Deuteronomy 28:51-61

51 "Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish.

52 "¹It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the LORD your God has given you.

53 "²Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you.

54 "The man who is refined and very delicate among you shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain,

55 so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing * else left, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in all your towns.

56 "³The refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and refinement, shall be hostile toward the husband she cherishes and toward her son and daughter,

57 and toward her afterbirth which issues from between her legs and toward her children whom she bears; for ⁴she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in your towns.

58 "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to ⁵fear this honored and awesome ⁶name, the LORD your God,

59 then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses.

60 "⁷He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you.

61 "Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring on you ⁸until you are destroyed.

Deuteronomy 28:51-61 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 28

In this chapter Moses enlarges on the blessings and the curses which belong, the one to the doers, the other to the transgressors of the law; the blessings, De 28:1-14; the curses, some of which concern individual persons, others the whole nation and body of people, and that both under the former and present dispensations, and which had their fulfilment in their former captivities, and more especially in their present dispersion, De 28:15-68.

Cross References

• 1. Jeremiah 10:17, 18; Zephaniah 1:15, 16
• 2. Leviticus 26:29; 2 Kings 6:28, 29; Jeremiah 19:9; Lamentations 2:20; Lamentations 4:10
• 3. Lamentations 4:10
• 4. 2 Kings 6:28, 29; Lamentations 4:10
• 5. Psalms 99:3; Malachi 1:14
• 6. Isaiah 42:8
• 7. Deuteronomy 28:27
• 8. Deuteronomy 4:25, 26

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "fruit"
• [b]. Lit "gates"
• [c]. Lit "gates"
• [d]. Lit "fruit"
• [e]. Or "distress"
• [f]. Lit "tender"
• [g]. Lit "his eye shall be evil toward"
• [h]. Lit "of his bosom"
• [i]. Or "distress"
• [j]. Lit "gates"
• [k]. Lit "tender"
• [l]. Lit "tenderness"
• [m]. Lit "her eye shall be evil toward"
• [n]. Lit "of her bosom"
• [o]. Lit "feet"
• [p]. Or "distress"
• [q]. Lit "gates"
• [r]. Or "reverence"
• [s]. Heb "YHWH"
• [t]. Lit "plague on your seed"
• [u]. Lit "great"