Deuteronomychapter 28
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Key verse
“Now if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God and are careful to follow all His commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
It stands in Blessed in the city, blessed in the field, verses 1 to 14.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The blessings and the curses in full. Fourteen verses of blessings: blessed in the city and in the field, in the fruit of body, ground, cattle, store. Enemies smitten; blessings on the goings out and comings in. Then fifty-four verses of curses: cursed in city and field, in body, ground, cattle, store; consumption, fever, blasting, mildew, enemies, madness, blindness, oppression; wife taken, son taken, crops eaten by locust and palmer-worm; exile; serving gods of wood and stone; the besieged eating the flesh of their children. The prophets will quote this chapter for centuries. Moses publishes in advance the twin futures of obedience and apostasy, blessing and covenant curse.
Context
Law · Moses · Deuteronomy overview
The world behind this chapter
Deuteronomy 28The history
The chapter is Moses speaking in the fortieth year on the plains of Moab, continuing the address that chapter 27 broke off. The occasion is the ratification ordered in the chapter before, since the blessing and the curse assigned to two mountains there are given their content here. Albert Barnes reads the whole chapter as Moses resuming and enlarging what Exodus 23:20-33 and Leviticus 26 had already set out. A first hearer knew the goods the blessings are priced in, which are grain, wine, oil, cattle, children and rain in season. He knew that rain is the point on which Canaan differs from Egypt. Deuteronomy 11:10-11 had already drawn that contrast, between a land that drinks the rain of heaven and a field watered with the foot. He also knew what a long siege did to a city, which is why verses 53 to 57 could be stated without softening. The treaties of the surrounding world ended the same way, with a curse section far longer than the blessing. Meredith Kline set that correspondence out in Treaty of the Great King and Kenneth Kitchen in On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Moshe Weinfeld read the close verbal parallels with the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon of 672 BC as evidence for a seventh-century date.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
What it meant to them
For the first hearers this was the covenant showing its terms in the currency of an ordinary life. The land was a gift with conditions, and the conditions ran in both directions. The blessings describe a good life in a hill country rather than an empire, which told them what kind of future was being offered. Read later from exile, the chapter became the explanation of what had happened, and Daniel 9:11-14 prays it back to God from inside that exile.
Sources cited
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament , on Deuteronomy 28:1
- Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy , 1963
- Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament , 2003
- Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School , 1972
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch , on Deuteronomy 28:15
Where the chapter sits
Deuteronomy 28 falls in Third sermon, blessings and curses (chapters 27–30). Ebal and Gerizim; the blessings of obedience and the curses of apostasy; the choice set before Israel: life or death.
Blessings and curses. The long catalogue, obedience and life, apostasy and the scattering.
Before it: Second sermon, the law restated, chapters 5–26. After it: Final words, song, blessing, death, chapters 31–34.
The whole shape of Deuteronomy→The structure of this chapter
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Blessed in the city, blessed in the field
1. (vv. 1-2)
Deuteronomy 28:1
“A comparison of this chapter with Exo 23:20-23 and Lev. 26 will show how Moses here resumes and amplifies the promises and threats already set forth in the earlier records of the Law. The language rises in this chapter to the sublimest strains, especially in the latter part of it; and the prophecies respecting the dispersion and degradation of the Jewish nation in its later days are among the most remarkable in scripture. They are plain, precise, and circumstantial; and the fulfillment of them has been literal, complete, and undeniable. The Blessing.”
Deuteronomy 28:2
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:2
“And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee,.... After mentioned, which should come upon them from God from heaven, by the direction of his providence, and that freely and plentifully, and beyond their expectations and deserts, and continue with them: if thou shall hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God; obedience to the law being the condition of their coming and continuance; for only temporal blessings in the land of Canaan are here intended, as follow.”
Deuteronomy 28:2
“So you turn around, towards the sunlight of God's favor. You begin to walk towards it, away from the curses, into the area of blessings.”
