Deuteronomy 28 commentary

This chapter is a very large exposition of two words, the blessing and the curse. They are real things and have real effects. The blessings are here put before the curses. God is slow to anger, but swift to show mercy. It is his delight to bless. It is better that we should be drawn to what is good by a child-like hope of God's favour, than that we be frightened to it by a slavish fear of his wrath. The blessing is promised, upon condition that they diligently hearken to the voice of God. Let them keep up religion, the form and power of it, in their families and nation, then the providence of God would prosper all their outward concerns.

If we do not keep God's commandments, we not only come short of the blessing promised, but we lay ourselves under the curse, which includes all misery, as the blessing all happiness. Observe the justice of this curse. It is not a curse causeless, or for some light cause. The extent and power of this curse. Wherever the sinner goes, the curse of God follows; wherever he is, it rests upon him. Whatever he has is under a curse. All his enjoyments are made bitter; he cannot take any true comfort in them, for the wrath of God mixes itself with them. Many judgments are here stated, which would be the fruits of the curse, and with which God would punish the people of the Jews, for their apostacy and disobedience. We may observe the fulfilling of these threatenings in their present state. To complete their misery, it is threatened that by these troubles they should be bereaved of all comfort and hope, and left to utter despair. Those who walk by sight, and not by faith, are in danger of losing reason itself, when every thing about them looks frightful.

If God inflicts vengeance, what miseries his curse can bring upon mankind, even in this present world! Yet these are but the beginning of sorrows to those under the curse of God. What then will be the misery of that world where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched! Observe what is here said of the wrath of God, which should come and remain upon the Israelites for their sins. It is amazing to think that a people so long the favourites of Heaven, should be so cast off; and yet that a people so scattered in all nations should be kept distinct, and not mixed with others. If they would not serve God with cheerfulness, they should be compelled to serve their enemies. We may justly expect from God, that if we do not fear his fearful name, we shall feel his fearful plagues; for one way or other God will be feared. The destruction threatened is described. They have, indeed, been plucked from off the land, verse 63. Not only by the Babylonish captivity, and when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans; but afterwards, when they were forbidden to set foot in Jerusalem. They should have no rest; no rest of body, verse 65, but be continually on the remove, either in hope of gain, or fear of persecution. No rest of the mind, which is much worse. They have been banished from city to city, from country to country; recalled, and banished again. These events, compared with the favour shown to Israel in ancient times, and with the prophecies about them, should not only excite astonishment, but turn unto us for a testimony, assuring us of the truth of Scripture. And when the other prophecies of their conversion to Christ shall come to pass, the whole will be a sign and a wonder to all the nations of the earth, and the forerunner of a general spread of true christianity. The fulfilling of these prophecies upon the Jewish nation, delivered more than three thousand years ago, shows that Moses spake by the Spirit of God; who not only foresees the ruin of sinners, but warns of it, that they may prevent it by a true and timely repentance, or else be left without excuse. And let us be thankful that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, by being made a curse for us, and bearing in his own person all that punishment which our sins merit, and which we must otherwise have endured for ever. To this Refuge and salvation let sinners flee; therein let believers rejoice, and serve their reconciled God with gladness of heart, for the abundance of his spiritual blessings.

1. And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken. He teaches the same thing as before in different words; but the diversity of expression, as well as the repetition, tends to its confirmation. First, God says that He would deal with them so bountifully that they should excel all other nations; for this is the meaning of the words, that they should be illustrious above all the rest of the world on account of the special blessings of God. He afterwards enumerates the blessings which shall never depart from them, if they persevere in the service of God; and here it must be observed that they are reminded, not only in how many ways God is bountiful towards His servants, but also to how many necessities they are exposed, which require His direct and constant aid; for if we are blessed in the city and in the field, we can no more move a foot than stand still, except by His blessing. Such also is the tendency of the whole list, that a scarcity of all things impends over us at every moment, unless God should continually succor us by remedies sent down from heaven, and that every good thing can only come from that one source.

9. The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto himself. This refers indeed to earthly blessings, as if Moses said, that by them would be manifested God’s love towards His chosen people; still it rises higher, so that the Israelites, led on by degrees, should learn to embrace God alone, and to trust in Him according to the covenant which He had made with Abraham, “I am thy exceeding great reward.” (Genesis 15:1.) For the children of Abraham were set apart and chosen to be a holy people, not only in order that, being well fed, and with a full belly, they should aspire to nothing but earthly things, but that they might be confidently assured that they would be blessed in death as well as life. Although their adoption was gratuitous, still, inasmuch as they were called unto purity, it is not without reason that God promises that what He had spoken should be sure, if by keeping the Law the Israelites themselves should continue in the covenant; as much as to say, that their sanctification “Leur election.” — Fr. should be firm and perpetual if they walked in the commandments of the Law. When He adds that it should be manifest “to “And all the people of the earth shall see that those are called by the name of the Lord.” — A.V. “And all peoples of the earth shall see that the name of Jehovah is called upon thee,” i.e., “thou art called by his name.” — Ainsworth. all people of the earth that the name of God was called upon them,” it is equivalent to saying, that it should be known that they were under God’s defense and patronage, and that thus they should always be safe and secure in His protection.

12. The Lord shall open to thee his good treasure. He again repeats, that the goodness of God shines forth in many ways in the life of men, since He not only supplies the bread that they eat, but that the rain which descends from heaven waters the earth; and that thus He produces whatever is required for food from His plenteous store-house or treasure. Let us learn, therefore, both above and beneath, as well in the temperature of the atmosphere, in the quickening heat of the sun, in the rain, and in other means, as in the fertility of the earth, to contemplate the manifold riches which God brings forth from His treasures. And when He declares that He will bless the work of our hands, hence, too, let us learn that we can attain nothing by our industry and hardest labors, except in so far as God vouchsafes us good success; and that all our efforts without His secret blessing are mere useless fatigue. For the figure which Paul uses in reference to the spiritual culture of the Church, is taken from nature itself:

“Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.” (1 Corinthians 3:7.)

God would not, indeed, have “Que nous demeurions assis, et lesjambes croissees comme des faineans;” that we should remain seated, with our legs crossed, like do-nothings. — Fr. us lie idle, and therefore He requires the labor of our hands, but He would have the fruit of our labors attributed to Himself.

After having spoken of the whole Law, and forbidden that they should turn aside to the right or the left, He adverts to the principal point, i.e., that they should not revolt to strange gods. Wherefore, the sum comes to this, that, in order that God may continue to shew us the favor which He has begun towards us, we ought on our sides to be altogether submissive to His rule. This indeed He demands of us by His word, and enables us to perform it by the power of His Spirit; not, it is true, fully to do our duty, but to strive to reach the goal; and, whereas we are far from attaining perfection, His indulgence supplies what is wanting in us.

Here, however, a difficult question arises, — If all prosperity proceeds from the peculiar blessing which God vouchsafes to His servants, whence is it that many of His despisers have children, easy and happy circumstances, abundance of the fruits of fire earth, enjoyment and luxury, honors and power? I answer, that the happy condition of life, which He assigns to His servants, does not prevent Him from diffusing His bounty promiscuously over the whole human race. He is truly called in Psalm 36:6, the preserver of “man and beast.” It is said elsewhere, See margin A.V., “Merciful, or bountiful in all his works.” that His mercy is extended over all His creatures, (Psalm 145:17;) and justly does Christ exalt His unbounded goodness, in that “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good.” (Matthew 5:45.) But equally true is the exclamation of the Prophet;

“Oh, how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee!” (Psalm 31:19.)

For since all without exception enjoy all the supports of life, God’s goodness, which thus contends with the wickedness of men, shines forth universally even towards the ungodly, so that He does not cease to cherish and preserve those whom He has created, although they be unworthy. He therefore does good to the ungodly, because He is their Creator; besides, in order to keep the minds of believers in suspense in expectation of the final judgment, He now suffers many things to be confusedly mixed together, and hides His judgment in the darkness of night, as it were, or at least under clouds; whilst He also so tempers His patience towards the reprobate, as that, in this confusion of which I have spoken, some signs of His anger and favor are manifested. Thus, although the government of the world is not yet reduced to a perfect rule, still God shews by it that He is both the avenger of sins and the rewarder of righteousness, and some sparks are seen through the darkness; whilst the faithful, although they do not attain to the full enjoyment of the blessing promised them, nevertheless taste of it as far as is expedient. But to the ungodly, although they abound with all sorts of good things, not a single drop of God’s goodness is dispensed; for unless a sense of God’s paternal favor is awakened by His blessing, the blessing itself ceases to exist; nay, the more they gorge themselves, they attain to a deadly fatness; and God purposely lifts them up, that He may cast them down more heavily from their high estate. In a word, they are fed, as the Prophet says, No reference is here given in the original. The allusion might be to Jeremiah 12:3, or 51:40. “unto the day of slaughter.”

It must be concluded, therefore, that the blessings which God here promises to His servants are seasoned by Him with spiritual salt, lest they should be tasteless; whilst the reprobate, who are destitute of a sense of His grace, are also deprived altogether of all His blessings. There still, however, remains a difficulty, because the felicity here spoken of does not always, nor equally fall to the lot of God’s servants; nay, even under the Law they were sharply tried by many troubles and adversities. I answer, that since none, not even the most holy, was ever a perfect keeper of the Law, since none was ever free from all transgression, it is no cause of surprise that they only partially enjoyed the promised blessings; inasmuch as they were not fit recipients (capaces) of their fullness; and, if it sometimes happens that they are chastised more severely than the ungodly, neither in this is there any absurdity, since God usually begins His judgment at His own house. (Isaiah 10:12; 1 Peter 4:17.) Still, even in this confusion we see what the Prophet teaches, that the righteous are never forsaken, (Psalm 37:25,) and that they are like green and fruitful olive-trees in the courts of the Lord, (Psalm 52:8,) whilst the ungodly, although for a season they may be exalted like cedars of Lebanon, yet are plucked up in a moment by the roots, so that no trace of them remains.

Deuteronomy 7

Deuteronomy 7:9-15

9. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations;

9. Scias quod Jehova Deus tuus, est Deus, Deus fidelis, custodiens pactum et misericordiam diligentibus se, et custodientibus praecepta sua, usque ad mille generationes:

10. And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

10. Et rependens odio habenti ipsum, in faciem ejus, ut perdat eum: neque tardabit, odio habenti ipsum, in faciem ejus rependet ei.

11. Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.

11. Custodias ergo praecepta, et statuta, et judicia quae ego praecipio tibi hodie, ut ea facias.

12. Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers.

12. Et erit, propterea quod audieritis judicia ista, et custodieritis, feceritisque ea: custodiet Jehova Deus tuus tibi pactum, et misericordiam de quo juravit patribus tuis.

13. And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

13. Diliget quoque te, et benedicet tibi, multiplicabitque te: benedicet namque fructui ventris tui, et fructui terrae tuae, frumento tuo, et musto tuo, et oleo tuo, foetui boum tuorum, et gregibus ovium tuarum, in terra quam juravit patribus tuis se daturum tibi.

14. Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

14. Benedictus eris prae cunctis populis: non erit in te infoecundus, neque infoecunda, neque in jumentis tuis.

15. And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

15. Auferetque a te Jehova omnem morbum, et onmes aegritudines Aegypti pessimas quas nosti: non ponet illas in te, sed ponet eas in omnibus qui te oderint.

15. But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken. This list of curses is longer than the previous one which was proclaimed from Mount Sinai, undoubtedly because the Spirit of God foresaw that the sluggishness of the people had need of sharper stimulants. If they had been only moderately teachable, what they had already heard would have been even more than sufficient to alarm them; but now God redoubles His threatenings against them in their inertness and forgetfulness, that they might not only be compelled to fear, but also aroused by constant reminding. For this reason, He declares that they should be “cursed in the city and in the field,” i e., at home and abroad, in the house or out of the house; and again, that their food should be cursed in the seed and in the meal. Afterwards, He enumerates three kinds of fruit in which they should be cursed, viz., their own offspring, the produce of the soil, and the young of their animals; for all these Scripture embraces in the word fruit, as sufficiently appears from this passage.

19. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in. God here pronounces that all their undertakings should meet with ill success; for going out and coming in signifies their various actions, and the whole course of their life; and this is more clearly expressed in the next verse, where He denounces against them misfortune in all their affairs, in that God would confound and mar whatever they should undertake. The words מהומה, “Vexation.” — A V. “Bruising, trampling, destruction.” — Robertson, Clavis Pentateuchi.

מגערת, “Rebuke.” — A V. “Reproach,” from גער. — W מהומה, mehumah, and מגערת, migegnereth, are indeed variously explained. Still the sum comes to this, that God would be against them, so as to discomfit and overthrow all their counsels and labors. Hence we are taught that all men’s endeavors are useless and vain, unless they seek for success from God.

21. The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee. He now proceeds to diseases which are as it were the lictors of God; and finally, His executioners, if men pertinaciously continue in their ungodliness. He does not, therefore, merely declare that He will send the pestilence, but that He will cause it to cleave to them, and when it shall have once laid hold of them, that it shall be impossible to remove it. It might also be translated, The Lord shall cause that the pestilence should seize thee; but with the same meaning, viz., that the pestilence should be fixed, or glued (agglutinatam) upon them, until it should consume them in the Holy Land itself. He adds phthisis, or consumption, which disease emaciates the body, and gradually exhausts its juices. It is superfluous to speak particularly of the other diseases, only let us learn that, whilst the multitude of diseases is almost innumerable, they are all so many ministers (satellites) prepared to execute God’s vengeance. It is true, indeed, that diseases are contracted in various ways, and especially by intemperance; still, this does not prevent God from smiting the transgressors of the Law with them, although no natural cause may be apparent. He adds war, which He designates by the name of “the sword,” but of this curse He will soon speak more fully.

He then unfolds in more distinct detail what He had before adverted to with respect to the curse on the produce of the land. And, first, He names two blights of the corn, which destroy it just as it is ripening, and snatch the bread, as it were, out of men’s mouths; for dryness “Ariditas.” — Lat. “Blasting.” — A.V.; “i.e., (says Ainsworth,) of corn and fruit with a dry wind, 2 Kings 19:26, for the original word signifieth dryness; and such was the east wind that blasted in those parts, Genesis 41:6. Therefore the Greek translateth it corruption with wind.” is not here used for all want of moisture in the soil, but for that emptying of the ears, which is caused by the east wind. Mildew occurs from the sudden heat of the sun, if it strikes upon the corn when moistened with cold dew. Now, although these evils arise from natural causes, still God, the Author of nature, in His supreme power, so controls the atmosphere, that its unwholesomeness is His undoubted scourge. “Un certain signe de son ire;” a certain sign of His wrath. — Fr.

23. And thy heaven that is over thy head. He enumerates other causes of barrenness, and especially drought. Often does God by the Prophets, desirous of giving a token of His favor towards the people, promise them the rain of autumn and of spring: the one immediately following the sowing, the other giving growth to the fruits before they begin to ripen; whilst in many passages He also threatens that it should be withheld. To this refers what He now says, that the heavens shall be of brass, and the earth of iron, because neither shall the moisture descend from heaven to fertilize the earth, whilst the earth, bound up and hardened, shall have no juice or dampness in order to production. Whence we gather, that not even a drop of rain falls to the earth except distilled by God, and that whenever it rains, the earth is irrigated as if by His hand. It must, however, be observed, as we have seen before, that the land of Canaan was not like Egypt, which was watered by the care and industry of man, but fertilized by the bounty of heaven. Thus God, by the Prophet, marks the degrees which are worthy of observation, viz., that when He is reconciled to His people, He will “hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil;” so that, finally, all these things shall hear starving men. See C. in loco. Calvin Society’s edit., vol. 1, p. 118. (Hosea 2:21, 22.)

It is not superfluous that He should expressly speak of the “heaven over our head,” and the earth that is “under our feet,” for He thus indicates that His weapons are prepared both above and below to execute His vengeance, so as to assail the people on all sides. Another Prophet confirms this, although only in a brief allusion:

“Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit; and I called for a drought,” etc. (Haggai 1:10, 11.)

Another mode of expression is then used to make the same thing more sure, viz., that the rain should be turned into “powder and dust;” still this clause may be explained in two ways, either that the rain shall no more fertilize the ground than as if it were ashes; or that, instead of rain, dust should fall, as though God would dry up the rich soil by scattering ashes on it.

25. The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies. What He had briefly threatened in His mention of “the sword,” He now more fully pursues, that they should be given up to the will of their enemies, so as to be indiscriminately slaughtered. We have previously seen that those who execute punishment on the transgressors of the Law, are stirred up and armed by the just judgment of God; Moses does not now touch on that point, but merely declares that the enemies of the people should be their conquerors, should cruelly entreat them and pursue them in their flight. Moreover, in order that God’s judgment might be more conspicuous, He says, that when they have gone out to battle by one way, i e., with their army in regular order, they should return by seven ways, because, in the confusion of their flight, they should be dispersed in all directions. Hence we gather that the bravery of men is in God’s power, so that He can make cowards of the boldest whenever He so pleases. And we must bear in mind what we shall see elsewhere, “How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except God had sold them and had shut them up” under their hand? (Deuteronomy 32:30.) And for this reason God calls Himself the God of hosts, in order that believers may live securely under His guardianship; whilst the wicked, and the despisers of the Law, should dread the slightest motion when He is wroth with them.

