and shall not turn away from any of the words which I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come on you and overtake you. You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the field. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed. You will be cursed when you come in, and you will be cursed when you go out. Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me. Yahweh will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land where you go in to possess it. Yahweh will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew. They will pursue you until you perish. Your sky that is over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron. Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come down on you from the sky, until you are destroyed. Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. Your dead bodies will be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there will be no one to frighten them away. Yahweh will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with the tumors, with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed. Yahweh will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of heart. You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you. You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit. Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from before your face, and will not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you. Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look, and fail with longing for them all day long. There will be no power in your hand. A nation which you don’t know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always, so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad. Yahweh will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone. You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away. You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in, for the locust will consume it. You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won’t anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. You will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. Locusts will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground. The foreigner who is among you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower. He will lend to you, and you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
All these curses will come on you, and will pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you didn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you. They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your offspring forever. Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies: a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young. They will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. They will besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which Yahweh your God has given you. You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you. The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye will be evil toward his brother, toward the wife whom he loves, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining, so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left to him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil toward the husband that she loves, toward her son, toward her daughter, toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your gates. If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, YAHWEH your God, then Yahweh will make your plagues and the plagues of your offspring fearful, even great plagues, and of long duration, and severe sicknesses, and of long duration. He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they will cling to you. Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, Yahweh will bring them on you until you are destroyed. You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude, because you didn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice. It will happen that as Yahweh rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so Yahweh will rejoice over you to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be plucked from the land that you are going in to possess. Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will serve other gods which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone. Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul. Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life. In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening!” and at evening you will say, “I wish it were morning!” for the fear of your heart which you will fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see. Yahweh will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I told to you that you would never see it again. There you will offer yourselves to your enemies for male and female slaves, and nobody will buy you.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv17, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 32, 36, 40, 42, 46, 50, 51, 52, 56, 57, 58, 61, 64, 66, 68 Or, store.
Or, store.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68 Deu 28:14 And thou shalt not go aside from…
Deu 28:14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, [to] the right hand, or [to] the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
Ver. 14. And thou shalt not go aside.] But keep my commandments curiously, even "as the apple of thine eye," {Pro 7:2} with all chariness and circumspection, since the least deviation is dangerous, yea, destructive.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv15, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 36, 37, 43, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 54, 56, 57, 58, 63, 65, 66, 68 So as thou shalt not be able to escape…
So as thou shalt not be able to escape them, as thou shalt vainly hope and endeavour to do.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv15, 45 Having viewed the bright side of the cloud, which…
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.
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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, Kg1 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, Ch2 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, Kg1 20:5, Kg1 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 (Kg2 17:6), and not long after the two tribes into Babylon, and two of their kings, Kg2 24:14, Kg2 24:15; Kg2 25:7, Kg2 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, Kg2 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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv14–64 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt…
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:
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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 Zac 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.
(f) De Termino Vitae, l. 3. sect. 3. p. 126.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv15, 20, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 36, 43, 45, 46, 54, 56, 57, 63, 65, 66, 68 Overtake thee - So that thou shalt not be…
Overtake thee - 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.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv14, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 35, 36, 48, 49, 52, 56, 57, 64, 65, 68 Verse 14. Thou shalt not go aside - to…
Verse 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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv15, 20, 21, 27, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 43, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 56, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68 Deu 28:15. These curses shall overtake thee — So…
Deu 28:15. These curses shall overtake thee — 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 fleeing from his justice, but by fleeing to his mercy.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v15 The curses correspond in form and number Deu 28:15-19…
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
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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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv15, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 42, 43, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 56, 57, 59, 65, 66, 68 All these curses, &c. Thus God dealt with the…
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.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 35, 36, 37, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 62, 63, 64, 68 But . . . if thou wilt not hearken…
But . . . if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord--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.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv15, 16, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 35, 36, 38, 43, 45, 49, 53, 58, 60, 64, 66, 67, 68 CURSES THREATENED FOR DISOBEDIENCE, Deu_28:15-68.
CURSES THREATENED FOR DISOBEDIENCE, Deu_28:15-68.