Derek Prince· From Curse to Blessing (devotional)Pentecostal-Charismatic
Deuteronomy 28:2
“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?”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The blessing is made conditional twice over, at the head of verse 1 and again at the close of verse 2, and the condition both times is hearing. Barnes reads the whole chapter as Moses resuming and enlarging what Exodus 23:20-33 and Leviticus 26 had already set out, and the resemblance to Leviticus 26 is close enough to follow line by line. Verse 2 says the blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee, and overtake is the word for a pursuer closing on a man, used again of the curses at verse 45.
2. (vv. 3-6)
Deuteronomy 28:3
“Blessed shalt thou be in the city,....”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:3
“In the city - In all civil employments. In the field - in all agricultural pursuits.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:3
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 28:4
“Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body,.... Their children, of which they should have many, and these live; be healthful, thrive, and arrive to manhood, and increase and perpetuate their families.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:4
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:5
“Blessed shall be thy basket,.... Which the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem restrain to the basket of firstfruits, and the cake of the first of their dough; but it intends any and every vessel in which they put their provisions for present use, and that that should never be empty of them, and that they should always have a sufficiency: and thy store; what remained, and was laid up in their barns, cellars, and storehouses, for future use, or in proper places for seed.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:5
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:5
The prosperity of a city is dependent upon the supply of goods for sale in the market. We say that a country is prosperous which produces much fruit. So also there is a certain prosperity of the soul when it has been filled with works of every kind. It is necessary first for it to be laboriously cultivated and then to be enriched by the plentiful streams of heavenly waters, so as to bear fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold and to obtain the blessing which says, "Blessed shall be your barns and blessed your stores."
Basil of Caesarea· written before 379· EXEGETIC HOMILIES 14.5patristic
Deuteronomy 28:6
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:6
“Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. In all their business and employments of life whether within doors or without; in the administration of every office, whether more public or private; and in all their journeys going out and coming home; and particularly when they went out to war, and returned, all should be attended with success.”
Six blessings fall in pairs, city and field, coming in and going out, with the fruit of body, ground and cattle set between them. Each pair names two ends of a thing in order to take in everything that lies between, so the blessing covers a whole life without itemising it. Verses 16 to 19 repeat these four verses as curses in nearly the same words, with two changes worth holding side by side: the basket and store move ahead of the fruit, and the fruit of thy cattle drops out of the list.
3. (vv. 7-8)
Deuteronomy 28:7
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:8
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:8
“The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses,....”
Enemies come out one way and flee seven ways, and verse 25 turns the same sentence around so that Israel goes out one way and flees seven. Seven in that idiom carries completeness rather than a count of roads. The blessing of verse 8 is commanded rather than simply given, and it lands on the storehouses and on all that thou settest thine hand unto, which is work already in hand.
4. (vv. 9-10)
Deuteronomy 28:9
“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 should be firm and perpetual if they walked in the commandments of the Law.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Deuteronomy 28:10
“And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord,.... Called his children, his people, his portion, and his inheritance; and that they are his, and he is theirs, by the care he takes of them, the provision he makes for them, and the protection they have from him: and they shall be afraid of thee; as not only the Canaanites were, but all other nations; see Deu 11:25.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:10
“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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:10
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
An holy people unto himself is the language of Exodus 19:5-6 at Sinai, and the oath referred to is the one sworn there. Called by the name of the LORD means the name has been laid on them, the way the priestly blessing at Numbers 6:27 puts the name upon the children of Israel. What the nations see is the name and what they feel is fear, and Joshua 2:9-11 has Rahab describe that pairing from the other side.
5. (vv. 11-12)
Deuteronomy 28:11
“And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods,.... In all temporal good things, give them an affluence of them, even all things richly to enjoy; the Targum of Jonathan is,"the Word of the Lord shall, &c." in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground: increase their children, cattle, and substance, as before, Deu 28:4, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee; the land of Canaan, often thus described.”