What follows, that they should be “for See Margin, A.V. “In commotionem.” — Lat. The first exposition, approved by C., is that of S.M. and Malvenda, who refers to Psalm 21:8, and 44:15. See Poole’s Synopsis in loco. a removing in all the kingdoms of the earth,” some take to mean that they should be a laughing-stock; because we usually shake or move our heads by way of insult; but others explain it, that they should be wanderers and vagabonds in unknown places of exile. The first exposition is the one I prefer. In Ezekiel This reference is omitted altogether in Fr. (23:46,) it is used for a tumultuous rout; nor am I indisposed to understand it in this way, that whatever nations shall assail them, they should be shaken by their slightest attacks.

26. And thy carcase shall be meat. The punishment is here doubled by the disgrace which is added to death; for it is ignominious to be deprived of burial, and justly reckoned amongst the curses of God; whilst it is a sign of His paternal favor that we should be distinguished from the brutes, inasmuch as the rites of burial arouse us to the hope of resurrection and everlasting life. Wherefore, on the contrary, God deprives of burial those whom He curses. But as we have said that punishments affecting the body are common to the pious and the reprobate, so also we must think of being deprived of sepulture, since it sometimes happens that the reprobate are honorably buried, as Christ relates of the luxurious Dives, (Luke 16:22,) whilst the bodies of the pious are ignominiously cast a prey for birds and beasts; as the Prophet complains in Psalm 79:2. Still such an interchange does not prevent God from avenging the contempt of His Law by this mode of punishment, as by pestilence, famine, or sword.

27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt. Whether you understand this passage of the extraordinary plagues which God inflicted on the Egyptians at the time of His people’s deliverance, or of the ordinary diseases which had before prevailed among them, though the latter is more probable, still Moses signifies, that whilst the Egyptians were smitten with these plagues, God’s people escaped them, in order that this distinction might more clearly represent His favor. For it could not happen naturally that in the same place the diseases, from which the Israelites were free, should afflict the Egyptians alone. God therefore threatens, that if they should despise His Law, He would deal with them as they had seen Him deal with heathen nations. And assuredly, since God then chose to multiply His people miraculously, it can be by no means doubted but that He wonderfully privileged them by the bestowment of health and rigor. It is doubtful whether by diseases of the fundament He signifies hemorrhoids or prolapsus, or some other secret disease, such as that which attacked the Philistines when they captured the ark of the covenant. (1 Samuel 5:6.) He subjoins other diseases, in which there appear special marks of God’s wrath; for although they sometimes affect the children of God also, still I have shewn elsewhere that the same punishments are so dealt out to them respectively, that they widely differ from each other. When Job was smitten with terrible ulcers, so as to become corrupt, he seemed for a time to present the marks of a reprobate person; but what in that holy man was an exercise of patience, is in the transgressors of the Law the just reward of their crimes by the curse of God.

28. The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness. This punishment is very often referred to by the Prophets, when God is said to smite the wicked with a spirit C gives no references here. It is probable that the passage, which he most had in his mind, was Isaiah 19:14, “The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit;” in V., “Dominus miscuit in medio ejus spiritrum vertiginis, etc.” His own Commentary on these words is, “The expression is metaphorical, as if one were to mix wine in a cup, that the Lord thus intoxicates the wise men of this world so that they are stunned and amazed, and can neither think nor act aright.” Calvin Soc. edit., vol. 2, p. 64. He also might refer to Isaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 25:15; Psalm 60:3, etc. of giddiness and madness, to make them drunk with astonishment. Now, whatever God declares respecting this blindness or fury of mind, has a wide application; for hence it arises that the wicked rush willfully into vile lusts, shudder at no crime, are hurried headlong to destruction, are utterly deprived of discretion, throw away the remedies which are in their hands; and although “L’apprehension commune des hommes;” the ordinary apprehension of men. — Fr. the carnal sense is not greatly disturbed by this form of vengeance, still it is much more severe and awful than any bodily disease. The Poets imagined that wicked men were agitated and terrified by the furies, because experience taught them that it was not without a secret impulse from God that they became so senseless, when, their minds being affected, they were like beasts in the shape of men. Even heathens, then, perceived that when the wicked are given over to a reprobate mind, God thus manifests Himself as the just Avenger of their crimes. And so it is in all cases of “astonishment;” for it is plain that those who are thus stupified by their miseries, are prostrated by the hand of God.

30. Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man. He here denounces that all they possessed should be rifled and plundered by their enemies. He, however, puts the most painful thing of all in the first place, viz., that they shall be despoiled of their wives, and magnifies the enormity of the evil, by saying, that not only shall the wife be torn from her husband’s bosom, but that the betrothed virgin shall be defiled. The same denunciation is extended to their houses and vineyards. It is grievous indeed to see the fruit of our labors seized on by our enemies before we have been permitted to enjoy them; since the frustration of our hope does not slightly increase our pain. He then passes on to their flocks and their herds: then to their children, and in their case heightens the calamity, in that their sons and their daughters should be taken from them in their very sight, so that their eyes should fail with grief, and their hands, as if dead, should be unable to afford them assistance. For two reasons He says that the robbers, who shall strip them of everything, should be unknown to them; both because they might expect less consideration and kindness from strangers and barbarians than from neighbors; and also that the Jews might be alarmed by this threat, so as not to suppose that they only had to deal with neighboring nations; inasmuch as it was in God’s power to fetch nations from afar. Finally, He adds that there shall be no end to their affliction, until the magnitude of their calamities Ver. 34. “Obstupesces.” — Lat. “Thou shalt be mad.” — A.V. The former is the rendering of Pagninus, the Samaritan text, and LXX.; the latter of Vatablus, Munster, Oleaster, Malvenda, and the Arabic Version. See Poole’s Synopsis, in loco. shall stupify them.

35. The Lord shall smite thee in the knees. Since death is common to the whole human race, they must needs also be all subject to disease; nor is it a matter of surprise that the whole posterity of Adam, which is infected with the taint of sin, should so be liable to many afflictions, which are the wages of sin. But, since the offenses of all are not alike, God also maintains a just proportion in the execution of His various punishments; thus, in this passage He does not speak only of common maladies, but of those whereby He openly shews His vengeance against the transgressors of the Law; of which sort are incurable diseases.

36. The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king. The fulfillment of this prophecy at length taught the Jews, though too late, that it was no empty threat, merely for the purpose of frightening them; and this also applies to the other predictions. For, on account of the great distance from them, the Jews would never have supposed that the Assyrians and Chaldeans were God’s scourges, as they actually found them to be; because they placed no faith in the words of Moses. Much less credible was it to them that the king, whom they had appointed, should be dragged as a prisoner to distant countries. And surely this was a very sad and formidable punishment, since all their safety depended on the stability of their kingly government. Thus Jeremiah magnifies this evil above all others, that the Christ of God, who was the breath of the Church, and under whose shadow they hoped to be everywhere safe, should be taken. “The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall lie among the heathen.” — Lamentations 4:20. (Lamentations 4:20.) And this was fulfilled in the case of Jeconiah, as well as in that of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. Let us, therefore, learn not to measure God’s judgments by our own reason, but to tremble at them, although they are hidden from us. All aggravation of their captivity is also added, i e., that they should be oppressed by such tyranny as to be compelled to serve wood and stone. Dull and stupid as they were, still they ought to have retained their abomination of such gross wickedness. Hence it might be gathered that they would not be reduced to such a necessity except by the terrible vengeance of God. For although they had been attracted by the superstitions of the Gentiles, so as eagerly to run after them, still, after they were deprived of the worship of God, and had undergone the yoke of the wretched and ungodly servitude which was imposed on them, the foulness of idolatry must have been more fully understood. There is also an antithesis implied in these words, viz., that because they had refused to submit themselves to the true God, and to obey His Law, they should become the slaves of idols.

37. And thou shalt become an astonishment. The climax of their miseries is here added, that they should be so far from receiving consolation from men, that on every side their misery should meet with taunts and insults; for nothing more bitterly wounds the wretched than this indignity of being harassed by reproaches and sarcasms; and thus to be a laughing-stock and byword to all nations, is a dreadful infliction. Again, there is an implied antithesis between the ignominy to which God condemns His ungrateful people, and the extraordinary dignity with which He had honored them, so that they should be illustrious before the whole world. Hence the Prophets have often imitated this mode of expression; I will not quote the instances of it which everywhere occur.

38. Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field. He again makes mention of the scarcity of wine, of wheat, and all sorts of corn; but He assigns different causes for it. He proclaims that the harvest shall be scanty, notwithstanding an abundant sowing, because the locust shall consume the seed; that the vintage shall be poor, nay, almost nothing, because the worms shall devour the bunches; that the oil produced should be little, because the olives should wither on the trees and fall of themselves. Thus He admonishes them that He has at hand innumerable ministers (satellites) wherewith to destroy by famine the transgressors of His Law. Thus, whenever we see beetles, and locusts, and other insects attacking the fruits, we should remember that God, as it were, puts forth His arm to take away the food which He had given: thus Joel reminds us, that when the locust eats that which the palmer-worm hath left, and another insect that which the locust hath left, the curse of God is sufficiently conspicuous. “Que la main de Dieu est toute evidente;” that God’s hand is quite evident. — Fr. (Joel 1:4.) Philosophers discover the reason why more of these little creatures are generated in one year than another; but we must remember the teaching of Moses, that they never trouble us except by God’s command. For if we were submissive to God, as we ought to be, such a prodigy would never happen as that vile and filthy insects should devour the fruits of the earth which He Himself has provided for the sustenance of His children.

43. The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee. This also was no doubtful mark of God’s wrath, that the sojourners who dwelt in the land of Canaan by sufferance should in a manner become its masters; for we know how those who are in debt are under the power of their creditors. In fact, what Solomon says is found to be true, that

“the rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” (Proverbs 22:7.)

The Israelites, therefore, must have felt that God was contrary to them, when they were suppliants to their own guests, especially since He had promised that He would so enrich them that they should lend to others. This revolution of affairs, then, plainly convinced them of their iniquities. Meanwhile, it must be observed that poverty as well as wealth is in God’s hands, and that whilst the latter is a proof of God’s favour the former is reckoned amongst His curses; still, however, in such a manner that God often chastises His own children with want, or proves and exercises their patience without ceasing to be their Father, whilst he bestows abundance upon the reprobate, wherewith they may gorge themselves to their own destruction. God’s blessing, however, shines forth in the elect, as far as it is expedient for them; nor is it said in vain in the Psalm, “Wealth and riches are in the house (of the just,”) in order that he may lend and be bountiful. (Psalm 112:3.)

45. Moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee. He not only confirms what he has already said, but takes away all hope of alleviation, since God’s scourges shall not cease until they have repented. He declares that all the curses shall come upon them; for although they are not always congregated into a single band, still it is true that God pays the wages of the transgressors of His Law with this multitude of miseries which Moses has recounted. By the word pursue, he takes away all hope of escape, whilst to overtake is equivalent to laying hold of them tenaciously, till, as it is further said, they be destroyed. The sum is, that the ungodly by their subterfuges only bring it to pass that they accumulate upon themselves heavier punishments, which will never cease to afflict them until they are destroyed by them. For this reason, he says that they shall be “for a sign and a wonder,” i e., that they shall awaken astonishment in all men; for those who are but little moved by the common and ordinary judgments of God, are compelled, whether they will or no, to give attention to these prodigies. Thus, notable punishments, and such as are worthy of special observation, are “for a sign and a wonder.”

Their ingratitude is also reproved as well as their contempt of the Law, because they served not God “with joyfulness and gladness of heart,” when He had been so abundantly generous to them; for it is the fault of a corrupt and malignant nature, that it should not be possible to bring it to serve God joyfully, when He invites us by His liberality. But Moses takes it for granted that, since God will prevent the Israelites with His favor, before He proceeds to inflict punishments upon them, they will be guilty of this brutal sin, not to allow themselves to be liberally sustained by Him.

49. The Lord shall bring a nation against them from far. He enforces the same threatenings in different words, viz., that unknown and barbarous enemies should come, who shall attack them with great impetuosity and violence. And still further to aggravate their cruelty, He says that their language shall be a strange one; for, when there can be no oral communication, there is no room for entreaties, which sometimes awaken the most savage to mercy. But Jeremiah shews that this was fulfilled in the case of the Chaldeans;

“Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel; it is a mighty nation, a nation whose language thou howest not, neither understandest what they say.” (Jeremiah 5:15.)

On the other hand, when Isaiah promises them deliverance, he mentions this among the chief of their blessings, that the Jews should “not see a fierce people,” that they should not hear

“a people of deeper speech than they could perceive, of a stammering tongue “Cui lingua stridet absque intelligentia.” — Lat. “Lesquels grondent sans intelligence.” — Fr. that they could not understand.” (Isaiah 33:19.)

For, as I have elsewhere said, the Prophets were careful to take their form of expression from Moses, lest the Jews should, according to their custom, proudly despise the threats which God had interwoven with His Law.

Lest the distance of their countries should lull them into security, He says that they should be like eagles in swiftness, so as suddenly to overwhelm them, just as God often compares the ministers of His wrath to the whirlwind and the storm. Jeremiah has also imitated this similitude, where he declares that the slaughter which the Jews in their false imagination had supposed to be far away from them, should come suddenly upon them. (Jeremiah 4:13.)

Moses adds, that this nation shall be “strong of face, See margin, A.V. which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favor to the young,” whereby he signifies their extreme ferocity. I have already expounded what follows respecting their rapine and plunder.

52. And he shall besiege thee in thy gates. He overthrows every ground of false confidence. The number of their towns inspired them with courage, because they never would have supposed that their enemies would undergo so much fatigue as not to cease from fighting till they were all taken. He therefore includes all their towns, in reliance upon whose multitude they despised hostile aggression. He adds, that in vain they trust in their high and fortified walls, which will be either overthrown by military engines, or shall voluntarily surrender from the length of their besiegal; for the passage may be explained in both ways, either that the enemies shall overthrow and lay prostrate all their fortresses, or that by their perseverance they shall pass over the walls however high. It seems to me that the length of the siege as well as their valiant fighting is indicated. The repetition which follows magnifies the evil, viz., that they shall be thus sorely pressed in their own land given them by God; for the very associations of the place only increased the indignity.

53. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body. This is one of those portents which was mentioned a little while ago; for it is an act of ferocity detestable and more than tragical, that fathers and mothers should eat their own offspring, so great love of which is naturally implanted in every heart, that parents often forget themselves in their anxiety for their children; and many have not hesitated to die to insure their safety. Nay, when the brute animals so carefully cherish their young, what can be more disgusting or abominable than that men should cease to care for their own blood? But this is the most monstrous of all atrocities, when fathers and mothers devour the offspring which they have procreated, and yet this threat by no means failed of its fulfillment, as we have elsewhere seen. We ought then to be the more alarmed when we see that God thus terribly punished the sins of those whom He had deigned to choose for His own. Still, it was not without very just cause that this wrath was so greatly kindled against the Jews who had left no kind of iniquity undone, so that their wickedness was altogether intolerable. Never, then, must it be forgotten that those of the household of the Church to whom God’s truth is revealed, are on that account the less excusable, because they knowingly and willfully provoke His wrath, whilst their continued perseverance in sin is altogether unworthy of pardon. The monstrous brutality of the act is heightened, when He says that men, in other respects tender and accustomed to delicacies, should be so savage through hunger that they shall refuse to give a share of this horrible food to their wives and surviving children; as also Jeremiah expressly says, the pitiful women shall be so maddened by hunger as to cook their own children. (Lamentations 4:10.) What follows as to the after-birth is still more horrible, for thus they call the membrane by which the foetus is covered in the womb, with all its excrements. That they should dress for food a filthy skin, the very look of which is disgusting, plainly demonstrates the awfulness of God’s vengeance.

58. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law. Inasmuch as even believers, although they are disposed to a willing obedience to the Law, and earnestly apply themselves to it, are still impeded and withheld by the infirmity of their flesh from fulfilling their duty, care and attention is here demanded of them; for “to observe (custodire) to do” is equivalent to giving sedulous and diligent heed. Now, God declares that, unless the Israelites thoroughly devote themselves to the keeping of the Law, vengeance is prepared for their neglect. It is indeed a harsh and severe threat whereby transgression in any respect is without remission; for perfect obedience is required by the words, “to do all the words that are written in the Law.” But it is necessary that we should bear in mind what I have already shewn, that Moses was thus severe in his exactions, in order that the people, being convinced of their condemnation, should betake themselves to the mercy of God; for no one longs after Christ, unless he first abandons all confidence in his works, and rests all his hope of salvation in gratuitous pardon. The curse here recorded so awaits the transgressors of the Law, that, whilst God pardons His children, He at the same time sometimes chastises them, and executes upon the reprobate the vengeance they deserve. The fountain-head of obedience is indicated when it is said, “that thou mayest fear the Lord;” for all virtues are but smoke, which do not spring from the fear of God. Moreover, in order that their contempt may be without excuse, God’s name is called “glorious and fearful;” for it is a mark of gross stupidity, when God’s majesty and glory are openly set before us, not to be affected with becoming reverence so as to humble ourselves before Him. He, however, threatens something more terrible than before, when he says that the plagues shall be wonderful not only on the parents but on their children and descendants; instead of which some construe it, So V. The translation, “He shall separate, or shall make distinct from all others, because they shall be greater and worse,” is that of Oleaster, quoted in Poole’s Synopsis. He shall increase in a wonderful manner; and others, He shall separate; but this is too constrained and obscure. The word פלא, phela, signifies to be wonderful, or secret and hidden: thus, in my opinion, he means extraordinary and incredible modes of vengeance which shall surpass the comprehension of the human mind. He puts plagues and sicknesses in apposition with each other, as explaining by the latter of what nature the plagues shall be; unless, perhaps, it may be rather thought that the species is appended to the genus, which seems to be more probable. Further, he calls the plagues veritable, or faithful; either because they shall certainly occur, or because they shall continue to the end; for the Hebrew word נאמנית, Root אמן, amen; and here rendered by Taylor, fidoe, constantes neumanoth, is explained in both ways; and undoubtedly it sometimes signifies veracious, or what does not deceive, sometimes firm and stable, or perpetual; and this sense appears to me to suit it best here, so that continued duration should be added to the greatness of the plagues.

