Deuteronomy 28

Blessings for Obedience

1 "Now if you faithfully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all His commands I am giving you today, the Lord your God will put you far above all the nations of the earth.^[a]

2 All these blessings will come and overtake you, because you obey the Lord your God:

3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

4 Your descendants^[b] will be blessed, and your soil's produce, and the offspring of your livestock, including the young of your herds and the newborn of your flocks.^[c]

5 Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.

6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

7 "The Lord will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you from one direction but flee from you in seven directions.

8 The Lord will grant you a blessing on your storehouses and on everything you do;^[d] He will bless you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

9 The Lord will establish you as His holy people, as He swore to you, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in His ways.

10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the Lord's name, and they will stand in awe of you.

11 The Lord will make you prosper abundantly with children,^[e] the offspring of your livestock, and your soil's produce in the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.

12 The Lord will open for you His abundant storehouse, the sky, to give your land rain in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.

13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward if you listen to the Lord your God's commands I am giving you today and are careful to follow [them].

14 Do not turn aside to the right or the left from all the things I am commanding you today, and do not go after other gods to worship them.

Curses for Disobedience

15 "But if you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all His commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake you:^[f]

16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

17 Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed.

18 Your descendants^[g] will be cursed, and your soil's produce, the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks.

19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

20 The Lord will send against you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you do^[h] until you are destroyed and quickly perish, because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning Me.

21 The Lord will make pestilence cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land you are entering to possess.

22 The Lord will afflict you with wasting disease, fever, inflammation, burning heat, drought,^[i] blight, and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.

23 The sky above you will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.

24 The Lord will turn the rain of your land into falling^[j] dust; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land, and no one will scare them away.

27 "The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, tumors, a festering rash, and scabies, from which you cannot be cured.

28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and mental confusion,

29 so that at noon you will grope as a blind man gropes in the dark.^[k] You will not be successful in anything you do. You will only be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will help [you].

30 You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit.

31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will help you.

32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes grow weary looking for them every day. But you will be powerless to do anything.^[l]

33 A people you don't know will eat your soil's produce and everything you have labored for. You will only be oppressed and crushed continually.

34 You will be driven mad by what you see.

35 The Lord will afflict you on your knees and thighs with painful and incurable boils from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.^[m]

36 "The Lord will bring you and your king that you have appointed to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone.

37 You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.^[n]

38 "You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because locusts will devour it.

39 You will plant and cultivate vineyards but not drink the wine or gather [the grapes], because worms will eat them.

40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but not anoint yourself with oil, because your olives will drop off.

41 You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will be taken prisoner.

42 Whirring insects will take possession of all your trees and your land's produce.

43 The foreign resident among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower.

44 He will lend to you, but you won't lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.

45 "All these curses will come, pursue, and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commands and statutes He gave you.

46 These curses will be a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants forever.

47 Because you didn't serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, even though [you had] an abundance of everything,

48 you will serve your enemies the Lord will send against you, in famine, thirst, nakedness, and a lack of everything. He will place an iron yoke^[o] on your neck until He has destroyed you.

49 The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you don't understand,

50 a ruthless nation,^[p] showing no respect for the old and not sparing the young.

51 They will eat the offspring of your livestock and your soil's produce until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, oil, young of your herds, or newborn of your flocks until they cause you to perish.

52 They will besiege you within all your gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your gates throughout the land the Lord your God has given you.

53 "You will eat your children,^[q] the flesh of your sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you^[r] during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you.

54 The most sensitive and refined man among you will look grudgingly^[s] at his brother, the wife he embraces,^[t] and the rest of his children,

55 refusing to share with any of them his children's flesh that he will eat because he has nothing left during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you in all your towns.

56 The most sensitive and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her refinement and sensitivity, will begrudge the husband she embraces, her son, and her daughter,

57 the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything [else] during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you within your gates.

58 "If you are not careful to obey all the words of this law, which are written in this scroll, by fearing this glorious and awesome name-Yahweh, your God-

59 He will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses.

60 He will afflict you again with all the diseases of Egypt, which you dreaded, and they will cling to you.

61 The Lord will also inflict you with every sickness and plague not recorded in the book of this law, until you are destroyed.

62 Though you were as numerous as the stars of the sky, you will be left with only a few people, because you did not obey the Lord your God.

63 Just as the Lord was glad to cause you to prosper and to multiply you, so He will also be glad to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be deported from the land you are entering to possess.

64 Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

65 You will find no peace among those nations, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despondent spirit.

66 Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be in dread night and day, never certain of survival.

67 In the morning you will say, 'If only it were evening!' and in the evening you will say, 'If only it were morning!'-because of the dread you will have in your heart and because of what you will see.

68 The Lord will take you back in ships to Egypt by a route that I said you would never see again.^[u] There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy [you]."

Deuteronomy 28 Commentary

Chapter 28

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Lv 26:3-13
• [b]. Lit The fruit of your womb
• [c]. Dt 7:13
• [d]. Lit you put your hand to
• [e]. Lit abundantly in the fruit of your womb
• [f]. Lv 26:14-46
• [g]. Lit The fruit of your womb
• [h]. Lit you put your hand to
• [i]. Or sword
• [j]. Lit powder and
• [k]. Isa 59:9-10
• [l]. Lit day, and not for power your hand
• [m]. Isa 1:6
• [n]. 1 Kg 9:7; 2 Ch 7:20; Jr 24:9
• [o]. Jr 28:13-14
• [p]. Lit a nation strong of face
• [q]. Lit eat the fruit of your womb
• [r]. 2 Kg 6:25-29; Jr 19:9; Lm 2:20; 4:10
• [s]. Lit you his eye will be evil
• [t]. Lit wife of his bosom
• [u]. Dt 17:16

Chapter Summary

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.