Deuteronomy 28:12
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:12
“The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure,.... The Lord has his treasures of snow and of hail, and of wind, Job 38:22; but here his good treasure, as appears by what follows, is his treasure of rain.”
His good treasure is defined in the next clause as the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season. Rain is the point on which Canaan differs from Egypt, and Deuteronomy 11:10-11 had already drawn that contrast, a land that drinketh water of the rain of heaven set against a field watered with the foot. Lending to many nations and borrowing from none is reversed word for word at verse 44.
6. (vv. 13-14)
Deuteronomy 28:13
“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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:14
“And thou shall not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day,.... Depart from them as a rule to walk by, turn out from them as a path to walk in, neglect and disobey them, and go into practices contrary to them: turning to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them; which to do was to break the first and principal table of the law, than which nothing was more abominable and provoking to God.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:14
“Thou shalt not go aside - to the right hand or to the left - The way of obedience is a straight way; it goes right forward; he who declines either to right or left from this path goes astray and misses heaven.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Head and tail change places at verse 44, where the stranger takes the head and Israel the tail. Verse 14 states the condition in its simplest form, that they turn aside neither to the right hand nor to the left, and then names what turning aside would mean, to go after other gods to serve them. The blessing section therefore ends where the book keeps landing, on the danger of another god.
B. The same blessings turned inside out
1. (v. 15)
Deuteronomy 28:15
“The curses correspond in form and number Deu 28:15-19 to the blessings Deu 28:3-6, and the special modes in which these threats should be executed are described in five groups of denunciations Deut. 28:20-68. Deu 28:20-26 First series of judgments. The curse of God should rest on all they did, and should issue in manifold forms of disease, in famine, and in defeat in war. Deu 28:20 Vexation - Rather, confusion: the word in the original is used Deu 7:23; 1Sa 14:20 for the panic and disorder with which the curse of God smites His foes.”
Fourteen verses of blessing have run and fifty-four verses of curse now follow, and the imbalance is the shape of the chapter rather than an accident of transmission. Sixty-eight verses make this the second longest chapter in the Torah, behind Numbers 7. The same lopsided proportion appears in the vassal treaties of the second millennium, where the curse section runs far longer than the blessing, a correspondence Meredith Kline set out in Treaty of the Great King and Kenneth Kitchen in On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Verse 15 repeats verse 1 clause for clause with the negative inserted.
2. (vv. 16-19)
Deuteronomy 28:16
“Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. In Deu 28:16 the curses are delivered out in form, as the reverse of the blessings in Deu 28:3; and by observing what the blessings mean, the sense of the curses may easily be understood, the one being directly opposite to the other. See Gill on Deu 28:3.”
Deuteronomy 28:17
“Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. See Gill on Deu 28:5, Deu 28:16.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:17
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 28:18
“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. See Gill on Deu 28:4, Deu 28:16.”
Deuteronomy 28:19
“Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. See Gill on Deu 28:6, Deu 28:16.”
These four verses are verses 3 to 6 with cursed set where blessed stood. Two things move in the copying, the basket and store coming before the fruit rather than after, and the fruit of thy cattle dropping out of verse 18. Held in two columns, the curse reads as the blessing withdrawn item by item.
3. (vv. 20-22)
Deuteronomy 28:20
“The Lord shall send upon thee cursing,.... Which is either a general word for all that follows, or rather, since that had been expressed before in various instances, this may denote some particular judgment.”
3 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:20
“Cursing - This shall be thy state; vexation - grief, trouble, and anguish of heart; rebuke - continual judgments, and marks of God’s displeasure.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:20
“13 , My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry. 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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 28:20
“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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:21
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:22
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Verse 20 gives the reason before the list runs, because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. That me is God speaking inside a speech Moses is giving, and the person shifts back to the third at verse 21 without any mark. Verse 22 names seven afflictions in one line, four of them sicknesses of the body, one the sword, and two of them blasting and mildew that strike standing grain, so a single sentence reaches the man and his field together.