He again mentions “the diseases of Egypt,” not those which they had themselves suffered in Egypt, but those under which they had seen the Egyptians laboring. He says, therefore, that the severity of God against unbelievers, of which they had been spectators, should fall upon their own heads, if they should be followers of their ungodliness; for it was natural that they should tremble at the judgments of God, whereof they had been eye-witnesses; and not only so, but at which they had trembled for fear.

61. Also every sickness and every plague. This passage confirms what I have said about the plague and the sickness, for the sickness stands first as the species, and then the plague follows, which has a wider meaning, and comprehends all the curses in itself. Still, after he has enumerated so many forms of punishment, he declares that God is armed with yet other weapons to smite them; and assuredly as His blessings are endless and innumerable, so also His power is incomprehensible for avenging the contempt of His Law. Posterity has experienced, and we also even now partly perceive how true these threatenings were; for, as the obstinacy of men has burst forth and exalted itself more and more, so new and unheard of punishments have abounded from God, like a deluge.

62. And ye shall be left few in number. Since it had been promised to Abraham that his seed should be like the stars of heaven in multitude, it was a signal token of God’s wrath that his posterity should be reduced “A une pongnee de gens;” to a handful of people. — Fr. to so small a number; thus the comparison which is here made for the purpose of heightening their calamity, must not simply be referred to the “multitude” or great band, and the “fewness in number,” but must be extended to the promise, the truth of which had been clearly manifested; so that, on the other hand, they might perceive that their former populousness could only have been put an end to, like waters dried up by the excessive heat of the sun, through the wrath of God.

63. And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you. The wonderful and inestimable love of God towards His people is here set forth, via, that He had rejoiced in heaping blessings upon them; wherefore their depravity was all the more base and intolerable, in that God, though voluntarily disposed to be bountiful, was obliged by it to lay aside His affection for them. But although it is only by a metaphor that God is said to rejoice in destroying the wicked, yet it is not without good reason that this expression is applied to him; that we may know that He can no more fail to be the defender of His Law, and the Avenger of its contempt, than deny Himself. He complains, indeed, by Isaiah, (10:24) that He is unwillingly forced to punish the Jews; but these two things are quite consistent, that He rejoices in His just judgment, and at the same time is mindful of His clemency and indulgence, so that He would rather pardon, if the wickedness of men would allow Him. But this expression of Moses, that God receives consolation from punishing the wicked, constantly occurs in the Prophets.

64. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people. At the end of the preceding verse, he had threatened them with banishment, which was far more painful to the people of Israel than to other nations. Inasmuch as affection for our country is natural to all, it is disagreeable to be away from it; but the condition of the Israelitish people was peculiar, for to them the inheritance of Canaan was promised them by God, and they could not be expelled from it without being renounced by their heavenly Father. But he now proceeds a second and third step further; for he adds to banishment a miserable scattering, and to scattering, trembling and wanderings full of disquietude. For, if they had been expelled all together into any one corner of the world, their banishment would have been more tolerarable from their very association with each other. Their calamity is, therefore, augmented when the storm of God’s wrath scatters them hither and thither like chaff, so that they should be dispersed, and dwell in widely different countries. Another kind of servitude, which I have elsewhere noticed, is incidentally added, i e., that He would enslave them not only to men, but to idols also. The third step is their want of rest, for there was to be no fixed abode for them in their captivity; and this is far the most wretched state of all, to serve tyrannical conquerors as captives, and to have no certain master. Still it was a most just reward of the people’s ingratitude, that they should nowhere find a fixed resting-place, because they had rejected the rest offered them by God, as we read in Isaiah (28:12.) He, however, extends the evil, bitter as it was in itself, still further, for they were not only to be compelled to wander in confusion, and immediately to pass onwards, but, wheresoever they should come, inward perturbation of mind was to follow them as their inseparable companion. Now, it is more sad to be agitated within with secret fear, than to be oppressed by external violence; for believers, although they too may be unsettled and tossed by many troublesome waves, still repose with tranquil minds on God; whilst the wicked, however they may desire to lull themselves in security, are nevertheless always without true peace; and if, for a while, they sink into lethargy, are still soon compelled to arouse themselves by God whether they will or not. Surely as the repose of a well-regulated mind is a signal mark of God’s favor, so a constant and irremediable fear, such as is here referred to, is one of His terrible punishments.

Since the fear of spiritual punishments but lightly affects ungodly men, Moses magnifies in many words what the Israelites would else have carelessly passed over. Especially he points out what dreadful torments of anxiety would affect the wicked, when he says that their life should hang in suspense, as it were, before their eyes, so that they should fear day and night. An amusing device is related of Dionysius, This well-known story of Dionysius of Syracuse and his courtier Damocles, is beautifully told by Cicero. — Tusc. Quoest. 5. 21. who commanded an exquisite supper, supplied with every delicacy, to be prepared for a courtly flatterer by whom his happiness had been lauded; he placed him in his own seat, so “Pour reciter ceste felicite, qu’il avoit tant preschee;” to make a rehearsal of this felicity, which he had so greatly praised. — Fr. that he might feast pleasantly, but ordered a sword to be suspended by a thread so as to overhang his head, insomuch that he who had pronounced the tyrant to be happy, when he saw that death was so near him every moment, did not dare to taste either of meat or drink. Dionysius, therefore, confessed, and not without shame to himself, that he and all other tyrants, whilst they are formidable to others, are tormented by perpetual fear. Now, this same disquietude is common to all the despisers of God; for the more wantonly they rage in forgetfulness of His fear, the more deservedly they dread their own shadow. Besides, when we look around us and see by how many forms of death our lives are beset, it cannot be but that innumerable anxieties should naturally possess us; how, then, can the wicked help being harassed by miserable and perplexing doubts when they perceive themselves to be shut out from the protection of God, and exposed to so many evils? Tranquillity of mind, therefore, can only arise from having God as our Keeper, and from resting under His protection.

By the words, “the sight of thine eyes,” I have no doubt but that Moses designates those spectres “Toutes illusions, fantasmes, et espouvantails, qui nous menacent de la mort;” all illusions, phantoms, and horrors, which threaten us with death. — Fr. and bug-bears whereby death is set before the eyes of the reprobate.

68. And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships. We know that the people were so driven about in the desert amidst divers perils, that they only escaped from it in safety by extraordinary miracles. It was therefore a thing most highly to be desired by their posterity, that they should never be carried back into those mighty depths. He who had once rescued them from those deaths might indeed often be their deliverer; but in order to make His blessing at that time more memorable, He had provided that they should never return into that wilderness. To bring them back into it again, was, then, in a manner to blot out the grace of redemption. If any object that it was impossible that the people should be conveyed in ships through dry places, the reply is easy, that since mention is made of the captivity, there is no absurdity in their being carried in ships and landed on the shore which There appears to be some oversight here. The Latin is “littus, quod planitiem Moah respicit;” and the Fr. sufficiently removes any difficulty which the latter word would present, by simply translating it “pour les jetter en la plaine de Moab;” i.e., to put them ashore on the plain of Moab. Now, the only shores of the plain of Moab would be formed by the Dead Sea, and this would, of course, be inapplicable in the circumstances referred to. The very impossibility of crossing the desert in ships, clearly proves that the word way must not be understood as indicating the line of route. Thus Holden paraphrases the words: “Thou shalt be taken there in ships, and not by the way in which I appeared and spake to thee;” and Dathe’s translation is, “Navibus Jova vos deportari sinet in Aegyptum, quam terram nunquam a vobis revisendam dixerat.” The wonderful fulfillment of the prophecy is thus well summed up by Dr. Kitto: “This was accomplished on several occasions. It is related both by Aristeas and Josephus, that in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, there were vast numbers of Hebrew slaves in Egypt, and that the king himself bought above 100,000 of them from their masters, and set them free. Egypt, indeed, was the great slave-mart of ancient times; and several of the conquerors and oppressors of the Jews sent at least a portion of their captives thither to be sold. Titus had 90,000 captives after Jerusalem was taken. Those above seventeen years of age were sent to different parts of the Roman empire to labor on the public works, besides great numbers who perished in compulsory combats with wild beasts. Those under seventeen were doomed to be sold for slaves; but in such deep contempt and detestation was the nation held, that few were willing to buy them; and the Jews who remained at large, were too few and poor to be able to redeem their brethren. The market was also glutted with their numbers, so that they were sold at a mere nominal price, — sometimes thirty for a small piece of money. Those who remained unpurchased were sent into confinement, where they perished by hundreds and by thousands together, from neglect and hunger. Egypt received a large proportion of these slaves, who were probably sent thither in ships, as the Romans had a fleet in the Mediterranean, and this was a much easier and safer way of transporting them than by land across the desert. The same things precisely took place on the final desolation of Israel by Hadrian, who may be said to have consummated their doom by decreeing, with the concurrence of the Roman Senate, that no Jew should ever, on pain of death, enter the land of his fathers.” — Illust. Comment. in loco. belongs to the plain of Moab, so as to finish their journey by wandering through the desert on foot.

Finally, he shews how melancholy their condition would be, since they would desire to sell themselves to their enemies, and would find none to buy them on account of their vileness.

Deuteronomy 4

Deuteronomy 4:25-31

25. When thou shalt beget children, and children’s children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger;

25. Quum genueris filios et nepotes, et senueritis in terra illa, corruperitis autem vos, et feceritis sculptile, imaginem cujuscunque rei atque feceritis malum in oculis Jehovae Dei vestri, irritando illum,

26. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

26. Testor contra vos hodie coelum et terram, quod pereundo peribitis cito e terra ad quam pergendo transituri estis Jordanem, ut possideatis eam: non protrahetis dies in ea: quia disperdendo disperdemini.

27. And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you.

27. Ac disperget vos Jehova inter populos, et relinquemini homines pauci numero in gentibus ad quas deducet vos Jehova.

28. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

28. Servietisque ibi diis, operi manuum hominum, ligno et lapidi, quae non vident, nec audiunt, nec comedunt, nec odorantur.

29. But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

29. Quod si requisieris inde Jehovam Deum tuum, tum invenies, si requisieris eum toto corde tuo, et tota anima tua.

30. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;

30. Quum fuerit tibi angustia, invenerintque te omnia ista, in novissimis diebus si reversus fueris ad Jehovam Deum tuum, et parueris voci ejus:

31. (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he sware unto them.

31. (Quia Deus misericors est Jehova Deus tuus) non derelinquet te, neque disperdet te, neque oblivisectur pacti patrum tuorum de quo juravit illis.

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 (Is 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 (Jr 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].

All these blessings shall come on thee - God shall pour out his blessing from heaven upon thee. And overtake thee. Upright men are represented as going to the kingdom of God, and God's blessings as following and overtaking them in their heavenly journey. There are several things in this verse worthy of the most careful observation: - 1. If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. The voice of God must be heard; without a Divine revelation how can the Divine will be known? And if not known, it cannot be fulfilled. 2. When God speaks, men must hearken to the words of his mouth. He who does not hearken will not obey. 3. He who hearkens to the words of God must set out for the kingdom of heaven. The curse must fall on him who stands in the way of sinners, and will overtake them who loiter in the way of righteousness. 4. Those who run in the way of God's testimonies shall have an abundance of blessing. Blessings shall come upon them, and blessings shall overtake them - in every part of their march through life they shall continue to receive the fulfillment of the various promises of God which relate to all circumstances, vicissitudes, trials, stages of life, etc., etc., each overtaking them in the time and place where most needed.

In the city - In all civil employments. In the field - in all agricultural pursuits.

Fruit of thy body - All thy children. Increase of thy kine, etc.; every animal employed in domestic and agricultural purposes shall be under the especial protection of Divine Providence.

Thy basket - Thy olive gathering and vintage, as the basket was employed to collect those fruits.

Store - משארת mishereth, kneading-trough, or remainder; all that is laid up for future use, as well as what is prepared for present consumption. Some think that by basket all their property abroad may be meant, and by store all that they have at home, i. e., all that is in the fields, and all that is in the houses. The following note of Mr. Harmer is important: - "Commentators seem to be at a great loss how to explain the basket and the store mentioned Deu 28:5, Deu 28:17. Why Moses, who in the other verses mentions things in general, should in this case be so minute as to mention baskets, seems strange; and they that interpret either the first or the second of these words of the repositories of their corn, etc., forget that their barns or storehouses are spoken of presently after this in Deu 28:8. Might I be permitted to give my opinion here, I should say that the basket, טנא tene, in this place means their travelling baskets, and the other word משארת mishereth, (their store), signifies their leathern bags, in both which they were wont to carry things in travelling. The first of these words occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures but in the account that is given us of the conveyance in which they were to carry their first-fruits to Jerusalem; the other nowhere but in the description of the hurrying journey of Israel out of Egypt, where it means the utensils in which they then carried their dough, which I have shown elsewhere in these papers means a piece of leather drawn together by rings, and forming a kind of bag. Agreeably to this, Hasselquist informs us that the Eastern people use baskets in travelling; for, speaking of that species of the palm tree which produces dates, and its great usefulness to the people of those countries, he tells us that of the leaves of this tree they make baskets, or rather a kind of short bags, which are used in Turkey on journeys and in their houses; pages 261,262. Hampers and panniers are English terms denoting travelling baskets, as tene seems to be a Hebrew word of the same general import, though their forms might very much differ, as it is certain that of the travelling baskets mentioned by Hasselquist now does. "In like manner as they now carry meal, figs, and raisins, in a goat's skin in Barbary for a viaticum, they might do the same anciently, and consequently might carry merchandise after the same manner, particularly their honey, oil, and balm, mentioned Eze 27:17. They were the proper vessels for such things. So Sir J. Chardin, who was so long in the East, and observed their customs with so much care, supposed, in a manuscript note on Gen 43:11, that the balm and the honey sent by Jacob into Egypt for a present were carried in a goat or kid's skin, in which all sorts of things, both dry and liquid, are wont to be carried in the East. "Understood after this manner, the passage promises Israel success in their commerce, as the next verse (the 6th) promises them personal safety in their going out and in their return. In this view the passage appears with due distinctness, and a noble extent." - Observations, vol. 2:, p. 181.

When thou comest in - From thy employment, thou shalt find that no evil has happened to the family or dwelling in thy absence.

When thou goest out - Thy way shall be made prosperous before thee, and thou shalt have the Divine blessing in all thy labors.

The Lord shall cause thine enemies, etc. - This is a promise of security from foreign invasion, or total discomfiture of the invaders, should they enter the land. They shall come against thee one way - in the firmest and most united manner. And flee seven ways - shall be utterly broken, confounded, and finally routed.

The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee - Every thing that thou hast shall come by Divine appointment; thou shalt have nothing casually, but every thing, both spiritual and temporal, shall come by the immediate command of God.

The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto himself - This is the sum of all blessings, to be made holy, and be preserved in holiness.

If thou shalt keep, etc. - Here is the solemn condition; if they did not keep God's testimonies, taking them for the regulators of their lives, and according to their direction walking in his ways, under the influence and aids of his grace, then the curses, and not the blessings, must be their portion. See Deu 28:15, etc.

The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure - The clouds, so that a sufficiency of fructifying showers should descend at all requisite times, and the vegetative principle in the earth should unfold and exert itself, so that their crops should be abundant.

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.

Cursing - This shall be thy state; vexation - grief, trouble, and anguish of heart; rebuke - continual judgments, and marks of God's displeasure.

The pestilence cleave unto thee - ידבק יהוה בך אה הדבר yadbek Yehovah becha eth haddaber, the Lord shall cement the pestilence or plague to thee. Sept., Προσκολλησει Κυριος εις σε τον θανατον, The Lord will glue - inseparably attach, the death unto thee. How dreadful a plague it must be that ravages without intermission, any person may conceive who has ever heard the name.

Consumption - שחפת shachepheth, atrophy through lack of food; from שחף shacaph, to be in want.

Fever - קדחת kaddachath, from קדח kadach, to be kindled, burn, sparkle; a burning inflammatory fever.

Inflammation - דלקת dalleketh, from דלק dalak, to pursue eagerly, to burn after; probably a rapidly consuming cancer.

Extreme burning - חרחר charchur, burning upon burning, scald upon scald; from חר char, to be heated, enraged, etc. This probably refers, not only to excruciating inflammations on the body, but also to the irritation and agony of a mind utterly abandoned by God, and lost to hope. What an accumulation of misery! how formidable! and especially in a land where great heat was prevalent and dreadful.

