meant. (Calmet)

Haydock: Deu 28:23

Of brass, and yield no rain. (Menochius) ---

Pindar says, (Pyth. x.) "The heaven of brass they never can ascend." See Leviticus xxvi. 19.

Haydock: Deu 28:24

Consumed. Protestants, "The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven it shall come down upon thee, till thou be destroyed." (Haydock) ---

The dust coming instead of rain shall render the land more barren. (Calmet) In those dreary regions, where clouds of sand and dust overwhelm the poor traveller, the Israelites would have a good idea what inconveniences would attend such a state of the atmosphere, if it were only for a short continuance. But when it was intended for destruction, how could they possibly support life!

Haydock: Deu 28:25

Scattered, as they are at present. The real import of the Hebrew is doubtful. Some agree with the Vulgate and Septuagint; (Haydock) others translate, Thou shalt be trembling, an object of astonishment and horror. Others, All who see thee shall quake; they shall insult over thee, wagging their head. (Calmet)

Haydock: Deu 28:27

Egypt. See chap. vi. 15., xxviii. 60., Exodus ix. 9, and xv. 25., or with such diseases as those with which he afflicted Egypt. (Calmet) ---

Out. Hebrew, "with the emerods, scab, and itch," (Haydock) 1 Kings v. 6, 12.

Haydock: Deu 28:28

Madness, folly, or phrensy; with such Saul was attacked, and David feigned himself (1 Kings xxi. 13,) to be in a similar condition at the court of Achis.

Haydock: Deu 28:29

Ways. Is not this visibly the present condition of the Jews, amid the blaze of the gospel light, the miracles and divine conduct of the Son of God! They shut their eyes, and will not acknowledge him for the Messias. (Calmet)

Gill: Deu 28:1

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God,.... In his law, and by his prophets:

to observe and to do all his commandments, which I command thee this day; for without observing them to do them, hearing them would be to little purpose, and they were all of them to be observed and done, the lesser and weightier matters of the law as they were commanded by Moses in the name of the Lord, and as they would be taught, explained, and enforced by the prophets:

that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: as they were in the times of David and Solomon; See Gill on Deu 26:19.

Gill: Deu 28:2

And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee,.... After mentioned, which should come upon them from God from heaven, by the direction of his providence, and that freely and plentifully, and beyond their expectations and deserts, and continue with them:

if thou shall hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God; obedience to the law being the condition of their coming and continuance; for only temporal blessings in the land of Canaan are here intended, as follow.

Gill: Deu 28:3

Blessed shalt thou be in the city,.... Not only in the city of Jerusalem, where the temple would be built, and there be blessed with the service, worship, and ordinances of God, but in all other cities of the land; where they should dwell in title, large, and spacious houses, and their cities should be walled and fenced, and be very populous; yet should enjoy health, and have plenty of all sorts of provisions brought unto them, as well as prosper in all kinds of merchandise there, as Aben Ezra notes:

and blessed shalt thou be in the field; in the country villages, and in all rural employments, in sowing and planting, as the same writer observes; in all kinds of husbandry, in the culture of the fields for corn, and of vineyards and oliveyards; all should prosper and succeed, and bring forth fruit abundantly.

Gill: Deu 28:4

Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body,.... Their children, of which they should have many, and these live; be healthful, thrive, and arrive to manhood, and increase and perpetuate their families. Grotius thinks this was eminently fulfilled in Mary, the mother of our Lord; see Luk 1:42,

and the fruit of thy ground; of their gardens, orchards, and fields; grass for the cattle, and the wheat, barley, vines, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates for the use of men:

and the fruit of thy cattle; which being distinguished from oxen and sheep in the following clause, must be understood of camels and asses, which were used for the carriage both of persons and burdens, and were very serviceable, and were a considerable part of their substance in those countries; see Job 1:3,

the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep; of their cows and oxen, and of their sheep and goats, which were very increasing creatures, and in the increase of which much of their outward happiness lay; see Psa 144:13.

Gill: Deu 28:5

Blessed shall be thy basket,.... Which the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem restrain to the basket of firstfruits, and the cake of the first of their dough; but it intends any and every vessel in which they put their provisions for present use, and that that should never be empty of them, and that they should always have a sufficiency:

and thy store; what remained, and was laid up in their barns, cellars, and storehouses, for future use, or in proper places for seed.

Gill: Deu 28:6

Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. In all their business and employments of life whether within doors or without; in the administration of every office, whether more public or private; and in all their journeys going out and coming home; and particularly when they went out to war, and returned, all should be attended with success.

Gill: Deu 28:7

The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face,.... As the Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Edomites, and Ammonites were, especially in the times of David:

they shall come out against thee one way: in a body, all together, in large numbers, marching in great order, to give them battle:

and flee before thee seven ways; be entirely routed, and flee some one way, and some another, even every way they could take to make their escape. The phrase is expressive of an entire victory, and of a complete rout and dispersion of an enemy.

Gill: Deu 28:8

The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses,.... Barns, granaries, and cellar, where their corn, wine, and oil, were laid up; by preserving the corn from being devoured by vermin, and the casks of wine and oil from bursting and running out:

and in all thou settest thine hand unto; in all their manufactures, occupations, and trades, in which they were employed, and in the culture of their vines, olives, and other fruit trees:

and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee; with health and long life in it, and with an abundance of all good things, it being a land flowing with milk and honey.

Gill: Deu 28:9

And the Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself,.... Having separated them from all others, for his service, honour, and glory, should continue them as such, and settle them in the land, and confirm all their privileges, natural, civil, and religious. The Targum of Jonathan is,"the Word of the Lord shall establish thee, &c.''he that brought them out of Egypt, through the Red sea and wilderness, to the land of Canaan:

as he hath sworn unto thee: and to their fathers; see Deu 7:12,

if thou shall keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways; by which tenure they held the land of Canaan, and their settlement and continuance in it, and enjoyment of all the good things thereof; see Isa 1:19.

Gill: Deu 28:10

And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord,.... Called his children, his people, his portion, and his inheritance; and that they are his, and he is theirs, by the care he takes of them, the provision he makes for them, and the protection they have from him:

and they shall be afraid of thee; as not only the Canaanites were, but all other nations; see Deu 11:25.

Gill: Deu 28:11

And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods,.... In all temporal good things, give them an affluence of them, even all things richly to enjoy; the Targum of Jonathan is,"the Word of the Lord shall, &c."

in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground: increase their children, cattle, and substance, as before, Deu 28:4,

in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee; the land of Canaan, often thus described.

Gill: Deu 28:12

The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure,.... The Lord has his treasures of snow and of hail, and of wind, Job 38:22; but here his good treasure, as appears by what follows, is his treasure of rain. In the Targum of Jonathan it is said,

"there are four keys in the hand of the Lord of the whole world, which he does not deliver into the hands of any prince; the keys of life, and of the grave, and of food, and of rain:"

the heaven, to give the rain unto thy land in its season; that is, he will open the heaven, where his good treasure of rain is laid up, and bring it forth or, the land of Canaan for the enriching of it; or will open the windows thereof, and pour down the blessing; see Mal 3:10; and that at the proper time, both in autumn and spring, the one is called the former, and the other the latter rain; the one was in Marchesvan, or October, and the other in Nisan, or March, as the Targum of Jonathan; the former rain for the fitting the earth for seed, or for watering it when sown, and the latter for the plumping of it before harvest:

and to bless all the work of thine hand; in agriculture, for without the blessing of rain, all the labour of the husbandman would be to little purpose:

and thou shall lend unto many nations, and thou shall not borrow; See Gill on Deu 15:16. The connection of these words with what goes before may lead to observe this sense of them, that they should furnish other countries with corn, and not need any of theirs; see Eze 27:17.

Gill: Deu 28:13

And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail,.... Give them dominion over others, and not make them subject to them; the head signifies rulers and governors, and the tail the common people that are subjects; or the one such that are honourable and in high esteem, and the other such that are mean and base; see Isa 9:14; the Targum of Jonathan is,"the Word of the Lord shall make thee, &c."

and thou shalt be above only, and thou shall not be beneath; which explains what is meant by head and tail, being uppermost and lowermost, as the head is the upper part, and the tail the lower part of a creature; the one is more honourable, the other vile: the sense is, that they should be superior to other people in honour and dignity, and not below them, or vassals to them:

if that thou hearken to the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and to do them; which is the condition on which all this happiness depended.

Gill: Deu 28:14

And thou shall not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day,.... Depart from them as a rule to walk by, turn out from them as a path to walk in, neglect and disobey them, and go into practices contrary to them: turning

to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them; which to do was to break the first and principal table of the law, than which nothing was more abominable and provoking to God.

Gill: Deu 28:15

But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God,.... As directed, exhorted, and encouraged to, Deu 28:1, &c.

to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day; both moral and ceremonial:

that all these curses shall come upon thee; from the hand of God, certainly, suddenly, and unawares:

and overtake thee; pursuing after thee, will come up to thee, and seize upon thee, though they may seem to move slowly; see Zec 5:3; namely, the curses which follow. Manasseh Ben Israel ^f divides them into two parts, the first from hence to Deu 28:45; which respects the destruction of the first temple, and the things that went before or related to that; and the second from thence to the end of the chapter, which he thinks refers to the destruction of the second temple, and their present case and circumstances; and it must be owned that for the most part the distinction may seem to hold good; what is prophesied of that should befall the Jews for their disobedience being more remarkably and distinctly fulfilled in the one than in the other; yet there are things in the whole which respect both, or that were fulfilled, some under one dispensation, and some under another, and some that were fulfilled in both; but chiefly and more manifestly at and since their dispersion by the Romans.

Gill: Deu 28:16

Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. In Deu 28:16 the curses are delivered out in form, as the reverse of the blessings in Deu 28:3; and by observing what the blessings mean, the sense of the curses may easily be understood, the one being directly opposite to the other. See Gill on Deu 28:3.

Gill: Deu 28:17

Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. See Gill on Deu 28:5, Deu 28:16.

Gill: Deu 28:18

Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. See Gill on Deu 28:4, Deu 28:16.

Gill: Deu 28:19

Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. See Gill on Deu 28:6, Deu 28:16.

Gill: Deu 28:20

The Lord shall send upon thee cursing,.... Which is either a general word for all that follows, or rather, since that had been expressed before in various instances, this may denote some particular judgment. Jarchi interprets it of penury, of want of all good things, extreme poverty, so as to be reduced to the utmost necessity, and as to stand in need of the common comforts and supports of life, and even to have their blessings and mercies turned into curses; the consequence of which must needs be

vexation; trouble, distress, and anguish of spirit:

and rebuke; this may well be considered as a rebuke and correction in Providence for sins committed, to awaken to a sense and acknowledgment of them, and to repentance for them:

in all that thou settest thine hand to do; nothing done should prosper, to relieve them under their pressing wants, a curse attending all their efforts, and so sad disappointment follows; and all as a just rebuke for their many sins: and this would be their case more or less:

until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; through famine, and want of the common necessaries of life; as at the sieges of Samaria and Jerusalem, by the kings of Syria, Assyria, and Babylon:

because of the wickedness of thy doings, because thou hast forsaken me; their several immoralities and impieties, and particularly their idolatry, which was a forsaking the worship of the true God, and following idols; an iniquity to be punished by the judge, and of all things the most provoking to the Lord.

Gill: Deu 28:21

The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee,.... Not only to come upon them; but to continue with them:

until he have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it; which shows that this respects not some particular seasons, when the pestilence came and continued awhile, and then ceased, as in the times of David; but when it became more general, and issued with other judgments in the utter consumption of them, as at the destruction of Jerusalem, both by the Babylonians and the Romans; at what times the pestilence raged and remained, until by that and other sore judgments the land was wholly depopulated.

Gill: Deu 28:22

The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption,.... An emaciation of their bodies, either through famine or wasting diseases, whereby the fluids are washed off, and men are reduced to skin and bones:

and with a fever; a hot burning disease, which dries up the radical moisture, consumes it, and so threatens with death; of which there are various sorts, and some very pestilential and mortal Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret it of a fire in the face, by which they seem to mean what is called St. Anthony's fire:

and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning; either in the inward parts, as an inflammation of the lungs; or in the outward parts, as carbuncles, burning ulcers, and the like:

and with the sword; in the margin it is, "with drought"; so Aben Ezra interprets the word, which seems better to suit with what it is in company with; and designs either drought in human bodies, occasioned by fevers, inflammations, and extreme burnings; or in the earth, through the force of the sun, and want of rain, which render the earth barren and unfruitful, and so cause a famine:

and with blasting and with mildew; whereby the corn that is sown, and springs up, comes to nothing, being blasted by east winds, or turns pale and yellow by the mildew, and so withers away; the consequence of which is want of food, and so destruction and ruin; see Amo 4:9,

and they shall pursue thee until thou perish; follow hard after them, and come so close one after another upon them, until they are utterly destroyed.

Gill: Deu 28:23

And the heaven that is over thy head shall be brass,.... Or like brass, not for its clearness, brightness, and splendour, or for its being spread out like a molten looking glass which was of brass, Job 37:18; but for its dryness and hardness, no moisture being in it, or passing through it; no showers of rain nor dew being let down from it:

and the earth that is under thee shall be iron; or like iron, hard and impenetrable, into which the plough and spade will not enter; nor anything spring out of it, for want of rain and dew to moisten and soften it. The same is said in Lev 26:19; only there is an inversion of the figures; there the heaven is said to be as iron, and the earth like brass, but signify the same thing.

Gill: Deu 28:24

The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust,.... That is, instead of showers of rain in their season, to water, refresh, and enrich the earth, and make it fruitful; and for want of them, and through the heat of the sun, being dried and parched, and its clods crumbled into dust, this should be raised up into the air by the force of winds, and let down again in showers of dust; whereby the few herbs, plants, or green trees on it would be utterly destroyed: and so the Targum of Jonathan interprets it of the Lord's sending a wind that should raise the dust and earth upon the herbs of their fields. Such ploughing winds, that cast up the earth and sand, and dust, into the air, whereby men and cattle are sometimes covered, are frequent in the eastern countries; of which See Gill on Jon 4:8,

from heaven shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed; that is, from the air, up to which the dust is carried by the wind, and then let fall in vast quantities, like showers, which are very destructive.

Gill: Deu 28:25

The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten fore thine enemies,.... And by them, as they sometimes were by the Philistines and others, before their utter destruction, when they sinned against the Lord; and by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans:

thou shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them; march out against them in a body, promising themselves victory, but be utterly routed; so that they shall flee every way they can for their safety; see Deu 28:7,

and shall be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth; this shows that Manasseh's case 2Ki 21:1, observed Deu 28:15; will not strictly and entirely hold good, nor is there any necessity to adhere closely to it; it is enough that the things threatened and prophesied of were at one time or another fulfilled in these people; for neither the ten tribes, when taken captive by Shalmaneser, were carried into all the kingdoms of the earth, only to some particular places mentioned in 2Ki 17:6; nor the two tribes by Nebuchadnezzar, who were carried by him to Babylon, and returned from thence again at the end of seventy years; but this was exactly fulfilled at their last destruction by the Romans, when they were sent by them into various countries, and have been ever since scattered about in each of the nations of the world. And yet it must be owned that Strabo ^g, who wrote before the last destruction of them, affirms, that it was not easy to find any place in the world which had not received them, and was not occupied by them.

