16 `Cursed `art' thou in the city, and cursed `art' thou in the field.
Then I have given up this house as Shiloh, and this city I give up for a reviling to all nations of the earth.'
And he hath turned back the heart of fathers to sons, And the heart of sons to their fathers, Before I come and have utterly smitten the land!
With a curse ye are cursed! And Me ye are deceiving -- this nation -- all of it. Bring in all the tithe unto the treasure-house, And there is food in My house; When ye have tried Me, now, with this, Said Jehovah of Hosts, Do not I open to you the windows of heaven? Yea, I have emptied on you a blessing till there is no space. And I have pushed for you against the consumer, And He doth not destroy to you the fruit of the ground, Nor miscarry to you doth the vine in the field, Said Jehovah of Hosts. And declared you happy have all the nations, For ye are a delightful land, said Jehovah of Hosts.
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.
From that time `one' hath come to a heap of twenty, And it hath been ten, He hath come unto the wine-fat to draw out fifty purahs, And it hath been twenty. I have smitten you with blasting, And with mildew, and with hail -- All the work of your hands, And there is none of you with Me, An affirmation of Jehovah.
Looking for much, and lo, little, And ye brought `it' home, and I blew on it, Wherefore? -- an affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, Because of My house that is waste, And ye are running -- each to his house, Therefore, over you refrained have the heavens from dew, And the land hath refrained its increase. And I proclaim draught on the land, And on the mountains, and on the corn, And on the new wine, and on the oil, And on what the ground doth bring forth, And on man, and on beast, And on all labour of the hands.'
And I also -- I have given to you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, And lack of bread in all your places, And ye have not turned back unto Me, an affirmation of Jehovah. And I also -- I have withheld from you the rain. While yet three months to harvest, And I have sent rain on one city, And on another city I do not send rain, One portion is rained on, And the portion on which it raineth not withereth. And wandered have two or three cities, Unto the same city to drink water, And they are not satisfied, And ye have not turned back unto Me, An affirmation of Jehovah. I have smitten you with blasting and with mildew, The abundance of your gardens and of your vineyards, And of your figs, and of your olives, Eat doth the palmer-worm, And ye have not turned back unto Me, An affirmation of Jehovah.
Before it consumed hath fire, And after it burn doth a flame, As the garden of Eden `is' the land before it, And after it a wilderness -- a desolation! And also an escape there hath not been to it,
Wail, as a virgin girdeth with sackcloth, For the husband of her youth. Cut off hath been present and libation from the house of Jehovah, Mourned have the priests, ministrants of Jehovah. Spoiled is the field, mourned hath the ground, For spoiled is the corn, Dried up hath been new wine, languish doth oil. Be ashamed, ye husbandmen, Howl, vine-dressers, for wheat and for barley, For perished hath the harvest of the field. The vine hath been dried up, And the fig-tree doth languish, Pomegranate, also palm, and apple-tree, All trees of the field have withered, For dried up hath been joy from the sons of men. Gird, and lament, ye priests, Howl, ye ministrants of the altar, Come in, lodge in sackcloth, ministrants of my God, For withheld from the house of your God hath been present and libation. Sanctify a fast, proclaim a restraint, Gather the elders -- all the inhabitants of the land, `Into' the house of Jehovah your God, And cry unto Jehovah, `Alas for the day! For near `is' a day of Jehovah, And as destruction from the mighty it cometh. Is not before our eyes food cut off? From the house of our God joy and rejoicing? Rotted have scattered things under their clods, Desolated have been storehouses, Broken down have been granaries, For withered hath the corn. How have cattle sighed! Perplexed have been droves of oxen, For there is no pasture for them, Also droves of sheep have been desolated.
What is left of the palmer-worm, eaten hath the locust, And what is left of the locust, Eaten hath the cankerworm, And what is left of the cankerworm, Eaten hath the caterpillar.
Our skin as an oven hath been burning, Because of the raging of the famine.
