Jehovah will make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
Deuteronomy 28 sets out two futures for Israel in the land: one for obedience, one for refusal. Verse 21 belongs to the second, where disease becomes a tool in God's hand. It raises sharp questions. Does God send plague? Does "consumed" mean the end of Israel? And what does the chapter say to a reader who never lived under this covenant?
This chapter does not ask how God receives a guilty person. It describes how God governs a nation He has taken into relationship with Himself.
In Deuteronomy 28 we have the principles of God's government among that people, and the immediate consequences of obedience or disobedience. Those consequences were fulfilled with great solemnity in the fate of that unhappy people, who are still beloved for the fathers' sakes. Breaking the law, as a principle of relationship with God, had consequences for the question of a righteousness good enough to be the ground of God's acceptance. Do not confuse those with the temporary consequences of disobedience under the government of God.
The threats run far longer than the blessings. That imbalance says something about the arrangement itself.
Notice how chapter 28 unfolds God's governmental dealings. It develops the curses and presses them at far greater length than the blessings, though in a matching way. This is bound to stamp a character of its own on the relationship between God and the people. We are used to perfect and untiring love, so this gives us a somewhat painful feeling — not about whether it is right, but about standing in such a relationship... it makes us see what the position of law is for man's heart.
The verse does not say disease would break out. It says the LORD would make the pestilence stick to His people — it holds on rather than passing through. Scripture speaks of pestilence this way elsewhere too.
This is often mentioned along with the sword and the famine as punishment from God upon His rebellious people. Scripture represents it as sent directly by God Himself. When David had numbered the people, the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel, and 70,000 men died.
That episode is worth a pause. God gave David a choice of punishments, and David chose the plague.
David admits the great distress and confusion of his soul, but he chooses the last; and he was right. "Let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man." David preferred — and rightly, in my opinion — the direct hand of the LORD... But he chose a clear chastening inflicted by God's own hand, through the destroying angel.
The word sounds final, and readers have taken it that way. But the chapter itself decides the meaning.
Deuteronomy 28 uses the word six times of Israel, and never once does it mean their extinction: "Every sickness also and every affliction ... the LORD will bring upon you, until you are destroyed." Are they extinct? No — "you shall be left few in number". And after the curse has been fulfilled, Scripture adds, "the LORD your God will restore your fortunes"! (Deut. 30:1-3.)
(Older translations read this last phrase as "the LORD will turn your captivity".)
If the nation survives, why send the plague at all?
This was not merely punishment, but God's way of seeking to drive them back to Him. Yet it would continue until they perished, for God knew the stubbornness of their hearts. If they would only confess their guilt and turn from it, God would certainly forgive and restore them. But Israel's history so far has been one of rebellion.
Being "consumed from off the land" is the end of the chapter's road — but not the end of the story Moses tells.
In this same chapter He warns Israel with even greater detail and seriousness. If they will not listen to His voice, the LORD will send curses on them. Those curses will consume Israel from off the land and pursue them elsewhere, until they become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations... Further, in Deuteronomy 30, Moses declares what happens when Israel comes to repentance among the nations where they are driven. When they return to the LORD their God and obey His voice, He will turn their captivity. In His compassion He will gather them back and bring them into the land.
- Sphere — the chapter deals with God's government of a nation on earth. It is not about the righteousness that makes a person acceptable to God.
- Sender — the plague is not bad luck. Scripture presents it as sent directly by God, alongside sword and famine.
- Mercy — given his choice of punishments, David picked the plague because it came from God's own hand, whose mercy is very great.
- Scope — "consumed" never means Israel's extinction here. It means a people reduced, uprooted and scattered, left "few in number".
- Aim — the blow was meant to drive them back to God. Deuteronomy 30 promises that when they repent, He gathers them home.
Jehovah will smite thee with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with burning ague, and with drought, and with blight, and with mildew, and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
Moses is still listing what disobedience would cost Israel in the land, and here the blows fall on the body and the soil at once. Who sends them, what were they meant to do, and how did Israel answer?
Commentators are careful about what this chapter is measuring. The blessings and curses here belong to God's rule over a nation living in a land, not to the question of how a guilty person is accepted by God.
In Deuteronomy 28 we do not have law looked at in its own nature, as a question between God and man. We have law as the rule of earthly government, dealing with the circumstances of man. So here we have the blessing on one hand and the curse on the other.
The same writer draws the line plainly:
It is not a question therefore of dealing according to God's nature, but a matter of His ways in dealing with a nation in this world at that time, and nothing more.
The verse opens with two plain names for real illness. "Wasting disease" — older translations say "consumption" — names what the illness does to the body:
Wasting away of the body.