Gill: Deu 28:26

And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth,.... Which was always reckoned a very grievous calamity, have no other burial than in the bowels of beasts and birds; and was the case of many of the Jews in the Antiochian persecution, Psa 79:2; and in a treatise of theirs ^h, which relates their many afflictions and sufferings in their present captivity, speaking of a persecution of them in Spain, in the Jewish year 5172, it is reported, how that those that fled to avoid punishment were killed in the fields, where their carcasses lying unburied became a prey to beasts:

and no man shall fray them away; the fowls and the beasts; none of their friends being left to do it, and their enemies would not show so much respect to them, and care of them.

Gill: Deu 28:27

The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt,.... Which some understand of the leprosy, Of that sort of it called "elephantiasis", frequent among the Egyptians; See Gill on Lev 13:2. Thevenot ⁱ relates, that when the time of the increase of the Nile expires, the Egyptians are attended with sharp prickings in their skin like needles. So Vansleb says ^k,"the waters of the Nile cause an itch in the skin, which troubles such as drink of them when the river increases. This itch is very small, and appears first about the arms, next upon the stomach, and spreads all about the body, which causes a grievous pain; and not only the river water, but that out of the cisterns drank of, brings it, and it lasts about six weeks.''Though some take this botch to be the botch and blain which the Egyptians were plagued with for refusing to let Israel go, Exo 9:9,

and with the emerods; or haemorrhoids, the piles, a disease of the fundament, attended sometimes with ulcers there; see 1Sa 5:9,

and with the scab and with the itch: the one moist, the other dry, and both very distressing:

whereof thou canst not be healed; by any art of men; which shows these to be uncommon ones, and from the immediate hand of God.

Gill: Deu 28:28

The Lord shall smite thee with madness,.... At the calamities befallen them, and through the force of diseases on them:

and blindness; not of body, but of mind; with judicial blindness and hardness of heart:

and astonishment of heart; at the miserable condition they and their families should be in.

Gill: Deu 28:29

And thou shalt grope at noon day as the blind gropeth in darkness,.... That is, being in darkness through the loss of their sight; otherwise the darkness and the light are alike to them, and they grope in the one as well as in the other. This comparison shows that the darkness and blindness of the Jews, threatened them, is to be understood not of the darkness of their bodily eyes, but of their minds; not being able to understand, or form a judgment of things that are as clear as noon day; and being at the utmost loss what methods to take and pursue, when they are plain and manifest before them; but being infatuated and besotted, follow the lusts and counsels of their own hearts, which lead them wrong:

and thou shall not prosper in thy ways; in any steps they may take to extricate themselves out of their difficulties, distresses, and calamities, or to bring themselves into easy and comfortable circumstances; to get wealth and riches, and honour and esteem with men; but, on the contrary, become forlorn and miserable, poor and wretched, mean and despicable:

and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore; continually, every day, all the days of their lives, oppressed with taxes and tributes, with mulcts and fines, and spoiled of their goods and substance under one pretence or another; which has been generally their case in Popish countries; for this seems not to refer to the Babylonish captivity, where they built houses, and dwelt in them, and planted gardens, and ate the fruit of them; and in the peace of cities had peace themselves, Jer 29:5,

and no man shall save thee; from the oppressions, exactions, and spoils of their enemies, nor deliver them out of their hands; whereas in process of time they had deliverance and salvation from the Babylonish captivity, by the means of Cyrus king of Persia.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Deu 28:1

¹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”

² tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).

NET Notes: Deu 28:2

¹ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

NET Notes: Deu 28:3

¹ tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.

NET Notes: Deu 28:4

¹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

NET Notes: Deu 28:6

¹ sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.

NET Notes: Deu 28:7

¹ tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).

² tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).

NET Notes: Deu 28:8

¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” Because English would not typically reintroduce the proper name following a relative pronoun (“he will bless…the Lord your God is giving”), the pronoun (“he”) has been employed here in the translation.

NET Notes: Deu 28:9

¹ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

² tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

NET Notes: Deu 28:10

¹ tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).

NET Notes: Deu 28:11

¹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

² tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

NET Notes: Deu 28:12

¹ tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

NET Notes: Deu 28:13

¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God’s.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

² tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”

NET Notes: Deu 28:14

¹ tn Heb “from all the words which I am commanding.”

² tn Heb “in order to serve.”

NET Notes: Deu 28:15

¹ tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

² tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

NET Notes: Deu 28:18

¹ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

NET Notes: Deu 28:19

¹ sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.

NET Notes: Deu 28:20

¹ tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

² tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

³ tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.

tn Heb “the evil of your doings wherein you have forsaken me”; CEV “all because you rejected the Lord.”

NET Notes: Deu 28:21

¹ tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”

NET Notes: Deu 28:22

¹ tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

² tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).

³ tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”

⁴ tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

NET Notes: Deu 28:23

¹ tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”

² tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

NET Notes: Deu 28:25

¹ tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).

NET Notes: Deu 28:28

¹ tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).

NET Notes: Deu 28:29

¹ tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:1

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe [and] to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will ^{( a )} set thee on high above all nations of the earth:

^{( a )} He will make you the most excellent of all people.

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:2

And all these blessings shall come on thee, and ^{( b )} overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

^{( b )} When you think you are forsaken.

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:3

Blessed [shalt] thou [be] in the ^{( c )} city, and blessed [shalt] thou [be] in the field.

^{( c )} You will live richly.

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:4

Blessed [shall be] the fruit ^{( d )} of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

^{( d )} Your children and succession.

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:6

Blessed [shalt] thou [be] when thou ^{( e )} comest in, and blessed [shalt] thou [be] when thou goest out.

^{( e )} All your enterprises will have good success.

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:7

The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee ^{( f )} seven ways.

^{( f )} Meaning many ways.

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:8

The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine ^{( g )} hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

^{( g )} God will bless us, if we do our duty and are not idle.

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:10

And all people of the earth shall see that thou art ^{( h )} called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.

^{( h )} In that he is your God, and you are his people.

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:12

The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the ^{( i )} heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

^{( i )} For nothing in the earth is profitable but when God sends his blessings from heaven.

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:23

And thy heaven that [is] over thy head shall be ^{( k )} brass, and the earth that is under thee [shall be] iron.

^{( k )} It will give you no more moisture than if it were of brass.

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:25

The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be ^{( l )} removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

^{( i )} Some read, you shall be a terror and fear, when they hear how God has plagued you.

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:26

And thy ^{( m )} carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray [them] away.

^{( m )} You will be cursed both in your life and in your death: for the burial is a testimony of the resurrection a sign you will lack because of your wickedness.

Geneva Bible: Deu 28:29

And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the ^{( n )} blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save [thee].

^{( n )} In things most evident and clear you will lack discretion and judgment.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Deu 28:1-68

1 The blessings for obedience.

15 The curses for disobedience.

MHCC: Deu 28:1-14

This chapter is a very large exposition of two words, the blessing and the curse. They are real things and have real effects. The blessings are here put before the curses. God is slow to anger, but swift to show mercy. It is his delight to bless. It is better that we should be drawn to what is good by a child-like hope of God's favour, than that we be frightened to it by a slavish fear of his wrath. The blessing is promised, upon condition that they diligently hearken to the voice of God. Let them keep up religion, the form and power of it, in their families and nation, then the providence of God would prosper all their outward concerns.

MHCC: Deu 28:15-44

If we do not keep God's commandments, we not only come short of the blessing promised, but we lay ourselves under the curse, which includes all misery, as the blessing all happiness. Observe the justice of this curse. It is not a curse causeless, or for some light cause. The extent and power of this curse. Wherever the sinner goes, the curse of God follows; wherever he is, it rests upon him. Whatever he has is under a curse. All his enjoyments are made bitter; he cannot take any true comfort in them, for the wrath of God mixes itself with them. Many judgments are here stated, which would be the fruits of the curse, and with which God would punish the people of the Jews, for their apostasy and disobedience. We may observe the fulfilling of these threatenings in their present state. To complete their misery, it is threatened that by these troubles they should be bereaved of all comfort and hope, and left to utter despair. Those who walk by sight, and not by faith, are in danger of losing reason itself, when every thing about them looks frightful.

Matthew Henry: Deu 28:1-14

The blessings are here put before the curses, to intimate, 1. That God is slow to anger, but swift to show mercy: he has said it, and sworn, that he would much rather we would obey and live than sin and die. It is his delight to bless. 2. That though both the promises and the threatenings are designed to bring and hold us to our duty, yet it is better that we be allured to that which is good by a filial hope of God's favour than that we be frightened to it by a servile fear of his wrath. That obedience pleases best which comes from a principle of delight in God's goodness. Now,

I. We have here the conditions upon which the blessing is promised. 1. It is upon condition that they diligently hearken to the voice of God (Deu 28:1, Deu 28:2), that they hear God speaking to them by his word, and use their utmost endeavours to acquaint themselves with his will, Deu 28:13. 2. Upon condition that they observe and do all his commandments (and in order to obedience there is need of observation) and that they keep the commandments of God ( Deu 28:9 ) and walk in his ways. Not only do them for once, but keep them for ever; not only set out in his ways, but walk in them to the end. 3. Upon condition that they should not go aside either to the right hand or to the left, either to superstition on the one hand, or profaneness on the other; and particularly that they should not go after other gods (Deu 28:14), which was the sin that of all others they were most prone to, and God would be most displeased with. Let them take care to keep up religion, both the form and power of it, in their families and nation, and God would not fail to bless them.

II. The particulars of this blessing.

1. It is promised that the providence of God should prosper them in all their outward concerns. These blessings are said to overtake them, Deu 28:2. Good people sometimes, under the sense of their unworthiness, are ready to fly from the blessing and to conclude that it belongs not to them,; but the blessing shall find them out and follow them notwithstanding. Thus in the great day the blessing will overtake the righteous that say, Lord, when saw we thee hungry and fed thee? Mat 25:37. Observe,

(1.) Several things are enumerated in which God by his providence would bless them: - [1.] They should be safe and easy; a blessing should rest upon their persons wherever they were, in the city, or in the field, Deu 28:3. Whether their habitation was in town or country, whether they were husbandmen or tradesmen, whether their business called them into the city or into the field, they should be preserved from the dangers and have the comforts of their condition. This blessing should attend them in their journeys, going out and coming in, Deu 28:6. Their persons should be protected, and the affair they went about should succeed well. Observe here, What a necessary and constant dependence we have upon God both for the continuance and comfort of this life. We need him at every turn, in all the various movements of life; we cannot be safe if he withdraw his protection, nor easy if he suspend his favour; but, if he bless us, go where we will it is well with us. [2.] Their families should be built up in a numerous issue: blessed shall be the fruit of thy body (Deu 28:4), and in that the Lord shall make thee plenteous (Deu 28:11), in pursuance of the promise made to Abraham, that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude, and that God would be a God to them, than which a greater blessing, and more comprehensive, could not be entailed upon the fruit of their body. See Isa 61:9. [3.] They should be rich, and have an abundance of all the good things of this life, which are promised them, not merely that they might have the pleasure of enjoying them, but (as bishop Patrick observes out of one of the Jewish writers) that they might have wherewithal to honour God, and might be helped and encouraged to serve him cheerfully and to proceed and persevere in their obedience to him. A blessing is promised, First, On all they had without doors, corn and cattle in the field (Deu 28:4, Deu 28:11), their cows and sheep particularly, which would be blessed for the owners' sakes, and made blessings to them. In order to this, it is promised that God would give them rain in due season, which is called his good treasure (Deu 28:12), because with this river of God the earth is enriched, Psa 65:9. Our constant supplies we must see coming from God's good treasure, and own our obligations to him for them; if he withhold his rain, the fruits both of the ground and of the cattle soon perish. Secondly, On all they had within doors, the basket and the store (Deu 28:5), the store-houses or barns, Deu 28:8. When it is brought home, God will bless it, and not blow upon it as sometimes he does, Hag 1:6, Hag 1:9. We depend upon God and his blessing, not only for our yearly corn out of the field, but for our daily bread out of our basket and store, and therefore are taught to pray for it every day. [4.] They should have success in all their employments, which would be a constant satisfaction to them: " The Lord shall command the blessing (and it is he only that can command it) upon thee, not only in all thou hast, but in all thou doest, all that thou settest thy hand to, "Deu 28:8. This intimated that even when they were rich they must not be idle, but must find some good employment or other to set their hand to, and God would own their industry, and bless the work of their hand (Deu 28:12); for that which makes rich, and keeps so, is the blessing of the Lord upon the hand of the diligent, Pro 10:4, Pro 10:22. [5.] They should have honour among their neighbours (Deu 28:1): The Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations. He made them so, by taking them into covenant with himself, Deu 26:19. And he would make them more and more so by their outward prosperity, if they would not by sin disparage themselves. Two things should help to make them great among the nations: - First, Their wealth (Deu 28:12): " Thou shalt lend to many nations upon interest"(which they were allowed to take form the neighbouring nations), "but thou shalt not have occasion to borrow."This would give them great influence with all about them; for the borrower is servant to the lender. It may be meant of trade and commerce, that they should export abundantly more than they should import, which would keep the balance on their side. Secondly, Their power (Deu 28:13): " The Lord shall make thee the head, to give law to all about thee, to exact tribute, and to arbitrate all controversies."Every sheaf should bow to theirs, which would make them so considerable that all the people of the earth would be afraid of them (Deu 28:10), that is, would reverence their true grandeur, and dread making them their enemies. The flourishing of religion among them, and the blessing of God upon them, would make them formidable to all their neighbours, terrible as an army with banners. [6.] They should be victorious over their enemies, and prosper in all their wars. If any were so daring as to rise up against them to oppress them, or encroach upon them, it should be at their peril, they should certainly fall before them, Deu 28:7. The forces of the enemy, though entirely drawn up to come against them one way, should be entirely routed, and flee before them seven ways, each making the best of his way.

(2.) From the whole we learn (though it were well if men would believe it) that religion and piety are the best friends to outward prosperity. Though temporal blessings do not take up so much room in the promises of the New Testament as they do in those of the Old, yet it is enough that our Lord Jesus has given us his word (and surely we may take his word) that if we seek first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, all other things shall be added to us, as far as Infinite Wisdom sees good; and who can desire them further? Mat 6:33.

2. It is likewise promised that the grace of God should establish them a holy people, Deu 28:9. Having taken them into covenant with himself, he would keep them in covenant; and, provided they used the means of stedfastness, he would give them the grace of steadfastness, that they should not depart from him. Note, Those that are sincere in holiness God will establish in holiness; and he is of power to do it, Rom 16:25. He that is holy shall be holy still; and those whom God establishes in holiness he thereby establishes a people to himself, for a long as we keep close to God he will never forsake us. This establishment of their religion would be the establishment of their reputation (Deu 28:10): All the people of the earth shall see, and own, that thou art called by the name of the Lord, that is, "that thou art a most excellent and glorious people, under the particular care and countenance of the great God. They shall be made to know that a people called by the name Jehovah are without doubt the happiest people under the sun, even their enemies themselves being judges."The favourites of Heaven are truly great, and, first or last, it will be made to appear that they are so, if not in this world, yet at that day when those who confess Christ now shall be confessed by him before men and angels, as those whom he delights to honour.

