Deuteronomy 28:32-42

32 Your sons and your daughters [shall be] given to other people, and {you will be looking on} {longingly} for them all day, {but you will be powerless to do anything}.
33 A people that you do not know shall consume the harvest of your land and all your labor, and you will be only oppressed and crushed {for the rest of your lives}.
34 You shall become mad {because of what your eyes shall see}.
35 Yahweh shall strike you with grievous boils on the knees and on the upper thighs [from which] {you will not be able to be healed}, from the sole of your foot and up to your crown.
36 Yahweh will bring you and your king whom you set up over you to a nation that you or your ancestors have not known, and there you will serve other gods [of] wood and stone.
37 And you will become a horror and a proverb and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you there.
38 "You shall carry out much seed to the field, but you shall gather little [produce], for the locust shall devour it.
39 You shall plant vineyards and you shall dress [them], but you shall not drink wine and you shall not gather grapes, for the worm shall eat it.
40 There shall be olive trees for you in all of your territory, but you shall not anoint [yourself], for your olives shall drop off.
41 You shall bear sons and daughters, but they shall not be {yours}, for they shall go into captivity.
42 The cricket shall take possession of all your trees and the fruit of your ground.

Deuteronomy 28:32-42 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.

Footnotes 12

  • [a]. Literally "your eyes [will] see/look"
  • [b]. Literally "wearing out"
  • [c]. Hebrew "to"
  • [d]. Literally "but there will not be for power of your hand"
  • [e]. Literally "all of the days"
  • [f]. Literally "from/by the sight of your eyes"
  • [g]. Literally "which not you are able to heal"
  • [h]. Or "fathers"
  • [i]. Or "cultivate"
  • [j]. That is, the produce
  • [k]. Hebrew "olive"
  • [l]. Literally "for you"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.