4. (vv. 23-24)
Deuteronomy 28:23
“By the heaven then being brass is signified its being shut up, and refusing its use to the earth. The earth also is iron, for it witholds its produce, and with hostile rigour excludes from its fructifying soil the seeds thrown upon it, which its wont is to cherish as in the bosom of a tender mother. For when does iron bring forth fruit, when does brass melt into showers?”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· Letters 61-70patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:23
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:24
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 26:19 had the heaven as iron and the earth as brass, and here the two metals trade places, brass overhead and iron underfoot. Both images say the sky will give nothing and the ground will take nothing, and the swap suggests two chapters drawing on a shared stock of covenant language rather than one copying the other exactly. Verse 24 turns rain into powder and dust, which Adam Clarke connected with the dust the desert wind carries into that country.
C. Defeat, madness, and a byword among nations
1. (vv. 25-26)
Deuteronomy 28:25
“The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten fore thine enemies,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:25
“It would make their flight the more shameful, and the more grievous, that they might have triumphed over their enemies if they had but been faithful to their God.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 28:26
“And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth,....”
Verse 7 is reversed exactly here, one way out and seven ways in flight, with Israel standing in the place the enemy held. Removed into all the kingdoms of the earth is the first of the chapter's scattering lines, and verse 64 takes it to its furthest reach. The unburied carcase of verse 26 is a horror on its own terms in that world, and Jeremiah 7:33 and 34:20 use the same picture of Judah before the exile.
2. (vv. 27-29)
Deuteronomy 28:27
“The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt,.... Which some understand of the leprosy, Of that sort of it called "elephantiasis", frequent among the Egyptians; See Gill on Lev 13:2. Thevenot (i) relates, that when the time of the increase of the Nile expires, the Egyptians are attended with sharp prickings in their skin like needles. So Vansleb says (k),"the waters of the Nile cause an itch in the skin, which troubles such as drink of them when the river increases.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:27
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:28
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:29
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:29
“And thou shalt grope at noon day as the blind gropeth in darkness,.... That is, being in darkness through the loss of their sight; otherwise the darkness and the light are alike to them, and they grope in the one as well as in the other.”
The botch of Egypt is the boil of Exodus 9:9, and Deuteronomy 7:15 had promised that God would put none of the evil diseases of Egypt upon them. The curse is that promise run backwards, and verse 60 says so outright. Madness, blindness and astonishment of heart move the affliction inward, and verse 29 has a man groping at noonday with the sun full up.
3. (vv. 30-31)
Deuteronomy 28:30
“Thou shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her,....”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:30
“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?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:30
“Their dearest comforts, which they took most pleasure in, and promised themselves most from, should be the entertainment and triumph of their enemies.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 28:31
“Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof,....”
Deuteronomy 20:5-7 excused three men from the army, one who had built a house and not dedicated it, one who had planted a vineyard and not eaten of it, and one who had betrothed a wife and not taken her. Verse 30 names those same three cases and takes all three away. The law that guarded a man's unfinished life is the frame this curse is written in, and verse 31 carries it into his livestock, ox, ass and sheep taken while he watches.
4. (vv. 32-34)
Deuteronomy 28:32
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:32
“Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people,....”
Deuteronomy 28:33
“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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:34
“So that thou shalt be mad, for the sight of thine eyes that thou shall see.”
The children are taken and the parent is left to watch, with eyes that look and fail with longing for them all the day long. Verse 33 hands the harvest to a nation which thou knowest not, who is the stranger rising at verse 43 and the far nation of verse 49. Verse 34 makes the madness an effect of what the eyes have seen, and verse 67 closes the chapter on that same sight.