Matthew Henry: Deu 28:15-44

Having viewed the bright side of the cloud, which is towards the obedient, we have now presented to us the dark side, which is towards the disobedient. If we do not keep God's commandments, we not only come short of the blessing promised, but we lay ourselves under the curse, which is as comprehensive of all misery as the blessing is of all happiness. Observe,

I. The equity of this curse. It is not a curse causeless, nor for some light cause; God seeks not occasion against us, nor is he apt to quarrel with us. That which is here mentioned as bringing the curse is, 1. Despising God, refusing to hearken to his voice (Deu 28:15), which bespeaks the highest contempt imaginable, as if what he said were not worth the heeding, or we were not under any obligation to him. 2. Disobeying him, not doing his commandments, or not observing to do them. None fall under his curse but those that rebel against his command. 3. Deserting him. "It is because of the wickedness of thy doings, not only whereby thou hast slighted me, but whereby thou hast forsaken me, "Deu 28:20. God never casts us off till we first cast him off. It intimates that their idolatry, by which they forsook the true God for false gods, would be their destroying sin more than any other.

II. The extent and efficacy of this curse.

1. In general, it is declared, " All these curses shall come upon thee from above, and shall overtake thee; though thou endeavour to escape them, it is to no purpose to attempt it, they shall follow thee whithersoever thou goest, and seize thee, overtake thee, and overcome thee,"Deu 28:15. It is said of the sinner, when God's wrath is in pursuit of him, that he would fain flee out of his hand (Job 27:22), but he cannot; if he flee from the iron weapon, yet the bow of steel shall reach him and strike him through. There is no running from God but by running to him, no fleeing from his justice but by fleeing to his mercy. See Psa 21:7, Psa 21:8. (1.) Wherever the sinner goes, the curse of God follows him; wherever he is, it rests upon him. He is cursed in the city and in the field, Deu 28:16. The strength of the city cannot shelter him from it, the pleasant air of the country is no fence against these pestilential steams. He is cursed (Deu 28:19) when he comes in, for the curse is upon the house of the wicked (Pro 3:33), and he is cursed when he goes out, for he cannot leave that curse behind him, nor get rid of it, which has entered into his bowels like water and like oil into his bones. (2.). Whatever he has is under a curse: Cursed is the ground for his sake, and all that is on it, or comes out of it, and so he is cursed from the ground, as Cain, Gen 4:11. The basket and store are cursed, Deu 28:17, Deu 28:18. All his enjoyments being forfeited by him are in a manner forbidden to him, as cursed things, which he has no title to. To those whose mind and conscience are defiled every thing else is so, Tit 1:15. They are all embittered to him; he cannot take any true comfort in them, for the wrath of God mixes itself with them, and he is so far from having any security of the continuance of them that, if his eyes be open, he may see them all condemned and ready to be confiscated, and with them all his joys and all his hopes gone for ever. (3.) Whatever he does is under a curse too. It is a curse in all that he sets his hand to (Deu 28:20), a constant disappointment, which those are subject to that set their hearts upon the world, and expect their happiness in it, and which cannot but be a constant vexation. This curse is just the reverse of the blessing in the former part of the chapter. Thus whatever bliss there is in heaven there is not only the want of it, but the contrary to it, in hell. Isa 65:13, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry.

2. Many particular judgments are here enumerated, which would be the fruits of the curse, and with which God would punish the people of the Jews for their apostasy and disobedience. These judgments threatened are of divers kinds, for God has many arrows in his quiver, four sore judgments (Eze 14:21), and many more. They are represented as very terrible, and the descriptions of them are exceedingly lively and affecting, that men, knowing these terrors of the Lord, might, if possible, be persuaded. The threatenings of the same judgment are several times repeated, that they might make the more deep and lasting impressions, and to intimate that, if men persisted in their disobedience, the judgment which they thought was over, and of which they said, "Surely the bitterness of it is past,"would return with double force; for when God judges he will overcome. (1.) Bodily diseases are here threatened, that they should be epidemical in their land. These God sometimes makes use of for the chastisement and improvement of his own people. Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. But here they are threatened to be brought upon his enemies as tokens of his wrath, and designed for their ruin. So that according to the temper of our spirits, under sickness, accordingly it is to us a blessing or a curse. But, whatever sickness may be to particular persons, it is certain that epidemical diseases raging among a people are national judgments, and are so to be accounted. He here threatens, [1.] Painful diseases (Deu 28:35), a sore botch, beginning in the legs and knees, but spreading, like Job's boils, from heat to foot. [2.] Shameful diseases (v. 27), the botch of Egypt (such boils and blains as the Egyptians had been plagued with, when God brought Israel from among them), and the emerods and scab, vile diseases, the just punishment of those who by sin had made themselves vile. [3.] Mortal diseases, the pestilence (v. 21), the consumption (put for all chronical diseases), and the fever (for all acute diseases), v. 22. See Lev 26:16. And all incurable, Deu 28:27. (2.) Famine, and scarcity of provisions; and this, [1.] For want of rain (Deu 28:23, Deu 28:24): Thy heaven over thy head, that part that is over thy land, shall be as dry as brass, while the heavens over other countries shall distil their dews; and, when the heaven is as brass, the earth of course will be as iron, so hard and unfruitful. Instead of rain, the dust shall be blown out of the highways into the field, and spoil the little that there is of the fruits of the earth. [2.] By destroying insects. The locust should destroy the corn, so that they should not have so much as their seed again, Deu 28:38, Deu 28:42. And the fruit of the vine, which should make glad their hearts, should all be worm-eaten, Deu 28:39. and the olive, some way or other, should be made to cast its fruit, Deu 28:40. The heathen use many superstitious customs in honour of their idol-gods for preserving the fruits of the earth; but Moses tells Israel that the only way they had to preserve them was to keep God's commandments; for he is a God that will not be sported with, like their idols, but will be served in spirit and truth. This threatening we find fulfilled in Israel, 1Ki 17:1; Jer 14:1, etc.; Joe 1:4. (3.) That they should be smitten before their enemies in war, who, it is likely, would be the more cruel to them, when they had them at their mercy, for the severity they had used against the nations of Canaan, which their neighbours in after-ages would be apt to remember against them, Deu 28:25. It would make their flight the more shameful, and the more grievous, that they might have triumphed over their enemies if they had but been faithful to their God. The carcases of those that were slain in war, or died in captivity among strangers, should be meat for the fowls (Deu 28:26); and an Israelite, having forfeited the favour of his God, should have so little humanity shown him as that no man should drive them away, so odious would God's curse make him to all mankind. (4.) That they should be infatuated in all their counsels, so as not to discern their own interest, nor bring any thing to pass for the public good: The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness, Deu 28:28, Deu 28:29. Note, God's judgments can reach the minds of men to fill them with darkness and horror, as well as their bodies and estates; and those are the sorest of all judgments which make men a terror to themselves, and their own destroyers. That which they contrived to secure themselves by should still turn to their prejudice. Thus we often find that the allies they confided in distressed them and strengthened them not, 2Ch 28:20. Those that will not walk in God's counsels are justly left to be ruined by their own; and those that are wilfully blind to their duty deserve to be made blind to their interest, and, seeing they loved darkness rather than light, let them grope at noon-day as in the dark. (5.) That they should be plundered of all their enjoyments, stripped of all by the proud and imperious conqueror, such as Benhadad was to Ahab, 1Ki 20:5, 1Ki 20:6. Not only their houses and vineyards should be taken from them, but their wives and children, Deu 28:30, Deu 28:32. Their dearest comforts, which they took most pleasure in, and promised themselves most from, should be the entertainment and triumph of their enemies. As they had dwelt in houses which they built not, and eaten of vineyards which they planted not (Deu 6:10, Deu 6:11), so others should do by them. Their oxen, asses, and sheep, like Job's, should be taken away before their eyes, and they should not be able to recover them, v. 31. And all the fruit of their land and labours should be devoured and eaten up by the enemy; so that they and theirs would want necessaries, while their enemies were revelling with that which they had laboured for. (6.) That they should be carried captives into a far country; nay, into all the kingdoms of the earth, v. 25. Their sons and daughters, whom they promised themselves comfort in, should go into captivity (v. 41), and they themselves at length, and their king in whom they promised themselves safety and settlement, v. 36. This was fully accomplished when the ten tribes first were carried captive into Assyria (2Ki 17:6), and not long after the two tribes into Babylon, and two of their kings, 2Ki 24:14, 2Ki 24:15; 2Ki 25:7, 2Ki 25:21. That which is mentioned as an aggravation of their captivity is that they should go into an unknown country, the language and customs of which would be very uncouth, and their treatment among them barbarous, and there they should serve other gods, that is, be compelled to do so by their enemies, as they were in Babylon, Dan 3:6. Note, God often makes men's sin their punishment, and chooses their delusions. You shall serve other gods, that is, "You shall serve those that do serve them;"a nation is often in scripture called by the name of its gods, as Jer 48:7. They had made idolaters their associates, and now god made idolaters their oppressors. (7.) That those who remained should be insulted and tyrannized over by strangers, Deu 28:43, Deu 28:44. So the ten tribes were by the colonies which the king of Assyria sent to take possession of their land, 2Ki 17:24. Or this may be meant of the gradual encroachments which the strangers within their gates should make upon them, so as insensibly to worm them out of their estates. We read of the fulfilling of this, Hos 7:9, Strangers have devoured his strength. Foreigners ate the bread out of the mouths of trueborn Israelites, by which they were justly chastised for introducing strange gods. (8.) That their reputation among their neighbours should be quite sunk, and those that had been a name, and a praise, should be an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, Deu 28:37. Some have observed the fulfilling of this threatening in their present state; for, when we would express the most perfidious and barbarous treatment, we say, None but a Jew would have done so. Thus is sin a reproach to any people. (9.) To complete their misery, it is threatened that they should be put quite out of the possession of their minds by all these troubles (Deu 28:34): Thou shalt be mad for the sight of thy eyes, that is, quite bereaved of all comfort and hope, and abandoned to utter despair. Those that walk by sight, and not by faith, are in danger of losing reason itself, when every thing about them looks frightful; and their condition is woeful indeed that are mad for the sight of their eyes.

Keil-Delitzsch: Deu 28:1-14

For the purpose of impressing upon the hearts of all the people in the most emphatic manner both the blessing which Israel was to proclaim upon Gerizim, and the curse which it was to proclaim upon Ebal, Moses now unfolds the blessing of fidelity to the law and the curse of transgression in a longer address, in which he once more resumes, sums up, and expands still further the promises and threats of the law in Exo 23:20-33, and Lev 26.

Deu 28:1-6

The Blessing. - Deu 28:1. If Israel would hearken to the voice of the Lord its God, the Lord would make it the highest of all the nations of the earth. This thought, with which the discourse on the law in Deu 26:19 terminated, forms the theme, and in a certain sense the heading, of the following description of the blessing, through which the Lord, according to the more distinct declaration in Deu 28:2, would glorify His people above all the nations of the earth. The indispensable condition for obtaining this blessing, was obedience to the word of the Lord, or keeping His commandments. To impress this condition sine qua non thoroughly upon the people, Moses not only repeats it at the commencement (Deu 28:2), and in the middle (Deu 28:9), but also at the close (Deu 28:13, Deu 28:14), in both a positive and a negative form. In Deu 28:2, "the way in which Israel was to be exalted is pointed out"( Schultz ); and thus the theme is more precisely indicated, and the elaboration of it is introduced. "All these blessings (those mentioned singly in what follows) will come upon thee and reach thee."The blessings are represented as actual powers, which follow the footsteps of the nation, and overtake it. In Deu 28:3-6, the fulness of the blessing of God in all the relations of life is depicted in a sixfold repetition of the word "blessed."Israel will be blessed in the town and in the field, the two spheres in which its life moves (Deu 28:3); blessed will be the fruit of the body, of the earth, and of the cattle, i.e., in all its productions (Deu 28:4; for each one, see Deu 7:13-14); blessed will be the basket (Deu 26:2) in which the fruits are kept, and the kneading - trough (Exo 12:34) in which the daily bread is prepared (Deu 28:5); blessed will the nation be in all its undertakings ("coming in and going out;"vid., Num 27:17).

Deu 28:7-14

Deu 28:7-14 describe the influence and effect of the blessing upon all the circumstances and situations in which the nation might be placed: in Deu 28:7-10, with reference ( a ) to the attitude of Israel towards its enemies (Deu 28:7); ( b ) to its trade and handicraft (Deu 28:8); ( c ) to its attitude towards all the nations of the earth (Deu 28:9, Deu 28:10). The optative forms, יתּן and יצו (in Deu 28:7 and Deu 28:8), are worthy of notice. They show that Moses not only proclaimed the blessing to the people, but desired it for them, because he knew that Israel would not always or perfectly fulfil the condition upon which it was to be bestowed. "May the Lord be pleased to give thine enemies...smitten before thee," i.e., give them up to thee as smitten ( לפני נתן , to give up before a person, to deliver up to him: cf. Deu 1:8), so that they shall come out against thee by one way, and flee from thee by seven ways, i.e., in wild dispersion (cf. Lev 26:7-8).

Deu 28:8

" May the Lord command the blessing with thee (put it at thy disposal) in thy barns (granaries, store-rooms) and in all thy business "("to set the hand;"see Deu 12:7).

Deu 28:9-12

"The Lord will exalt thee for a holy nation to Himself,...so that all the nations of the earth shall see that the name of Jehovah is named upon thee, and shall fear before thee." The Lord had called Israel as a holy nation, when He concluded the covenant with it (Exo 19:5-6). This promise, to which the words "as He hath sworn unto thee"point back, and which is called an oath, because it was founded upon the promises given to the patriarchs on oath (Gen 22:16), and was given implicite in them, the Lord would fulfil to His people, and cause the holiness and glory of Israel to be so clearly manifested, that all nations should perceive or see "that the name of the Lord is named upon Israel." The name of the Lord is the revelation of His glorious nature. It is named upon Israel, when Israel is transformed into the glory of the divine nature (cf. Isa 63:19; Jer 14:9). It was only in feeble commencements that this blessing was fulfilled upon Israel under the Old Testament; and it is not till the restoration of Israel, which is to take place in the future according to Rom 11:25., that its complete fulfilment will be attained. In Deu 28:11 and Deu 28:12, Moses returns to the earthly blessing, for the purpose of unfolding this still further. " Superabundance will the Lord give thee for good (i.e., for happiness and prosperity; vid., Deu 30:9), in fruit of thy body ,"etc. (cf. Deu 28:4). He would open His good treasure-house, the heaven, to give rain to the land in its season (cf. Deu 11:14; Lev 26:4-5), and bless the work of the hands, i.e., the cultivation of the soil, so that Israel would be able to lend to many, according to the prospect already set before it in Deu 15:6.