How is the gold become dim, Changed the best -- the pure gold? Poured out are stones of the sanctuary At the head of all out-places. The precious sons of Zion, Who are comparable with fine gold, How have they been reckoned earthen bottles, Work of the hands of a potter. Even dragons have drawn out the breast, They have suckled their young ones, The daughter of my people is become cruel, Like the ostriches in a wilderness. Cleaved hath the tongue of a suckling unto his palate with thirst, Infants asked bread, a dealer out they have none. Those eating of dainties have been desolate in out-places, Those supported on scarlet have embraced dunghills. And greater is the iniquity of the daughter of my people, Than the sin of Sodom, That was overturned as `in' a moment, And no hands were stayed on her. Purer were her Nazarites than snow, Whiter than milk, ruddier of body than rubies, Of sapphire their form. Darker than blackness hath been their visage, They have not been known in out-places, Cleaved hath their skin unto their bone, It hath withered -- it hath been as wood. Better have been the pierced of a sword Than the pierced of famine, For these flow away, pierced through, Without the increase of the field. The hands of merciful women have boiled their own children, They have been for food to them, In the destruction of the daughter of my people. Completed hath Jehovah His fury, He hath poured out the fierceness of His anger, And he kindleth a fire in Zion, And it devoureth her foundations. Believe not did the kings of earth, And any of the inhabitants of the world, That come would an adversary and enemy Into the gates of Jerusalem. Because of the sins of her prophets, The iniquities of her priests, Who are shedding in her midst the blood of the righteous,
Consumed by tears have been my eyes, Troubled have been my bowels, Poured out to the earth hath been my liver, For the breach of the daughter of my people; In infant and suckling being feeble, In the broad places of the city, To their mothers they say, `Where `are' corn and wine?' In their becoming feeble as a pierced one In the broad places of the city, In their soul pouring itself out into the bosom of their mothers. What do I testify `to' thee, what do I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What do I equal to thee, and I comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For great as a sea `is' thy breach, Who doth give healing to thee? Thy prophets have seen for thee a false and insipid thing, And have not revealed concerning thine iniquity, To turn back thy captivity, And they see for thee false burdens and causes of expulsion. Clapped hands at thee have all passing by the way, They have hissed -- and they shake the head At the daughter of Jerusalem: `Is this the city of which they said: The perfection of beauty, a joy to all the land?' Opened against thee their mouth have all thine enemies, They have hissed, yea, they gnash the teeth, They have said: `We have swallowed `her' up, Surely this `is' the day that we looked for, We have found -- we have seen.' 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. Cried hath their heart unto the Lord; O wall of the daughter of Zion, Cause to go down as a stream tears daily and nightly, Give not rest to thyself, Let not the daughter of thine eye stand still. Arise, cry aloud in the night, At the beginning of the watches. Pour out as water thy heart, Over against the face of the Lord, Lift up unto Him thy hands, for the soul of thine infants, Who are feeble with hunger at the head of all out-places. See, O Jehovah, and look attentively, To whom Thou hast acted thus, Do women eat their fruit, infants of a handbreadth? Slain in the sanctuary of the Lord are priest and prophet? Lain on the earth `in' out-places have young and old, My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword, Thou hast slain in a day of Thine anger, Thou hast slaughtered -- Thou hast not pitied. Thou dost call as `at' a day of appointment, My fears from round about, And there hath not been in the day of the anger of Jehovah, An escaped and remaining one, They whom I stretched out and nourished, My enemy hath consumed!
How hath she sat alone, The city abounding with people! She hath been as a widow, The mighty among nations! Princes among provinces, She hath become tributary!
And to the man He said, `Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and dost eat of the tree concerning which I have charged thee, saying, Thou dost not eat of it, cursed `is' the ground on thine account; in sorrow thou dost eat of it all days of thy life, and thorn and bramble it doth bring forth to thee, and thou hast eaten the herb of the field;
If I have gone forth to the field, Then, lo, the pierced of the sword! And if I have entered the city, Then, lo, the diseased of famine! For both prophet and priest have gone up and down Unto a land that they knew not.