"Fever" carries the same everyday sense we give it now:
The words in the originals imply "a burning heat," so there is no doubt that they mean what we now call "fever."
The verse leaves nothing to chance or bad luck. The sickness, the scorching and the mildew come from one hand, and they carry a purpose beyond punishment.
Israel had disobeyed. So it would be the Lord Himself who would inflict on them wasting sickness, fever, inflammation, severe burning fever, the scourge of an enemy's sword, scorching and mildew (v.22). This was not merely punishment, but God's way of seeking to drive them back to Him. Yet it would continue until they perished, for God knew the stubbornness of their hearts. If they would only confess their guilt and turn from it, God would surely forgive and restore them, but Israel's history so far has been one of rebellion.
Blight and mildew did fall on Israel later. God carried out the threat, and it still failed to bend them.
He struck them with mildew and blight; the locusts came and ate up the plants; there were terrible plagues and other judgments, but they did not return to Him. Five times in this paragraph we find the same statement: "Yet you have not returned to Me."
One writer applies that failure to us. Trouble that leaves us unchanged is not a safe outcome:
God still governs on the same principle. Much of the chastening that falls on His people is meant to make them take their condition to heart... Every stroke of God's rod should stir deep searching of heart, and where it does not, a heavier chastening from His hand is sure to follow.
Verse 22 sits inside a section that dwarfs the promised blessings. One writer offers a reason.
Likely the reason is this. God knew well that Israel would soon turn away from Him in callous disobedience. So they would have no chance to know the blessings promised for obedience. They would have every chance to know the many curses that were their own choice.
Commentators do not leave the curse there. One writer shows who took it:
Above all, Christ has redeemed us from the curse by being made a curse for us; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" (Deut. 21:23). Christ bears our curse that we might receive blessing, and the promise of the Spirit, through faith in Christ.
- Sphere. Deuteronomy 28 is law as "the rule of earthly government" — national life, not how God accepts a soul.
- Source. The wasting sickness, fever, drought and mildew are not accidents: "it would be the Lord Himself who would inflict" them.
- Purpose. The rod aimed at recovery, "God's way of seeking to drive them back to Him," not at bare punishment.
- Response. Israel felt the rod and did not change: "Yet you have not returned to Me." A stroke that leaves the heart unsearched only invites a heavier one.
- Rescue. The curse itself fell on Christ, who "bears our curse that we might receive blessing."
And thy heavens which are over thy head shall be brass, and the earth which is under thee, iron.
The threat here turns the two things a farmer depends on — the sky above and the soil below — into metal. Israel's life hung on rain coming down and crops coming up. This one sentence shuts both doors at once.
The curse is not random. Both metals answer something in the people.
For this reason the heavens would be bronze and the earth iron (v.23). This would match their attitude. They could pray for material blessings or relief, but no loving answer would come from heaven. The sky would be as closed as their own heart. The earth would be like iron, not soft enough to produce anything, because their hearts were also hard.
The metal itself says something. It cannot yield. Leviticus pairs the same two metals in the opposite order. Older translations call the bronze of this verse brass or copper.
Copper is spoken of as a symbol of complete defence… The unyielding character of this metal also suggests judgment: "I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as copper" (Lev. 26:19). This order is reversed in Deut. 28:23.
Canaan was not Egypt. Egypt drew its water from a river. Canaan had to receive it from above.
What a vivid contrast between Egypt and Canaan! Egypt had no rain from heaven. It was all human effort there. Not so in the Lord's land. The human foot could do nothing there, and there was no need. The blessed rain from heaven fell on it. The Lord Himself cared for it and watered it with the early and the late rains… In Egypt they watered with the foot. In Canaan they looked up to heaven.
Withheld rain belongs to how God governs a people already in relationship with Him. It does not answer how God accepts a person.
Deuteronomy 28 gives us the principles of God's government among that people. It shows the immediate results of obedience or disobedience. Those results came true in the sad fate of that people, who are still loved for the sake of their fathers. Breaking the law had consequences as a principle of relationship with God — that is, as to a righteousness good enough to be the ground of God's acceptance. Do not confuse those with the temporary consequences of disobedience under God's government.
A closed sky was a message, not just a hardship.
The famine then was God's call to repentance, and should always have been taken that way… Even where there had been no public turning away from God, such trouble should always have brought them onto their faces, searching their hearts and asking, Why is this?
Israel had a way back, and would not take it.
When Solomon led Israel in prayer at the dedication of the temple, he thought of every kind of trouble that might come on the people, including the stopping of the rain. "When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them: then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants" (1 Kings 8:35-36). Mark the words, "if they pray toward this place." Israel did nothing of the kind in Elijah's day. Their hearts were stubborn. They felt no guilt. They were in no mood to humble themselves before God.