Sword - War in general, enemies without, and civil broils within. This was remarkably the case in the last siege of Jerusalem.

Blasting - שדפון shiddaphon, probably either the blighting east wind that ruined vegetation, or those awful pestilential winds which suffocate both man and beast wherever they come. These often prevail in different parts of the East, and several examples have already been given. See Gen 41:6 (note).

Mildew - ירקון yerakon, an exudation of the vegetative juice from different parts of the stalk, by which the maturity and perfection of the plant are utterly prevented. It comes from ירק yarak, to throw out moisture.

Of these seven plagues, the five former were to fall on their bodies, the two latter upon their substance. What a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God!

Thy heaven - shall be brass, and the earth - iron - The atmosphere should not be replenished with aqueous vapours, in consequence of which they should have neither the early nor the latter rain; hence the earth - the ground, must be wholly intractable, and, through its hardness, incapable of cultivation. God shows them by this that he is Lord of nature; and that drought and sterility are not casualties, but proceed from the immediate appointment of the Lord.

The rain of thy land powder and dust - As their heavens - atmosphere, clouds, etc., were to be as brass - yielding no rain; so the surface of the earth must be reduced to powder; and this, being frequently taken up by the strong winds, would fall down in showers instead of rain. Whole caravans have been buried under showers of sand; and Thevenot, a French traveler, who had observed these showers of dust, etc., says, "They grievously annoy all they fall on, filling their eyes, ears, nostrils, etc." - Travels in the East, part 1, book ii., chap. 80. The ophthalmia in Egypt appears to be chiefly owing to a very fine sand, the particles of which are like broken glass, which are carried about by the wind, and, entering into the ciliary glands, produce grievous and continual inflammations.

The Lord will smite thee with the botch - שחין shechin, a violent inflammatory swelling. In Job ii., one of the Hexapla versions renders it ελεφας, the elephantiasis, a disease the most horrid that can possibly afflict human nature. In this disorder, the whole body is covered with a most loathsome scurf; the joints are all preternaturally enlarged, and the skin swells up and grows into folds like that of an elephant, whence the disease has its name. The skin, through its rigidity, breaks across at all the joints, and a most abominable ichor flows from all the chinks, etc. See an account of it in Aretaeus, whose language is sufficient to chill the blood of a maniac, could he attend to the description given by this great master, of this most loathsome and abominable of all the natural productions of death and sin. This was called the botch of Egypt, as being peculiar to that country, and particularly in the vicinity of the Nile. Hence those words of Lucretius: -

Est Elephas morbus, qui circum flumina Nili

Nascitur, Aegypto in media; nec praeterea usquam.

Lib. vi., ver. 1112.

Emerods - עפלים ophalim, from עפל aphal, to be elevated, raised up; swellings, protuberances; probably the bleeding piles.

Scab - brg garab does not occur as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, but gharb, in Arabic, signifies a distemper in the corner of the eye, (Castel)., and may amount to the Egyptian ophthalmia, which is so epidemic and distressing in that country: some suppose the scurvy to be intended.

Itch - חרס cheres, a burning itch, probably something of the erysipelatous kind, or what is commonly called St. Anthony's fire.

Whereof thou canst not be healed - For as they were inflicted by God's justice, they could not of course be cured by human art.

The Lord shall smite thee with madness - שגעון shiggaon, distraction, so that thou shalt not know what to do.

And blindness - עורון ivvaron, blindness, both physical and mental; the גרב garab, (Deu 28:27), destroying their eyes, and the judgments of God confounding their understandings.

Astonishment - תמהון timmahon, stupidity and amazement. By the just judgments of God they were so completely confounded, as not to discern the means by which they might prevent or remove their calamities, and to adopt those which led directly to their ruin. How true is the ancient saying, Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat! "Those whom God is determined to destroy, he first infatuates." But this applies not exclusively to the poor Jews: how miserably infatuated have the powers of the continent of Europe been, in all their councils and measures, for several years past! And what is the result? They have fallen - most deplorably fallen!

Thou shalt be only oppressed, etc. - Perhaps no people under the sun have been more oppressed and spoiled than the rebellious Jews. Indeed, this has been their portion, with but little intermission, for nearly 1,800 years. And still they grope at noon day, as the blind gropeth in darkness - they do not yet discover, notwithstanding the effulgence of the light by which they are encompassed, that the rejection of their own Messiah is the cause of all their calamities.

Thou shalt betroth a wife, etc. - Can any heart imagine any thing more grievous than the evils threatened in this and the following verses? To be on the brink of all social and domestic happiness, and then to be suddenly deprived of all, and see an enemy possess and enjoy every thing that was dear to them, must excite them to the utmost pitch of distraction and madness. They have, it is true, grievously sinned; but, O ye Christians, have they not grievously suffered for it? Is not the stroke of God heavy enough upon them? Do not then, by unkind treatment or cruel Oppression, increase their miseries. They are, above all others, the men who have seen affliction by the stroke of his rod; Lam 3:1.

Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people - In several countries, particularly in Spain and Portugal, the children of the Jews have been taken from them by order of government, and educated in the Popish faith. There have been some instances of Jewish children being taken from their parents even in Protestant countries.

With a sore botch - שחין shechin, an inflammatory swelling, a burning boil. See Deu 28:27.

Can any thing be conceived more dreadful than the calamities threatened in these verses?

Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies - Because they would not serve God, therefore they became slaves to men.

A nation - from far - Probably the Romans.

As the eagle flieth - The very animal on all the Roman standards. The Roman eagle is proverbial.

Whose tongue thou shalt not understand - The Latin language, than which none was more foreign to the structure and idiom of the Hebrew.

He - Nebuchadnezzar first, (2Kgs 25:1, 2Kgs 25:2, etc)., and Titus next; shall besiege thee - beset thee round on every side, and cast a trench around thee: viz., lines of circumvallation, as our Lord predicted; (see Mat 24:1, etc., and Luk 21:5, etc.); in all thy gates throughout all thy land - all thy fenced cities, which points out that their subjugation should be complete, as both Jerusalem and all their fortified places should be taken. This was done literally by Nebuchadnezzar and the Romans.

The tender and delicate woman - This was literally fulfilled when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans; a woman named Mary, of a noble family, driven to distraction by famine, boiled and ate her own child! See a similar case 2Kgs 6:29 (note); and Lev 26:29 (note).

Toward her young one - and toward her children which she shall bear - There seems to be a species of tautology in the two clauses of this verse, which may be prevented by translating the last word, שליתה shilyathah, literally, her secondines, which is the meaning of the Arabic sala, not badly understood by the Septuagint, χοριον αυτης, the chorion or exterior membrane, which invests the fetus in the womb; and still better translated by Luther, the after-birth; which saying of Moses strongly marks the deepest distress, when the mother is represented as feeling the most poignant regret that her child was brought forth into such a state of suffering and death; and 2dly, that it was likely, from the favorable circumstances after the birth, that she herself should survive her inlaying. No words can more forcibly depict the miseries of those dreadful times. On this ground I see no absolute need for Kennicott's criticism, who, instead of ובשליתה ubeshilyathah, against her secondines, reads ובשלה ubashelah, and she shall boll, and translates the 56th and 57th verses as follows: "The tender and delicate woman among you, who 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. 57. And she shall boil that which cometh out from between her feet, even her children, which she shall bear, for she shall eat them, for want of all things, secretly." These words, says he, being prophetical, are fulfilled in 2Kgs 6:29, for we read there that two women of Samaria having agreed to eat their own children, one was actually boiled, where the very same word, בשל bashal is used. See Kennicott's Dissertations on 1 Chronicles 11, etc., p. 421.

The Lord shall scatter thee among all people - How literally has this been fulfilled! The people of the Jews are scattered over every nation under heaven.

No ease - a trembling heart, and failing of eyes - The trembling of heart may refer to their state of continual insecurity, being, under every kind of government, proscribed, and, even under the most mild, uncertain of toleration and protection; and the failing of eyes, to their vain and ever-disappointed expectation of the Messiah.

And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again - That is, into another state of slavery and bondage similar to that of Egypt, out of which they had been lately brought. And there ye shall be sold, that is, be exposed to sale, or expose yourself to sale as the word התמכרתם hithmaccartem may be rendered; they were vagrants, and wished to become slaves that they might be provided with the necessaries of life. And no man shall buy you; even the Romans thought it a reproach to have a Jew for a slave, they had become so despicable to all mankind. When Jerusalem was taken by Titus, many of the captives, which were above seventeen years of age, were sent into the works in Egypt. See Josephus, Antiq., b. xii, 100:1, 2, War b. vi., c. 9, s. 2; and above all, see Bp. Newton's Dissertations on the Prophecies.

The first verse of the next chapter, in some of the most correct Hebrew Bibles, makes the 69th of this; and very properly, as the second verse of the following chapter begins a new subject.

This is an astonishing chapter: in it are prophecies delivered more than 3,000 years ago, and now fulfilling.

O God, how immense is thy wisdom, and how profound thy counsels! To thee alone are known all thy works from the beginning to the end. What an irrefragable proof does this chapter, compared with the past and present state of the Jewish people, afford of the truth and Divine origin of the Pentateuch!

Overtake thee - Those blessings which others greedily follow after, and never overtake, shall follow after thee, and shall be thrown into thy lap by special kindness.

In the city, and in the field - Whether they were husbandmen or tradesmen, whether in the town or country, they should be preserved from the dangers of both, and have the comforts of both. How constantly must we depend upon God, both for the continuance and comfort of life! We need him at every turn: we cannot be safe, if he withdraw his protection, nor easy, if he suspends his savour: but if he bless us, go where we will, 'tis well with us.

Store - Store - house, it shall always be well replenished and the provision thou hast there shall be preserved for thy use and service.

Comest in - That is, in all thy affairs and administrations.

Establish thee - Shall confirm his covenant with thee, by which he separated thee to himself as an holy and peculiar people.

Of the Lord - That you are in truth his people and children: A most excellent and glorious people, under the peculiar care and countenance of the great God.

The same things which were said before are repeated, to shew that God would repeat and multiply his blessings upon them.

His treasure - The heaven or the air, which is God's storehouse, where he treasures up rain or wind for man's use.

The head - The chief of all people in power, or at least in dignity and privileges; so that even they that are not under thine authority shall reverence thy greatness and excellency. So it was in David's and Solomon's time, and so it should have been much oftner and much more, if they had performed the conditions.

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.

Vexation - This seems chiefly to concern the mind, arising from the disappointment of hopes and the presages of its approaching miseries. Rebuke - Namely, from God, not so much in words as by his actions, by cross providences, by sharp and sore afflictions.

Brass - Like brass, hard and dry, and shut up from giving rain. Iron - Hard and chapt and barren.

Dust - Either thy rain shall be as unprofitable to thy ground and seed as if it were only so much dust. Or instead of rain shall come nothing but dust from heaven, which being raised and carried up by the wind in great abundance, returns, and falls upon the earth as it were in clouds or showers.

The botch of Egypt - Such boils and blains as the Egyptians were plagued with, spreading from head to foot: The emerodes - Or piles.

Blindness - Of mind, so that they shall not know what to do: Astonishment - They shall be filled with wonder and horror because of the strangeness and soreness of their calamities.

Grope at noon day - In the most clear and evident matters thou shalt grossly mistake. Thy ways - Thy counsels and enterprizes shall be frustrated and turn to thy destruction.

Unto another people - By those who have conquered them, and taken them captives, who shall give or sell them to other persons. Fail - Or, be consumed, partly with grief and plentiful tears; and partly with earnest desire, and vain and long expectation of their return. No might - No power to rescue, nor money to ransom them.

Which thou knowest not - Which shall come from a far country, which thou didst not at all expect or fear, and therefore will be the more dreadful when they come; a nation whose language thou understandest not, and therefore canst not plead with them for mercy, nor expect any favour from them.

Thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes - Quite put out of the possession of their own souls; quite bereaved of all comfort and hope, and abandoned to utter despair. They that walk by sight, and not by faith, are in danger of losing reason itself, when all about them looks frightful; and their condition is bad indeed, who are mad for the sight of their eyes.

Thy king - The calamity shall be both universal, which even thy king shall not be able to avoid, much less the subjects, who have far less advantage and opportunity for escape; and irrecoverable, because he who should protect or rescue them is lost with them, Lam 4:10. Wood and stone - So what formerly was their choice and delight now becomes their plague and misery. And this doubtless was the condition of many Israelites under the Assyrian and Balylonish captivities.

Within thee - Within thy gates; who formerly honoured and served thee, and were some of them glad of the crumbs which fell from thy table.

Moreover all these curses - It seems Moses has been hitherto foretelling their captivity in Babylon, by which even after their return, they were brought to the low condition mentioned, Deu 28:44. But in the following he foretells their last destruction by the Romans. And the present deplorable state of the Jewish nation, so exactly answers this prediction, that it is an incontestable proof of the truth of the prophecy, and consequently of the divine authority of the scriptures. And this destruction more dreadful than the former shews, that their sin in rejecting Christ, was more provoking to God than idolatry itself, and left them more under the power of Satan. For their captivity in Babylon cured them effectually of idolatry in seventy years. But under this last destruction, they continue above sixteen hundred years incurably averse to the Lord Jesus.

They - These curses now mentioned. A wonder - Signal and wonderful to all that hear of them. 'Tis amazing, a people so incorporated, should be so universally disperst! And that a people scattered in all nations, should not mix with any, but like Cain, be fugitives and vagabonds, and yet so marked as to be known.

Evil - Unkind, envious, covetous to monopolize these dainty bits to themselves, and grudging that their dearest relations should have any part of them.

Evil - Unmerciful: she will desire or design their destruction for her food.

Her young one - Heb. after - birth: that which was loathsome to behold, will now be pleasant to eat; and together with it she shall eat the child which was wrapt up in it, and may be included in this expression. Which she shall bear - Or, which she shall have born, that is, her more grown children. She shall eat them - This was fulfilled more than once, to the perpetual reproach of the Jewish nation. Never was the like done either by Greek or Barbarian. See the fruit of being abandoned by God!

To destroy you - His just indignation against you will be so great, that it will be a pleasure to him to take vengeance on you. For though he doth not delight in the death of a sinner in itself, yet he doth delight in glorifying his justice upon incorrigible sinners, seeing the exercise of all his attributes must needs please him, else he were not perfectly happy.

Neither shall thy foot have rest - Ye shall have no settlement in the land whither you are banished, but there you shall be tossed about from place to place, and sold from person to person, or Cain - like, wander about.

Thy life shall hang in doubt - Either because thou art in the hands of thy enemies that have power, and want no will, to destroy thee: or because of the terrors of thy own mind, and the guilt of thy conscience making thee to fear, even where no fear is.

Into Egypt - Which was literally fulfilled under Titus, when multitudes of them were carried thither in ships, and sold for slaves. And this expression seems to mind them of that time when they went over the sea without ships, God miraculously drying up the sea before them, which now they would have occasion sadly to remember. By the way - Or, to the way. And the way seems not to be meant here of the usual road - way from Canaan to Egypt, which was wholly by land, but to be put for the end of the way or journey, even the land of Egypt, for to this, and not to the road - way between Canaan and Egypt, agree the words here following, whereof I speak unto thee, thou shalt see it, (that is, Egypt) no more again. No man shall buy you - Either because the number of your captives shall be so great, that the market shall be glutted with you; or because you shall be so loathsome and contemptible that men shall not be willing to have you for slaves. And this was the condition of the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem, as Josephus the Jew hath left upon record. Let us all learn hence, to stand in awe and not to sin. I have heard of a wicked man (says Mr. Henry) who on reading these threatenings, was so enraged, that he tore the leaf out of his bible. But to what purpose is it, to deface a copy, while the original remains unchangeable? By which it is determined, that the wages of sin is death: yea, a death more dreadful than all that is here spoken!

1 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.

(i. e.) Advance and honour thee with divers priviledges and blessings, as it here follows.

Marginal references: Lev. 26. 3.

2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee , if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

Those blessings which others greedily follow after and ofttimes never overtake, they shall follow after thee and shall be th[illegible: 1+ letters]own into thy lap by my special kindness.

5 Blessed shall be thy basket, and thy store .

(i. e.) It shall always be well replenished, and the provision thou hast there shall be preserved for and in due time brought forth to thy use and service. See Deut. 26. 2, 10.

Marginal references: Or, d[illegible: 1+ letters]ugh, or [illegible: 1 word]

6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in , and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out .

(i. e.) In all thy affairs and administrations, which are oft expressed by this phrase, as Numb. 27. 17. Deut. 31. 2. 2 Sam. 3. 25. 2 Chron. 1. 10. Act. 1. 21. and 9. 28.

(i. e.) In all thy affairs and administrations, which are oft expressed by this phrase, as Numb. 27. 17. Deut. 31. 2. 2 Sam. 3. 25. 2 Chron. 1. 10. Act. 1. 21. and 9. 28.

Marginal references: Psal. 121. 8.

7 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 wayes .

(i. e.) Many ways, as is usual when an army is totally overthrown and dissipated.

8 The LORD shall command . the blessing upon thee in thy store-houses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto, and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

(i. e.) Shall by his soveraign and powerful providence give it, even when it seems furthest from thee and not likely to come to thee without a word of command from God himself.