15. All these curses — Here begins a startling enumeration of curses which will fall upon the people if they fail to keep the commandments of Jehovah.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 42, 43, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68 14. turn aside, etc.] Deu_5:32. For you read thee.…
14. turn aside, etc.] Deu_5:32. For you read thee. Sam., Gk., Syr. go after other gods] Deu_6:14, Deu_8:19, Deu_13:2 (3).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 45, 49, 50, 52, 53, 55, 56, 58, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68 (14) And thou shalt not go aside.—It is possible,…
(14) And thou shalt not go aside.—It is possible, of course, to connect this sentence with the “if” in Deu_28:13, “If that thou hearken and do not go aside.” But the LXX., and apparently the Targums also, begin a fresh sentence with this verse. The idea that obedience begets obedience is by no means foreign to the Jewish mind. There are many passages in their literature which contain the thought expressed so forcibly in Rev_22:11, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still . . . and he that is holy, let him be holy still.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 20, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28, 30, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 52, 56, 57, 58, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68 cf. Deu_5:29 Deu_11:28. Moses ends as he began, by…
cf. Deu_5:29 Deu_11:28. Moses ends as he began, by reminding them that the condition of enjoying the blessing was obedience to the Divine Law, and steadfast adherence to the course in which they were called to walk.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv15, 47, 67 If thou wilt not hearken.
Deu_28:15-19
If thou wilt not hearken.
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Blessing and cursing-an Ash Wednesday sermon
Does the Commination Service curse men? Are these good people (who are certainly right in their horror of cursing) right in the accusations which they bring against it? I cannot but think that they mistake when they say that the Commination Service curses men. For to curse a man is to pray that God may vent His anger on the man by punishing him. But I find no such prayer and wish in any word of the Commination Service. Its form is not Cursed be he that doeth such and such things, but Cursed is he that doeth them. Does this seem to you a small difference? A fine-drawn question of words? Is it, then, a small difference whether I say to my fellow man, I hope and pray that you may be stricken with disease, or whether I say, You are stricken with disease, whether you know it or not? I warn you of it, and I warn you to go to the physician! For so great, and no less, is the difference.
I. We know that the words of the text came true. We know that the Jews did perish out of their native land, as the author of this book foretold, in consequence of doing that against which Moses warned them. We know also that they did not perish by any miraculous intervention of providence, but simply as any other nation would have perished--by profligacy, internal weakness, civil war, and, at last, by foreign conquest. We know that their destruction was the natural consequence of their own folly. Why are we to suppose that the prophet meant anything but that? He foretells the result. Why are we to suppose that he did not foresee the means by which that result would happen? For even in this life the door of mercy may be shut, and we may cry in vain for mercy when it is the time for justice. This is not merely a doctrine: it is a fact; a common, patent fact. Men do wrong, and escape, again and again, the just punishment of their deeds; but how often there are cases in which a man does not escape; when he is filled with the fruit of his own devices, and left to the misery which he has earned; when the covetous and dishonest man ruins himself past all recovery; when the profligate is left in a shameful old age, with worn-out body and defiled mind, to rot into an unhonoured grave; when the hypocrite who has tampered with his conscience is left without any conscience at all. They have chosen the curse, and the curse is come upon them to the uttermost. So it is. Is the Commination Service uncharitable, is the preacher uncharitable, when they tell men so?
II. Truly terrible and heart-searching for the wrong-doer is the message--God does not curse thee: thou hast cursed thyself. God will not go out of His way to punish thee; thou hast gone out of His way, and thereby thou art punishing thyself. Just as, by abusing the body, thou bringest a curse upon it; so by abusing thy soul. God does not break His laws to punish drunkenness or gluttony. The laws of nature, the beneficent laws of life, nutrition, growth, and health, they punish thee; and kill by the very same means by which they make alive. And so with thy soul, thy character, thy humanity.