5. (vv. 35-37)
Deuteronomy 28:35
“The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch, that cannot be healed,.... Which in those parts as it is very painful, so is not easily cured; and this which is threatened was incurable by the art of man, as others in Deu 28:27; and which should not stop there in the lower parts of the body, but proceed and spread: from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head; and so be filled with them, as Job was with his boils and ulcers.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:35
“With a sore botch - שחין shechin, an inflammatory swelling, a burning boil. See Deu 28:27.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:36
“And the Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shall set over thee,....”
3 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:36
“Can any thing be conceived more dreadful than the calamities threatened in these verses?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:36
“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. iv, 10. Wood and stone - So what formerly was their choice and delight now becomes their plague and misery.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:36
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 28:37
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:37
“And thou shall become an astonishment,.... To neighbouring nations, that shall hear of their overthrow and captivity, and that shall see the miserable condition they are brought into: a proverb and a byword among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee; both for the wickedness committed by them, and for the ill usage of them by the nations among whom they should be, as they were in the Babylonish captivity; see Jer 24:9; and now are, it being common to say,"do you think I am a Jew?''or,"none but a Jew would have done such a thing.''”
A sore botch from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head is the wording Job 2:7 uses of Job himself. Verse 36 brings the king into the curse, the one place in this chapter he appears, and the king law at Deuteronomy 17:14-20 stands behind it. 2 Kings 24:15 and 25:7 record two kings of Judah carried out of the land. An astonishment, a proverb, and a byword returns at 1 Kings 9:7-8 over the temple and at Jeremiah 24:9 over Judah.
D. Sowing much and gathering little
1. (vv. 38-42)
Deuteronomy 28:38
“Thou shall carry much seed into the field,.... And sow it plentifully; this and what is said in some following verses plainly refer to them while in their own land, before carried captive, and not to their present case and circumstances: and shall gather but little in at harvest; little springing up, or not coming to perfection, being blighted and blasted, and so yielded but a small crop; see Hag 1:9; and chiefly for the following reason: for the locust shall consume it; which is a great destroyer of the fruits of the earth; see Joe 1:4.”
Deuteronomy 28:39
“Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them,.... Plant them and prune them, in expectation of much fruit from them: but shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; so far from drinking of the wine of them, that they should not be able to gather any grapes from them: for the worms shall eat them; a sort of worms pernicious to vines, which the Greeks call "ipes", or "ikes" (o); and the Latins "convolvuli" and "volvoces", as Pliny (p). (o) See Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 27. col. 622, 623. (p) Nat. Hist. l. 17. c.”
Deuteronomy 28:40
“Thou shalt have olive trees throughout thy coasts,.... In the several parts of the land of Canaan, which is therefore called a land of olive oil, Deu 8:8, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; nor any other relations, friends, guests, as was usual at entertainments; see Psa 23:5; for the phrase "thyself" is not in the text.”
Deuteronomy 28:41
“Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shall not enjoy them,.... Or, "they shall not be thine" (q); being taken from them, and given to others, see Deu 28:32; and for the following reason: for they shall go into captivity; as when the ten tribes were carried captive by Shalmaneser, and the two tribes by Nebuchadnezzar, and all the people of the Jews by the Romans. (q) ולא יהיו לך "et non erunt tibi", Pagninus, Montanus.”
Deuteronomy 28:42
“All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume. Which is a creature that not only consumes grass, and herbs, and the corn of the field, but all green trees; see Exo 10:15. This sort here has its name from the shade they make, hiding the light of the sun, and darkening the face of the earth at no on day; or from the noise they make with their wings in flying; see Joe 2:5.”
Five verses of labour that comes to nothing, seed and locust, vineyard and worm, olive and dropped fruit, children and captivity, and the locust again. This curse works by leaving the work standing and removing the yield, a different stroke from the pestilence and the sword. Haggai 1:6 uses the same form of words about a later generation, ye have sown much, and bring in little, and Amos 4:9 lists the palmerworm among warnings Israel let pass.
