15 `And it hath been, if thou dost not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God to observe to do all His commands, and His statutes, which I am commanding thee to-day, that all these revilings have come upon thee, and overtaken thee:
If ye hearken not, and if ye lay `it' not to heart, To give honour to My name, said Jehovah of Hosts, I have sent against you the curse, And I have cursed your blessings, Yea, I have also cursed it, Because ye are not laying `it' to heart.
and all these blessings have come upon thee, and overtaken thee, because thou dost hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God:
Jehovah is not willing to be propitious to him, for then doth the anger of Jehovah smoke, also His zeal, against that man, and lain down on him hath all the oath which is written in this book, and Jehovah hath blotted out his name from under the heavens,
`And it hath been, as there hath come upon you all the good thing which Jehovah your God hath spoken unto you, so doth Jehovah bring upon you the whole of the evil thing, till His destroying you from off this good ground which Jehovah your God hath given to you;
Jehovah hath done that which He devised, He hath fulfilled His saying That He commanded from the days of old, He hath broken down and hath not pitied, And causeth an enemy to rejoice over thee, He lifted up the horn of thine adversaries.
for as many as are of works of law are under a curse, for it hath been written, `Cursed `is' every one who is not remaining in all things that have been written in the Book of the Law -- to do them,'
`And if ye do not hearken to Me, and do not all these commands; and if at My statutes ye kick, and if My judgments your soul loathe, so as not to do all My commands -- to your breaking My covenant -- I also do this to you, and I have appointed over you trouble, the consumption, and the burning fever, consuming eyes, and causing pain of soul; and your seed in vain ye have sowed, and your enemies have eaten it; and I have set My face against you, and ye have been smitten before your enemies; and those hating you have ruled over you, and ye have fled, and there is none pursuing you. `And if unto these ye hearken not to Me, -- then I have added to chastise you seven times for your sins; and I have broken the pride of your strength, and have made your heavens as iron, and your earth as brass; and consumed hath been your strength in vain, and your land doth not give her produce, and the tree of the land doth not give its fruit. `And if ye walk with Me `in' opposition, and are not willing to hearken to Me, then I have added to you a plague seven times, according to your sins, and sent against you the beast of the field, and it hath bereaved you; and I have cut off your cattle, and have made you few, and your ways have been desolate. `And if by these ye are not instructed by Me, and have walked with Me `in' opposition, then I have walked -- I also -- with you in opposition, and have smitten you, even I, seven times for your sins; and I have brought in on you a sword, executing the vengeance of a covenant; and ye have been gathered unto your cities, and I have sent pestilence into your midst, and ye have been given into the hand of an enemy. `In My breaking to you the staff of bread, then ten women have baked your bread in one oven, and have given back your bread by weight; and ye have eaten, and are not satisfied. `And if for this ye hearken not to Me, and have walked with Me in opposition, then I have walked with you in the fury of opposition, and have chastised you, even I, seven times for your sins. `And ye have eaten the flesh of your sons; even flesh of your daughters ye do eat. And I have destroyed your high places, and cut down your images, and have put your carcases on the carcases of your idols, and My soul hath loathed you; and I have made your cities a waste, and have made desolate your sanctuaries, and I smell not at your sweet fragrances; and I have made desolate the land, and your enemies, who are dwelling in it, have been astonished at it. And you I scatter among nations, and have drawn out after you a sword, and your land hath been a desolation, and your cities are a waste. `Then doth the land enjoy its sabbaths -- all the days of the desolation, and ye in the land of your enemies -- then doth the land rest, and hath enjoyed its sabbaths; all the days of the desolation it resteth that which it hath not rested in your sabbaths in your dwelling on it. `And those who are left of you -- I have also brought a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies, and the sound of a leaf driven away hath pursued them, and they have fled -- flight from a sword -- and they have fallen, and there is none pursuing. And they have stumbled one on another, as from the face of a sword, and there is none pursuing, and ye have no standing before your enemies, and ye have perished among the nations, and the land of your enemies hath consumed you. `And those who are left of you -- they consume away in their iniquity, in the lands of your enemies; and also in the iniquities of their fathers, with them they consume away. `And -- they have confessed their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they have trespassed against Me, and also, that they have walked with Me, in opposition, also I walk to them in opposition, and have brought them into the land of their enemies -- or then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and then they accept the punishment of their iniquity, -- then I have remembered My covenant `with' Jacob, and also My covenant `with' Isaac, and also My covenant `with' Abraham I remember, and the land I remember. `And -- the land is left of them, and doth enjoy its sabbaths, in the desolation without them, and they accept the punishment of their iniquity, because, even because, against My judgments they have kicked, and My statutes hath their soul loathed, and also even this, in their being in the land of their enemies, I have not rejected them, nor have I loathed them, to consume them, to break My covenant with them; for I `am' Jehovah their God; -- then I have remembered for them the covenant of the ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations to become their God; I `am' Jehovah.' These `are' the statutes, and the judgments, and the laws, which Jehovah hath given between Him and the sons of Israel, in mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.
`Cursed `is' the man who maketh a graven and molten image, the abomination of Jehovah, work of the hands of an artificer, and hath put `it' in a secret place, -- and all the people have answered and said, Amen. `Cursed `is' He who is making light of his father and his mother, -- and all the people have said, Amen. `Cursed `is' he who is removing his neighbour's border, -- and all the people have said, Amen. `Cursed `is' he who is causing the blind to err in the way, -- and all the people have said, Amen. `Cursed `is' he who is turning aside the judgment of fatherless, sojourner, and widow, -- and all the people have said, Amen. `Cursed `is' he who is lying with his father's wife, for he hath uncovered his father's skirt, -- and all the people have said, Amen. `Cursed `is' he who is lying with any beast, -- and all the people have said, Amen. `Cursed `is' he who is lying with his sister, daughter of his father, or daughter of his mother, -- and all the people have said, Amen. `Cursed `is' he who is lying with his mother-in-law, -- and all the people have said, Amen. `Cursed `is' he who is smiting his neighbour in secret, -- and all the people have said, Amen. `Cursed `is' he who is taking a bribe to smite a person, innocent blood, -- and all the people have said, Amen. `Cursed `is' he who doth not establish the words of this law, to do them, -- and all the people have said, Amen.