III. Let us believe that Gods good laws and Gods good order are in themselves and of themselves the curse and punishment of every sin of ours; and that Ash Wednesday, returning year after year, whether we be glad or sorry, good or evil, bears witness to that most awful and yet most blessed fact. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
The prophecy
1. Look, first, at the intensity of the sufferings which it denounces upon the Jewish race. The prophet seems to labour under the weight of the theme, and strives to give it adequate expression, as though it were beyond his power. There is scarcely anything that could go to heighten human anguish bodily and mental that is not thrown into the frightful conglomeration, to make up such an assemblage of miseries as was hardly ever elsewhere known or imagined. Dantes pictures are terrific, but they are dispersed and distributed into portions, and every man has his own torment, from which other sufferers are exempt. But Moses concentrates his, and pours them all in one terrible mixture on the same devoted head. War, pestilence, and famine in their extremest terrors combine to swell the bitter grief, until they rise to those intolerable anguishes in which the bonds of society are dissolved, human sympathies are quenched, natural affection obliterated, and society transformed into a herd of ravening wolves, preying on one another without conscience and without pity. And this horrid state of things is to be without respite, affording no moment of relief; so that men are driven to madness, and rave with the frantic incoherence of despair. And now, if we turn to the page of history, we find the correspondence exact to a wonderful degree. No more revolting picture of human misery, and of the demoralisation and unhumanising effect of extreme distress is anywhere to be found in the annals of the world than that which is exhibited in the last days of Jerusalem as the accounts of it have come down to us. What in the prophecy might have seemed antecedently impossible, the faithful record of history has shown to be possible, because actual.
2. Look next at their dispersion, almost as wonderful as their miseries. This, too, Moses explicitly foretells (Deu_28:64-65). Alone of peoples that inhabit the earth, foreigners everywhere, having no country that they call their own, and dwelling in all countries as a distinct element in their society, nay, always a society that adheres to general society only by a kind of parasitical life, sucking strength from its substance without assimilating to its character, it is a sort of mistletoe that drapes the branches of trees, and lives upon their sap, but sends no roots into the earth to draw from the soil a life of its own.
3. And now, finally, look at his preservation. I mean his preservation as a Jew. His physiognomy everywhere tells the tale of his lineage. And yet never was a people so unfavourably situated for the preservation of its identity. They did not go out in colonies to any considerable extent. Units they have been, floating like waifs and strays upon the great ocean of human society. Yet wherever he strays, there is the Jew, unabsorbed, unamalgamated, unmistakably a Jew. National bounds hedge in nations, and with some admixtures preserve substantially national marks and qualities. But this is a nation that has no such protection, without a country, without a home. Yet it remains a nation; and there is not another nation in all the limits of civilisation today that can boast so pure a blood, so unmixed and genuine a pedigree.
1. A lesson of danger. If the Israelites were punished beyond other men, it was because they had been favoured beyond other men. Privilege and responsibility are correspondent and parallel. The sins of Christians are far worse than the like sins of heathens, more criminal, more dangerous (Rom_11:20-21).
2. A lesson of duty. None can look upon the ancient people of God in their fallen condition, it might seem, without sensibility and compassion. God has made their fall an occasion of benefit to the Gentile world. We have obtained mercy through their unbelief. The fall broke through the wall that threatened to confine Christianity within the narrow precincts of Jewish pride and prejudice, and gave it to have free course and be glorified. Surely, however, it becomes us not to look coldly or scornfully on the disfranchised heir. (R. A. Hallam, D. D.)
The dispersion of the Jews
Davison, in his Discourses on Prophecy, uses the following beautiful illustration when speaking of modern Jews. Present in all countries, with a home in none; intermixed, and yet separated; and neither amalgamated nor lost, but, like those mountain streams which are said to pass through lakes of another kind of water, and keep a native quality to repel commixture; they hold communication without union, and may be traced as rivers without banks, in the midst of the alien element which surrounds them.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v47 Deu 28:47 - Deu 28:48.
Deuteronomy
A CHOICE OF MASTERS
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Deu 28:47 - Deu 28:48.
The history of Israel is a picture on the large scale of what befalls every man.
A service-we are all born to obedience, to depend on and follow some person or thing. There is only a choice of services; and he who boasts himself free is but a more abject slave, as the choice for a nation is either the rule of settled order and the sanctities of an established law, or the usurpation of a mob and the intolerable tyranny of unbridled and irresponsible force.