2. (vv. 43-44)
Deuteronomy 28:43
“The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high,.... In wealth and riches, in power and authority, in honour and dignity.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:43
“So the ten tribes were by the colonies which the king of Assyria sent to take possession of their land, 2 Kings xvii. 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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 28:44
“He shall lend to thee, and thou shall not lend to him,.... The stranger, or one of another nation, shall be in a capacity of lending to the Jew, when the Jew would not be able to lend to the Gentile, his circumstances being so low and mean; to show which is the design of the expression, and not the kindness or unkindness of either; see Deu 28:12, he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail; he shall be ruler and governor, and thou shalt be subject to him; see Deu 28:13.”
The stranger is the man this book keeps under protection, at 10:18-19, 14:29 and 24:19-21, and here he rises above the household that sheltered him. Verse 44 undoes verses 12 and 13 clause by clause, lending becomes borrowing and the head becomes the tail. The reversal itself is the curse at this point, with no fresh affliction named.
3. (vv. 45-46)
Deuteronomy 28:45
“Moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee,.... Before related, as well as what follow: and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee till thou be destroyed; which though they would endeavour to flee from and escape, should not be able, since they would follow them so closely and swiftly, and overtake them, and seize upon them; see Deu 28:15, because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee; to which disobedience all the curses are to be imputed that go before or follow after.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:45
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 28:45
“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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:46
“And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder,....”
The curses pursue and overtake, which is the verb used of the blessings at verse 2, so both halves of the chapter close on a chase. Verse 46 calls them a sign and a wonder, and signs and wonders is the pair Deuteronomy 6:22 and 26:8 use of what God did to Egypt. The words that described the deliverance now describe the delivered nation, and upon thy seed for ever carries it past the generation standing there.
4. (vv. 47-48)
Deuteronomy 28:47
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 28:48
“Therefore shall thou serve thine enemies, which the Lord shall send against thee,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:48
“Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies - Because they would not serve God, therefore they became slaves to men.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Here the chapter states its ground, and the ground is the manner of the service. Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things, places the charge at the season when Israel had everything and served without gladness. Henry reads the sin as the abuse of plenty, and Calvin takes the joy required as the proof that obedience was willing, since it is grudging service the verse condemns. Verse 48 answers in kind, service for service, with a yoke of iron where the abundance had been, a figure Jeremiah 28:13-14 takes up again.
E. A nation from far, and a siege past bearing
1. (vv. 49-52)
Deuteronomy 28:49
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:50
“A nation of fierce countenance,....”
Deuteronomy 28:51
“And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle,....”
Deuteronomy 28:52
“He - Nebuchadnezzar first, (2Ki 25:1, 2Ki 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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The nation from far comes as swift as the eagle flieth and speaks a tongue thou shalt not understand, and Jeremiah 5:15 and Habakkuk 1:6-8 use both figures of Babylon. The text names no nation, and readers have applied it to Assyria, to Babylon and to Rome according to which siege they had in view. Verse 52 brings down the walls wherein thou trustedst and repeats in all thy gates twice in one verse, which leaves no city standing outside the sentence.
2. (vv. 53-55)
Deuteronomy 28:53
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 28:54
“So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate,....”
Deuteronomy 28:55
“So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat,....”
The siege turns a family on itself, and the text states it without softening, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters. 2 Kings 6:28-29 records it in the siege of Samaria and Lamentations 2:20 and 4:10 record it after the fall of Jerusalem, so the curse has two occasions in the Old Testament alone. Josephus reports it again in the siege of Jerusalem under Titus, in Wars of the Jews. Verses 54 and 55 add that the man who does it is the tender and delicate one, the least likely man in the camp.
3. (vv. 56-57)
Deuteronomy 28:56
“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 2Ki 6:29 (note); and Lev 26:29 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:57
“And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet,.... Or her secundine, "her afterbirth", as in the margin of our Bibles; so the Targum of Jonathan and Aben Ezra interpret it.”