Wo to the wicked -- evil, Because the deed of his hand is done to him.
and all Israel have transgressed Thy law, to turn aside so as not to hearken to Thy voice; and poured on us is the execration, and the oath, that is written in the law of Moses, servant of God, because we have sinned against Him. `And He confirmeth His words that He hath spoken against us, and against our judges who have judged us, to bring in upon us great evil, in that it hath not been done under the whole heavens as it hath been done in Jerusalem, as it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil hath come upon us, and we have not appeased the face of Jehovah our God to turn back from our iniquities, and to act wisely in Thy truth.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Deuteronomy 28
Commentary on Deuteronomy 28 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 28
De 28:1-68. The Blessings for Obedience.
1. if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God—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.
2. all these blessings shall come on thee—Their national obedience was to be rewarded by extraordinary and universal prosperity.
7. flee before thee seven ways—that is, in various directions, as always happens in a rout.
10. called by the name of the Lord—That they are really and actually His people (De 14:1; 26:18).
11. the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods—Beside the natural capabilities of Canaan, its extraordinary fruitfulness was traceable to the special blessing of Heaven.
12. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure—The seasonable supply of the early and latter rain was one of the principal means by which their land was so uncommonly fruitful.
thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow—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.
13, 14. the head, and not the tail—an Oriental form of expression, indicating the possession of independent power and great dignity and acknowledged excellence (Isa 9:14; 19:15).
15-20. 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.
21. pestilence—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.
22. a consumption—a wasting disorder; but the modern tuberculosis is almost unknown in Asia.
fever … inflammation … extreme burning—Fever is rendered "burning ague" (Le 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.
the sword—rather, "dryness"—the effect on the human body of such violent disorders.
blasting, and with mildew—two atmospheric influences fatal to grain.
23. heaven … brass … earth … iron—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.
24. the rain of thy land powder and dust—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.
27. the botch of Egypt—a troublesome eruption, marked by red pimples, to which, at the rising of the Nile, the Egyptians are subject.
emerods—fistulæ or piles.
scab—scurvy.
itch—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.
28. madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart—They would be bewildered and paralyzed with terror at the extent of their calamities.
29-33. thou shalt grope at noonday—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.
35. the Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs—This is an exact description of elephantiasis, a horrible disease, something like leprosy, which attacks particularly the lower extremities.
36. The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king, &c.—This shows how widespread would be the national calamity; and at the same time how hopeless, when he who should have been their defender shared the captive fate of his subjects.
there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone—The Hebrew exiles, with some honorable exceptions, were seduced or compelled into idolatry in the Assyrian and Babylonish captivities (Jer 44:17-19). Thus, the sin to which they had too often betrayed a perverse fondness, a deep-rooted propensity, became their punishment and their misery.
37. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee, &c.—The annals of almost every nation, for eighteen hundred years, afford abundant proofs that this has been, as it still is, the case—the very name of Jew being a universally recognized term for extreme degradation and wretchedness.
49. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far—the invasion of the Romans—"they came from far." The soldiers of the invading army were taken from France, Spain, and Britain—then considered "the end of the earth." Julius Severus, the commander, afterwards Vespasian and Hadrian, left Britain for the scene of contest. Moreover, the ensign on the standards of the Roman army was "an eagle"; and the dialects spoken by the soldiers of the different nations that composed that army were altogether unintelligible to the Jews.
50. A nation of fierce countenance—a just description of the Romans, who were not only bold and unyielding, but ruthless and implacable.
51. he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, &c.—According to the Jewish historian, every district of the country through which they passed was strewn with the wrecks of their devastation.
52. he shall besiege thee … until thy high and fenced walls come down—All the fortified places to which the people betook themselves for safety were burnt or demolished, and the walls of Jerusalem itself razed to the ground.
53-57. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body—(See 2Ki 6:29; La 4:10). Such were the dreadful extremities to which the inhabitants during the siege were reduced that many women sustained a wretched existence by eating the flesh of their own children. Parental affection was extinguished, and the nearest relatives were jealously, avoided, lest they should discover and demand a share of the revolting viands.
62. ye shall be left few in number—There has been, ever since the destruction of Jerusalem, only an inconsiderable remnant of Jews existing in that land—aliens in the land of their fathers; and of all classes of the inhabitants they are the most degraded and miserable beings, dependent for their support on contributions from other lands.
63. ye shall be plucked from off the land—Hadrian issued a proclamation, forbidding any Jews to reside in Judea, or even to approach its confines.
64. the Lord shall scatter thee among all people—There is, perhaps, not a country in the world where Jews are not to be found. Who that looks on this condition of the Hebrews is not filled with awe, when he considers the fulfilment of this prophecy?
68. The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships—The accomplishment of this prediction took place under Titus, when, according to Josephus, multitudes of Jews were transported in ships to the land of the Nile, and sold as slaves. "Here, then, are instances of prophecies delivered above three thousand years ago; and yet, as we see, being fulfilled in the world at this very time; and what stronger proofs can we desire of the divine legation of Moses? How these instances may affect others I know not; but for myself, I must acknowledge, they not only convince but amaze and astonish me beyond expression; they are truly, as Moses foretold (De 28:45, 46) they would be, 'a sign and a wonder for ever'" [Bishop Newton].