I. The service of God or the service of our enemies.
Israel was the servant in turn of Egypt, Philistia, Edom, Assyria, Babylon, Syria, and Rome. It was every invader’s prey. God’s invisible arm was its only guard from these, and an all-sufficient guard as long as it leaned on Him. When it turned from Him it fell under their yoke. Its lawful Lord loved it; its tyrants hated it.
So with us. We have to serve God or enemies. Our lusts, our passions, the world, evil habits-in a word, our sins ring us round. God is the only defence against them.
The contrast between the one and the many-a king or an ochlocracy. The contrast of the loving Lord and the hostile sins.
II. A service which is honour or a service which is degradation.
God alone is worthy of our absolute submission and service. How low a man sinks when he is ruled by any lesser authority! Such obedience is a crime against the dignity of human nature, and the soul is not without a galling sense of this now and then, when its chains rattle.
III. A service which is freedom because it is rendered by love, or a service which is hard slavery.
‘With joy for the abundance of all things.’ How sin palls upon us, and yet we commit it. The will is overborne, conscience is stifled.
IV. A service which feeds the spirit or a service which starves it.
The soul can only in God get what it wants. Prison fare is what it receives in the other service. The unsatisfying character of all sin; it cloys, and yet leaves one hungry. It is ‘that which satisfieth not.’ ‘Broken cisterns which hold no water.’
V. A service which is life or a service which is death.
The dark forebodings of the text grow darker as it goes on. The grim slavery which it threatens as the only alternative to joyful service of God is declared to be lifelong ‘penal servitude,’ and not only is there no deliverance from it, but it directly tends to wear away the life of the hopeless slaves. For the words that follow our text are ‘and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.’ That is dismally true in regard to any and every life that has shaken off the service of God which is perfect freedom, and has persisted in the service of sin. Such service is suicidal; it rivets an iron yoke on our necks, and there is no locksmith who can undo the shackles and lift it off, so long as we refuse to take service with God. Stubbornly rebellious wills forge their own fetters. Like many a slave-owner, our tyrants have a cruel delight in killing their slaves, and our sins not only lead to death, but are themselves death.
But there is a bright possibility before the most down-trodden vassal of sin. ‘The bond-servant abideth not in the house for ever.’ He is not a son of the house, but has been brought into it, stolen from his home. He may be carried back to his Father’s house, and there ‘have bread enough and to spare,’ if a deliverer can be found. And He has been found. Christ the Son makes us free, and if we trust Him for our emancipation we ‘shall be free indeed,’ ‘that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, should serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv52, 58 (See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
trustedst
(See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v15 The Curses of Disobedience
The Curses of Disobedience
v. 15. But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord, thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses, namely, those enumerated in the second part of the Chapter, shall come upon thee and overtake thee, like the victorious enemies seeking to take as many captives as possible.
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v. 16. Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
v. 17. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.
v. 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.
v. 19. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. These four verses correspond exactly to Deu 28:3-6, in order to emphasize the curse as the direct opposite of the blessing.
v. 20. The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, His emphatic execration, vexation, the dismay and consternation following the divine curse, and rebuke, the threat of His holy wrath, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, in every plan and in every undertaking, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly, the judgment of God striking down the offenders suddenly, because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken Me. After this introductory summary a more detailed enumeration of the various punishments is given.
v. 21. The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until He have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. The most severe and the most dreaded disease is named first, to increase the effectiveness of the description.
v. 22. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, the terrible white plague, the scourge of the world, and with a fever, Lev 26:16, and with an inflammation, fever attended with a very high temperature, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, or drought, and with blasting, which would dry up the grain in the fields, and with mildew, the untimely blight falling on the green ear and turning it yellow; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
v. 23. And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, not sending forth one drop of rain, Lev 26:19, as often happened in the later history of Israel, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron, not yielding SO much as an ear of grain.
v. 24. The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust, in the form of severe dust storms, accompanied by a burning wind, as they sometimes sweep over Palestine; from heaven shall it come upon thee until thou be destroyed.
