Deuteronomy Chapter 28
1 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the LORD your God's voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
2 All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to the LORD your God's voice.
3 You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field.
4 You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed.
6 You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out.
7 The LORD will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways.
8 The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
9 The LORD will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and walk in his ways.
10 All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the LORD's name, and they will be afraid of you.
11 The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
12 The LORD will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow.
13 The LORD will make you the head, and not the tail. You will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today, to observe and to do,
14 and shall not turn away from any of the words which I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the LORD your God's voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come on you and overtake you.
16 You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the field.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed.
19 You will be cursed when you come in, and you will be cursed when you go out.
20 The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me.
21 The LORD will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land where you go in to possess it.
22 The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew. They will pursue you until you perish.
23 Your sky that is over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron.
24 The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come down on you from the sky, until you are destroyed.
25 The LORD will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth amongst all the kingdoms of the earth.
26 Your dead bodies will be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there will be no one to frighten them away.
27 The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with the tumours, with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed.
28 The LORD will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of heart.
29 You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you.
30 You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won't dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit.
31 Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from before your face, and will not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you.
32 Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look, and fail with longing for them all day long. There will be no power in your hand.
33 A nation which you don't know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always,
34 so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad.
35 The LORD will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
36 The LORD will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone.
37 You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword amongst all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away.
38 You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in, for the locust will consume it.
39 You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat them.
40 You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won't anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off.
41 You will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity.
42 Locusts will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground.
43 The foreigner who is amongst you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower.
44 He will lend to you, and you won't lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
45 All these curses will come on you, and will pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you didn't listen to the LORD your God's voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you.
46 They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your offspring forever.
47 Because you didn't serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;
48 therefore you will serve your enemies whom the LORD sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies: a nation whose language you will not understand,
50 a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn't respect the elderly, nor show favour to the young.
51 They will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won't leave you grain, new wine, oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
52 They will besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you.
53 You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you.
54 The man who is tender amongst you, and very delicate, his eye will be evil towards his brother, towards the wife whom he loves, and towards the remnant of his children whom he has remaining,
55 so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left to him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates.
56 The tender and delicate woman amongst you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil towards the husband that she loves, towards her son, towards her daughter,
57 towards her young one who comes out from between her feet, and towards her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your gates.
58 If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD your God,
59 then the LORD will make your plagues and the plagues of your offspring fearful, even great plagues, and of long duration, and severe sicknesses, and of long duration.
60 He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they will cling to you.
61 Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring them on you until you are destroyed.
62 You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude, because you didn't listen to the LORD your God's voice.
63 It will happen that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be plucked from the land that you are going in to possess.
64 The LORD will scatter you amongst all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will serve other gods which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone.
65 Amongst these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul.
66 Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life.
67 In the morning you will say, "I wish it were evening!" and at evening you will say, "I wish it were morning!" for the fear of your heart which you will fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see.
68 The LORD will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I told to you that you would never see it again. There you will offer yourselves to your enemies for male and female slaves, and nobody will buy you.
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Deuteronomy Chapter 28 Guide
We now come to the commencement of the third discourse of Moses. It was preeminently the uttering of solemn warnings in which he laid before the people the results of disobedience and rebellion. He spoke first, however, of the blessings which would follow obedience. They were to have national preeminence. Temporal blessings of all kinds would abound. They were to have victory over their enemies in time of war. The purpose of their King, Jehovah, it was plainly declared, was to fill them with joy and make their path prosperous. They could, however, enter into His purpose only by obeying His law.
The effect of disobedience was then described as it would obtain among themselves. Adversity of every kind would overtake them. They would be smitten before their enemies, and persistent disobedience would result in their being driven out of the land into which God had brought them. The description of this expulsion proved eventually to have been a prophecy of what actually happened when they were carried away to Babylon. Continuing to speak prophetically, Moses uttered words which the centuries proved to be a detailed description of the Roman mastery of the land and the ultimate destruction of the city.
In view of so solemn a discourse as this delivered at the close of his period of leadership, it is indeed an appalling thing to think of how these people disobeyed the commandments, rebelled against God, and fulfilled to the letter all Moses had said. There can be but one explanation, and that the one to which the writer of the letter to the Hebrews referredunbelief. The story is a warning for us, revealing as it does the capacity of man for evil, and how, in spite of the clearest warnings, he is capable of disastrous disobedience. More is needed than the law which indicates the way and more than the prophet who urges obedience.
From "An Exposition of the Whole Bible" by G. Campbell Morgan.
Deuteronomy Chapter 28 Commentary
Chapter Outline
- The blessings for obedience -- (1-14)
- The curses for disobedience -- (15-44)
- Their ruin, if disobedient -- (45-68)
Verses 1-14
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.
Verses 15-44
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.
Verses 45-68
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, ver. #(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, ver. 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.
From the "Concise Commentary on the Bible" by Matthew Henry.