Mourned hath Judah, and her gates have languished, They have mourned to the earth, And the cry of Jerusalem hath gone up. And their honourable ones have sent their little ones to the water, They have come unto ditches, They have not found water, They have turned back -- their vessels empty! They have been ashamed, And have blushed and covered their head. Because the ground hath been broken, For there hath been no rain in the land, Ashamed have been husbandmen, They have covered their head. For even the hind in the field hath brought forth -- to forsake `it!' For there hath been no grass.
And I make Jerusalem become heaps, A habitation of dragons, And the cities of Judah I make a desolation, Without inhabitant.
And I pollute princes of the sanctuary, And I give Jacob to destruction, and Israel to revilings!
Therefore a curse hath consumed the land, And the inhabitants in it are become desolate, Therefore consumed have been inhabitants of the land, And few men have been left. Mourned hath the new wine, languished the vine, Sighed have all the joyful of heart. Ceased hath the joy of tabrets, Ceased hath the noise of exulting ones, Ceased hath the joy of a harp. With a song they drink not wine, Bitter is strong drink to those drinking it. It was broken down -- a city of emptiness, Shut hath been every house from entrance. A cry over the wine `is' in out-places, Darkened hath been all joy, Removed hath been the joy of the land. Left in the city `is' desolation, And `with' wasting is the gate smitten.
The curse of Jehovah `is' in the house of the wicked. And the habitation of the righteous He blesseth.
And she saith, `Jehovah thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but the fulness of the hand of meal in a pitcher, and a little oil in a dish; and lo, I am gathering two sticks, and have gone in and prepared it for myself, and for my son, and we have eaten it -- and died.'
And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, saith unto Ahab, `Jehovah, God of Israel, liveth, before whom I have stood, there is not these years dew and rain, except according to my word.'
against giving to one of them of the flesh of his sons whom he eateth, because he hath nothing left to him, in the siege, and in the straitness with which thine enemy doth straiten thee in all thy gates.
`Blessed `art' thou in the city, and blessed `art' thou in the field. `Blessed `is' the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, increase of thine oxen, and wealth of thy flock. `Blessed `is' thy basket and thy kneading-trough. `Blessed `art' thou in thy coming in, and blessed `art' thou in thy going out. `Jehovah giveth thine enemies, who are rising up against thee -- smitten before thy face; in one way they come out unto thee, and in seven ways they flee before thee. `Jehovah commandeth with thee the blessing in thy storehouses, and in every putting forth of thy hand, and hath blessed thee in the land which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee. `Jehovah doth establish thee to Himself for a holy people, as He hath sworn to thee, when thou keepest the commands of Jehovah thy God, and hast walked in His ways; and all the peoples of the land have seen that the name of Jehovah is called upon thee, and they have been afraid of thee. `And Jehovah hath made thee abundant in good, in the fruit of the womb, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, on the ground which Jehovah hath sworn to thy fathers to give to thee. `Jehovah doth open to thee his good treasure -- the heavens -- to give the rain of thy land in its season, and to bless all the work of thy hand, and thou hast lent to many nations, and thou -- thou dost not borrow. `And Jehovah hath given thee for head, and not for tail; and thou hast been only above, and art not beneath, for thou dost hearken unto the commands of Jehovah thy God, which I am commanding thee to-day, to keep and to do, and thou dost not turn aside from all the words which I am commanding you to-day -- right or left -- to go after other gods, to serve them.
and Jehovah smelleth the sweet fragrance, and Jehovah saith unto His heart, `I continue not to disesteem any more the ground because of man, though the imagination of the heart of man `is' evil from his youth; and I continue not to smite any more all living, as I have done; during all days of the earth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, do not cease.'
and calleth his name Noah, saying, `This `one' doth comfort us concerning our work, and concerning the labour of our hands, because of the ground which Jehovah hath cursed.'
and now, cursed `art' thou from the ground, which hath opened her mouth to receive the blood of thy brother from thy hand; when thou tillest the ground, it doth not add to give its strength to thee -- a wanderer, even a trembling one, thou art in the earth.'