v. 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, this being the reverse of the blessing spoken of in v. 7; and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, literally, "for a removing," or, for a football, namely, for all the kingdoms of the earth to play with, 2Ch 29:8.
v. 26. And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air and unto the beasts of the earth, the greatest shame and disgrace which could strike a dead person, Jer 7:33; Jer 16:4, and no man shall fray them away, scare away the birds and beasts, of prey from their gruesome meal.
v. 27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, a form of leprosy which was very common in Egypt, and with the emerods, painful ulcers, and with the scab, and with the itch, both disagreeable skin diseases, whereof thou canst not be healed; all medical skill would avail nothing when the virulence of the cases would be a punishment of the Lord.
v. 28. The Lord shall smite thee with madness, an insanity which shut off all sane consciousness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart, a disease which interfered with the proper functioning of the heart.
v. 29. And thou shalt grope at noonday, at the time when objects should be doubly clear, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways, utterly unable to find the way which would lead to success; and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee. The utter ruin of the individual and of the entire country is here depicted.
v. 30. Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her, thus deflowering the bride-to-be and bringing sorrow to him who was her husband before God; thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell there in; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof, the owner would not retain it in his possession till the fifth year, when he might enjoy the fruit.
v. 31. Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof; thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee; thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.
v. 32. thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, dragged away into shameful slavery, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thine hand, the parents would be altogether helpless, unable to rescue their children. This section is now summarized.
v. 33. The fruit of thy land and all thy labors shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway,
v. 34. so that thou shalt be mad, driven to insanity, for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. The threat of v. 27 is now once more taken up.
v. 35. The Lord shall smite thee in the knees and in the legs with a sore botch, a leprosy of all the joints, that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head, for the ulcers spread out from the joints.
v. 36. The Lord shall bring thee, and the king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone, seduced into idolatry of the most flagrant kind.
v. 37. And thou Shalt become an astonishment, an object which would cause horror, a proverb, one whose example would be cited in proverbial sayings, and a byword, an object of raillery, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. Details of the curse as it would strike Canaan are now given.
v. 38. Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it, Joe 1:4.
v. 39. Thou shalt plant vineyards and dress them, do the work of a husbandman with painstaking care, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. Throughout this section the Hebrew brings out the contrast much more strongly by placing the object first.
v. 40. Thou shalt have olive-trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit, or it would be rooted out and its fruit scattered by strong winds.
v. 41. Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them, literally, "they shall not be thine"; for they shall go into captivity.
v. 42. All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume, take possession of and enjoy as they choose, utterly destroy.
v. 43. The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, growing richer and more influential right along; and thou shalt come down very low, becoming impoverished in the same degree as the other increases in wealth.
v. 44. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him; he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. So the opposite of Deu 28:12-13 would come to pass.
v. 45. Moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, like a relentless, vindictive enemy, till thou be destroyed because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord, thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded thee;
v. 46. and they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed forever. The curses are spoken of as arousing astonishment and horror, because they so plainly show the direct interference of the Lord in punishing the disobedience of the people. The punishment is now presented from still another angle.
v. 47. Because thou servedst not the Lord, thy God, with joyfullness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, for the Lord, from the beginning, had blessed His people in an unusually rich amount,
v. 48. therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things; and he, the enemy, shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until he have destroyed thee. Since they would have rejected the Lord with the richness of His goodness, He would compel them to accept the alternative of the enemies’ sore oppression.
v. 49. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth, as he pounces down suddenly upon his prey; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand, and therefore be unable to communicate with the enemy and to plead for a merciful treatment on his part;
v. 50. a nation of fierce countenance, beyond every impression of mercy, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young, striking down indiscriminately whatever happens to be in the way;
v. 51. and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed; which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. This description fits all the great world powers, through whom the Lord carried out His punishment upon the disobedient and rebellious Israel, Assyrians, Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Romans.
