
Text -- Deuteronomy 28:28 (NET)




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collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
Wesley -> Deu 28:28
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...
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.
JFB -> Deu 28:28
JFB: Deu 28:28 - -- They would be bewildered and paralyzed with terror at the extent of their calamities.
They would be bewildered and paralyzed with terror at the extent of their calamities.
Clarke: Deu 28:28 - -- The Lord shall smite thee with madness - שגעון shiggaon , distraction, so that thou shalt not know what to do
The Lord shall smite thee with madness -

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...
And blindness -

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 th...
Astonishment -
Calvin -> Deu 28:28
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 wic...
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 28:28

collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes -> Deu 28:15-68
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 a...
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
Second series of judgments on the body, mind, and outward circumstances of the sinners.
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.
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.
See the marginal references for the fulfillment of these judgments.
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.
Worms - i. e. the vine-weevil. Naturalists prescribed elaborate precautions against its ravages.
Cast ... - Some prefer "shall be spoiled"or "plundered."
Contrast Deu 28:12 and Deu 28:13.
Forever - Yet "the remnant"Rom 9:27; Rom 11:5 would by faith and obedience become a holy seed.
Fourth series of judgments, descriptive of the calamities and horrors which should ensue when Israel should be subjugated by its foreign foes.
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.
Evil - i. e. grudging; compare Deu 15:9.
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.
Fifth series of judgments. The uprooting of Israel from the promised land, and its dispersion among other nations. Examine the marginal references.
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.
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.
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 28:28
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 a...
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.
Haydock -> Deu 28:28
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 Ac...
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.
Gill -> Deu 28:28
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,...
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.

expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

expand allCommentary -- Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis -> Deu 28:1-68
MHCC -> Deu 28:15-44
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...
Matthew Henry -> Deu 28:15-44
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 disobedie...
Keil-Delitzsch -> Deu 28:15-68
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...
Constable -> Deu 27:1--29:2; Deu 28:15-68
Constable: Deu 27:1--29:2 - --V. PREPARATIONS FOR RENEWING THE COVENANT 27:1--29:1
Moses now gave the new generation its instructions concerni...