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Deuteronomy 28
Commentary on Deuteronomy 28 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
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 Exodus 23:20-33, and Lev 26.
Deuteronomy 28:1-6
The Blessing. - Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 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 (Deuteronomy 28:2), and in the middle (Deuteronomy 28:9), but also at the close (Deuteronomy 28:13, Deuteronomy 28:14), in both a positive and a negative form. In Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 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 (Deuteronomy 28:3); blessed will be the fruit of the body, of the earth, and of the cattle, i.e., in all its productions (Deuteronomy 28:4; for each one, see Deuteronomy 7:13-14); blessed will be the basket (Deuteronomy 26:2) in which the fruits are kept, and the kneading - trough (Exodus 12:34) in which the daily bread is prepared (Deuteronomy 28:5); blessed will the nation be in all its undertakings (“coming in and going out;” vid., Numbers 27:17).
Deuteronomy 28:7-14
Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 28:7-10, with reference ( a ) to the attitude of Israel towards its enemies (Deuteronomy 28:7); ( b ) to its trade and handicraft (Deuteronomy 28:8); ( c ) to its attitude towards all the nations of the earth (Deuteronomy 28:9, Deuteronomy 28:10). The optative forms, יתּן and יצו (in Deuteronomy 28:7 and Deuteronomy 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. Deuteronomy 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. Leviticus 26:7-8).
Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 12:7).
Deuteronomy 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 (Exodus 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 (Genesis 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. Isaiah 63:19; Jeremiah 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 Romans 11:25., that its complete fulfilment will be attained. In Deuteronomy 28:11 and Deuteronomy 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., Deuteronomy 30:9), in fruit of thy body ,” etc. (cf. Deuteronomy 28:4). He would open His good treasure-house, the heaven, to give rain to the land in its season (cf. Deuteronomy 11:14; Leviticus 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 Deuteronomy 15:6.
Deuteronomy 28:13-14
By such blessings He would “ make Israel the head, and not the tail ,” - a figure taken from life (vid., Isaiah 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 ( Deuteronomy 28:13 and Deuteronomy 28:14. On Deuteronomy 28:14, see Deuteronomy 5:29; Deuteronomy 11:28).
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 (Deuteronomy 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” (Deuteronomy 28:16-19, as above in Deuteronomy 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 Leviticus 26:14., although it is obvious that the punishments threatened did not fall upon the nation all at once.
Deuteronomy 28:16-19
Deuteronomy 28:16-19 correspond precisely to Deuteronomy 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.
Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 28:20. “ The Lord will send the curse against thee, consternation and threatening in every undertaking of thy hand which thou carriest out (see Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 7:23); המּגערה is the threatening word of the divine wrath. - Then Deuteronomy 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. Leviticus 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 (Genesis 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 Deuteronomy 28:23, Deuteronomy 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 (Genesis 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.
Deuteronomy 28:23-24
To this should be added terrible drought, without a drop of rain from heaven (cf. Leviticus 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).
Deuteronomy 28:25-26
Defeat in battle, the very opposite of the blessing promised in Deuteronomy 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 Ezekiel 23:46, is not a transposed and later form of זועה , which has a different meaning in Isaiah 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 Jeremiah 15:4; Jeremiah 24:9; Jeremiah 29:18; Jeremiah 34:17, and 2 Chronicles 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 (Jeremiah 7:33; Jeremiah 16:4; 1 Kings 14:11, etc.).
Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 28:27 four incurable diseases of the body are threatened: the ulcer of Egypt (see at Exodus 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 (Deuteronomy 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 (1 Samuel 5:1-12). גּרב (see Leviticus 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.
Deuteronomy 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.