Deu 28:13-14

By such blessings He would "make Israel the head, and not the tail," - a figure taken from life (vid., Isa 9:13), the meaning of which is obvious, and is given literally in the next sentence, "thou wilt be above only, and not beneath," i.e., thou wilt rise more and more, and increase in wealth, power, and dignity. With this the discourse returns to its commencement; and the promise of blessing closes with another emphatic repetition of the condition on which the fulfilment depended ( Deu 28:13 and Deu 28:14. On Deu 28:14, see Deu 5:29; Deu 11:28).

Keil-Delitzsch: Deu 28:15-68

The Curse, in case Israel should not hearken to the voice of its God, to keep His commandments. After the announcement that all these (the following) curses would come upon the disobedient nation (Deu 28:15), the curse is proclaimed in all its extent, as covering all the relations of life, in a sixfold repetition of the word "cursed"(Deu 28:16-19, as above in Deu 28:3-6); and the fulfilment of this threat in plagues and diseases, drought and famine, war, devastation of the land, and captivity of the people, is so depicted, that the infliction of these punishments stands out to view in ever increasing extent and fearfulness. We are not to record this, however, as a gradual heightening of the judgments of God, in proportion to the increasing rebellion of Israel, as in Lev 26:14., although it is obvious that the punishments threatened did not fall upon the nation all at once.

Deu 28:16-19

Deu 28:16-19 correspond precisely to Deu 28:3-6, so as to set forth the curse as the counterpart of the blessing, except that the basket and kneading-trough are mentioned before the fruit of the body.

Deu 28:20-22

The first view, in which the bursting of the threatened curse upon the disobedient people is proclaimed in all its forms. First of all, quite generally in Deu 28:20. " The Lord will send the curse against thee, consternation and threatening in every undertaking of thy hand which thou carriest out (see Deu 12:7), till thou be destroyed, till thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doings, because thou hast forsaken Me ."The three words, מארה , מהוּמה , and מגערת , are synonymous, and are connected together to strengthen the thought. מארה , curse or malediction; המּהוּמה , the consternation produced by the curse of God, namely, the confusion with which God smites His foes (see at Deu 7:23); המּגערה is the threatening word of the divine wrath. - Then Deu 28:21. in detail. " The Lord will make the pestilence fasten upon (cleave to) thee, till He hath destroyed thee out of the land...to smite thee with giddiness and fever (cf. Lev 26:16), inflammation, burning, and sword, blasting of corn, and mildew (of the seed);"seven diseases therefore (seven as the stamp of the words of God), whilst pestilence in particular is mentioned first, as the most terrible enemy of life. דּלּקת , from דּלק to burn, and חרחר , from חרר to glow, signify inflammatory diseases, burning fevers; the distinction between these and קדּחת cannot be determined. Instead of חרב , the sword as the instrument of death, used to designate slaughter and death, the Vulgate , Arabic , and Samaritan have adopted the reading חרב , aestus , heat (Gen 31:40), or drought, according to which there would be four evils mentioned by which human life is attacked, and three which are injurious to the corn. But as the lxx, Jon ., Syr ., and others read חרב , this alteration is very questionable, especially as the reading can be fully defended in this connection; and one objection to the alteration is, that drought is threatened for the first time in Deu 28:23, Deu 28:24. שׁדּפון , from שׁדף to singe or blacken, and ירקון , from ירק to be yellowish, refer to two diseases which attack the corn: the former to the withering or burning of the ears, caused by the east wind (Gen 41:23); the other to the effect produced by a warm wind in Arabia, by which the green ears are turned yellow, so that they bear no grains of corn.

Deu 28:23-24

To this should be added terrible drought, without a drop of rain from heaven (cf. Lev 26:19). Instead of rain, dust and ashes should fall from heaven. נתן construed with a double accusative: to make the rain of the land into dust and ashes, to give it in the form of dust and ashes. When the heat is very great, the air in Palestine is often full of dust and sand, the wind assuming the form of a burning sirocco, so that the air resembles the glowing heat at the mouth of a furnace (Robinson, ii. 504).

Deu 28:25-26

Defeat in battle, the very opposite of the blessing promised in Deu 28:7. Israel should become לזעוה , "a moving to and fro," i.e., so to speak, "a ball for all the kingdoms of the earth to play with"( Schultz ). זעוה , here and at Eze 23:46, is not a transposed and later form of זועה , which has a different meaning in Isa 28:19, but the original uncontracted form, which was afterwards condensed into זועה ; for this, and not זועה , is the way in which the Chethib should be read in Jer 15:4; Jer 24:9; Jer 29:18; Jer 34:17, and 2Ch 29:8, where this threat is repeated (vid., Ewald , §53, b .). The corpses of those who were slain by the foe should serve as food for the birds of prey and wild beasts - the greatest ignominy that could fall upon the dead, and therefore frequently held out as a threat against the ungodly (Jer 7:33; Jer 16:4; 1Ki 14:11, etc.).

Deu 28:27-34

The second view depicts still further the visitation of God both by diseases of body and soul, and also by plunder and oppression on the part of their enemies. - In Deu 28:27 four incurable diseases of the body are threatened: the ulcer of Egypt (see at Exo 9:9), i.e., the form of leprosy peculiar to Egypt, elephantiasis ( Aegypti peculiare malum: Plin . xxvi. c. 1, s. 5), which differed from lepra tuberosa , however, or tubercular leprosy (Deu 28:35; cf. Job 2:7), in degree only, and not in its essential characteristics (see Tobler, mediz. Topogr. v. Jerus. p. 51). עפלים , from עפל , a swelling, rising, signifies a tumour, and according to the Rabbins a disease of the anus: in men, tumor in posticis partibus; in women, durius quoddam οἴδημα in utero . It was with this disease that the Philistines were smitten (1Sa 5:1-12). גּרב (see Lev 21:20) and חרס , from חרס , to scrape or scratch, also a kind of itch, of which there are several forms in Syria and Egypt.

Deu 28:28-29

In addition to this, there would come idiocy, blindness, and confusion of mind, - three psychical maladies; for although עוּרון signifies primarily bodily blindness, the position of the word between idiocy and confusion of heart, i.e., of the understanding, points to mental blindness here.

Deu 28:29-34

Deu 28:29 leads to the same conclusion, where it is stated that Israel would grope in the bright noon-day, like a blind man in the dark, and not make his ways prosper, i.e., not hit upon the right road which led to the goal and to salvation, would have no good fortune or success in its undertakings (cf. Psa 37:7). Being thus smitten in body and soul, it would be only ( אך as in Deu 16:15), i.e., utterly, oppressed and spoiled evermore. These words introduce the picture of the other calamity, viz., the plundering of the nation and the land by enemies (Deu 28:30-33). Wife, house, vineyard, ox, ass, and sheep would be taken away by the foe; sons and daughters would be carried away into captivity before the eyes of the people, who would see it and pine after the children, i.e., with sorrow and longing after them; "and thy hand shall not be to thee towards God," i.e., all power and help will fail thee. (On this proverbial expression, see Gen 31:29; and on חלּל , in Gen 31:30, see at Deu 20:6.) - In Deu 28:33, Deu 28:34, this threat is summed up in the following manner: the fruit of the field and all their productions would be devoured by a strange nation, and Israel would be only oppressed and crushed to pieces all its days, and become mad on account of what its eyes would be compelled to see.

Deu 28:35-46

The third view. - With the words, "the Lord will smite thee," Moses resumes in Deu 28:35 the threat of Deu 28:27, to set forth the calamities already threatened under a new aspect, namely, as signs of the rejection of Israel from covenant fellowship with the Lord.

Deu 28:35

The Lord would smite the people with grievous abscesses in the knees and thighs, that should be incurable, even from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head. רע שׁחין ר is the so-called joint-leprosy, a form of the lepra tuberosa (vid., Pruner , p. 167). From the clause, however, "from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head," it is evident that the threat is not to be restricted to this species of leprosy, since "the upper parts of the body often remain in a perfectly normal state in cases of leprosy in the joints; and after the diseased parts have fallen off, the patients recover their previous health to a certain degree"( Pruner ). Moses mentions this as being a disease of such a nature, that it would render it utterly impossible for those who were afflicted with it either to stand or walk, and then heightens the threat by adding the words, "from the sole of the foot to the top of the head."Leprosy excluded from fellowship with the Lord, and deprived the nation of the character of a nation of God.

Deu 28:36-37

The loss of their spiritual character would be followed by the dissolution of the covenant fellowship. This thought connects Deu 28:36 with Deu 28:35, and not the thought that Israel being afflicted with leprosy would be obliged to go into captivity, and in this state would become an object of abhorrence to the heathen ( Schultz ). The Lord would bring the nation and its king to a foreign nation that it did not know, and thrust them into bondage, so that it would be obliged to serve other gods - wood and stone (vid., Deu 4:28), - and would become an object of disgust, a proverb, and a byword to all nations whither God should drive it (vid., 1Ki 9:7; Jer 24:9).

Deu 28:38-39

Even in their own land the curse would fall upon every kind of labour and enterprise. Much seed would give little to reap, because the locust would devour the seed; the planting and dressing of the vineyard would furnish no wine to drink, because the worm would devour the vine. תּולעת is probably the ἴψ or ἴξ of the Greeks, the convolvulus of the Romans, our vine-weevil.

Deu 28:40

They would have many olive-trees in the land, but not anoint themselves with oil, because the olive-tree would be rooted out or plundered ( ישּׁל , Niphal of שׁלל , as in Deu 19:5, not the Kal of נשׁל , which cannot be shown to have the intransitive meaning elabi ).

Deu 28:41

Sons and daughters would they beget, but not keep, because they would have to go into captivity.

Deu 28:42

All the trees and fruits of the land would the buzzer take possession of. צלצל , from צלל to buzz , a rhetorical epithet applied to locusts , not the grasshopper, which does not injure the fruits of the tree or ground sufficiently for the term ירשׁ , "to take possession of,"to be applicable to it.

Deu 28:43

Israel would be utterly impoverished, and would sink lower and lower, whilst the stranger in the midst of it would, on the contrary, get above it very high; not indeed "because he had no possession, but was dependent upon resources of other kinds"( Schultz ), but rather because he would be exempted with all his possessions from the curse of God, just as the Israelites had been exempted from the plagues which came upon the Egyptians (Exo 9:6-7, Exo 9:26).

Deu 28:44-46

The opposite of Deu 28:12 and Deu 28:13 would come to pass. - In Deu 28:46 the address returns to its commencement in Deu 28:15, with the terrible threat,"These curses shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever," for the purpose of making a pause, if not of bringing the whole to a close. The curses were for a sign and wonder ( מופת , that which excites astonishment and terror), inasmuch as their magnitude and terrible character manifested most clearly the supernatural interposition of God (vid., Deu 29:23). " For ever "applies to the generation smitten by the curse, which would remain for ever rejected, though without involving the perpetual rejection of the whole nation, or the impossibility of the conversion and restoration of a remnant, or of a holy seed (Isa 10:22; Isa 6:13; Rom 9:27; Rom 11:5).

Deu 28:47-57

The fourth view. - Although in what precedes every side of the national life has been brought under the curse, yet love to his people, and the desire to preserve them from the curse, by holding up before them the dreadful severity of the wrath of God, impel the faithful servant of the Lord to go still further, and depict more minutely still the dreadful horrors consequent upon Israel being given up to the power of the heathen, and first of all in Deu 28:47-57 the horrible calamities which would burst upon Israel on the conquest of the land and its fortresses by its foes.

Deu 28:47-48

Because it had not served the Lord its God with joy and gladness of heart, "for the abundance of all," i.e., for the abundance of all the blessings bestowed upon it by its God, it would serve its enemies in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and want of everything, and wear an iron yoke, i.e., be obliged to perform the hardest tributary service till it was destroyed ( השׁמיד for השׁמיד , as in Deu 7:24).

Deu 28:49-50

The Lord would bring against it from afar a barbarous, hardhearted nation, which knew not pity. " From afar "is still further strengthened by the addition of the words, "from the end of the earth." The greater the distance off, the more terrible does the foe appear. He flies thence like an eagle, which plunges with violence upon its prey, and carries it off with its claws; and Israel does not understand its language, so as to be able to soften its barbarity, or come to any terms. A people " firm, hard of face, "i.e., upon whom nothing makes an impression (vid., Isa 50:7), - a description of the audacity and shamelessness of its appearance (Dan 8:23; cf. Pro 7:13; Pro 21:29), which spares neither old men nor boys. This description no doubt applies to the Chaldeans, who are described as flying eagles in Hab 1:6., Jer 48:40; Jer 49:22; Eze 17:3, Eze 17:7, as in the verses before us; but it applies to other enemies of Israel beside these, namely to the great imperial powers generally, the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Romans, whom the Lord raised up as the executors of His curse upon His rebellious people. Isaiah therefore depicts the Assyrians in a similar manner, namely, as a people with an unintelligible language (Deu 5:26; Deu 28:11; Deu 33:19), and describes the cruelty of the Medes in Deu 13:17-18, with an unmistakeable allusion to Deu 28:50 of the present threat.

Deu 28:51-52

This foe would consume all the fruit of the cattle and the land, i.e., everything which the nation had acquired through agriculture and the breeding of stock, without leaving it anything, until it was utterly destroyed (see Deu 7:13), and would oppress, i.e., besiege it in all its gates (towns, vid., Deu 12:12), till the lofty and strong walls upon which they relied should fall ( ירד as in Deu 20:20).

Deu 28:53

It would so distress Israel, that in their distress and siege they would be driven to eat the fruit of their body, and the flesh of their own children (with regard to the fulfilment of this, see the remarks on Lev 26:29). - This horrible distress is depicted still more fully in Deu 28:54-57, where the words, "in the siege and in the straitness," etc. (Deu 28:53), are repeated as a refrain , with their appalling sound, in Deu 28:55 and Deu 28:57.

Deu 28:54-55

The effeminate and luxurious man would look with ill-favour upon his brother, the wife of his bosom, and his remaining children, "to give"(so that he would not give) to one of them of the flesh of his children which he was consuming, because there was nothing left to him in the siege. "His eye shall be evil," i.e., look with envy or ill-favour (cf. Deu 15:9). השׁאיר מבּלי , on account of there not being anything left for himself. כּל with בּלי signifies literally "all not," i.e., nothing at all. השׁאיר , an infinitive, as in Deu 3:3 (see at Deu 28:48).

Deu 28:56-57

The delicate and luxurious woman, who had not attempted to put her feet to the ground (had always been carried therefore either upon a litter or an ass: cf. Jdg 5:10, and Arvieux, Sitten der Beduinen Ar. p. 143), from tenderness and delicacy - her eye would look with envy upon the husband of her bosom and her children, and that ( vav expl .) because of (for) her after-birth, which cometh out from between her feet, and because of her children which she bears (sc., during the siege); "for she will eat them secretly in the want of everything," that is to say, first of all attempt to appease her hunger with the after-birth, and then, when there was no more left, with her own children. To such an awful height would the famine rise!

