Deuteronomy 28:48-58

48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand,
50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young.
51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined.
52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you.
53 Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you.
54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children,
55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities.
56 The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter
57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.
58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God—

Deuteronomy 28:48-58 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 21

  • 1. Jeremiah 14:3; Lamentations 4:4
  • 2. Jeremiah 28:13-14; Lamentations 1:14
  • 3. Genesis 49:8
  • 4. S Leviticus 26:44
  • 5. Isa 5:26-30,26; Isaiah 7:18-20; Isaiah 39:3; Jeremiah 4:16; Jeremiah 5:15; Jeremiah 6:22; Jeremiah 25:32; Jeremiah 31:8; Habakkuk 1:6
  • 6. 2 Samuel 1:23; Jeremiah 4:13; Jeremiah 48:40; Jeremiah 49:22; Lamentations 4:19; Ezekiel 17:3; Hosea 8:1
  • 7. S Genesis 11:7; 1 Corinthians 14:21*
  • 8. Isaiah 47:6
  • 9. Psalms 4:7; Isaiah 36:17; Haggai 1:11
  • 10. S Numbers 18:12
  • 11. ver 33; Judges 6:4
  • 12. 2 Kings 6:24
  • 13. Jeremiah 10:18; Ezekiel 6:10; Zep 1:14-16,17
  • 14. ver 57; Leviticus 26:29; 2 Kings 6:28-29; Jeremiah 19:9; Lamentations 2:20; Lamentations 4:10
  • 15. 2 Kings 6:29
  • 16. ver 54; Isaiah 47:1
  • 17. Lamentations 4:10
  • 18. S ver 53
  • 19. Deuteronomy 31:24
  • 20. Psalms 96:4; Jeremiah 5:22; Malachi 1:14; Malachi 2:5; Malachi 3:5,16; Malachi 4:2
  • 21. S Exodus 3:15; S Joshua 7:9; Exodus 6:3
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