Marginal references: Or, barns.

9 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 wayes.

(i. e.) Shall confirm and establish his covenant with thee by which he separated thee to himself as an holy, and peculiar people, and shall publickly own thee for such, as it follows, ver. 10.

Marginal references: Exod. 19. 5, 6.

10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the Name of the LORD , and they shall be afraid of thee.

(i. e.) That you are in deed and truth his people and children: See Deut. 14. 1. and 26. 18. For to be called oft-times signifies to be, as Isa. 47. 1, 5. and 56. 7. Mat. 5. 9, 19. and 21. 13.

Marginal references: Gen. 21. 22, 23. and 26. 28.

11 And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattel, and in the fruit of thy ground , in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to give thee.

The same things which were said before are repeated to shew that God would repeat and multiply his blessings upon them.

Marginal references: chap. 30. 9. &c.; Or▪ for good.; Heb. belly.

12 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.

To wit, the heaven or the air, as it here follows, which is Gods storehouse, where he treasures up rain or wind or other things for mans use. See Iob 38. 22. Psal. 33. 7.

Marginal references: chap. 15. [illegible: 1+ letters].

13 And the LORD shall make thee the head , and not the tail, and thou shalt be above onely, 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:

The chief of all people in power, or at least in dignity and priviledges, so that even they that are not under thine authority shall reverence thy greatness and excellency. So it was in Davids and Solomons time, and so it should have been much oftner and much more, if they had performed the conditions here required. For the phrase see Isa. 9. 13, 14. and 19. 15.

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 shall come upon thee, and overtake thee .

So as thou shalt not be able to escape them, as thou shalt vainly hope and endeavour to do.

Marginal references: Lev. 26. 14. Iam. 2. 17. Dan. 9. 11, 15▪ Mal. 2. 2.

20 The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke , in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, untill thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.

To wit, from God not so much in words as by his actions, by cross providences, by sharp and sore afflictions, which are oft called rebukes, as 2 King. 19. 3. Psal. 18. 15. and 39. 11. and 80. 17. Isa. 51. 20. and 66. 15. Ezek. 5. 15. and 25. 17.

n Or, disturbance. This seems chiefly to concern the mind, and its torment arising from the disappointment of hopes and the presages of its approaching miseries.

Marginal references: Heb. which thou wouldest do.

22 The LORD▪ shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extream burning and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew : and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

Two plagues or evil affections of corn. See 1 King. 8. 37. 2 Chron. 6. 28. Amos 4. 9. Hag. 2. 17.

Marginal references: Lev. 26. 16.; Or, drought.

23 And the heaven that is over thy head shall be brass , and the earth that is under thee shall be iron .

(i. e.) Like brass, hard and dry and shut up from giving rain. See Levit. 26. 19.

Hard and chapt and barren.

24 The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust : from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed .

Either 1. thy rain shall be as unprofitable to thy ground and seed as if it were onely so much dust. Or 2. Instead of rain shall come nothing but dust from heaven, which being raised and carried up by the wind in great abundance doth return and fall upon the earth as it were in clouds or showres.

To wit, by famine following these great droughts.

25 The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven wayes before them, and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

Heb. for a removing, to be tossed like a footbal from place to place and from people to people.

Marginal references: chap. 32. 30. Isa. 30. 17.; Jer. 15. 4. and 24. 9. Ezek 23. 46.; Heb. for a removing.

28 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness , and astonishment of heart :

To wit, of mind, so that they shall not know what to do; see Iob 5. 13, 14. so as they shall commonly chuse and follow the worst counsels and courses to their own ruine.

They shall be filled with wonder and horrour because of the strangeness and soreness of their calamities.

29 And thou shalt grope at noon dayes , as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy wayes , and thou shalt be onely oppressed, and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

(i. e.) In the most clear and evident matters thou shalt grosly mistake and miss thy way.

Thy counsels and enterprizes shall be frustrated and turn to thy destruction.

Marginal references: Job 5. 14. Isa. 59. 10.

30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her : thou shalt build an house, and another shall dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

Before thou canst consummate thy marriage, and enjoy her as thy wife. And so in the following branches.

Marginal references: Jer. 8. 1[illegible: 1+ letters].; Job 31. [illegible: 1+ letters]. Jer. 12. 13. Amos 5. 11. Zeph. 1. 13.; chap. 2[illegible: 1+ letters]. [illegible: 1 word]; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] Or. us[illegible: 1+ letters] i[illegible: 1+ letters] [illegible: 1 word] common [illegible: 1 word].

32 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.

By those who have conquered them and taken them captives, who shall give or sell them to other persons, as the manner was.

Or, be consumed, partly with grief and plentiful tears shed for them; and partly with earnest desire and vain and long expectation of their return. See Psal. 119. 82.

(i. e.) No power to rescue them nor money to ransom them.

33 The fruit of thy land and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not , eat up: and thou shalt be onely oppressed and crushed alway .

Which shall come from a far country, which thou didst not at all expect or fear, and therefore will be the more dreadful when they come, a nation whose language thou understandest not, and therefore canst not plead with them for mercy, nor expect any savour from them.

Not sometimes conquered, and sometimes conquering, as the course of war commonly is, but in all times and in all thy actions and attempts foiled and worsted.

36 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 h, wood and stone.

Either being corrupted by their examples and counsels, or compelled to it by their tyranny. So what formerly was their choice and delight now becomes their plague and misery. And this doubtless was the condition of many Ifraelites under the Assyrian and Babylonish captivities, as we may gather from Ier. 44. 17, 18, 19. and other places, though many of them kept themselves free from that infection.

f The calamity shall be both universal, which even thy King shall not be able to avoid, much less the subjects who have far less advantage and opportunity for escape; and irrecoverable, because he who should protect or rescue them is lost with them. See Lam. 4. 20.

Marginal references: 2 King. [illegible: 1 word] 5. and 24. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]. and 25. 7. [illegible: 1+ letters] Chron. 33. [illegible: 1 word]; Jer. 17. 3.

37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.

All other nations shall wonder to see such calamities befall such a people, and when they would express any dreadful affliction in a proverbial way, they shall make use of thy example, they shall also sport themselves in thy miseries and say, these are the people of the Lord, the onely Saints upon earth, &c.

Marginal references: 1 King. 9. [illegible: 1+ letters]. Jer. 24. 9. and 25. 9. Zech. 3. 13.

43 The stranger that is within thee , shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low.

(i. e.) Within thy gates, who formerly honoured and served thee, and were some of them glad of the crums which fell from thy table.

Marginal references: Heb. ascind abo[illegible: 1+ letters] th[illegible: 1+ letters] up, up; and thou shalt descend down, down.

46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign, and for a wonder , and upon thy seed for ever:

(i. e.) These curses now mentioned.

(i. e.) Signal and wonderful to all that hear of them.

47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things :

Or, in the abundance of all things, for this is opposed to in hunger, in thirst, &c. v. 48. And the Hebrew Mem oft signifies in, as Exod. 25. 18. and Iob 19. 26. Psal. 72. 16.

Marginal references: Chap. 32. 15.

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 shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

Which thou canst neither well bear nor break. See Ier. 28. 13, 14.

49 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:

Heb. as the Eagle flies, (i. e.) not onely swiftly, as is expressed in our translation, for which the Babylonian is noted and compared to an Eagle, Ier. 4. 13. Ezek. 17. 3, Dan. 7. 4. but also fiercely and greedily, as the Eagle to its prey, also strongly and irresistibly. Possibly this may be understood of the Romans who did come from far, from the end of the earth, more truely and literally than the Chaldeans, whose Countrey was not far from Iudea, and this may allude to the Eagle, which was in their ensignes.

Marginal references: Jer. 5. 15. & [illegible: 1+ letters]. 22. Luk. 19. 43.; Jer. 48. 40. [illegible: 1+ letters] 49. 22. [illegible: 1+ letters]am. 4. 19. [illegible: 1+ letters]os. 8. 1.; Heb. Hear.

50 A nation of fierce countenance , which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:

Heb. strong of face or countenance, i. e. bold and impudent, hardy and undaunted, cruel and uncompassionate and inflexible, sparing no Age nor Sex, &c.

Marginal references: Heb. strong of face▪

54 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:

(i. e.) Unkind, envious, covetous to monopolize these dainty bits to themselves, and grudging that their dearest relations should have any part of them.

Marginal references: Chap. 13. 6.

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, her eye shall be evill towards the husband of her bosom, and towards her son, and towards her daughter,

(i. e.) Unmerciful: she will desire or design their destruction for her food.

57 And towards her young one , that commeth out from between her feet, and towards 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.

Heb. after-birth: that which was loathsome to behold, will now be pleasant to eat; and together with it she shall eat the child which was wrapt up in it, and may be included in this expression.

Or, which she shall have born, i. e. her more grown children.

Marginal references: Heb. afterbirth.

58 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:

(i. e.) Thing or Person, to wit, this glorious God. Names are oft put for things, as 1 King. 5. 3. Psal. 20. 1. and 115. 1. Act. 4. 12. Eph. 1. 21. and for persons, as Act 1. 15. Revel. 3. 4.

63 And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoyced over you to do you good, and to multiply you: so the LORD will rejoyce 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 .

His just indignation against you will be so great, that it will be a pleasure to him to take vengeance on you. For though he doth not delight in the death of a sinner, in it self, yet he doth doubtless delight in the glorifying of his justice upon incorrigible sinners, seeing the exercise of all his attributes must needs please him, else he were not perfectly happy.

Which was no ordinary land, but a most pleasant land, a land of promise, a token of Gods favour, and a pledge of their eternal inheritance, which was a great aggravation of their loss of it.

Marginal references: Pro. 1. 26. Isa. 1. 24.

65 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.

Ye shall have no settlement in the land whither you are banished, but there you shall be tossed about from place to place, and sold from person to person, or Cain-like, wander about like a Vagabond.

Marginal references: Amos 9. 4.

66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee , and thou shalt fear day and night: and shalt have none assurance of thy life,

Either because thou art in the hands of thy enemies that have power, and want not will, to destroy thee▪ or because of the terrors of thy own mind, and the guilt of thy conscience making thee to fear, even where no great cause to fear is.

68 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 bond-men, and bond-women, and no man shall buy you .

Whence he hath now so gloriously delivered thee, as repenting of all his kindness to thee, and resolved to undo what he hath done for thee. And the remembrance of what they endured in Egypt could not but make the thoughts of returning thither again very terrible to them.

Which was literally fulfilled under Titus, when multitudes of them were carryed thither in Ships, and sold there for Slaves, as Iosephus relates. And this expression seems to mind them of that time when they went over the Sea without ships, God miraculously drying up the Sea before them, &c. which now they would have occasion sadly to remember.

Or, to the way: the Hebrew B[illegible: 1+ letters]th here signifying to, as it doth Gen. 11. 4. Levit. 16. 22. Psal. 19. 5. and 91. 12. Isa. 9. 8. And the way seems hot to be meant here of the usual road-way from Canaan to Egypt, which was wholly by land, but to be put for the end of the way or journey, even the land of Egypt, for to this, and not to the road-way between Canaan and Egypt, agree the words here following, whereof I spake unto thee, thou shalt see it, (i. e. Egypt) no more again. And so that way is put for to that land in a place parallel to this, where the very same words are used, Deut. 17. 16. to which this place palpably alludes.

Either because the number of you captives shall be so great, that the market shall be glutted with you; or because you shall be so loathsome and contemptible that men shall not be willing to have you for slaves. And this was the condition of the Iews after the destruction of Ierusalem, as Iosephus the Iew hath left upon record.

Marginal references: Jer. 44. [illegible: 1+ letters], Hos. 8. 13. and c. 3[illegible: 1+ letters]; Chap. 1[illegible: 1+ letters]. 16.

Deu 28:1-6

The Blessing. - Deu 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 Deu 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 Deu 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 (Deu 28:2), and in the middle (Deu 28:9), but also at the close (Deu 28:13, Deu 28:14), in both a positive and a negative form. In Deu 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 Deu 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 (Deu 28:3); blessed will be the fruit of the body, of the earth, and of the cattle, i.e., in all its productions (Deu 28:4; for each one, see Deu 7:13-14); blessed will be the basket (Deu 26:2) in which the fruits are kept, and the kneading - trough (Exo 12:34) in which the daily bread is prepared (Deu 28:5); blessed will the nation be in all its undertakings (“coming in and going out;” vid., Num 27:17).

Deu 28:7-14

Deu 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 Deu 28:7-10, with reference (a) to the attitude of Israel towards its enemies (Deu 28:7); (b) to its trade and handicraft (Deu 28:8); (c) to its attitude towards all the nations of the earth (Deu 28:9, Deu 28:10). The optative forms, יתּן and יצו (in Deu 28:7 and Deu 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. Deu 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. Lev 26:7-8).

Deu 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 Deu 12:7).

Deu 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 (Exo 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 (Gen 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. Isa 63:19; Jer 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 Rom 11:25., that its complete fulfilment will be attained. In Deu 28:11 and Deu 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., Deu 30:9), in fruit of thy body,” etc. (cf. Deu 28:4). He would open His good treasure-house, the heaven, to give rain to the land in its season (cf. Deu 11:14; Lev 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 Deu 15:6.

Deu 28:13-14

By such blessings He would “make Israel the head, and not the tail,” - a figure taken from life (vid., Isa 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 (Deu 28:13 and Deu 28:14. On Deu 28:14, see Deu 5:29; Deu 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 (Deu 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” (Deu 28:16-19, as above in Deu 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 Lev 26:14., although it is obvious that the punishments threatened did not fall upon the nation all at once.

Deu 28:16-19

Deu 28:16-19 correspond precisely to Deu 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.

Deu 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 Deu 28:20. “The Lord will send the curse against thee, consternation and threatening in every undertaking of thy hand which thou carriest out (see Deu 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 Deu 7:23); המּגערה is the threatening word of the divine wrath. - Then Deu 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. Lev 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 (Gen 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 Deu 28:23, Deu 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 (Gen 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.

Deu 28:23-24

To this should be added terrible drought, without a drop of rain from heaven (cf. Lev 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).

Deu 28:25-26

Defeat in battle, the very opposite of the blessing promised in Deu 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 Eze 23:46, is not a transposed and later form of זועה, which has a different meaning in Isa 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 Jer 15:4; Jer 24:9; Jer 29:18; Jer 34:17, and 2Ch 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 (Jer 7:33; Jer 16:4; 1Ki 14:11, etc.).

Deu 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 Deu 28:27 four incurable diseases of the body are threatened: the ulcer of Egypt (see at Exo 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 (Deu 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 (1Sa 5:1-12). גּרב (see Lev 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.

Deu 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.

Deu 28:29-34

Deu 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. Psa 37:7). Being thus smitten in body and soul, it would be only (אך as in Deu 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 (Deu 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 Gen 31:29; and on חלּל, in Gen 31:30, see at Deu 20:6.) - In Deu 28:33, Deu 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.

Deu 28:35-46

The third view. - With the words, “the Lord will smite thee,” Moses resumes in Deu 28:35 the threat of Deu 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.

Deu 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.

Deu 28:36-37

The loss of their spiritual character would be followed by the dissolution of the covenant fellowship. This thought connects Deu 28:36 with Deu 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., Deu 4:28), - and would become an object of disgust, a proverb, and a byword to all nations whither God should drive it (vid., 1Ki 9:7; Jer 24:9).

Deu 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.

Deu 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 Deu 19:5, not the Kal of נשׁל, which cannot be shown to have the intransitive meaning elabi).

Deu 28:41

Sons and daughters would they beget, but not keep, because they would have to go into captivity.

Deu 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.

Deu 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 (Exo 9:6-7, Exo 9:26).

Deu 28:44-46

The opposite of Deu 28:12 and Deu 28:13 would come to pass. - In Deu 28:46 the address returns to its commencement in Deu 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., Deu 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 (Isa 10:22; Isa 6:13; Rom 9:27; Rom 11:5).

Deu 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 Deu 28:47-57 the horrible calamities which would burst upon Israel on the conquest of the land and its fortresses by its foes.

Deu 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 Deu 7:24).

Deu 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., Isa 50:7), - a description of the audacity and shamelessness of its appearance (Dan 8:23; cf. Pro 7:13; Pro 21:29), which spares neither old men nor boys. This description no doubt applies to the Chaldeans, who are described as flying eagles in Hab 1:6., Jer 48:40; Jer 49:22; Eze 17:3, Eze 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 (Deu 5:26; Deu 28:11; Deu 33:19), and describes the cruelty of the Medes in Deu 13:17-18, with an unmistakeable allusion to Deu 28:50 of the present threat.

Deu 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 Deu 7:13), and would oppress, i.e., besiege it in all its gates (towns, vid., Deu 12:12), till the lofty and strong walls upon which they relied should fall (ירד as in Deu 20:20).

Deu 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 Lev 26:29). - This horrible distress is depicted still more fully in Deu 28:54-57, where the words, “in the siege and in the straitness,” etc. (Deu 28:53), are repeated as a refrain, with their appalling sound, in Deu 28:55 and Deu 28:57.

Deu 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. Deu 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 Deu 3:3 (see at Deu 28:48).

Deu 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. Jdg 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!