Deu 28:58-68

The fifth and last view. - And yet these horrible calamities would not be the end of the distress. The full measure of the divine curse would be poured out upon Israel, when its disobedience had become hardened into disregard of the glorious and fearful name of the Lord its God. To point this out, Moses describes the resistance of the people in Deu 28:58; not, as in Deu 28:15 and Deu 28:45, as not hearkening to the voice of the Lord to keep all His commandments, which he (Moses) had commanded this day, or which Jehovah had commanded (Deu 28:45), but as "not observing to do all the words which are written in this book, to fear the glorified and fearful name,"(viz.) Jehovah its God. " This book "is not Deuteronomy, even if we should assume that Moses had not first of all delivered the discourses in this book to the people and then written them down, but had first of all written them down and then read them to the people (see at Deu 31:9), but the book of the law, i.e., the Pentateuch, so far as it was already written. This is evident from Deu 28:60, Deu 28:61, according to which the grievous diseases of Egypt were written in this book of the law, which points to the book of Exodus, where grievous diseases occur among the Egyptian plagues. In fact, Moses could not have thought of merely laying the people under the obligation to keep the laws of the book of Deuteronomy, since this book does not contain all the essential laws of the covenant, and was never intended to form an independent book of the law. The infinitive clause, "to fear," etc., serves to explain the previous clause, "to do," etc., whether we regard the two clauses as co-ordinate, or the second as subordinate to the first. Doing all the commandments of the law must show and prove itself in fearing the revealed name of the Lord. Where this fear is wanting, the outward observance of the commandments can only be a pharisaic work-righteousness, which is equivalent to a transgress of the law. But the object of this fear was not to be a God, according to human ideas of the nature and working of God; it was to be "this glorified and fearful name," i.e., Jehovah the absolute God, as He glories Himself and shows Himself to be fearful in His doings upon earth. "The name," as in Lev 24:11. נכבּד in a reflective sense, as in Exo 14:4, Exo 14:17-18; Lev 10:3.

Deu 28:59-60

If Israel should not do this, the Lord would make its strokes and the strokes of its seed wonderful, i.e., would visit the people and their descendants with extraordinary strokes, with great and lasting strokes, and with evil and lasting diseases (Deu 28:60), and would bring all the pestilences of Egypt upon it. השׁיב , to turn back, inasmuch as Israel was set free from them by the deliverance out of Egypt. מדוה is construed with the plural as a collective noun.

Deu 28:61

Also every disease and every stroke that was not written in this book of the law, - not only those that were written in the book of the law, but those also that did not stand therein. The diseases of Egypt that were written in the book of the law include the murrain of cattle, the boils and blains, and the death of the first-born (Exo 9:1-10; Exo 12:29); and the strokes ( מכּה ) the rest of the plagues, viz., the frogs, gnats, dog-flies, hail, locusts, and darkness (Ex 8-10). יעלּם , an uncommon and harder form of יעלם (Jdg 16:3; cf. Ewald , §138, a .).

Deu 28:62

Israel would be almost annihilated thereby. " Ye will be left in few people (a small number; cf. Deu 26:5), whereas ye were as numerous as the stars of heaven ."

Deu 28:63

Yea, the Lord would find His pleasure in the destruction and annihilation of Israel, as He had previously rejoiced in blessing and multiplying it. With this bold anthropomorphic expression Moses seeks to remove from the nation the last prop of false confidence in the mercy of God. Greatly as the sin of man troubles God, and little as the pleasure may be which He has in the death of the wicked, yet the holiness of His love demands the punishment and destruction of those who despise the riches of His goodness and long-suffering; so that He displays His glory in the judgment and destruction of the wicked no less than in blessing and prospering the righteous.

Deu 28:63-64

Those who had not succumbed to the plagues and strokes of God, would be torn from the land of their inheritance, and scattered among all nations to the end of the earth, and there be compelled to serve other gods, which are wood and stone, which have no life and no sensation, and therefore can hear no prayer, and cannot deliver out of any distress (cf. Deu 4:27.).

Deu 28:65-66

When banished thus among all nations, Israel would find no ease or rest, not even rest for the sole of its foot, i.e., no place where it could quietly set its foot, and remain and have peace in its heart. To this extreme distress of homeless banishment there would be added " a trembling heart, failing of the eyes (the light of life), and despair of soul "(vid., Lev 26:36.).

Deu 28:66

"Thy life will be hung up before thee," i.e., will be like some valued object, hanging by a thin thread before thine eyes, which any moment might tear down ( Knobel ), that is to say, will be ever hanging in the greatest danger. "Thou wilt not believe in thy life," i.e., thou wilt despair of its preservation (cf. Job. Deu 24:22).

(Note: "I have never seen a passage which describes more clearly the misery of a guilty conscience, in words and thoughts so fitting and appropriate. For this is just the way in which a man is affected, who knows that God is offended, i.e., who is harassed with the consciousness of sin"' ( Luther ).)

Deu 28:67

In the morning they would wish it were evening, and in the evening would wish it were morning, from perpetual dread of what each day or night would bring.

Deu 28:68

Last of all, Moses mentions the worst, namely, their being taken back to Egypt into ignominious slavery. "If the exodus was the birth of the nation of God as such, return would be its death"( Schultz ). " In ships: "i.e., in a way which would cut off every possibility of escape. The clause," by the way whereof I spake unto thee, thou shalt see it no more again, "is not a more precise explanation of the expression "in ships,"for it was not in ships that Israel came out of Egypt, but by land, through the desert; on the contrary, it simply serves to strengthen the announcement, "The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again,"namely, in the sense that God would cause them to take a road which they would never have been again if they had continued in faithful dependence upon the Lord. This was the way to Egypt, in reality such a return to this land as Israel ought never to have experienced, namely, a return to slavery. "There shall ye be sold to your enemies as servants and maids, and there shall be no buyer," i.e., no one will buy you as slaves. This clause, which indicates the utmost contempt, is quite sufficient to overthrow the opinion of Ewald , Riehm , and others, already referred to at pp. 928, 929, namely, that this verse refers to Psammetichus, who procured some Israelitish infantry from Manasseh. Egypt is simply mentioned as a land where Israel had lived in ignominious bondage. "As a fulfilment of a certain kind, we might no doubt adduce the fact that Titus sent 17,000 adult Jews to Egypt to perform hard labour there, and had those who were under 17 years of age publicly sold (Josephus, de bell. Jud. vi. 9, 2), and also that under Hadrian Jews without number were sold at Rachel's grave ( Jerome, ad Jer 31). But the word of God is not so contracted, that it can be limited to one single fact. The curses were fulfilled in the time of the Romans in Egypt (vid., Philo in Flacc., and leg. ad Caium ), but they were also fulfilled in a horrible manner during the middle ages (vid., Depping, die Juden im Mittelalter ); and they are still in course of fulfilment, even though they are frequently less sensibly felt"( Schultz ).

Constable: Deu 27:1--29:2

V. PREPARATIONS FOR RENEWING THE COVENANT 27:1--29:1

Moses now gave the new generation its instructions concerning fresh commitment to the covenant when Israel would enter the land.

"The ratification of the new covenant which Moses was making with the second generation was to unfold in two stages. That was customary procedure in securing the throne succession to the appointed royal heir. When death was imminent, the suzerain required his vassals to pledge obedience to his son; then, soon after the son's accession, the vassals' commitment was repeated. Similarly, Moses and Joshua formed a dynasty of mediatorial representatives of the Lord's suzerainty over Israel. Hence the succession of Joshua, which symbolized the continuing lordship of Israel's God, was ensured by the oath elicited from Israel before Moses died, and again later by a ratification ceremony after Joshua's accession. The pronouncing of curses and blessings is prominent in each of these ratification rituals."²⁹¹

Constable: Deu 28:1-14

C. The blessings that follow obedience 28:1-14

"For the purpose of impressing upon the hearts of all the people in the most emphatic manner both the blessing which Israel was to proclaim upon Gerizim, and the curse which it was to proclaim upon Ebal, Moses now unfolds the blessing of fidelity to the law and the curse of transgression in a longer address, in which he once more resumes, sums up, and expands still further the promises and threats of the law in Ex. xxiii. 20-23, and Lev. xxvi."³⁰²

Moses began positively by holding out blessings as inducements to obedience (cf. Gen. 1:28-30). He stated the greatest blessing, and the one that comprehends all those that follow, first: Israel could become the most exalted of all nations on the earth. The condition for this blessing was obedience to the Word of Yahweh. So important was this condition that Moses stated it three times in this section--at the beginning (v. 1), middle (v. 9), and end (vv. 13-14; cf. vv. 15, 45, 58, 62)--in both positive and negative terms. Specifically, he enumerated six benefits using four merisms in each of which representative extremes describe the whole. God would give His people blessing everywhere, economically, with safety, and in all their activities (vv. 3-6). Then, in the typical hortatory fashion characteristic of Moses in Deuteronomy, he elaborated on these blessings (vv. 7-14).

"The Canaanites believed that Baal had a house in the heavens with an opening in the roof from which the rains were sent. Whether this constitutes the background for the figure underlying the storehouse in the heavens here [v. 12], Moses did insist that it was the Lord who would either bless Israel with abundant rain or withhold rain because of her disobedience."³⁰³

"It was only in feeble commencement that this blessing was fulfilled upon Israel under the Old Testament; and it is not till the restoration of Israel, which is to take place in the future according to Rom. xi. 25 sqq., that its complete fulfillment will be attained."³⁰⁴

Constable: Deu 28:15-68

D. The curses that follow disobedience to general stipulations 28:15-68

In this section Moses identified about four times as many curses as he had listed previous blessings (vv. 1-14). The lists of curses in other ancient Near Eastern treaty texts typically were longer than the lists of blessings.³⁰⁵ The reason was probably to stress the seriousness of violating the covenant by describing the consequences in detail.³⁰⁶ Israel was entering a very dangerous environment in Canaan and needed strong warnings against yielding to the temptations she would encounter (cf. Gen. 3:14-19).

28:15-19 Note that after a general statement (v. 15; cf. vv. 1-2) the six formal curses (vv. 16-19) correspond almost exactly to the six blessings (vv. 3-6). The exposition follows in verses 20-68 (cf. vv. 7-14). We can divide it into five sections of increasingly severe disciplinary measures.

28Z:20-24 In the first view of God's discipline Moses explained various forms in which Israel would suffer punishment.

28:26-37 In the second view the outlook is worse. Israel would suffer physical distresses, and her enemies would plunder and oppress her. As freedom from Egypt came to epitomize God's grace, so return to Egyptian conditions represented His judgment (v. 27).

28:38-46 In the third view Moses saw Israel's potential fate as a rejection by God from covenant fellowship (though not partnership).

28:47-57 The fourth view pictures Israel invaded, conquered, and brutalized by her enemies.

28:58-68 The fifth view shows Israel deprived of all the benefits she had formerly enjoyed (cf. 6:21-23; 26:5-9). This section deals with disease and disasters in the land (vv. 58-63) and deportation from the land (vv. 64-68). Both parts picture a reversal of Exodus blessings.

In the later history of Israel the punishments God predicted here took place very literally when the people disobeyed His law. What Moses described in verses 32-36 happened in the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. Verses 52-57 found fulfillment then as well as in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and Israel in A.D. 70. Verses 64-68 have taken place during the Roman invasion of A.D. 70, in the Middle Ages, the Russian pogroms, Nazi Germany, and the present day.

God designed these blessings and curses to persuade His people to obey His covenant with them. Stronger proof of the blessing of obedience and the blasting of disobedience is hardly imaginable. God's will was, and is, very clear and simple: obey His Word.

This section of Deuteronomy (chs. 27-28) is one of the most important ones in Scripture because it records the two options open to Israel as she entered the Promised Land. Obedience to the revealed Word of God would result in blessing, but disobedience would result in blasting. Scholars who do not believe in supernatural prophecy have said that it would have been impossible for Moses to have written these words. They say the subsequent history of Israel so accurately fulfilled these warnings that someone must have written them much later, perhaps after the Babylonian captivity. The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings take pains to point out how God fulfilled what Moses said here in Israel's later history.³⁰⁷

"For understanding and explaining Israel's history as recorded throughout the Old Testament, there are perhaps no more important chapters than Deuteronomy 28-30."³⁰⁸

The purpose of the whole ceremony Moses described here was to impress the Israelites with the importance and solemnity of entering into covenant relationship with Yahweh. This ceremony was to be a formal occasion that the Canaanites as well as the Israelites would perceive as a covenant renewal ritual.

"When the Greeks invaded Palestine in 332 B.C., the Samaritans sought and obtained permission from the Greeks to build a temple on Mt. Gerizim. This temple was later destroyed and replaced by a Roman temple, but the Samaritans have observed their sacred festivals, including the Passover, on Mt. Gerizim ever since."³⁰⁹

Guzik: Deu 28:1-68

Deuteronomy 28 - Blessing and Cursing

A. Blessings on obedience.

1. (1-2) Overtaken by blessing.

Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:

a. If you diligently obey the voice of the LORD: The word "if" looms large. In this chapter, Moses exhorted the nation with choice. The covenant God made with Israel contained three major features: The law, the sacrifice, and the choice.

i. The idea behind the choice is that God was determined to reveal Himself to the world through Israel. He would do this either by making them so blessed that the world would know only God could have blessed them so; or by making them so cursed that only God could have cursed them and cause them to still survive. The choice was up to Israel.

ii. As a literary form, this chapter is similar to ancient treaties between a king and his people; this is God the King, making a covenant with His people, Israel.

iii. "In the ancient Near East it was customary for legal treaties to conclude with passages containing blessings upon those who observed the enactments, and curses upon those who did not." (Harrrison)

b. That the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth: Therefore, if Israel would obey the LORD, He would set them high above all nations of the earth, and the blessings would be so powerful that they would come upon you and overtake you. They wouldn't be able to escape the blessings.

2. (3-14) God will richly bless Israel's obedience to the covenant.

Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you. The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

a. Blessed shall you be: An obedient Israel would be blessed everywhere: In the city . . . in the country . . . when you come in . . . when you go out. An obedient Israel would be blessed in their homes and in their farms, and in their kitchens (the fruit of your body . . . the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds . . . Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl).

b. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways: An obedient Israel would be blessed in warfare. This degree of blessing speaks of a clearly Divine blessing.

c. The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself: Perhaps the best blessing had to do with Israel's own relationship with God. God would separate and obedient Israel unto Himself, speaking of a special relationship. If not for this, all the material blessings described previously would be empty.

d. All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD . . . the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath: God's purpose in blessing Israel was greater than just enriching the nation for its own sake. He intended to glorify Himself through blessing them.

i. When Israel walked after the LORD, these blessings were real; one example of this is when the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon and saw a nation so blessed, she knew it had to be of God (1 Kings 10:1-13).

B. Curses on disobedience.

1. (15) Introduction to the curses.