v. 52. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, every city in the entire land, until thy high and fenced walls, solid and fortified as they are, come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates through out all thy land, which the Lord, thy God, hath given thee. The campaign is thus described as being both comprehensive and exhaustive. To such extremities would the people be reduced that the means resorted to for the purpose of maintaining life would be almost unbelievably horrible.
v. 53. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord, thy God, hath given thee, a most revolting form of cannibalism, in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee, these words being repeated in a horrible refrain in Deu 28:55; Deu 28:57;
v. 54. so that them an that is tender among you, having avoided hardships of every kind all his life, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave, he who formerly was satisfied only with the finest delicacies and despised ordinary food, would now grudge those nearest to him a share in the loathsome meal, the flesh of his own children;
v. 55. so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat; because he hath nothing left him in the siege and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. Cf Lev 26:29.
v. 56. The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, insisting upon riding some beast of burden for even the shortest distances or reclining upon the cushions of a litter, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
v. 57. and toward, rather, because of, her young one, the afterbirth, that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear, namely, during the siege, for these she would keep for her own food; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates. This was literally fulfilled, 2Ki 6:28-29; and Josephus relates an instance from the siege of Jerusalem. And still the measure of the curse is not full.
v. 58. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this Law that are written in this book, the precepts as they were contained in the five books, including Deuteronomy, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord, thy God, Lev 24:11; Exo 14:4-17; Lev 10:3,
v. 59. then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful and the plagues of thy seed, visit them with unheard-of diseases, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.
v. 60. Moreover, he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, the sicknesses included in the ten great plagues, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee. The Israelites had been delivered from them by the departure out of Egypt, but the Lord would now deliberately turn the diseases back upon them.
v. 61. Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this Law, them will the Lord bring upon thee until thou be destroyed.
v. 62. And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord, thy God. And still more strongly the Lord puts His threat, as if He felt vindictive satisfaction in punishing the sinners.
v. 63. And it shall come to pass that, as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and to bring you to naught; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. Thus the last prop of the people which held up a false confidence and a false conception of the mercy of God was knocked away; for the righteousness and holiness of God demands the punishment of all those that despise the riches of His goodness and long-suffering.
v. 64. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other, a threat which was also literally fulfilled, as the history of the Jews shows; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
v. 65. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest, a homeless people, always feeling the curse of the exile; but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind, Lev 26:36 ff. ;
v. 66. and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, like a precious treasure hanging suspended by a very thin thread and ever in danger of being lost; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life, despairing continually of its preservation;
v. 67. in the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. The uncertainty of their fate would keep them in a continuous state of fear and terror.
v. 68. And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, stored away in slave ships, and with no possibility of escape, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again, Deu 17:16; and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, put up for sale in the slave-market, and no man shall buy you, for their look, by the curse of God, would frighten the buyer away. It would mean the lowest stage of degradation. This curse was fulfilled at the time of the Romans, in Egypt, but all the others were also fulfilled in a terrible manner during the Middle Ages, and even in modern times. The fate of Israel is a constant warning: Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 23, 25, 27, 30, 32, 33, 36, 38, 40, 42, 45, 47, 49, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 63, 65, 67 General Information:
General Information:
Moses speaks to the Israelites as if they were one man, so the words "you" and "your" here are singular. (See: Forms of You)
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But if
Here Moses starts describing the curses the people will receive if they disobey.
the voice of Yahweh your God
Here the metonym "voice of Yahweh" means what Yahweh says. AT: "what Yahweh your God is saying" (See: Metonymy)
then all these curses will come on you and overtake you
Moses describes the curses as a person who would attack them by surprise or chase and catch them. AT: "Yahweh will curse you like this in ways that will completely surprise you, and it will be as if you cannot escape having him curse you" (See: Metaphor and Personification)
come on you and overtake you
See how you translated this in Deuteronomy 28:2.
translationWords
God
command
statute
curse
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 36, 43, 44, 46, 48, 49, 50, 54, 56, 57, 58, 60, 64, 68 28:17 If they disobeyed the commands of the covenant,…
28:17 If they disobeyed the commands of the covenant, Israel could expect God to judge them with the curse of agricultural barrenness (cp. 28:5).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.