Deu 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 Deu 28:58; not, as in Deu 28:15 and Deu 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 (Deu 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 Deu 31:9), but the book of the law, i.e., the Pentateuch, so far as it was already written. This is evident from Deu 28:60, Deu 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 Lev 24:11. נכבּד in a reflective sense, as in Exo 14:4, Exo 14:17-18; Lev 10:3.

Deu 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 (Deu 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.

Deu 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 (Exo 9:1-10; Exo 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 (Jdg 16:3; cf. Ewald, §138, a.).

Deu 28:62

Israel would be almost annihilated thereby. “Ye will be left in few people (a small number; cf. Deu 26:5), whereas ye were as numerous as the stars of heaven.”

Deu 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.

Deu 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. Deu 4:27.).

Deu 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., Lev 26:36.).

Deu 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. Deu 24:22).“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).

Deu 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.

Deu 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). Deu 28:69

Is not the close of the address in ch. 5-28, as Schultz, Knobel, and others suppose; but the heading to ch. 29-30, which relate to the making of the covenant mentioned in this verse (vid., Deu 29:12, Deu 29:14).

Promises. (b. c. 1451.)

1 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: 2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. 3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. 4 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. 5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. 6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. 7 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. 8 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. 9 The Lord shall establish thee a 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. 10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord ; and they shall be afraid of thee. 11 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. 12 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. 13 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: 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.

The blessings are here put before the curses, to intimate, 1. That God is slow to anger, but swift to show mercy: he has said it, and sworn, that he would much rather we would obey and live than sin and die. It is his delight to bless. 2. That though both the promises and the threatenings are designed to bring and hold us to our duty, yet it is better that we be allured to that which is good by a filial hope of God's favour than that we be frightened to it by a servile fear of his wrath. That obedience pleases best which comes from a principle of delight in God's goodness. Now,

I. We have here the conditions upon which the blessing is promised. 1. It is upon condition that they diligently hearken to the voice of God (v. 1, 2), that they hear God speaking to them by his word, and use their utmost endeavours to acquaint themselves with his will, v. 13. 2. Upon condition that they observe and do all his commandments (and in order to obedience there is need of observation) and that they keep the commandments of God (v. 9) and walk in his ways. Not only do them for once, but keep them for ever; not only set out in his ways, but walk in them to the end. 3. Upon condition that they should not go aside either to the right hand or to the left, either to superstition on the one hand, or profaneness on the other; and particularly that they should not go after other gods (v. 14), which was the sin that of all others they were most prone to, and God would be most displeased with. Let them take care to keep up religion, both the form and power of it, in their families and nation, and God would not fail to bless them.

II. The particulars of this blessing.

1. It is promised that the providence of God should prosper them in all their outward concerns. These blessings are said to overtake them, v. 2. Good people sometimes, under the sense of their unworthiness, are ready to fly from the blessing and to conclude that it belongs not to them; but the blessing shall find them out and follow them notwithstanding. Thus in the great day the blessing will overtake the righteous that say, Lord, when saw we thee hungry and fed thee? Matt. xxv. 37. Observe,

(1.) Several things are enumerated in which God by his providence would bless them:—[1.] They should be safe and easy; a blessing should rest upon their persons wherever they were, in the city, or in the field, v. 3. Whether their habitation was in town or country, whether they were husbandmen or tradesmen, whether their business called them into the city or into the field, they should be preserved from the dangers and have the comforts of their condition. This blessing should attend them in their journeys, going out and coming in, v. 6. Their persons should be protected, and the affair they went about should succeed well. Observe here, What a necessary and constant dependence we have upon God both for the continuance and comfort of this life. We need him at every turn, in all the various movements of life; we cannot be safe if he withdraw his protection, nor easy if he suspend his favour; but, if he bless us, go where we will it is well with us. [2.] Their families should be built up in a numerous issue: blessed shall be the fruit of thy body (v. 4), and in that the Lord shall make thee plenteous (v. 11), in pursuance of the promise made to Abraham, that his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude, and that God would be a God to them, than which a greater blessing, and more comprehensive, could not be entailed upon the fruit of their body. See Isa. lxi. 9. [3.] They should be rich, and have an abundance of all the good things of this life, which are promised them, not merely that they might have the pleasure of enjoying them, but (as bishop Patrick observes out of one of the Jewish writers) that they might have wherewithal to honour God, and might be helped and encouraged to serve him cheerfully and to proceed and persevere in their obedience to him. A blessing is promised, First, On all they had without doors, corn and cattle in the field (v. 4, 11), their cows and sheep particularly, which would be blessed for the owners' sakes, and made blessings to them. In order to this, it is promised that God would give them rain in due season, which is called his good treasure (v. 12), because with this river of God the earth is enriched, Ps. lxv. 9. Our constant supplies we must see coming from God's good treasure, and own our obligations to him for them; if he withhold his rain, the fruits both of the ground and of the cattle soon perish. Secondly, On all they had within doors, the basket and the store (v. 5), the store-houses or barns, v. 8. When it is brought home, God will bless it, and not blow upon it as sometimes he does, Hag. i. 6, 9. We depend upon God and his blessing, not only for our yearly corn out of the field, but for our daily bread out of our basket and store, and therefore are taught to pray for it every day. [4.] They should have success in all their employments, which would be a constant satisfaction to them: "The Lord shall command the blessing (and it is he only that can command it) upon thee, not only in all thou hast, but in all thou doest, all that thou settest thy hand to," v. 8. This intimated that even when they were rich they must not be idle, but must find some good employment or other to set their hand to, and God would own their industry, and bless the work of their hand (v. 12); for that which makes rich, and keeps so, is the blessing of the Lord upon the hand of the diligent, Prov. x. 4, 22. [5.] They should have honour among their neighbours (v. 1): The Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations. He made them so, by taking them into covenant with himself, ch. xxvi. 19. And he would make them more and more so by their outward prosperity, if they would not by sin disparage themselves. Two things should help to make them great among the nations:—First, Their wealth (v. 12): "Thou shalt lend to many nations upon interest" (which they were allowed to take form the neighbouring nations), "but thou shalt not have occasion to borrow." This would give them great influence with all about them; for the borrower is servant to the lender. It may be meant of trade and commerce, that they should export abundantly more than they should import, which would keep the balance on their side. Secondly, Their power (v. 13): "The Lord shall make thee the head, to give law to all about thee, to exact tribute, and to arbitrate all controversies." Every sheaf should bow to theirs, which would make them so considerable that all the people of the earth would be afraid of them (v. 10), that is, would reverence their true grandeur, and dread making them their enemies. The flourishing of religion among them, and the blessing of God upon them, would make them formidable to all their neighbours, terrible as an army with banners. [6.] They should be victorious over their enemies, and prosper in all their wars. If any were so daring as to rise up against them to oppress them, or encroach upon them, it should be at their peril, they should certainly fall before them, v. 7. The forces of the enemy, though entirely drawn up to come against them one way, should be entirely routed, and flee before them seven ways, each making the best of his way.

(2.) From the whole we learn (though it were well if men would believe it) that religion and piety are the best friends to outward prosperity. Though temporal blessings do not take up so much room in the promises of the New Testament as they do in those of the Old, yet it is enough that our Lord Jesus has given us his word (and surely we may take his word) that if we seek first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, all other things shall be added to us, as far as Infinite Wisdom sees good; and who can desire them further? Matt. vi. 33.

2. It is likewise promised that the grace of God should establish them a holy people, v. 9. Having taken them into covenant with himself, he would keep them in covenant; and, provided they used the means of stedfastness, he would give them the grace of stedfastness, that they should not depart from him. Note, Those that are sincere in holiness God will establish in holiness; and he is of power to do it, Rom. xvi. 25. He that is holy shall be holy still; and those whom God establishes in holiness he thereby establishes a people to himself, for a long as we keep close to God he will never forsake us. This establishment of their religion would be the establishment of their reputation (v. 10): All the people of the earth shall see, and own, that thou art called by the name of the Lord, that is, "that thou art a most excellent and glorious people, under the particular care and countenance of the great God. They shall be made to know that a people called by the name Jehovah are without doubt the happiest people under the sun, even their enemies themselves being judges." The favourites of Heaven are truly great, and, first or last, it will be made to appear that they are so, if not in this world, yet at that day when those who confess Christ now shall be confessed by him before men and angels, as those whom he delights to honour.

Threatenings. (b. c. 1451.)

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 shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: 16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. 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. 19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. 20 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. 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. 22 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. 23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. 24 The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. 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: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away. 27 The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. 28 The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: 29 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. 30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof. 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. 32 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. 33 The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway: 34 So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. 35 The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head. 36 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. 37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. 38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it. 39 Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. 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. 41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity. 42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume. 43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low. 44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

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 (v. 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," v. 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.

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," v. 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 xxvii. 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 Ps. xxi. 7, 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, v. 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 (v. 19) when he comes in, for the curse is upon the house of the wicked (Prov. iii. 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. iv. 11. The basket and store are cursed, v. 17, 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. i. 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 (v. 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. lxv. 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 (Ezek. xiv. 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 (v. 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. xxvi. 16. And all incurable, v. 27. (2.) Famine, and scarcity of provisions; and this, [1.] For want of rain (v. 23, 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, v. 38, 42. And the fruit of the vine, which should make glad their hearts, should all be worm-eaten, v. 39. And the olive, some way or other, should be made to cast its fruit, v. 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, 1 Kings xvii. 1; Jer. xiv. 1, &c.; Joel i. 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, v. 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 (v. 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, v. 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, 2 Chron. xxviii. 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, 1 Kings xx. 5, 6. Not only their houses and vineyards should be taken from them, but their wives and children, v. 30, 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 (ch. vi. 10, 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 (2 Kings xvii. 6), and not long after the two tribes into Babylon, and two of their kings, 2 Kings xxiv. 14, 15; xxv. 7, 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. iii. 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. xlviii. 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, v. 43, 44. So the ten tribes were by the colonies which the king of Assyria sent to take possession of their land, 2 Kings xvii. 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. vii. 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, v. 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 (v. 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.

45 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: 46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. 47 Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; 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 shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. 49 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; 50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young: 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. 52 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. 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, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: 54 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: 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. 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, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, 57 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. 58 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; 59 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. 60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee. 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. 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. 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 nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. 64 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. 65 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: 66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: 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. 68 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.

One would have thought that enough had been said to possess them with a dread of that wrath of God which is revealed from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. But to show how deep the treasures of that wrath are, and that still there is more and worse behind, Moses, when one would have thought that he had concluded this dismal subject, begins again, and adds to this roll of curses many similar words: as Jeremiah did to his, Jer. xxxvi. 32. It should seem that in the former part of this commination Moses foretells their captivity in Babylon, and the calamities which introduced and attended that, by which, even after their return, they were brought to that low and poor condition which is described, v. 44. That their enemies should be the head, and they the tail: but here, in this latter part, he foretells their last destruction by the Romans and their dispersion thereupon. And the present deplorable state of the Jewish nation, and of all that have incorporated themselves with them, by embracing their religion, does so fully and exactly answer to the prediction in these verses that it serves for an incontestable proof of the truth of prophecy, and consequently of the divine authority of the scripture. And, this last destruction being here represented as more dreadful than the former, it shows that their sin, in rejecting Christ and his gospel, was more heinous and more provoking to God than idolatry itself, and left them more under the power of Satan; for their captivity in Babylon cured them effectually of their idolatry in seventy years' time; but under this last destruction now for above 1600 years they continue incurably averse to the Lord Jesus. Observe,

I. What is here said in general of the wrath of God, which should light and lie upon them for their sins.

1. That, if they would not be ruled by the commands of God, they should certainly be ruined by his curse, v. 45, 46. Because thou didst not keep his commandments (especially that of hearing and obeying the great prophet), these curses shall come upon thee, as upon a people appointed to destruction, the generation of God's wrath: and they shall be for a sign and for a wonder. It is amazing to think that a people so long the favourites of Heaven should be so perfectly abandoned and cast off, that a people so closely incorporated should be so universally dispersed, and yet that a people so scattered in all nations should preserve themselves distinct and not mix with any, but like Cain be fugitives and vagabonds, and yet marked to be known.

2. That, if they would not serve God with cheerfulness, they should be compelled to serve their enemies (v. 47, 48), that they might know the difference (2 Chron. xii. 8), which, some think, is the meaning of Ezek. xx. 24, 25, Because they despised my statutes, I gave them statutes that were not good. Observe here, (1.) It is justly expected from those to whom God gives an abundance of the good things of this life that they should serve him. What does he maintain us for out that we may do his work, and be some way serviceable to his honour? (2.) The more God gives us the more cheerfully we should serve him; our abundance should be oil to the wheels of our obedience. God is a Master that will be served with gladness, and delights to hear us sing at our work. (3.) If, when we receive the gifts of God's bounty, we either do not serve him at all or serve him with reluctance, it is a righteous thing with him to make us know the hardships of want and servitude. Those deserve to have cause given them to complain who complain without a cause. Tristis es et felix—Happy, and yet not easy! Blush at thy own folly and ingratitude.

3. That, if they would not give glory to God by a reverential obedience, he would get him honour upon them by wonderful plagues, v. 58, 59. Note, (1.) God justly expects from us that we should fear his fearful name; and, which is strange, that name which is here proposed as the object of our fear is, The Lord thy God , which is very fitly here put in our Bibles in capital letters; for nothing can sound more truly august. As nothing is more comfortable, so nothing more awful, than this, that he with whom we have to do is Jehovah, a being infinitely perfect and blessed, and the author of all being; and that he is our God, our rightful Lord and owner, from whom we are to receive laws and to whom we are to give account: this is great, and greatly to be feared. (2.) We may justly expect from God that, if we do not fear his fearful name, we shall feel his fearful plagues; for one way or other God will be feared. All God's plagues are dreadful, but some are wonderful, carrying in them extraordinary signatures of divine power and justice, so that a man, upon the first view of them, may say, Verily, there is a God that judgeth in the earth.

II. How the destruction threatened is described. Moses is here upon the same melancholy subject that our Saviour is discoursing of to his disciples in his farewell sermon (Matt. xxiv.), namely, The destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation. Observe,

1. Five things are here foretold as steps to their ruin:—

(1.) That they should be invaded by a foreign enemy (v. 49, 50): A nation from far, namely, the Romans, as swift as the eagle hastening to the prey. Our Saviour makes use of this similitude, in foretelling this destruction, that where the carcase is there will the eagles be gathered together, Matt. xxiv. 28. And bishop Patrick observes (to make the accomplishment the more remarkable) that the ensign of the Roman armies was an eagle. This nation is said to be of a fierce countenance, an indication of a fierce nature, stern and severe, that would not pity the weakness and infirmity either of little children or of old people.

(2.) That the country should be laid waste, and all the fruits of it eaten up by this army of foreigners, which is the natural consequence of an invasion, especially when it is made, as that by the Romans was, for the chastisement of rebels: He shall eat the fruits of thy cattle and land (v. 51), so that the inhabitants should be starved, while the invaders were fed to the full.

(3.) That their cities should be besieged, and that such would be the obstinacy of the besieged, and such the vigour of the besiegers, that they would be reduced to the last extremity, and at length fall into the hands of the enemy, v. 52. No place, though ever so well fortified, no, not Jerusalem itself, though it held out long, would escape. Two of the common consequences of a long siege are here foretold:—[1.] A miserable famine, which would prevail to such a degree that, for want of food, they should kill and eat their own children, v. 53. Men should do so, notwithstanding their hardiness, and ability to bear hunger; and, though obliged by the law of nature to provide for their own families, yet should refuse to give to the wife and children that were starving any of the child that was barbarously butchered, v. 54, 55. Nay, women, ladies of quality, notwithstanding their natural niceness about their food, and their natural affection to their children, yet, for want of food, should so far forget all humanity as to kill and eat them, v. 56, 57. Let us observe, by the way, how hard this fate must needs be to the tender and delicate women, and learn not to indulge ourselves in tenderness and delicacy, because we know not what we may be reduced to before we die; the more nice we are, the harder it will be to us to bear want, and the more danger we shall be in or sacrificing reason, and religion, and natural affection itself, to the clamours and cravings of an unmortified and ungoverned appetite. This threatening was fulfilled in the letter of it, more than once, to the perpetual reproach of the Jewish nation: never was the like done either by Greek or barbarian, but in the siege of Samaria, a woman boiled her own son, 2 Kings vi. 28, 29. And it is spoken of as commonly done among them in the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, Lam. iv. 10. And, in the last siege by the Romans, Josephus tells us of a noble woman that killed and ate her own child, through the extremity of the famine, and when she had eaten one half secretly (v. 57), that she might have it to herself, the mob, smelling meat, got into the house, to whom she showed the other half, which she had kept till another time, inviting them to share with her. What is too barbarous for those to do that are abandoned of God! [2.] Sickness is another common effect of a strait and long siege, and that is here threatened: Sore sickness, and of long continuance, v. 59. These should attend the Jews wherever they went afterwards, the diseases of Egypt, leprosies, botches, and foul ulcers, v. 60. Nay, as if the particular miseries here threatened were not enough, he concludes with an et cetera, v. 61. The Lord will bring upon thee every sickness, and every plague, though it be not written in the book of this law. Those that fall under the curse of God will find that the one half was not told them of the weight and terror of that curse.