But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

a. If you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God: The covenant's aspect of the choice was a sword with two edges. Obedience would carry great blessing, but disobedience would carry terrible curses.

b. All these curses will come upon you and overtake you: Like the blessings for an obedient Israel, the curses for a disobedient Israel would be inevitable.

c. All these curses: The rest of the chapter is almost overwhelming. "Actually, a logical analysis of the chapter is almost impossible, since the final aim was not to be logical but to build up a vivid impression by presenting picture after picture until the hearer could see and feel the import of the preacher's words." (Thompson)

2. (16-68) The curses upon Israel's disobedience.

Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. The LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you. You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand. A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. The LORD will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. The LORD will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods; wood and stone. And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you. You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land. The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you. They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you. You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. The sensitive and very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues; great and prolonged plagues; and serious and prolonged sicknesses. Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the LORD bring upon you until you are destroyed. You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. And it shall be, that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess. Then the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known; wood and stone. And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. In the morning you shall say, "Oh, that it were evening!" And at evening you shall say, "Oh, that it were morning!" because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see. And the LORD will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, "You shall never see it again." And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.

a. In the city . . . in the country . . . when you come in . . . when you go out: A disobedient Israel would be cursed everywhere.

b. The fruit of your body . . . the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds . . . Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl: A disobedient Israel would be cursed in their homes, their farms, and in their kitchens.

c. Plague . . . consumption . . . fever . . . the boils of Egypt . . . the scab . . . the itch . . . madness and blindness and confusion of heart: A disobedient Israel would be cursed in their health.

d. Your heavens . . . shall be bronze . . . the LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust: A disobedient Israel would be cursed in their weather.

e. To be defeated before your enemies: A disobedient Israel would be cursed in warfare.

f. You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her . . . Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it . . . Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people: A disobedient Israel would be cursed by simple, terrible injustices and tragedies. All of these tragedies would bring a terrible result: you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see.

g. The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar: A disobedient Israel would be attacked and conquered by a nation of fierce countenance, and they would fight until they have destroyed you.

i. You shall eat the fruit of your own body: This became horribly true in the days of the later kingdom. 2 Kings 6:24-30 describes a famine so severe in a besieged Israelite city that there was a fight between two women over eating their children! A terrible fulfillment of the promise, he will not give any of the flesh of his children whom he will eat. Lamentations 4:1-11 vividly describes the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem.

h. The LORD will scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to the other: In the end, Israel would be dispersed. We find that because of their disobedience, these curses became the history of the nation of Israel.

i. Of course, many of these horrible curses upon a disobedient Israel were fulfilled in the years of history recorded in the Old Testament; but their fulfillment did not end with the end of Bible history, Old or New Testament.

ii. For example, around 68 A.D. the Romans finally had enough of the rebellious Jews in their province of Judea, so they laid siege to Jerusalem. At the time, the Jews fervently expected the coming of the Messiah to save them and conquer the Romans, based on God's promise to destroy the armies laying siege to Jerusalem in Zechariah 12:1-9. Sadly, the Jews of that time refused to fulfill Zechariah 12:10 which described their humble, repentant embrace of a pierced Messiah.

ii. Nevertheless the Jews of that day were so confident of Messiah's coming that their factions actually fought each other and burned each other's food, trying to be the most powerful group when the Messiah came. According to Josephus, it was "as though they were purposely serving the Romans by destroying what the city had provided against a siege and severing the sinews of their own strength" (Wars 5.24). "Through famine certainly the city fell, a fate which would have been practically impossible, had they not prepared the way for it themselves." (Wars 5.26)

iii. When the Roman general Vespasian came to Jerusalem, the Jewish factions were busy fighting each other. His staff urged him to attack immediately, but he knew that an attack would instantly unite the Jews. So he held back and let them destroy each other for as long as possible. He said that God was a better general than he, and that He was delivering the Jews into the hands of the Romans. Before Jerusalem was attacked, Vespasian became emperor, and he put his son Titus in charge of the attack.

iv. In contrast, Christians in Jerusalem heeded the words of Jesus in Luke 21:20-24, in which He told people to flee Jerusalem when it was surrounded by armies, because the days of vengeance were at hand.

v. In this siege of Jerusalem hunger became so great that many tried to escape the walls and forage for food. Five hundred or more were captured and crucified daily. "The soldiers out of rage and hatred amused themselves by nailing their prisoners in different postures; and so great was their numbers, that space could not be found for the crosses nor crosses for the bodies." (War 5.451) More than 600,000 died from starvation, and their dead bodies were dumped over the walls of the city. In total more that a million died and 97,000 were captured, with most of the captives being shipped as slaves to Egypt. The promise of Deuteronomy 28:68 was tragically fulfilled: you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you. This happened as too many Jewish slaves glutted the Egyptian slave market, and no one could buy all the available slaves.

vi. After the conquest the Jews still living in Judea were continually subjugated and humiliated by the Romans. The Romans continued to collect the temple tax from the Jews, even though their temple had been completely destroyed. So the Romans took the temple tax and used it to support their pagan temples.

vii. After some years of this, the Jews of Judea rebelled against the Romans again in 132 A.D. with a man named bar-Kochoba leading the fight. He was proclaimed messiah by the rabbis who supported the revolt. But after the bar-Kochoba rebellion, Rome finally and utterly crushed the Jewish population of Judea. Josephus said that as a result of the many battles, the once beautiful land was destroyed, and that it could not even be recognized.

viii. But the curse for Israel had not ended. Now, tragically, the church and Christians turned on the Jews. It was as if the branches of the tree attacked their own root. As the church gained in political power and became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the decided to attack the Jews.

ix. They did this in part as retribution for the distant early years of Jewish persecution of the Christians. It was also because the current Jewish rejection of Jesus as Messiah was thought so offensive. But the greatest motivation was a bizarre evangelistic strategy. Christians thought, "The Jews are cursed because they have killed their Messiah. The curses are meant to turn the heart of the nation back to God. We will help God by being His instrument to curse the Jewish people."

x. For centuries, the worst enemies Jews ever had were the Christians who thought they could help God by cursing the Jewish people. At one time in Medieval Rome, the Pope commanded a procession of the Jews through the city, where they presented a scroll of the Old Testament to the Pope. He received the scroll and said, "Beautiful law; wretched people." The shameful history of the Church against the Jews is recorded in the story of the Crusades, the slaughters, and the ghettos.

xi. This helps to explain the great corruption and lack of spiritual power in the church through the Dark Ages. God promised to Abraham and his covenant descendants, the Jewish people, I will bless those who bless you, and curse him who curses you (Genesis 12:3). Satan's clever, and powerful strategy to curse the church was effective: Curse the church by inspiring them to curse the Jewish people. Just as God judged Assyria, Babylon, Rome, and Germany for their mistreatment of the Jewish people, so the church was cursed as long as it persecuted the Jews. The church ignorantly disregarded the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:7: For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! If the Jewish people were to be cursed, it was God's business, not the Church's business!

xii. "They have, it is true, grievously sinned; but, O ye Christians, have they not grievously suffered for it? Is not the stroke of God heavy enough upon them? Do not then, by any unkind treatment or cruel oppression, increase their miseries. They are, above all others, the men who have seen affliction by the stroke of his rod." (Adam Clarke, 1811)

xiii. Gloriously, the curse was not and is not the end of God's plan for the Jewish people. As Ezekiel 37 describes, God will - and has begun to - revive the Jewish people as back from the dead, and prepare them to be used in these last days. God is not done with Israel, and the curse will not be their final legacy.

i. You shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you: Even as with the blessings, God's purpose in cursing Israel would be greater than just immediately punishing them for their sin. It was to be a witness to the nations.

i. God would do this for His glory, and because it would glorify Him, it can even be said that He would rejoice in the work: just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing.

ii. "For though he doth not delight in the death of a sinner in itself, yet he doth doubtless delight in the glorifying of his justice upon incorrigible sinners, seeing the exercise of all his attributes must needs please him, else he were not perfectly happy." (Poole)

© 2006 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission

Introduction / Outline

JFB: Deuteronomy (Book Introduction)

DEUTERONOMY, the second law, a title which plainly shows what is the object of this book, namely, a recapitulation of the law. It was given in the form of public addresses to the people; and as Moses spoke in the prospect of his speedy removal, he enforced obedience to it by many forcible appeals to the Israelites, concerning their long and varied experience both of the mercies and the judgments of God. The minute notices of the heathen people with whom they had come in contact, but who afterward disappeared from the pages of history, as well as the accounts of the fertility and products of Canaan, and the counsels respecting the conquest of that country, fix the date of this book and the time of its composition by the hand of Moses. The close, however, must have been added by another; and, indeed, it is supposed by some to have formed the original preface to the Book of Joshua.

JFB: Deuteronomy (Outline)

• MOSES' SPEECH AT THE END OF THE FORTIETH YEAR. (Deu. 1:1-46)
• THE STORY IS CONTINUED. (Deu. 2:1-37)
• CONQUEST OF OG, KING OF BASHAN. (Deu. 3:1-20)
• AN EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE. (Deu 4:1-13)
• A PARTICULAR DISSUASIVE AGAINST IDOLATRY. (Deu. 4:14-40)
• A COMMEMORATION OF THE COVENANT IN HOREB. (Deu. 5:1-29)
• MOSES EXHORTS ISRAEL TO HEAR GOD AND TO KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS. (Deu. 6:1-25)
• ALL COMMUNION WITH THE NATIONS FORBIDDEN. (Deu. 7:1-26)
• AN EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE. (Deu. 8:1-20)
• MOSES DISSUADES THEM FROM THE OPINION OF THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Deu. 9:1-25)
• GOD'S MERCY IN RESTORING THE TWO TABLES. (Deu. 10:1-22)
• AN EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE. (Deu. 11:1-32)
• MONUMENTS OF IDOLATRY TO BE DESTROYED. (Deu 12:1-15)
• BLOOD PROHIBITED. (Deu 12:16-25)
• HOLY THINGS TO BE EATEN IN THE HOLY PLACE. (Deu 12:26-32)
• ENTICERS TO IDOLATRY TO BE PUT TO DEATH. (Deu 13:1-5)
• WITHOUT REGARD TO NEARNESS OF RELATION. (Deu 13:6-18)
• GOD'S PEOPLE MUST NOT DISFIGURE THEMSELVES IN MOURNING. (Deu 14:1-2)
• WHAT MAY BE EATEN, AND WHAT NOT. (Deu. 14:3-21)
• OF BEASTS. (Deu 14:4-8)
• THE SEVENTH YEAR, A YEAR OF RELEASE FOR THE POOR. (Deu 15:1-11)
• HEBREW SERVANTS' FREEDOM. (Deu 15:12-19)
• THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER. (Deu. 16:1-22)
• THINGS SACRIFICED MUST BE SOUND. (Deu 17:1)
• IDOLATERS MUST BE SLAIN. (Deu 17:2-7)
• THE PRIESTS AND JUDGES TO DETERMINE CONTROVERSIES. (Deu 17:8-13)
• THE ELECTION AND DUTY OF A KING. (Deu 17:14-20)
• THE LORD IS THE PRIESTS' AND THE LEVITES' INHERITANCE. (Deu 18:1-8)
• THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE NATIONS ARE TO BE AVOIDED. (Deu 18:9-14)
• CHRIST THE PROPHET IS TO BE HEARD. (Deu 18:15-19)
• OF THE CITIES OF REFUGE. (Deu 19:1-13)
• THE LANDMARK IS NOT TO BE REMOVED. (Deu 19:14)
• TWO WITNESSES REQUIRED. (Deu 19:15)
• PUNISHMENT OF A FALSE WITNESS. (Deu 19:16-21) But if convicted of perjury, it will be sufficient for his own condemnation, and his punishment shall be exactly the same as would have overtaken the object of his malignant prosecution. (See on Exo 21:23; see also Lev 24:20).
• THE PRIESTS' EXHORTATION TO ENCOURAGE THE PEOPLE TO BATTLE. (Deu. 20:1-20)
• EXPIATION OF UNCERTAIN MURDER. (Deu 21:1-9)
• THE TREATMENT OF A CAPTIVE TAKEN TO WIFE. (Deu 21:10-23)
• OF HUMANITY TOWARD BRETHREN. (Deu 22:1-4)
• THE SEX TO BE DISTINGUISHED BY APPAREL. (Deu 22:5-12)
• WHO MAY AND WHO MAY NOT ENTER INTO THE CONGREGATION. (Deu. 23:1-25)
• OF DIVORCES. (Deu. 24:1-22)
• STRIPES MUST NOT EXCEED FORTY. (Deu. 25:1-19)
• THE CONFESSION OF HIM THAT OFFERS THE BASKET OF FIRST FRUITS. (Deu 26:1-15)
• THE PEOPLE ARE TO WRITE THE LAW UPON STONES. (Deu 27:1-10)
• THE TRIBES DIVIDED ON GERIZIM AND EBAL. (Deu 27:11-13)
• THE BLESSINGS FOR OBEDIENCE. (Deu. 28:1-68)
• AN EXHORTATION TO OBEDIENCE. (Deu. 29:1-29)
• THE COMMANDMENT IS MANIFEST. (Deu 30:11-14)
• DEATH AND LIFE ARE SET BEFORE THE ISRAELITES. (Deu 30:15-20)
• MOSES ENCOURAGES THE PEOPLE AND JOSHUA. (Deu 31:1-8)
• HE DELIVERS THE LAW TO THE PRIESTS, TO READ IT EVERY SEVENTH YEAR TO THE PEOPLE. (Deu 31:9-13)
• MOSES' SONG, WHICH SETS FORTH THE PERFECTIONS OF GOD. (Deu. 32:1-43)
• THE MAJESTY OF GOD. (Deu. 33:1-28)
• MOSES FROM MOUNT NEBO VIEWS THE LAND. (Deu 34:1-12)

TSK: Deuteronomy (Book Introduction)

The book of Deuteronomy marks the end of the Pentateuch, commonly called the Law of Moses; a work every way worthy of God its author, and only less than the New Testament, the Law and Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Its antiquity places it at the head of all the writings in the world; and the various subjects it embraces render it of the utmost importance to every part of the civilized world. Its philosophy, history, geography, and chronology entitle it to the respect of the whole human race; while its system of theology and religion demonstrably proves it to be a revelation from God. The Law of Moses is more properly the Law of Jehovah, יהוה [Strong’s 03068] תורה [Strong’s 08451], torah yehowah , the grand title of the Pentateuch. Could we conceive Moses to have been the author of this system, we must consider him more than mortal - no wisdom of man has ever yet invented such a Code of Laws. His merit, however, has been disputed, and his laws severely criticised, by persons whose interest it was to prove religion a cheat, because they had none themselves. To some, whose mental taste and feeling are strangely perverted, everything in heathenism wears not only the most fascinating aspect, but appears to lay claim to and possess every excellence; and hence they have called up Confucius, Menu, Zoraster, and Mohammed himself, to dispute the palm with Moses! On this subject in general, it may be just necessary to add, that the utmost that can be said of all laws, merely human, is, that they restrain vices, through the terror of punishment. God’s law not only restrains vice, but it infuses virtue. It alone brings man to the footstool of his Maker; and keeps him dependent on the strong for strength, on the wise for wisdom, and on the merciful for grace. It abounds with promises of support, and salvation for the present life, which no false system dared ever to propose. every where, Moses, in the most confident manner, pledges his God for the fulfilment of all the exceeding great and precious promises, with which his laws are so plentifully interspersed; and while they were obedient they could say, " Not one word hath failed us, of all the good things which the Lord our God spake concerning us." Who that dispassionately reads the Pentateuch, that considers it in itself and in its reference to that glorious Gospel which it was intended to introduce, can for a moment deny it the palm of infinite superiority over all the systems ever framed or imagined by man? Well might the Israelitish people triumphantly exclaim, " There is none like the God of Jeshurun!" and with what striking propriety does the glorious legislator add, " Happy art thou, O Israel! who is like unto thee? O people, saved of the Lord!" Finally, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which are amassed in these five books, have enriched the whole civilized earth, and, indeed, greatly promoted that very civilization. They have been a kind of text-book to almost every writer on geology, geography, chronology, astronomy, natural history, ethics, jurisprudence, political economy, theology, poetry, and criticism, from the time of Moses to the present day - books to which the choicest writers and philosophers in Pagan antiquity, have been deeply indebted; and which were the text-books to all the prophets - books from which the flimsy writers against Divine Revelation have derived their natural religion, and all their moral excellence - books written in all the energy, and purity, of the incomparable language in which they are composed; and lastly, books, which for importance of matter, variety of information, dignity of sentiment, accuracy of facts, impartiality, simplicity, and sublimity of narration, tending to improve and ennoble the intellect and ameliorate the physical and moral condition of man, have never been equalled, and can only be paralleled by the Gospel of the Son of God! Fountain of endless mercy, justice, truth, and beneficence! How much are thy gifts and bounties neglected by those who do not read this law; and by those who having read it, are not morally improved by it, and made wise unto salvation!

