Deuteronomy 28:15

Compare all

13 And the Lord will make ^ayou the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you¹ heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.

14 ^aSo you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Curses on Disobedience

15 “But it shall come to pass, ^aif you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

18 “Cursed shall be the¹ fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

20 “The Lord will send on you ^acursing, ^bconfusion, and ^crebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.

21 The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess.

22 ^aThe Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with ^bscorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.

23 And ^ayour heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron.

24 The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

25 ^a“The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become¹ troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 ^aYour carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away.

27 The Lord will strike you with ^athe boils of Egypt, with ^btumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed.

28 The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and ^aconfusion of heart.

29 And you shall ^agrope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.

30 ^a“You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; ^byou shall build a house, but ^cyou shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes.

31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them.

32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to ^aanother people, and your eyes shall look and ^bfail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be¹ no strength in your ^chand.

33 A nation whom you have not known shall eat ^athe fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually.

34 So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see.

35 The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

36 “The Lord will ^abring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and ^bthere you shall serve other gods—wood and stone.

37 And you shall become ^aan astonishment, a proverb, ^band a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.

38 ^a“You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for ^bthe locust shall consume it.

39 You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the ^awine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.

40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off.

41 You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for ^athey shall go into captivity.

42 Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.

43 “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.

44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

45 “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you¹ did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.

46 And they shall be upon ^ayou for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.

47 ^a“Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, ^bfor the abundance of everything,

48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in ^ahunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He ^bwill put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.

49 ^aThe Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, ^bas swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand,

50 a nation of fierce countenance, ^awhich does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young.

Commentaries:

Barnes' Notes

<< Deuteronomy 28:14

Deuteronomy 28:16 >>

Deuteronomy 28:15-68

The curses correspond in form and number Deuteronomy 28:15-19 to the blessings Deuteronomy 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.

Deuteronomy 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.

Deuteronomy 28:20

Vexation - Rather, confusion: the word in the original is used Deuteronomy 7:23; I Samuel 14:20 for the panic and disorder with which the curse of God smites His foes.

Deuteronomy 28:22

"Blasting" denotes (compare Genesis 41:23) the result of the scorching east wind; "mildew" that of an untimely blight falling on the green ear, withering it and marring its produce.

Deuteronomy 28:24

When the heat is very great the atmosphere in Palestine is often filled with dust and sand; the wind is a burning sirocco, and the air comparable to the glowing heat at the mouth of a furnace.

Deuteronomy 28:25

Shalt be removed - See the margin. The threat differs from that in Leviticus 26:33, which refers to a dispersion of the people among the pagan. Here it is meant that they should be tossed to and fro at the will of others, driven from one country to another without any certain settlement.

Deuteronomy 28:27-37

Second series of judgments on the body, mind, and outward circumstances of the sinners.

Deuteronomy 28:27

The "botch" (rather "boil;" see Exodus 9:9), the "emerods" or tumors I Samuel 5:6, I Samuel 5:9, the "scab" and "itch" represent the various forms of the loathsome skin diseases which are common in Syria and Egypt.

Deuteronomy 28:28

Mental maladies shah be added to those sore bodily plagues, and should Deuteronomy 28:29-34 reduce the sufferers to powerlessness before their enemies and oppressors.

Blindness - Most probably mental blindness; compare Lamentations 4:14; Zephaniah 1:17; II Corinthians 3:14 ff.

Deuteronomy 28:30-33

See the marginal references for the fulfillment of these judgments.

Deuteronomy 28:38-48

Third series of judgments, affecting every kind of labor and enterprise until it had accomplished the total ruin of the nation, and its subjection to its enemies.

Deuteronomy 28:39

Worms - i. e. the vine-weevil. Naturalists prescribed elaborate precautions against its ravages.

Deuteronomy 28:40

Cast ... - Some prefer "shall be spoiled" or "plundered."

Deuteronomy 28:43, Deuteronomy 28:44

Contrast Deuteronomy 28:12 and Deuteronomy 28:13.

Deuteronomy 28:46

Forever - Yet "the remnant" Romans 9:27; Romans 11:5 would by faith and obedience become a holy seed.

Deuteronomy 28:49-58

Fourth series of judgments, descriptive of the calamities and horrors which should ensue when Israel should be subjugated by its foreign foes.

Deuteronomy 28:49

The description (compare the marginal references) applies undoubtedly to the Chaldeans, and in a degree to other nations also whom God raised up as ministers of vengeance upon apostate Israel (e. g. the Medes). But it only needs to read this part of the denunciation, and to compare it with the narrative of Josephus, to see that its full and exact accomplishment took place in the wars of Vespasian and Titus against the Jews, as indeed the Jews themselves generally admit.

The eagle - The Roman ensign; compare Matthew 24:28; and consult throughout this passage the marginal references.

Deuteronomy 28:54

Evil - i. e. grudging; compare Deuteronomy 15:9.

Deuteronomy 28:57

Young one - The "afterbirth" (see the margin). The Hebrew text in fact suggests an extremity of horror which the King James Version fails to exhibit. Compare II Kings 6:29.

Deuteronomy 28:58-68

Fifth series of judgments. The uprooting of Israel from the promised land, and its dispersion among other nations. Examine the marginal references.

Deuteronomy 28:58

In this book - i. e. in the book of the Law, or the Pentateuch in so far as it contains commands of God to Israel. Deuteronomy is included, but not exclusively intended. So Deuteronomy 28:61; compare Deuteronomy 27:3 and note, Deuteronomy 31:9.

Deuteronomy 28:66

Thy life shall hang in doubt before thee - i. e. shall be hanging as it were on a thread, and that before thine own eyes. The fathers regard this passage as suggesting in a secondary or mystical sense Christ hanging on the cross, as the life of the Jews who would not believe in Him.

Deuteronomy 28:68

This is the climax. As the Exodus from Egypt was as it were the birth of the nation into its covenant relationship with God, so the return to the house of bondage is in like manner the death of it. The mode of conveyance, "in ships," is added to heighten the contrast. They crossed the sea from Egypt with a high hand. the waves being parted before them. They should go back again cooped up in slaveships.

There ye shall be sold - Rather, "there shall ye offer yourselves, or be offered for sale." This denunciation was literally fulfilled on more than one occasion: most signally when many thousand Jews were sold into slavery and sent into Egypt by Titus; but also under Hadrian, when numbers were sold at Rachel' s grave Genesis 35:19.

No man shall buy you - i. e. no one shall venture even to employ you as slaves, regarding you as accursed of God, and to be shunned in everything.

<< Deuteronomy 28:14

Deuteronomy 28:16 >>

DISCLAIMER: Church of the Great God (CGG) provides these resources to aid the individual in studying the Bible. However, it is up to the individual to "prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21). The content of these resources does not necessarily reflect the views of CGG. They are provided for information purposes only.

Join 137,305+ readers

A Verse and a Thought,
Every Morning

Consistent Bible study is hard to start.

The Berean gives you the starting point: one scripture and a focused commentary in your inbox each morning — read it in minutes, or go as deep as you like.

Free, daily, and spam-free. We never share your address. Unsubscribe anytime.

Curses on Disobedience

A Verse and a Thought,Every Morning

A Verse and a Thought,
Every Morning