(4.) That multitudes of them should perish, so that they should become few in number, v. 62. It was a nation that God had wonderfully increased, so that they were as the stars of heaven for multitude; but, for their sin, they were diminished and brought low, Ps. cvii. 38, 39. It is computed that in the destruction of the Jewish nation by the Romans, as appears by the account Josephus gives of it, above two millions fell by the sword at several places, besides what perished by famine and pestilence; so that the whole country was laid waste and turned into a wilderness. That is a terrible word (v. 63), As the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, so he will rejoice over you to destroy you. Behold here the goodness and severity of God: mercy here shines brightly in the pleasure God takes in doing good—he rejoices in it; yet justice here appears no less illustrious in the pleasure he takes in destroying the impenitent; not as it is the making of his creatures miserable, but as it is the asserting of his own honour and the securing of the ends of his government. See what a malignant mischievous thing sin is, which (as I may say) makes it necessary for the God of infinite goodness to rejoice in the destruction of his own creatures, even those that had been favourites.

(5.) That the remnant should be scattered throughout the nations. This completes their woe: The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, v. 64. This is remarkably fulfilled in their present dispersion, for there are Jews to be found almost in all countries that are possessed either by Christians or Mahometans, and in such numbers that it has been said, If they could unite in one common interest, they would be a very formidable body, and able to deal with the most powerful states and princes; but they abide under the power of this curse, and are so scattered that they are not able to incorporate. It is here foretold that in this dispersion, [1.] They should have no religion, or none to any purpose, should have no temple, nor altar, nor priesthood, for they should serve other gods. Some think this has been fulfilled in the force put upon the Jews in popish countries to worship the images that are used in the Romish church, to their great vexation. [2.] They should have no rest, no rest of body: The sole of thy foot shall not have rest (v. 65), but be continually upon the remove, either in hope of gain or fear of persecution; all wandering Jews: no rest of the mind (which is much worse), but a trembling heart (v. 65); no assurance of life (v. 66); weary both of light and darkness, which are, in their turns, both welcome to a quiet mind, but to them both day and night would be a terror, v. 67. Such was once the condition of Job (Job vii. 4), but to them this should be constant and perpetual; that blindness and darkness which the apostle speaks of as having happened to Israel, and that guilt which bowed down their back always (Rom. xi. 8-10), must needs occasion a constant restlessness and amazement. Those are a torment to themselves, and to all about them, that fear day and night and are always uneasy. Let good people strive against it, and not give way to that fear which has torment; and let wicked people not be secure in their wickedness, for their hearts cannot endure, nor can their hands be strong, when the terrors of God set themselves in array against them. Those that say in the morning, O that it were evening, and in the evening, O that it were morning, show, First, A constant fret and vexation, chiding the hours for lingering and complaining of the length of every minute. Let time be precious to us when we are in prosperity, and then it will not be so tedious to us when we are in afflictions as otherwise it would. Secondly, A constant fright and terror, afraid in the morning of the arrow that flieth by day, and therefore wishing the day over; but what will this do for them? When evening comes, the trembling heart is no less apprehensive of the terror by night, Ps. xci. 5, 6. Happy they whose minds, being stayed on God, are quiet from the fear of evil! Observe here, The terror arises not only from the sight of the eyes, but from the fear of the heart, not only from real dangers, but from imaginary ones; the causes of fear, when they come to be enquired into, often prove to be only the creatures of the fancy.

2. In the close, God threatens to leave them as he found them, in a house of bondage (v. 68): The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again, that is into such a miserable state as they were in when they were slaves to the Egyptians, and ruled by them with rigour. God had brought them out of Egypt, and had said, They shall see it no more again (ch. xvii. 16); but now they should be reduced to the same state of slavery that they had been in there. To be sold to strangers would be bad enough, but much worse to be sold to their enemies. Even slaves may be valued as such, but a Jew should have so ill a name for all that is base that when he was exposed to sale no man would buy him, which would make his master that had him to sell the more severe with him. Thirty Jews (they say) have been sold for one small piece of money, as they sold our Saviour for thirty pieces.

3. Upon the whole matter, (1.) The accomplishment of these predictions upon the Jewish nation shows that Moses spoke by the Spirit of God, who certainly foresees the ruin of sinners, and gives them warning of it, that they may prevent it by a true and timely repentance, or else be left inexcusable. (2.) Let us all hence learn to stand in awe and not to sin. I have heard of a wicked man, who, upon reading the threatenings of this chapter, was so enraged that he tore the leaf out of the Bible, as Jehoiakim cut Jeremiah's roll; but to what purpose is it to deface a copy, while the original remains upon record in the divine counsels, by which it is unalterably determined that the wages of sin is death, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear?

CHAP. XXVIII.

ANd it shall be, if hearkening thou shalt hearken unto the voice of Iehovah thy God, to observe to doe all his commandements, which I command thee this day, that Iehovah thy God will give thee to bee high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of Iehovah thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy wombe, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattell, the increase of thy kine, and the flockes of thy sheepe. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy dough trough. Blessed shalt thou be when thou commest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. Iehovah will give thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flie before thee seven waies. Iehovah will command the blessing to be with thee, in thy store-houses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he will blesse thee in the Land which Iehovah thy God giveth unto thee. Iehovah will stablish thee unto him-selfe for an holy people, as hee hath sworne unto thee, if thou shalt keepe the commandements of Iehovah thy God, and walke in his waies. And all peoples of the earth shall see, that the name of Iehovah is called upon thee, and they shall bee afraid of thee. And Iehovah will make thee plenteous in good things, in the fruit of thy wombe, and in the fruit of thy cattell, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which Iehovah sware unto thy fathers to give unto thee. Iehovah will open unto thee his good treasure, the heavens, to give the raine of thy land in his season, and to blesse all the worke of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

And Iehovah will give thee to be the head, and not the taile, and thou shalt bee above only, and shalt not be beneath, if thou hearken unto the commandements of Iehovah thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to doe. And thou shalt not goe aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to goe after other gods to serve them.

And it shall bee, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of Iehovah thy God, to observe to doe all his commandements, and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shal come upon thee, and overtake thee. Cursed shalt thou be in the citie, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket, and thy dough-trough. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy wombe, and the fruit of thy ground, the increase of thy kine, and the flockes of thy sheepe. Cursed shalt thou bee when thou commest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. Iehovah will send upon thee a curse, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto, which thou wouldest doe, untill thou bee destroyed, and untill thou perish quickly, because of the evill of thy doings, for that thou hast forsaken mee. Iehovah will make the pestilence cleave unto thee, untill he have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possesse it. Iehovah will smite thee with the consumption, and with the burningague, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with meldew, and they shall pursue thee untill thou perish. And thy heavens which are over thine head shall be brasse, and the earth which is under thee shall be iron.

Iehovah will give the raine of thy land to be powder and dust, from the heavens shall it come downe upon thee untill thou be destroyed. Iehovah will give thee to bee smitten before thine enemies; thou shalt goe out against him one way, and flee before him seven waies, and thou shalt bee for a removing to all the kingdomes of the earth. And thy carkasse shall bee for meat to all the fowles of the heavens, and to the beasts of the earth, and none shall fray them away. Iehovah will smite thee with the boyle of Egypt, and with the Emrods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. Iehovah will smite thee with madnesse, and with blindnesse, and with astonishment of heart. And thou shalt bee groping at noone day, as the blinde gropeth in thicke darknesse, and thou shalt not prosper in thy wares, and thou shalt bee onely fraudulently oppressed and robbed all daies, and none 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 make it common. Thine oxe shall be slaine before thine eies, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine asse shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not returne unto thee; thy sheepe shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to save. Thy sonnes and thy daughters shall be given to another people, and thine eies shall see, and shall faile with longing for them all the day, and there shall be no power in thine hand.

The fruit of thy land, and all thy labour shall a people eat up which thou knowest not: and thou shalt be onely fraudulently oppressed and crushed all daies. And thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eies which thou shalt see. Iehovah will smite thee with an evill bovle on the knees, and on the legs, wherof thou canst not be healed, from the sole of thy foot, even unto the top of thine head. Iehovah will bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set overthee, unto a nation which thou hast not knowne, thou or thy fathers, and there thou shalt serve other gods, wood and stone. And thou shalt be for an astonishment, for a proverbe, and for a by-word among all peoples, whither Iehovah shall lead thee. Much seed shalt thou carry out into the field, and little shalt thou gather in, for the Locust shall consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards and dresse them, but thou shalt not drinke the wine, nor gather (the grapes) for the worme shall eat it. Thou shalt have olive-trees in all thy coast, but thou shalt not anoint thy selfe with the oile, for thine Olive shall cast (his fruit.) Thou shalt beget sonnes and daughters, but they shall not be thine, for they shall goe into captivity. All thy trees, and the fruit of thy land shall the grassehopper possesse. The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee on high on high, and thou shalt come downe below below. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him; hee shall bee the head, and thou shalt bee the taile. And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, untill thou bee destroyed, because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of Iehovah thy God, to keepe his commandements and his statutes which hee hath commanded thee. And they shall be upon thee for a signe and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. Because thou servedst not Iehovah thy God with joyfulnesse, and with goodnesse of heart for the abundance of all things. Therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies, whom Iehovah will send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakednesse, and in want of all things: and hee will put a yoke of iron upon thy necke, untill he have destroyed thee. Iehovah will bring against thee a nation from far, from the end of the earth, as the Eagle flieth: a nation whose tongue thou shalt not heare. A nation of a strong face, which will not regard the face of the old, nor shew grace to the young. And hee shall eat the fruit of thy cattell, and the fruit of thy land, untill thou hee destroyed, which shall not leave unto thee, corne, new wine, or new oile, the increase of thy kine, or flockes of thy sheepe, untill he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thine high and fenced walls come downe, wherein thou trustedst, thorowout all thy land, and hee shall besiege thee in all thy gates, thorowout all thy land, which Iehovah thy God hath given unto thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy wombe, the flesh of thy sonnes and of thy daughters which Iehovah thy God hath given unto thee, in the siege and in the straitnesse wherewith thine enemies shall distresse thee. The man that is tender among you and very delicate, his eie shall bee evill towards his brother, and towards the wife of his bosome, and towards the remnant of his sonnes which he shall leave. So that he will not give to any one of them of the flesh of his sonnes, whom hee shall eat, because hee hath not left unto him any thing in the siege & in the straitnesse, wherewith thine enemies shall distresse thee in all thy gates. The tender woman among you and delicate, which would not adventure the sole of her foot to set it on the ground for delicatenesse and for tendernesse, her eie shall bee evill towards the husband of her bosome, and towards her sonne, and towards her daughter: And towards her after-birth that commeth out from betweene her feet, and towards her sonnes which shee shall beare, for shee shall eat them for want of all things, in secret, in the siege and in the straitnesse, wherewith thine enemy shall distresse thee in thy gates. If thou wilt not observe to doe all the words of this Law, that are written in this booke, to feare this glorious and fearefull name Iehovah thy God. And Iehovah will make marvellous thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed; plagues great and permanent, and sicknesses evill and permanent. And he will bring upon thee every disease of Egypt, which thou wast afraid because of them, and they shall cleave unto the.

Also every sicknesse, and every plague, which is not written in the booke of this Law, them will Iehovah bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed. And yee shall be left with a few men, whereas yee were as the starres of the heavens for multitude, because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of Iehovah thy God. And it shall be, as Iehovah rejoyced over you, to doe you good, and to multiply you, so Iehovah will rejoyce over you to make you perish, and to destroy you, and ye shall bee plucked from off the Land, whither thou goest in to possesse it. And Iehovah will scatter thee among all peoples, from the end of the earth, and unto the end of the earth; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which thou hast not knowne, thou or thy fathers, wood and stone. And in those nations thou shalt not finde ease, neither shall there bee rest for the sole of thy foot: and Iehovah will give unto thee there, a trembling heart, and failing of eies, and pining of soule.

And thy life shall bee hanging in doubt before thee, and thou shalt dread night and day, and shalt not have assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Who will give the evening; and in the euening thou shalt say, Who will give the morning: for the dread of thine heart wherewith thou shalt dread, and for the sight of thine eies which thou shalt see.

And Iehovah will returne thee to Egypt with ships, by the way whereof I said unto thee, Thou shalt not see it againe any more: and there yee shall bee sold to your enemies, for bondmen and for bond-women, and none shall buy you.

