¶ And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.
The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.
And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:
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.
¶ 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 shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.
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.
Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, 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 LORD shall bring thee, and thy 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.
¶ Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, 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:
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 shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
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.
And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
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, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:
So that the man that is tender among you, 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:
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.
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, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: 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.
If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD;
Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.
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 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 nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
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.
And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Deuteronomy 28
Verse 1
hearken diligently — The Hebrew doubles the verb shama, to hear and obey. To be ‘set… on high’ uses elyon, the word that also names God as ‘the most high God’ (Gen 14:18). The promise restates Deut 26:19: ‘to make thee high above all nations which he hath made’.
Verse 2
overtake thee — Nasag, to catch up with what is ahead, as ‘Laban overtook Jacob’ (Gen 31:25). The blessings run after Israel instead of being chased. The verb appears three times in this chapter: here, and of the curses in vv.15 and 45, each time with ‘if thou shalt hearken’ or its opposite.
Verse 4
the fruit of thy body — ‘Body’ is beten, the womb; Deut 7:13 reads ‘the fruit of thy womb’. The blessing of v.4 is answered in v.18, which repeats it almost word for word with ‘Cursed’ for ‘Blessed’, and v.53 turns ‘the fruit of thy body’ into food for the besieged.
Verse 7
one way, and flee… seven ways — The enemy advances in one body by one road and scatters along seven. Lev 26:7–8 gives a like promise of victory. In v.25 the figure is turned round, and it is Israel that goes out ‘one way’ and flees ‘seven ways’.
Verse 9
an holy people unto himself — Qadosh, set apart. The words draw on Ex 19:5–6 (‘a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation’) and Deut 26:18–19, and Peter gives them to the church: ‘an holy nation, a peculiar people’ (1 Pet 2:9). Here the promise carries a condition: ‘if thou shalt keep the commandments… and walk in his ways’.
Verse 12
his good treasure — The store is ‘the heaven’, with rain ‘in his season’ (Deut 11:14), as Job 38:22 speaks of ‘the treasures of the snow’. ‘thou shalt lend… and thou shalt not borrow’ repeats Deut 15:6, and v.44 reverses it: ‘He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him.’ The curse in v.23 shuts that treasury.
Verse 14
to the right hand, or to the left — This is the road figure of Deut 5:32, and Prov 4:27 uses it for the individual: ‘Turn not to the right hand nor to the left.’ ‘Go aside’ is sur, to turn off; the turning ends in ‘other gods to serve them’. The blessings of vv.1–14 close on the one condition on which the rest hangs.
Verse 15
all these curses shall come upon thee — ‘Curses’ is qelalah, the word of the curse spoken from Mount Ebal, with the blessing from Gerizim (Deut 27:12–13). ‘Overtake’ returns from v.2, and it is the same verb with the same certainty, now on the other side of the condition.
Verse 20
cursing, vexation, and rebuke — These are three words: me’erah, a curse; mehumah, confusion or uproar; migereth, rebuke. They fall on ‘all that thou settest thine hand unto’, the phrase of the blessing in v.8. The reason is given in the same verse: ‘thou hast forsaken me’. Mal 2:2 uses the first word: ‘I will even send a curse upon you’.
Verse 23
brass… iron — Lev 26:19 has the metals the other way: ‘your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass’. The heaven that was the LORD’s ‘good treasure’ (v.12) is closed, as in Deut 11:17, and v.24 makes the rain ‘powder and dust’. In Ahab’s reign the heaven was shut at Elijah’s word (1 Kgs 17:1).
Verse 25
flee seven ways — This reverses v.7 in its own words: ‘one way… seven ways’, now with Israel ‘smitten before’ the enemy. ‘Removed’ is za’avah, agitation or maltreatment, a word used of Judah in Jer 24:9: ‘to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt’.
Verse 28
madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart — Shiggaon, ivvaron, timmahon. ‘Astonishment’ occurs only here and in Zech 12:4, where the LORD smites ‘every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness’ and with ‘blindness’. V.29 shows the result: ‘thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness’.
Verse 36
thy king which thou shalt set over thee — The king is spoken of before Israel has one (Deut 17:14–15, ‘Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee’). Jehoiachin ‘went out to the king of Babylon’ (2 Kgs 24:12). ‘Wood and stone’ are the idols of Deut 4:28, to which v.64 returns.
Verse 37
an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword — Shammah is ruin that astonishes onlookers, and sheninah a gibe or taunt. ‘Byword’ occurs only here, in 1 Kgs 9:7, 2 Chr 7:20 and Jer 24:9. Solomon is told: ‘Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people’ (1 Kgs 9:7).
Verse 38
the locust shall consume it — Arbeh, the locust swarm. The sower carries ‘much seed’ out and gathers in ‘but little’. Haggai gives the same figure in his own day: ‘Ye have sown much, and bring in little’ (Hag 1:6). Joel 1:4 lists the insects that strip a field.
Verse 45
pursue thee, and overtake thee — Radaph, the verb of Ps 23:6, where ‘goodness and mercy shall follow me’. Here the curses are the pursuers, and ‘overtake’ is the verb of vv.2 and 15. The reason follows: ‘because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God’.
Verse 47
with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart — The fault named is not only outward: the service was withheld from the LORD in joy (simchah) and ‘gladness of heart’ (literally, goodness of heart), ‘for the abundance of all things’. Compare Ps 100:2, ‘Serve the LORD with gladness’. In v.48 that service passes to enemies, ‘in hunger, and in thirst’.
Verse 49
swift as the eagle flieth — Dava, to swoop; it appears only here, Ps 18:10, Jer 48:40 and Jer 49:22. ‘Whose tongue thou shalt not understand’ returns in Jer 5:15, ‘a nation whose language thou knowest not’. Hab 1:6, 8 names the Chaldeans: ‘they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat’.
Verse 53
the fruit of thine own body — This is the phrase of the blessing in v.4, and now it is eaten. ‘Siege’ (matsor) and ‘straitness’ (matsoq) describe the enemy ring and the confinement within it. A woman of Samaria tells the king ‘we boiled my son, and did eat him’ (2 Kgs 6:28–29); Jer 19:9 and Lam 4:10 speak of the same.
Verse 58
this glorious and fearful name — The name is ‘THE LORD THY GOD’. ‘Glorious’ is kabed, weighty or honoured; ‘fearful’ and the earlier ‘fear’ share one root, yare. This is the name proclaimed to Moses in Ex 34:5–7, and ‘this book’ is the law Moses wrote (Deut 31:24).
Verse 63
the LORD rejoiced over you — Sus stands on both sides of the comparison: the LORD who ‘rejoiced over you to do you good’ will ‘rejoice over you to destroy you’. The first half is echoed in Jer 32:41, ‘I will rejoice over them to do them good’; the LORD also says ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked’ (Ezek 33:11).
Verse 64
scatter thee among all people — Puts, to disperse. It was declared in Deut 4:27 and Lev 26:33, and Nehemiah recalls it: ‘If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations’ (Neh 1:8). Christ speaks of the same scattering: ‘led away captive into all nations’ (Luke 21:24).
Verse 68
into Egypt again with ships — Egypt is the ‘house of bondage’ (Ex 20:2) from which the LORD brought them. The way ‘whereof I spake’ is Deut 17:16, ‘Ye shall henceforth return no more that way’; Hos 9:3 says ‘Ephraim shall return to Egypt’. They are offered for sale, and ‘no man shall buy you’.
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