The woman of verse 56 is described before her act is named, so delicate that she would not set the sole of her foot upon the ground. Her eye turns evil toward her husband, her son and her daughter, the same three degrees of nearness the man's case listed at verse 54. Verse 57 adds that the eating is done secretly, the one detail the man's case did not carry. The chapter states the case and leaves it standing without comment.
F. Back to Egypt in ships, and no buyer
1. (vv. 58-61)
Deuteronomy 28:59
“Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful,....”
Deuteronomy 28:60
“Moreover, he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt,....”
Deuteronomy 28:61
“Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law,.... Which is not here mentioned or threatened; and it suggests, that whatsoever sickness or disease that could be thought of or named, or were at any time in any place among men, might be expected to come upon them for their disobedience: them will the Lord bring upon thee until thou be destroyed; the Jews themselves (h) own this has been fulfilled on them. (h) Shebet Judah, p. 318.”
Verse 58 gives the condition again in a new form, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, and the King James prints THE LORD THY GOD in capitals here to mark the divine name standing in the Hebrew. Plagues wonderful uses the word applied to the marvellous works of God, which puts these sicknesses in the class of wonders. Verse 60 says the diseases of Egypt will return, the ones thou wast afraid of, and that answers Exodus 15:26 where God named himself the healer who would lay none of them on Israel. Verse 61 closes the list by refusing to close it, taking in every sickness which is not written in the book of this law.
2. (vv. 62-63)
Deuteronomy 28:62
“And ye shall be left few in number,....”
Deuteronomy 28:63
“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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude, reverses the promise sworn to Abraham at Genesis 15:5 and 22:17 and repeated to this generation at Deuteronomy 10:22. Verse 63 is the hardest sentence in the chapter, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, so he will rejoice over you to destroy you. Calvin and Gill both read the rejoicing as speech after the manner of men, describing the certainty and readiness of the act rather than pleasure taken in it, while other readers let the plain force of the word stand. Ezekiel 33:11 says God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and the two verses are commonly read together.
3. (vv. 64-66)
Deuteronomy 28:64
“And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even to the other,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:64
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:65
“And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest,.... No quiet settlement, nor certain dwelling, being obliged to move from place to place through cruel edicts, heavy fines and mulcts, exorbitant taxes and impositions, and diligent search made after them by the courts of the inquisition, especially where any substance was to be gotten.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 28:65
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:65
“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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 28:66
Perhaps you have heard of the prophecy of Christ's death. You ask to learn [from Moses] what is set forth concerning the cross. Not even this is passed over. It is displayed by the holy men with great plainness. For first Moses predicts it, and that even with a loud voice, when he says, "You shall see your Life hanging before your eyes and shall not believe."
Athanasius of Alexandria· written before 373· On the Incarnation of the Word 35patristic
Verse 64 is the line later readers have most often set beside subsequent history, scattered among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other. What the text itself puts there is the scattering and the service of other gods, wood and stone, repeating the wording of verse 36. The rest of the sentence describes the inside of a man, a trembling heart, failing of eyes, sorrow of mind, and a life hanging in doubt before him. No rest for the sole of the foot answers Genesis 8:9, where the dove found none and came back to the ark.
4. (vv. 67-68)
Deuteronomy 28:67
“In the morning thou shalt say, would God it were even,....”
Deuteronomy 28:68
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Morning and evening each become the wrong hour, and the reason given is the fear of thine heart and the sight of thine eyes, which sends a reader back to verse 34. The last curse is a return to Egypt by ships, and the speaker calls it the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again. Commentators point to Exodus 14:13 and to the king law at Deuteronomy 17:16, which forbids causing the people to return to Egypt, and they differ over which is meant. The chapter ends with the people offered for sale as bondmen and no man buying, so the last word is that the slave market itself has no use for them.
This page carries no textual note on Deuteronomy 28. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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