Annotations. HEarkening thou shalt hearken] that is, shalt continually and diligently hearken to (or obey) the voi[illegible: 1 letter]e; which the Chaldee translateth, shalt receive the word of the LORD. As in the former Chapter the Law was confirmed by blessings and curses pro[illegible: 1 letter]ounced by the people; so here it is confirmed in like sort, but more largely by God himselfe: that Israel might be kept in due obedience, and finding in themselves the impossibility of doing the Law, they might have recourse unto Christ by faith. to observe to doe] in Greeke, to observe (or keepe) and to doe. give thee to be high] that is, set and stablish thee high: as giving 1 Chron. 17. 22. is expounded, stablishing, 2 Sam. 7. 24. And highnesse meaneth heavenly dignity given of God, by the high (or heavenly) calling, whereby they were made partakers, Phil. 3. 14. Heb. 3. 1. whereby they were to seeke and minde, the things that are above, Col. 3. 1, 2. and have their conversation in heaven, Phil. 3. 20. For, the way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath, Prov. 15. 24. See also Deut. 26. 19. Vers. 2. overtake thee] or, take h[illegible: 1 letter]ld on thee: The Greeke translateth, finde thee. It meaneth obtaining of all blessings, and effectuall applying of them, for their good and comfort. The like is said of the curses, in v. 15. 45. and generally of Gods words and statutes, of which the Prophet telleth the Iewes, that they overtooke (or tooke hold) of their fathers, when they were punished for transgressing them, Zach. 1. 6. Vers. 3. Blessed thou] The first blessing is upon the person, who must be acceptable to God, before any of his workes are accepted, Gen. 4. 4. and the person being blessed, all things prosper about him. What blessing is, see the Annotations on Gen. 1. 22. and 2. 3. and 12. 2. citie] by this, and the field, all places, and all estates of life are meant. Vers. 4. fruit of thy wombe] or, of thy belly: the Chaldee saith, the child of thy bowels. The second blessing is upon a mans possessions, of all sorts for increase, which was at the first by God blessing the creatures, Gen. 1. 22. 28. and so continueth, as it is written, And he blesseth them, and they are multiplied greatly, Psal. 107. 39. So Psal. 128. 1, 3. thy ground] or land, the fruits whereof were also figures of heavenly blessing: see Levit. 26. 4. increase] or young: in Greeke, herds: see Deut. 7. 13. Vers. 5. basket] whereinto fruits are put when they are gathered, Deut. 26. 2. dough-trough] or dough, or store: see Exod. 8. 3. and 12. 34. These two are named in stead of all places and vessels, wherein the fruits and commodities which God sendeth, are kept for use and store. Therefore the Greeke for basket, translateth barnes (as Luk. 12. 18.) and for the dough-trough, remainders, or store that is left. So in v. 17. And this is the third degree of blessing upon the commodities which men reape of their poss[illegible: 1 letter]ssions. Vers. 6. comest in] by comming in, and going out, the Scripture meaneth all imployment and administration in any businesse, or office, as in government of a kingdome, 2 Chron. 1. 10. of the Church; Act. 1. 21. of a family, Gen. 39. 11. Psal. 104. 23. and generally of all other affaires, as 2 Sam. 3. 25. Act. 9. 28. So this fourth blessing concerneth the whole administration and conversation of the Saints. Vers. 7. smitten] that is, as the Greeke and Chaldee expound it, crushed, and broken: see an example of this in Davids enemies, 2 Sam. 22. 38,—43. And this fift blessing concerneth the safety of Gods people, and their victories over their enemies, of whom the chiefe is Sa[illegible: 1 letter]an himselfe, and him will the God of peace crush under the [illegible: 2 letters]et of his people, Rom. 16. 20. [illegible: 1 letter]lee] a signe of discomfiture and destruction: therefore when one Prophet saith, Wilt thou she before thine enemies? 2 Sam. 24. 13. another explaineth it, to be destroyed before thine enemies, 1 Chron. 21. 12. seven waies] that is, many waies: so signifying a ful conquest over them, for seven is a compleat number, often used for many, as is noted on Gen. 2. 2. and 33. 3. Lev. 4. 6. It signifieth also their dispersion, every man his way, whereas they came out joyntly together, all one way. Vers. 8. will command] that is, will powerfully send, and effectually procure the blessing. Of this phrase, see Levit. 25. 21. The contrary hereunto is, hee will send upon thee, v. 20. the blessing] whereunto is opposed the curse, vexation, and rebuke, vers. 20. storehouses] or barnes; in Chaldee, treasures: so in Prov. 3. 10. that thou settest thy hand unto] Hebr. the setting to of thy hand: whereof see Deut. 12. 7. Thus this sixt promise implieth a generall blessing upon all that the godly hath or doth. Vers. 9. stablish thee] set thee up firme and sure. This seventh blessing properly concerneth spirituall things and heavenly, for the sanctification of the Church, and establishment thereof in that grace, by reason of the covenant and oath of God, whereof he never repenteth, Psal. 110. 4. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, Rom. 11. 29. Vers. 10. is called upon thee] that is, thou art called by his name: as before Moses said, Yee are the sonnes of Iehovah your God, Deut. 14. 1. Of this phrase, see the Annotations on Gen. 48. 16. Here God enlargeth his former blessings, in causing them to be knowne and acknowledged of all other peoples. afraid of thee] as was fore-promised, Deut. 11. 25. and had come to passe unto Israel, Deut. 2. 25. and unto Abraham, Esay 41. 5. and other particular persons, as Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him, 1 Sam. 18. 12. 15, 29. Vers. 11. make thee plenteous] or, make thee to excell; in Greeke, multiply thee. in good] or, for good things. An enlargement of the blessing promised in v. 4. which all should see by the abundance of good things from beneath. Vers. 12. treasure] or, treasury, store-house, which he expoundeth after to be raine from heaven, for so the Scripture elsewhere mentioneth, treasuries of the snow, and treasuries of the haile, and of the winde, Iob 38. 22. Psal. 135. 7. and these were blessings from above, which caused the increase of those good things promised in v. 4, 5. in his season] that is, in due season; meaning the first and latter raine, mentioned in Deut. 11. 14. See the notes on Levit. 26. 4. shalt lend] that is, shalt have such plenty, as that thou shalt lend unto many nations; a signe both of wealth, liberality, and soveraignty; for, the borrower is servant to the man that lendeth, Prov. 22. 7. therefore the Greeke giveth here a double interpretation; thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow: and shalt rule over many nations, and they shall not rule over thee: which words are borrowed here from Deut. 15. 6. Vers. 13. the head] a figure or parable, meaning chiefe in authority and power, (called before, a ruling over many nations, Deut. 15. 6.) as the taile signifieth inferiority and basenesse, which the Chaldee expoundeth thus, The Lord will give thee to be strong and not weake. This is opened in Esay 9. 14, 15. The Lord will cut off from Israel, head and taile, &c. the ancient and honourable, hee is the head; and the Prophet that teacheth lies, he is the taile. Thus by head here, we may also understand spiritually, the honour of the truth, wherewith the Church of God should bee adorned and exalted. above] in honour and dignity, not earthly onely, but heavenly, as in v. 1. So Christ said to the Iewes, Yee are from beneath, I am from above: yee are of this world, I am not of this world, Iob. 8. 23. Likewise of his Disciples he saith, They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world, Iob. 17. 16. If thou hearken] The condition of the former promises, the first branch whereof is obedience, to doe all that is commanded. Vers. 14. and thou shalt not] that is, If thou shalt not; for this is the second branch of the condition, restraining all disobedience against any of Gods words. other gods] which the Chaldee expoundeth, Idols of the peoples. Vers. 15. not hearken] in Chaldee, not receive the Word of the LORD. Here followeth a large commination of the curses that shall come upon the transgressours of the Law: compare herewith Levit. 26. 14. &c. and this condition is opposite to the former in v. 1, 2. Vers. 16. Cursed thou] The first curse is upon their persons, opposed to the blessing in v. 3. What the curse meaneth, see Deut. 27. 15. Gen. 3. 14. Vers. 17. dough-trough] or store; in Greeke, thy remainders. This second curse is opposed to the third blessing in v. 5. Vers. 18. fruit of thy wombe] in Chaldee, the child of thy bowells. This third curse is set against the second blessing in v. 4. Vers. 19. commest in, &c.] that is, in all thy waies and administration. The fourth curse, opposed to the fourth blessing, in v. 6. Vers. 20. a curse] so God threatneth the Priests, in Mal. 2. 2. and this fift denunciation is against the sixt promise of blessing, in v. 8. This curse the Greeke expoundeth, lacke, or penury. vexation] or, trouble, tumult and destruction, as Deut. 7. 23. this the Greeke interpreteth, famine; but the word is more generall, implying warres also, and other plagues upon the body, as Zach. 14. 13. 1 Sam. 14. 20. and 5. 9. And this judgement was upon Israel, 2 Chron. 15. 5. rebuke] this is not onely from men, but from God, who is said to rebuke, not onely by words but by deeds, whereupon men perish, Psal. 80. 17. and his rebuke is with flames of fire, Esay 66. 15. Hereupon the Greeke here translateth it consumption. How this came upon Israel, see Esay 51. 20. and 30. 17. forsaken me] in Chaldee, forsaken my feare. Vers. 21. the pestilence] The Greeke and Chaldee translate it, death: see the Annotations on Ex. 5. [illegible: 1 word]. and Levit. 26. 25. The fulfilling of this plague is mentioned in Amos 4. 10. Vers. 22. consumption] of this and the ague following, see Lev. 26. 16. the sword] or draught: but the Greeke taketh it in the first sense, translating it slaughter: So in Levit. 26. 25. blasting] of corne and fruits with a dry winde, 2 Kin. 19. 26. for the originall word signifieth drinesse; and such was the East-winde that blasted in those parts, Gen. 41. 6. Therefore the Greeke translateth it, corruption with winde. The fulfilling of this judgment is shewed in Amos 4. 9. Hag. 2. 17. meldew] which hath the name in Hebrew of palenesse (as Ier. 30. 6.) & so is here translated in Greeke, and is a plague upon corne, through too much moistnesse, (as blasting is with drinesse) whereby the naturall greenenesse is gone before it bee ripe, and the colour faded. So in Amos 4. 9. Hag. 2. 17. 2 Chron. 6. 28. Vers. 23. thy heavens] in Greeke and Chaldee, the heaven: see the Annotations on Levit. 26. 19. It meaneth a restraint of raine, whereby the land should be barren. Vers. 24. powder] or small dust. In stead of raine, your aire shall be filled with dust, which the winde and other things raise in time of drought. This word is used, when speech is of Gods judgments, in Esay 5. 24. and 29. 5. Ezek. 26. 10. Nahum. 1. 3. Luk. 9. 5. and with dust was Egypt plagued, Ex. 9. 9. from the heavens] that is, from the aire. Vers. 25. smitten] in Chaldee, broken: this is opposite to the fi[illegible: 1 letter]t blessing, in ver. 7. flee] and consequently fall and perish; as to flee three moneths before the enemie, 2 Sam. 24. 13. is expounded, to be destroyed three moneths, 1 Chron. 21. 12. for a removing] that is, removed, shaken, and dispersed; as the Greeke translateth, thou shalt bee in dispersion. This word Ieromy useth when the time of their dispersion was come upon them, Ier. 15. 4. and 29. 18. and 34. 17. So in 2 Chron. 29. 8. Vers. 26. thy carkasse] that is, carkasses; the Greek expoundeth it, your dead men: hee meaneth that they should not have honest buriall; but being slain by the sword, should bee eaten by beasts. These words of Moses Ieremy repeateth, Ier. 7. 33. and 16. 4. and 34. 20. And Asaph lamenteth the complement of this plague, Psal. 79. 1, 2, 3. Vers. 27. boyle of Egypt] or Egyptian ulcer, whereof see Exod. 9. 9, 10, 11. emrods] or piles, a disease wherewith God smote the Philistines in their secret hinder parts, 1 Sam. 5. 9. Psal. 78. 66. For this disease the Hebrew hath two names, the one in the line Gnaphólim, the other in the margine Techórim; and this latter is used in the line, in 1 Sam. 6. 11, 17. itch] so the Greeke expoundeth it: the Chaldee saith, a drie scab. whereof] or, so that thou canst not be healed: and this is contrary to the promise made upon their obedience, in Exod. 15. 26. Vers. 28. madnesse] or furie; this is properly in the minde, but manifested by foolish gesture, 1 Sam. 21. 13, 14. And because the Prophets were often moved with extasies, & carried themselves strangely, some in contempt would call them mad men, 2 King. 9. 11. Ier. 29. 26. blindnesse] this is both in body and minde, Esay 42. 19. The contrary blessing wee receive by Christ, Esay 42. 7. 16. astonishment] or, amazement, wondring: this is threatned even to the Prophets, in Ier. 4. 9. and other unbeleevers, Habak. 1. 5. Act. 13. 41. Vers. 29. groping] or, feeling; meant as an effect of blindnesse of soule, as Paul speaketh of Gods workes to the heathen, that they should seeke the Lord, if haply they might seele (or grope) after him, and finde him, Act. 17. 17. So it is said of the wicked, in Iob 5. 14. They meet with darknesse in the day time, and grope in the noone day as in the night: and in Iob 12. 25. They grope in the darke without light. save thee] that is, as the Greeke translateth it, thou shalt have no belper. So in 2. Sam. 22. 42. they looked, but there was none to save. Vers. 30. lie with her] or, defile, ravish her. The Hebrew Shagal signifying the act of generation, as here and in Esa. 13. 16. and Zach. 14. 2. expounded in the Hebrew margine to bee read Shacab, which is to lie with. make it common] that is, gather and eat the grapes thereof. See Deut. 20. 6. On the contrary, when God promiseth grace, hee saith, the planters shall plant (vines) and shall make them common, Ier. 31. 5. Vers. 31. not returne] that is, not be returned, or restored, as the Greeke explaineth it. See the Annotations on Gen. 2. 20. and 16. 14. to save] in Greeke, no helper: as v. 29. Vers. 32. faile] or, be consumed, to wit, with longing, or desire: so it is elsewhere spoken of the eies, in Psal. 119. 82. of the soule, Psal. 84. 3. and of the reines, Iob 19. 27. where Iob speaketh of his desire to see God at the resurrection. no power in thy hand] so the Chaldee expoundeth it, and the Greeke, thy hand shall not be strong (or able) or wee may interpret it, nothing shall bee in the power of thine hand. The contrary is in Mich. 2. 1. Gen. 31. 29. Vers. 33. eat up] or, devoure: this judgement came upon Israel by the heathens, Esai. 1. 7. Ier. 5. 17. and 8. 16. Vers. 34. for the sight] in Greeke, for the sights (or visions) meaning that they should see such heavy troubles, as should make them mad through feare and sorrow, being without faith, comfort, and patience. These are the lively and powerfull effects of the Law upon the conscience of sinners, that it bereaveth them of all sense of Gods favour: for the Law is not of faith, Gal. 3. 12. Vers. 35. evill boyle] sore, or, malignant ulcer: such a plague spirituall God sendeth on the Antichristians, Rev. 16. 2. And in body Iob was afflicted with such from the sole of his foot unto the top of his head, for the triall of his faith and patience, Iob. 2. 7. Vers. 36. bring] or lead, make goe into captivity. This foretelleth the overthrow of their state, which was accomplished by Assyria and Babylon, 2 King. 17. 6. and 25. 1. &c. thy King] in Greeke, thy Princes: both were fulfilled, 2 King. 24. 14, 15. other gods] as in their owne land they served other Gods, that is, Idols of wood and of stone, Ier. 2. 27. so God threatneth to send them as slaves into other lands, where they would doe the like, though by his Prophets hee warned them not to doe so, Esay 44. 8, 9. &c. Ier. 10. 2, 3,—11. So for making an Idoll in the Wildernesse, God had before given them up to worship the host of heaven, Act. 7. 41, 42. The Chaldee here translateth; thou shalt serve peoples that serve idols of wood and of stone: So after in v. 64. Vers. 37. a by word] a sharpe or [illegible: 2 letters]tting taunt: this God threatned againe immediatly before it came to passe, Ier. 24. 9. and before that in Solomons daies, 1 King. 9. 7. and it came upon them, as Psalm. 44. 14, 15. &c. Vers. 38. the Locast] that is, Loc[illegible: 1 letter]sts: see the judgements here threatned, fulfilled in Ioel 1. 4. Amos. 4. 9. and 7. 1, 2. H[illegible: 1 letter]g. 1. 6, 11. Vers. 42. Grash[illegible: 1 letter]pper] called in Hebrew Tselatsal, a word here onely used; the Greeke translateth it eris[illegible: 1 letter]bee, which is a blasting, or m[illegible: 2 letters]dew, that spoileth corne. Vers. 44. the head] or, for the head, that is, the chiefe, which the Chaldee expoundeth strong; as the taile is in Chaldee the weake: see v. 13. Vers. 46. for a signe] the Greeke and Chaldee translate plurally, signes and wonders. thy seed] Chaldee, thy sonne[illegible: 1 letter]. Vers. 47. goodnesse of heart] the Greeke translateth it, a good heart; the Chaldee, truth of heart: it meaneth also gladnesse, as in Esay 65. 14. it is opposed to sorrow. Of this the Iewes made confession when they were returned from Babylon, Nehem. 9. 35. of all] Greeke, of all things; and Thargum Ionathan addeth, of all good: and so in v. 48. want of all good. Vers. 48. yoke of iron] that is, hard servitude under heathen Rulers; as Ier. 28. 13, 14. for servants are said to be under the yoke, 1 Tim. 6. 1. Vers. 49. as the Eagle] that flieth swiftly and violently, therefore the Greeke translateth, like the violence of an Eagle. This is a prophesie of the Babylonians, the Lion with Eagles wings, Dan. 7. 4. So Nebuchadnezzar is likened to a great Eagle with great wings, &c. Ezek. 17. 3. 12. not heart] that is, not understand: see the notes on Gen. 11. 7. Vers. 50. of a strong face] that is, bold, fierce, cruell, and (as the Greeke translateth) impudent. This title is given to Antiochus Epiphanes, the great afflict[illegible: 1 letter]r of the Iewes▪ Dan. 8. 23. not regard] not respect or honour any person. Vers. 51. fruit of thy cattell] thy young beasts▪ See the fulfilling of this mentioned before the captivity, Esay 1. 7. corne] The enemies devouring of these earthly blessings in Canaan, the holy land, figured also that Israel should for their sinnes bee deprived of Gods heavenly blessings, till God should turne them againe to himselfe by the faith of the Gospell: and then hee sweareth, If I give (that it, surely I will not give) any more thy corne to be meat for thine enemies, and the sonnes of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for which thou hast laboured: but they that have gathered it, shall eat it, and praise the Lord, and they that have brought it together, shall drinke it in the Courts of my holinesse; Esay 62. 8, 9. Vers. 52. thy gates] in Greeke and Chaldee, thy cities: so vers. 55. See this fulfilled, 2 King. 17. and 25. Vers. 53. the fruit of thy [illegible: 1 word]] in Chaldee, the children of thy bowels. The like threatning is in Levit. 26. 29. Ier. 19. 9. fulfilled, 2 King. [illegible: 1 word]. 29. Lam. 4. 10. Vers. 54. eie shall be evill] that is, he shall grudge and envy: see Deut. 15. 9. The Greeke translateth, he shall be witch with his eie. So in v. 56. of his bosome] that is, which lieth in his bosome, as Mic. 7. 5. Vers. 57. her after-birth] and so her little one therein; as the Chaldee expoundeth it, the least of her children. Vers. 58. fearefull] in Greeke, marvellous. Vers. 59. thy plagues] or, every of thy plagues, as the forme of the Hebrew word implieth. thy seed] Chald. thy children. permanent] or, firme, faithfull, and continuing long: as Tharg. Ionath. explaineth, which shall dure long upon your bodies. Vers. 60. disease] or sicknesse; in Greeke, sorrow. Of the plagues of Egypt, see Exod. 8. &c. Vers. 62. with a few men] Greeke, in a short (or small) number: Chald. a people of number, that is, soone numbred. See this fulfilled, Esay 1. 9. hearkenedst not] Chaldee, receivedst not the word Vers. 63. will rejoyce] although the destruction of the wicked is to themselves miserable, yet Gods judgements upon them are unto him, his Angels, and all the Saints, joyfull, Rev. 18. 20. Ps. 58. 11, 12. Ier. 51. 48. for, when the wicked perish, there is shouting joy, Prov. 11. 10. Vers. 64. and unto the end, &c.] that is, from one end of the earth to another. A like phrase is, from the end of the heavens unto the end of them, Matt. 24. 31. Mark. 13. 27. This dispersion of the Iewes is visible even to this day. serve other gods] the Chaldee expoundeth it, serve peoples that serve idols: but it implieth Gods judgment in giving them over to further sinne: see the notes on vers. 36. Vers. 65. not finde ease] or, not have quietnesse. Vnto this curse of the Law for sinne, is opposed the promise of grace in Christ, Ier. 31. 2. a trembling heart] in Greeke, a faint (or discouraged) heart. See Levit. 26. 36. Esay 1. 5. failing of eies] in Greeke, failing eies, that shall looke for deliverance, but not see it. pining of soule] in Greeke, a melting soule, that is, sorrowfull and fearefull. See Lev. 26. 16. 1 Sam. 2. 33. Vers. 66. hanging in doubt] that is, uncertaine, as after followeth. So the Greeke, thy life shall bee hanging before thine eies. not have assurance of thy life] or, not beleeve in thy life; in Greeke, not beleeve thy life; that is, have no assurance of it, but alwaies feare death. Vers. 67. Who will give] that is, O that it were evening: see Deut. 5. 29. A lively description of misery, wherein every houre by night or by day seemeth long and tedious. Compare Iob 7. 3, 4. Vers. 68. to Egypt] the house of bondage, Exod. 20. 2. and figure of spirituall bondage under sinne and Satan: in which estate the Law leaveth all men, till they be redeemed by grace in Christ. So another Prophet saith, They shall not dwell in I[illegible: 1 letter]hovahs land; but Ephraim shall returne to Egypt, and they shall eat uncleane things in Assyria, Hos. 9. 3.