Deuteronomy 28:22

22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, ^[a] and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.

Deuteronomy 28:22 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 28:22

The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption
An emaciation of their bodies, either through famine or wasting diseases, whereby the fluids are washed off, and men are reduced to skin and bones:

and with a fever;
a hot burning disease, which dries up the radical moisture, consumes it, and so threatens with death; of which there are various sorts, and some very pestilential and mortal Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret it of a fire in the face, by which they seem to mean what is called St. Anthony's fire:

and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning;
either in the inward parts, as an inflammation of the lungs; or in the outward parts, as carbuncles, burning ulcers, and the like:

and with the sword;
in the margin it is, "with drought"; so Aben Ezra interprets the word, which seems better to suit with what it is in company with; and designs either drought in human bodies, occasioned by fevers, inflammations, and extreme burnings; or in the earth, through the force of the sun, and want of rain, which render the earth barren and unfruitful, and so cause a famine:

and with blasting and with mildew;
whereby the corn that is sown, and springs up, comes to nothing, being blasted by east winds, or turns pale and yellow by the mildew, and so withers away; the consequence of which is want of food, and so destruction and ruin; see ( Amos 4:9 ) ;

and they shall pursue thee until thou perish;
follow hard after them, and come so close one after another upon them, until they are utterly destroyed.

Deuteronomy 28:22 In-Context

20 The LORD will send curses upon you, confusion and reproof in all to which you put your hand, until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the wickedness you have committed in forsaking Him.

21 The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess.

22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.

23 The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.

24 The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Footnotes

• [a] Or sword