Deuteronomy 28:29-34
Deuteronomy 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. Psalms 37:7). Being thus smitten in body and soul, it would be only ( אך as in Deuteronomy 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 (Deuteronomy 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 Genesis 31:29; and on חלּל , in Genesis 31:30, see at Deuteronomy 20:6.) - In Deuteronomy 28:33, Deuteronomy 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.
Deuteronomy 28:35-46
The third view. - With the words, “ the Lord will smite thee ,” Moses resumes in Deuteronomy 28:35 the threat of Deuteronomy 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.
Deuteronomy 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.
Deuteronomy 28:36-37
The loss of their spiritual character would be followed by the dissolution of the covenant fellowship. This thought connects Deuteronomy 28:36 with Deuteronomy 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., Deuteronomy 4:28), - and would become an object of disgust, a proverb, and a byword to all nations whither God should drive it (vid., 1 Kings 9:7; Jeremiah 24:9).
Deuteronomy 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.
Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 19:5, not the Kal of נשׁל , which cannot be shown to have the intransitive meaning elabi ).
Deuteronomy 28:41
Sons and daughters would they beget, but not keep, because they would have to go into captivity.
Deuteronomy 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.
Deuteronomy 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 (Exodus 9:6-7, Exodus 9:26).
Deuteronomy 28:44-46
The opposite of Deuteronomy 28:12 and Deuteronomy 28:13 would come to pass. - In Deuteronomy 28:46 the address returns to its commencement in Deuteronomy 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., Deuteronomy 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 (Isaiah 10:22; Isaiah 6:13; Romans 9:27; Romans 11:5).
Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 28:47-57 the horrible calamities which would burst upon Israel on the conquest of the land and its fortresses by its foes.
Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 7:24).
Deuteronomy 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., Isaiah 50:7), - a description of the audacity and shamelessness of its appearance (Daniel 8:23; cf. Proverbs 7:13; Proverbs 21:29), which spares neither old men nor boys. This description no doubt applies to the Chaldeans, who are described as flying eagles in Habakkuk 1:6., Jeremiah 48:40; Jeremiah 49:22; Ezekiel 17:3, Ezekiel 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 (Deuteronomy 5:26; Deuteronomy 28:11; Deuteronomy 33:19), and describes the cruelty of the Medes in Deuteronomy 13:17-18, with an unmistakeable allusion to Deuteronomy 28:50 of the present threat.
Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 7:13), and would oppress, i.e., besiege it in all its gates (towns, vid., Deuteronomy 12:12), till the lofty and strong walls upon which they relied should fall ( ירד as in Deuteronomy 20:20).
Deuteronomy 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 Leviticus 26:29). - This horrible distress is depicted still more fully in Deuteronomy 28:54-57, where the words, “ in the siege and in the straitness ,” etc. (Deuteronomy 28:53), are repeated as a refrain , with their appalling sound, in Deuteronomy 28:55 and Deuteronomy 28:57.
Deuteronomy 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. Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 3:3 (see at Deuteronomy 28:48).
Deuteronomy 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. Judges 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!
Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 28:58; not, as in Deuteronomy 28:15 and Deuteronomy 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 (Deuteronomy 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 Deuteronomy 31:9), but the book of the law, i.e., the Pentateuch, so far as it was already written. This is evident from Deuteronomy 28:60, Deuteronomy 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 Leviticus 24:11. נכבּד in a reflective sense, as in Exodus 14:4, Exodus 14:17-18; Leviticus 10:3.
Deuteronomy 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 (Deuteronomy 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.
Deuteronomy 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 (Exodus 9:1-10; Exodus 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 (Judges 16:3; cf. Ewald , §138, a .).
Deuteronomy 28:62
Israel would be almost annihilated thereby. “ Ye will be left in few people (a small number; cf. Deuteronomy 26:5), whereas ye were as numerous as the stars of heaven .”
Deuteronomy 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.
Deuteronomy 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. Deuteronomy 4:27.).
Deuteronomy 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., Leviticus 26:36.).
Deuteronomy 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. Deuteronomy 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 ).)
Deuteronomy 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.
Deuteronomy 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 ).