TSK: Deuteronomy 28 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Deu 28:1, The blessings for obedience; Deu 28:15, The curses for disobedience.

Poole: Deuteronomy (Book Introduction)

FIFTH BOOK of MOSES, CALLED DEUTERONOMY

THE ARGUMENT

Moses, in the two last months of his life, rehearseth what God had done for them, and their frequent murmurings, rebellions, and constant ingratitude. He begs to enter into the land, but is permitted only to see it. He forbiddeth any communion with the nations for several reasons, De 8 . He gives a short repetition of those sundry laws, moral, ceremonial, judicial, and military, which he had given them, from whence this book is called DEUTERONOMY. Then, after many exhortations, he prophesieth of Christ; afterwards he shows how matters of war are to be managed, and, giving many other particular directions with reference to duties, conditions, and persons of both sexes, he pronounceth blessings on the obedient, and curses on the disobedient: he then gives a charge for laying up and reading of the law at certain times, and every seven years to be solemnly read before all the people; he composeth a song for common use, comprising the wonderful things here mentioned: he prophesieth of Christ’ s coming, and the calling of the Gentiles, seeth the land, and dieth, leaving Joshua, after he had consecrated him, to succeed.

Poole: Deuteronomy 28 (Chapter Introduction)

CHAPTER 28

The blessings of obedience, Deu 28:1-14 . Curses for disobedience, Deu 28:15-68 .

i.e. Advance and honour thee with divers privileges and blessings, as it here follows.

MHCC: Deuteronomy (Book Introduction)

This book repeats much of the history and of the laws contained in the three foregoing books: Moses delivered it to Israel a little before his death, both by word of mouth, that it might affect, and by writing, that it might abide. The men of that generation to which the law was first given were all dead, and a new generation was sprung up, to whom God would have it repeated by Moses himself, now they were going to possess the land of Canaan. The wonderful love of God to his church is set forth in this book; how he ever preserved his church for his own mercies sake, and would still have his name called upon among them. Such are the general outlines of this book, the whole of which shows Moses' love for Israel, and marks him an eminent type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us apply the exhortations and persuasions to our own consciences, to excite our minds to a believing, grateful obedience to the commands of God.

MHCC: Deuteronomy 28 (Chapter Introduction)

(Deu 28:1-14) The blessings for obedience.

(v. 15-44) The curses for disobedience.

(v. 45-68) Their ruin, if disobedient.

Matthew Henry: Deuteronomy (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Fifth Book of Moses, Called Deuteronomy

This book is a repetition of very much both of the history and of the laws contained in the three foregoing books, which repetition Moses delivered to Israel (both by word of mouth, that it might affect, and by writing, that it might abide) a little before his death. There is no new history in it but that of the death of Moses in the last chapter, nor any new revelation to Moses, for aught that appears, and therefore the style here is not, as before, The Lord spoke unto Moses, saying. But the former laws are repeated and commented upon, explained and enlarged, and some particular precepts added to them, with copius reasonings for the enforcing of them: in this Moses was divinely inspired and assisted, so that this is as truly the word of the Lord by Moses as that which was spoken to him with an audible voice out of the tabernacle of the congregation , Lev 1:1. The Greek interpreters call it Deuteronomy, which signifies the second law, or a second edition of the law, not with amendments, for there needed none, but with additions, for the further direction of the people in divers cases not mentioned before. Now, I. It was much for the honour of the divine law that it should be thus repeated; how great were the things of that law which was thus inculcated, and how inexcusable would those be by whom they were counted as a strange thing! Hos 8:12. II. There might be a particular reason for the repeating of it now; the men of that generation to which the law was first given were all dead, and a new generation had sprung up, to whom God would have it repeated by Moses himself, that, if possible, it might make a lasting impression upon them. Now that they were just going to take possession of the land of Canaan, Moses must read the articles of agreement to them, that they might know upon what terms and conditions they were to hold and enjoy that land, and might understand that they were upon their good behaviour in it. III. It would be of great use to the people to have those parts of the law thus gathered up and put together which did more immediately concern them and their practice; for the laws which concerned the priests and Levites, and the execution of their offices, are not repeated: it was enough for them that they were once delivered. But, in compassion to the infirmities of the people, the laws of more common concern are delivered a second time. Precept must be upon precept, and line upon line, Isa 28:10. The great and needful truths of the gospel should be often pressed upon people by the ministers of Christ. To write the same things (says Paul, Phi 3:1) to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. What God has spoken once we have need to hear twice, to hear many times, and it is well if, after all, it be duly perceived and regarded. In three ways this book of Deuteronomy was magnified and made honourable: - 1. The king was to write a copy of it with his own hand, and to read therein all the days of his life, ch. 17, 18, 19. 2. It was to be written upon great stones plastered, at their passing over Jordan, Deu 27:2, Deu 27:3. 3. It was to be read publicly every seventh year, at the feast of tabernacles, by the priests, in the audience of all Israel, Deu 31:9, etc. The gospel is a kind of Deuteronomy, a second law, a remedial law, a spiritual law, a law of faith; by it we are under the law of Christ, and it is a law that makes the comers thereunto perfect.

This book of Deuteronomy begins with a brief rehearsal of the most remarkable events that had befallen the Israelites since they came from Mount Sinai. In the fourth chapter we have a most pathetic exhortation to obedience. In the twelfth chapter, and so on to the twenty-seventh, are repeated many particular laws, which are enforced (ch. 27 and 28) with promises and threatenings, blessings and curses, formed into a covenant, ch. 29 and 30. Care is taken to perpetuate the remembrance of these things among them (ch. 31), particularly by a song (ch. 32), and so Moses concludes with a blessing, ch. 33. All this was delivered by Moses to Israel in the last month of his life. The whole book contains the history but of two months; compare Deu 1:3 with Jos 4:19, the latter of which was the thirty days of Israel's mourning for Moses; see how busy that great and good man was to do good when he knew that his time was short, how quick his motion when he drew near his rest. Thus we have more recorded of what our blessed Saviour said and did in the last week of his life than in any other. The last words of eminent persons make or should make deep impressions. Observe, for the honour of this book, that when our Saviour would answer the devil's temptations with, It is written, he fetched all his quotations out of this book, Mat 4:4, Mat 4:7, Mat 4:10.

Matthew Henry: Deuteronomy 28 (Chapter Introduction)

This chapter is a very large exposition of two words in the foregoing chapter, the blessing and the curse. Those were pronounced blessed in general that were obedient, and those cursed that were disobedient; but, because generals are not so affecting, Moses here descends to particulars, and describes the blessing and the curse, not in their fountains (these are out of sight, and therefore the most considerable, yet least considered, the favour of God the spring of all the blessings, and the wrath of God the spring of all the curses), but in their streams, the sensible effects of the blessing and the curse, for they are real things and have real effects. I. He describes the blessings that should come upon them if they were obedient; personal, family, and especially national, for in that capacity especially they are here treated with (Deu 28:1-14). II. He more largely describes the curses which would come upon them if they were disobedient; such as would be, I. Their extreme vexation (v. 15-44). 2. Their utter ruin and destruction at last (v. 45-68). This chapter is much to the same purport with Lev. 26, setting before them life and death, good and evil; and the promise, in the close of that chapter, of their restoration, upon their repentance, is here likewise more largely repeated, ch. 30. Thus, as they had precept upon precept in the repetition of the law, so they had line upon line in the repetition of the promises and threatenings. And these are both there and here delivered, not only as sanctions of the law, what should be conditionally, but as predictions of the event, what would be certainly, that for a while the people of Israel would be happy in their obedience, but that at length they would be undone by their disobedience; and therefore it is said (Deu 30:1) that all those things would come upon them, both the blessing and the curse.

Constable: Deuteronomy (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Title

The title of this book in the Hebrew Bible was its first two words, elleh haddebarim, which translate into English as "these are the words" (1:1). Ancient Near Eastern suzerainty treaties began with exactly the same words.¹ So the Jewish title gives a strong clue to the literary character of Deuteronomy.

The English title comes from the Septuagint (Greek) translation. "Deuteronomy" means "second law" in Greek. We might suppose that this title arose from the idea that Deuteronomy records the law as Moses repeated it to the new generation of Israelites who were preparing to enter the land. This is not the case. It came from a mistranslation of a phrase in 17:18. There God commanded Israel's kings to prepare "a copy of this law" for themselves. The Septuagint translators mistakenly rendered this phrase "this second [repeated] law." The Vulgate (Latin) translation, influenced by the Septuagint, translated the phrase "second law" as deuteronomium from which Deuteronomy is a transliteration. Deuteronomy is to some extent, however, a repetition to the new generation of the Law God gave at Mt. Sinai. Thus God overruled the translators' error and gave us a title for the book in English that is appropriate in view of the contents of the book.

Date and Writer

Moses evidently wrote this book on the plains of Moab shortly before his death, which occurred about 1406 B.C.

The Mosaic authorship of this book is quite easy to establish. The book claims to be the words of Moses (1:5, 9; 5:1; 27:1, 8; 29:2; 31:1, 30; 33:1, 29) and his writing (31:9, 22, 24). Other Old Testament books also assert the Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy (1 Kings 2:3; 8:53; 2 Kings 14:6; 18:6, 12). Jesus Christ believed Moses wrote Deuteronomy (Matt. 19:7-8; Mark 10:3-5; 12:19; John 5:46-47) as did the Apostle Peter (Acts 3:22), Stephen (Acts 7:37-38), Paul (Rom. 10:19; 1 Cor. 9:9), and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 10:28).

"The authorship of no other book in the Old Testament is so explicitly emphasized."²

The form in which Moses wrote Deuteronomy is very similar to that of ancient Near Eastern suzerainty-vassal treaties dating before and during the Mosaic era. This structural evidence confirms an early date of composition.³

Most conservative commentators prefer to regard the record of Moses' death and a few editorial comments as the work of a later writer or writers. Of course, Moses could have written these verses too.

In spite of such conclusive evidence some scholars prefer a later date for Deuteronomy. The critics favor a post-Mosaic but pre-seventh century date, a seventh century date in King Josiah's era, or a postexilic date.⁴

Scope

Deuteronomy is similar to Leviticus in that both books contain a record of instructions and speeches almost exclusively. Deuteronomy is not so much a book of history, as Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers are, as it is a book of law. In contrast to Leviticus, however, Moses addressed Deuteronomy to all the Israelites more than to the priests and Levites.

The scope of history covered in Deuteronomy is very brief. All the events recorded took place on the plains of Moab probably within a few weeks just before Israel's entrance into Canaan.

"According to the Index locorum of Nestle's Novum Testamentum Graece Deuteronomy is quoted or otherwise cited at least 95 times in the New Testament (compared to 103 for Genesis, 113 for Exodus, 35 for Leviticus, and 20 for Numbers), making it one of the favorite Old Testament books of Jesus and the apostles."⁵

Character

"The book of Deuteronomy is the document prepared by Moses as a witness to the dynastic covenant which the Lord gave to Israel in the plains of Moab (cf. 31:26)."⁶

Theology

"In line with the general correspondence of the form of a thing to its function, it is safe to say that one cannot understand the theology of Deuteronomy without reference to its covenant form and structure . . . It is no exaggeration to maintain that the concept of covenant lies at the very heart of the book and may be said to be the center of its theology.

"Covenant by its very definition demands at least three elements--the two contracting parties and the document that describes and outlines the purpose, nature, and requirements of the relationship. Thus the three major rubrics of the theology of Deuteronomy are (1) Yahweh, the Great King and covenant initiator; (2) Israel, the vassal and covenant recipient; and (3) the book itself, the covenant organ, complete with the essentials of standard treaty documents. This means, moreover, that all the revelation of the book must be seen through the prism of covenant and not abstractly removed from the peculiar historical and ideological context in which it originated."⁷

"The theological values of Deuteronomy can hardly be exaggerated. It stands as the wellspring of biblical historical revelation. It is a prime source for both OT and NT theology. Whether the covenant, the holiness of God, or the concept of the people of God is the unifying factor of OT theology, each finds emphasis and remarkable definition in Deuteronomy."⁸

Message⁹

Let me share with you a couple of quotations that point out the importance of this book.

"Deuteronomy is one of the greatest books of the Old Testament. Its significance on the domestic and personal religion of all ages has not been surpassed by any other book in the Bible. It is quoted over eighty times in the New Testament . . . in all but six books . . . and thus it belongs to a small group of four Old Testaments books (Genesis, Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah) to which the early Christians made frequent reference."¹⁰

"The book of Deuteronomy is the most important book in the Old Testament from the standpoint of God's revelation to man."¹¹

Deuteronomy is not just a recapitulation of things previously revealed in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. It is a selective digest of matters most important to the average Israelite in his or her relationship with God. Moses spoke as an aged father to his children. These are the parting words of the man who communed with God face to face. His words in Deuteronomy spring from a personal and intimate knowledge of God that had matured over 120 years.

One of the striking features of this book is the frequent references to love that recur throughout it. God's love for the patriarchs and later the whole nation of Israel is obvious in the previous four books of the Pentateuch, but Moses never articulated it directly. In Deuteronomy for the first time Moses revealed that it was God's love for Israel that motivated Him to deal with the Israelites as He had.