Centuries later, under Ahab, the nation lived through this very threat. The drought outside matched the condition inside.
Israel had sinned, and Israel must feel the rod of Jehovah's righteous anger. What a humbling picture of God's ancient people, to see their king going out to look for grass!… But God had been deeply dishonoured, and His truth rejected… so the heaven above was iron, and the earth beneath brass. The state of the land was simply the expression of Israel's hard heart and low moral condition.
- Hardness — the metal sky answers a metal heart; the sky is as closed to their prayers as they were to God.
- Dependence — Egypt drank from a river; Canaan lived on rain. A shut sky touched everything at once.
- Government — these are temporary consequences of disobedience for a people God already governs, not the terms on which He accepts anyone.
- Purpose — the drought was a call to repentance. Solomon's prayer named the way back: pray, confess, turn.
- Proof — under Ahab the threat came true; a king went out looking for grass, and the barren land showed the state of the heart.
Jehovah will give as the rain of thy land powder and dust; from the heavens shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed.
Moses has just said that the sky over Israel would be bronze and the ground iron. Verse 24 says what falls from that sky instead of rain. The answer is dust. The sentence then runs on to the word "destroyed," which raises a second question: how far does this curse go?
One writer points out that Moses puts the supply of rain in God's own storehouse.
Blessing can only ever come from God in the end, and so it is here too. A fine illustration of this from the Bible is rain. People in southern countries understand this best of all. Without rain there can be no life or growth. It comes from the clouds above, and so it pictures blessing coming down from God. In Deuteronomy 28 Moses explains the way of blessing to the people. He links rain to it directly, and links it to heaven: "The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands" (Deut. 28:12).
Shut that treasury, and everything stops.
What barrenness and desolation there must be when heaven is shut up! No refreshing showers coming down, no dewdrops falling, no contact between heaven and earth.
The rain does not simply stop. Something falls in its place.
The rains of their land would be exchanged for powder and dust (v.24). This is not only negative — a lack of rain — but an active curse, to cause great distress.
Israel later lived through this. One writer traces the drought back to what the nation had done with its worship.
Israel had sinned, and Israel had to feel the rod of God's righteous anger. What a humbling picture of God's ancient people, to see their king going out to look for grass! What a contrast between all this and the rich abundance and glory of Solomon's day! But God had been deeply dishonoured and His truth rejected. Jezebel had spread her poisonous principles through her wicked prophets, and Baal's altar had replaced the altar of God. So the heaven above was iron and the earth beneath brass. The physical state of things was nothing but the expression of Israel's hardness of heart and low moral condition.
A shut sky was not the last word. At the temple's dedication, Solomon had already prayed about a sky that gives no rain. One writer notes why Israel never used that remedy in Elijah's day.
"When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants" (1 Kings 8:35-36). Notice the words, "if they pray toward this place." Israel did nothing of the kind in Elijah's day. Their hearts were stubborn; there was no sense of guilt; and they were in no mood to humble themselves before God. As for the place God loved, they had turned their backs on it.
The verse ends with a heavy word. One commentator takes up the claim that it means a people wiped out for good. He answers it from this chapter.
Some say this word, shamad, means "utter extinction," so it must be the strongest of all these terms. Yet we find it used to predict the curse on Israel. As a nation they are still under that curse, and it is not "utter extinction," as the passage itself shows. "Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the LORD will bring upon you, until you are destroyed. Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number" (Deut. 28:61-62) — that is, not utterly extinct at all. Chapter 30 adds that when the blessing and the curse have all come on them, and they call them to mind and return to the LORD their God, He will bring them back from captivity. Here is national repentance and restoration predicted, after what is called "utter extinction." The word is found in Deuteronomy 28:20, 24, 45, 48, 51 and 61, translated "destroy," and in verse 63 "bring to nothing."
The law's blessings and curses all hung on one word. One writer contrasts that arrangement with the Christian's standing.
All of it was strictly conditional. It is, "If you walk... then I will give." Everything depended on their obedience, and that "If" proved fatal. The blessings promised were earthly and material... How great the contrast with the Christian's portion — blessed "in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3), and with no "if" attached.
- Gift — rain came out of God's "good treasury," so a watered field was blessing arriving from above.
- Reversal — the curse does not just hold back rain. Dust falls in its place: an active affliction, not a gap.
- Mirror — the iron sky expressed what was already true of Israel's heart. The weather matched the worship.
- Limit — "destroyed" is not extinction. Israel is left few in number, still a nation, still promised restoration if they return.
- Reopening — Solomon named the way back: acknowledge God's name, turn from sin, and pray toward the temple. Elijah's generation would not, and the sky stayed shut.