One of the great revelations of this book is the motivation of God. God's love for people moved Him to bless. Moses referred to God's love for people as the motivation of His government in three of the book's major sections.

It constitutes the climax of Moses' first address to the people (1:6-4:40) in which he reviewed God's faithfulness to the Israelites. It was because God loved them that He had treated them as He had (4:32-40, esp. v. 37).

In the second address, which is an exposition of the Mosaic Law (chs. 5-26), Moses explained that God's love motivated His laws (7:7-11; 10:12-22, esp. v. 15; 15:16; 23:5; et al.).

In the conclusion of the book, which records Moses' blessing of the nation (ch. 33), he again reminded the people of God's love for them (33:2-5, esp. v. 3a).

Not only does Deuteronomy reveal that God's love is what motivates Him to govern His people as He does. It also emphasizes that man's love for God should be what motivates us to obey God (cf. 1 John 4:19). This theme too recurs throughout the book.

In Moses' review of the law (chs. 5-26) he called on the Israelites to love God (5:9-10; 6:4-5; 7:9; 10:12-13; 11:1, 13-14, 22-23; 13:1-13, esp. vv. 1-3; 19:8-9). The Israelites' obedience to God's laws expressed their love for God. Love is the most proper and adequate motivation for obedience and service.

We hear this theme again in Moses' third address (chs. 29-30) in which Moses exhorted the new generation of Israelites to obey their covenant, the Mosaic Covenant (30:6, 15-20).

The message of the book then is that God's love for man is the motivation of His government, and man's love for God should be the motivation of his obedience.

This emphasis on love appears even more striking in comparison with other ancient Near Eastern suzerain-vassal treaties. The ancient Near Eastern kings delineated clearly the rights of the ruler and the responsibilities of the subjects in these documents. However the motivation was self-interest, the opposite of love. Concern for others was present, but self-interest predominated.

Since Moses set Deuteronomy in the form of a suzerain-vassal treaty we can learn much about how he viewed Israel's relationship to God.

To quote Thompson again, "Both the literary shape of Deuteronomy and its underlying central concept provide an important clue to the basic theology of the book. Yahweh, the God of Israel, appears in a strong covenantal setting. He is the great King, the Lord of the covenant. From this central concept Israel's finest theological ideas derived."¹²

These "ideas" include the fact that Yahweh is the Lord of the covenant and the God of history.

Obedience to God and His covenant brings blessing whereas disobedience incurs curses. Israel was the people of the covenant.

The people were to worship their Lord by loving Him with their hearts and remembering Him and His acts with their minds.

There are perhaps four basic implications of this revelation and these correspond to four major sections of the book.

1. It is important to remember God's past faithfulness to appreciate His love (1:6-4:40). God commanded the Israelites to remember. Forgetfulness was a sin that would lead them to ingratitude and ultimately to apostasy. To forget was to rebel against God. Remembering the past would remind the people of God's love and rekindle their love for Him. Love as well as trust rests on confidence. We can love God only when we have confidence in Him.

2. God's laws are an expression of His love (chs. 5-26). Because man is a sinner he needs divine laws. God's provision of these laws is an expression of His love for mankind. The specific laws in the Mosaic Code expressed God's love because God intended them to result in Israel's blessing and welfare. Often we think laws are undesirable because they curb our freedom. However, God curbs our freedom to keep us from evil, not to keep us from good.

3. Only love for God will adequately motivate a person to be obedient to God's laws (chs. 27-28). These laws in Israel were so severe that the only motive strong enough to produce consistent obedience was love. Moses urged the Israelites to cultivate their love for God as they prepared to renew the covenant. Self-confidence had failed their fathers, and it would fail them too. Obedience to God can be a joyful or a bitter experience depending on one's motivation.

When we know God we love Him, and when we love God we will want to obey Him.

4. Obedience to God demonstrates love for Him (chs. 29-30). While it is possible to obey God with lesser motives, it is impossible to be consistently obedient without love for God. Consistent obedience is not the same as sinless perfection. The measure of one's love for God is the measure of his or her obedience to the revealed will of God (1 John 5:3). The degree of our commitment to do the will of God is the true measure of our love for God. The real test of our love for God is what we do more than how we feel.

Constable: Deuteronomy (Outline)

Outline

I. Introduction: the covenant setting 1:1-5

II. Moses' first major address: a review of God's faithfulness 1:6-4:40

A. God's past dealings with Israel 1:6-3:29

1. God's guidance from Sinai to Kadesh 1:6-46

2. The march from Kadesh to the Amorite frontier 2:1-23

3. The conquest of the kingdom of Sihon 2:24-37

4. The conquest of the kingdom of Og 3:1-11

5. A review of the distribution of the conquered land 3:12-20

6. Moses' anticipation of future blessing 3:21-29

B. An exhortation to observe the law faithfully 4:1-40

1. The appeal to hearken and obey 4:1-8

2. God's appearance at Mt. Horeb 4:9-14

3. The prohibition of idolatry 4:15-24

4. The consequences of idolatry 4:25-31

5. The uniqueness of Yahweh and Israel 4:32-40

III. Historical interlude: preparation for the covenant text 4:41-49

A. The appointment of cities of refuge in Transjordan 4:41-43

B. Introduction to the second address 4:44-49

IV. Moses' second major address: an exposition of the law chs. 5-26

A. The essence of the law and its fulfillment ch. 5-11

1. Exposition of the Decalogue and its promulgation ch. 5

2. Exhortation to love Yahweh ch. 6

3. Examples of the application of the principles chs. 7-11

B. An exposition of selected covenant laws 12-25

1. Laws arising from the first commandment 12:1-31

2. Laws arising from the second commandment 12:32-13:18

3. Laws arising from the third commandment 14:1-21

4. Laws arising from the fourth commandment 14:22-16:17

5. Laws arising from the fifth commandment 16:18-18:22

6. Laws arising from the sixth commandment 19:1-22:8

7. Laws arising from the seventh commandment 22:9-23:18

8. Laws arising from the eighth commandment 23:19-24:7

9. Laws arising from the ninth commandment 24:8-25:4

10. Laws arising from the tenth commandment 25:5-19

C. Covenant celebration, confirmation, and conclusion ch. 26

1. Laws of covenant celebration and confirmation 26:1-15

2. Summary exhortation 26:16-19

V. Preparations for renewing the covenant chs. 27:1-29:1

A. The ceremony at Shechem 27:1-13

B. The curses that follow disobedience to specific stipulations 27:14-26

C. The blessings that follow obedience 28:1-14

D. The curses that follow disobedience to general stipulations 28:15-68

E. Narrative interlude 29:1

VI. Moses' third major address: an exhortation to obedience chs. 29:2-30:20

A. An appeal for faithfulness 29:2-29

1. Historical review 29:2-8

2. The purpose of the assembly 29:9-15

3. The consequences of disobedience 29:16-29

B. A call to decision ch. 30

1. The possibility of restoration 30:1-10

2. The importance of obedience 30:11-20

VII. Moses' last acts chs. 31-34

A. The duties of Israel's future leaders 31:1-29

1. The presentation of Joshua 31:1-8

2. The seventh year covenant renewal ceremony 31:9-13

3. The commissioning of Joshua 31:14-23

4. The preservation of God's words 31:24-29

B. The Song of Moses 31:30-32:44

1. The introduction to the song 31:30

2. The song itself 32:1-43

3. The conclusion to the song 32:44

C. Narrative interlude 32:45-52

1. Moses' exhortation to obedience 32:45-47

2. The announcement of Moses' death 32:48-52

D. Moses' blessing of the tribes ch. 33

E. Moses' death and burial: narrative epilogue ch. 34

You will notice that there is a general alternation between narrative (sections I, III, V, and VII) and didactic (sections II, IV, and VI) material. However there is some mixture of narrative and didactic material in sections V and VII.

We can also divide the revelation in this book according to the general arrangement of the typical form of a suzerain-vassal treaty that was common in the ancient Near East.¹³

I. Preamble: Covenant mediator 1:1-5

II. Historical prologue: Covenant history 1:6-4:49

III. Stipulations: Covenant life chs. 5-26

A. The Great Commandment chs. 5-11

B. Ancillary commandments chs. 12-26

IV. Sanctions: Covenant ratification chs. 27-30

V. Dynastic disposition: Covenant continuity chs. 31-34

Constable: Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Deuteronomy (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION.

THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY.

This Book is called Deuteronomy, which signifies a second law , because it repeats and inculcates the ordinances formerly given on Mount Sinai, with other precepts not expressed before. The Hebrews, from the first words in the Book, call it Elle Haddebarim . (Challoner) --- It may be divided into many discourses, which Moses made to the people during the last two months of his life. (Haydock) --- The first was delivered by him on the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, since the deliverance of the Hebrews out of Egypt, and relates various particulars which had occurred to them. In chap. iv. 41, and following, and a supplement from the Book of Numbers is given to this discourse. Chap. v., a fresh exhortation to the people commences, which continues until chap. xxii., where the famous blessings and maledictions, from the mountains of Garizim and Hebal, are related. In the following chapters, Moses exhorts the people, in the most pathetic manner, to be faithful to the Lord, adding the strongest threats and promises to enforce their compliance; and having appointed Josue to succeed him, and repeated that beautiful canticle which God ordered them to write, (chap. xxxi. 19,) he gives the Book of Deuteronomy, to be kept with care, (ver. 9,) blesses the tribes like a good and tender father, and gives up his soul to God on Mount Nebo in the 120th year of his age. (Calmet) --- There can be no doubt but that Moses was the author of this book, as well as of the four preceding ones; though the last chapter may, perhaps, form a part of the Book of Josue, which formerly was written immediately after the works of Moses, without any such marks of distinction as we find at present. The whole Bible seemed to make but one verse. How easily, therefore, might the account of the death of Moses be taken in, as forming a part of the Pentateuch, when the different books came to be distinguished by separate titles! Such an insertion cannot hurt the general claim of Moses to be the author of the Pentateuch; or, if it should be thought to do so, no absolute proof can be brought to shew that he did not write this chapter also, by the spirit of prophecy. All the people spoke to Esdras, the scribe, to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded, to Israel. The whole nation of the Jews has all along maintained, that Moses wrote these books: and he himself repeatedly asserts that he was ordered to leave on record many things of importance. Hence both internal and external evidence concur to establish his title to them; and if we be not disposed to cavil with all other authors, and to deny that Demosthenes, for example, Cæsar, and others, have written the works which bear their names, we must confess that the Pentateuch is to be attributed to the Jewish legislator. Yet if this were a matter of doubt, the things contained in these books could not, on that account, be controverted. How many anonymous works have been published which are of unquestionable authority! Many of the books of Scripture are of this nature. But as we have every reason to believe, that they have come down to us without any material corruption, and were written by people of veracity, by divine inspiration, they deserve to be regarded as authentic records. This is true, whether we speak of the originals or of the versions authorized by the Church; though it should suffice to stop the mouths of infidels, if we can procure an authentic history of the Bible by the collation of the different copies which are extant. Thus, where the Hebrew editions appear to be incorrect, they may receive great light from the Samaritan copy of the Pentateuch, and from the versions of the Septuagint, and of other respectable authors on the whole Bible. The variations, which we may discover, are not of such moment, but that, if the very worst copy were selected, we should find the same great outlines of Scripture history, the same precepts of faith and morality. The laws of Moses, which are scattered through his five books, may be seen all together in their natural order, collected by Cornelius a Lapide and Calmet. But the spirit of God was pleased to intersperse historical facts among them, which both shew the occasion on which they were given, and enable us to read them with greater pleasure and satisfaction. The four preceding books might be compared to the four Gospels; Deuteronomy represents the whole, (Ven. Bede) and may be styled a Diatessaron, as it recalls to our mind the great Creator of all things, who was about to fulfil the promises which he had made to the Patriarchs. Almost all those to whom Moses addresses himself, had been unborn or very young, when their parents received God's commands at Sinai, and wandered in the desert. He therefore gives them an account of what had happened during the last eventful period of forty years. He shews what had brought on so many disasters, and cautions his hearers, that if they imitate the perfidy of their fathers, as he foresees, with sorrow, that they will, (chap. xxxi.) they must expect to be treated with no less severity. This prediction we behold verified, at the present day, in the persons of the scattered remnants of Israel. How sublime! how terrifying are the truths which Moses enforces with so much earnestness! The same threats which he denounces against the perfidious Jews, regard us in some measure. If we feel not their effects at present, in being driven out from our country, we have more reason to fear lest we should be excluded from our heavenly inheritance, if we do not repent. (Haydock)

Gill: Deuteronomy (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY

This book is sometimes called "Elleh hadebarim", from the words with which it begins; and sometimes by the Jews "Mishneh Torah", the repetition of the law; and so in the Syriac version, with which agrees the Arabic title of it; and when the Greeks, and we after them, call it "Deuteronomy", it is not to be understood of a second, a new, or another law, but of the law formerly delivered, but now repeated, and also more largely explained; to which are likewise added several particular laws, instructions, and directions; all which were necessary, on account of the people of Israel, who were now a new generation, that either were not born, or not at an age to hear and understand the law when given on Mount Sinai; the men that heard it there being all dead, excepting a very few; and these people were also now about to enter into the land of Canaan, which they were to enjoy as long as they kept the law of God, and no longer, and therefore it was proper they should be reminded of it; and besides, Moses was now about to leave them, and having an hearty desire after their welfare, spends the little time he had to be with them, by inculcating into them and impressing on them the laws of God, and in opening and explaining them to them, and enforcing them on them, which were to be the rule of their obedience, and on which their civil happiness depended. And sometimes the Jews call this book "the book of reproofs", because there are in it several sharp reproofs of the people of Israel for their rebellion and disobedience; and so the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem begin it by calling it the words of reproof which Moses spake, &c. That this book was written by Moses there can be no doubt, from Deu 1:1, only the eight last verses, which give an account of his death, and of his character, were wrote by another hand, equally inspired by God, as either Eleazar the priest, as some, or Samuel the prophet, as others; or, as it is the more commonly received opinion of the Jews, Ezra; though it is highly probable they were wrote by Joshua his successor. This book was written and delivered by Moses, at certain times in the last month of his life, and towards the close of the fortieth year of the children of Israel's coming out of Egypt. And that it is of divine authority need not be questioned, when the several quotations out of it are observed, as made by the apostles of Christ, in Act 3:22, Heb 10:30 out of Deu 18:15 and by our Lord himself, Mat 18:16 from Deu 19:15. Yea, it is remarkable, that all the passages of Scripture produced by Christ, to repel the temptations of Satan, are all taken out of this book, Mat 4:7 compared with Deu 8:3, and the voice from heaven, directing the apostles to hearken to him, refers to a prophecy of him in Deu 18:15.

Gill: Deuteronomy 28 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 28

In this chapter Moses enlarges on the blessings and the curses which belong, the one to the doers, the other to the transgressors of the law; the blessings, Deu 28:1; the curses, some of which concern individual persons, others the whole nation and body of people, and that both under the former and present dispensations, and which had their fulfilment in their former captivities, and more especially in their present dispersion, Deu 28:15.