Jehovah will give thee up smitten before thine enemies; thou shalt go out against them one way, and by seven ways shalt thou flee before them; and thou shalt be driven hither and thither into all the kingdoms of the earth.
Deuteronomy 28 sets two futures before Israel: blessing if they obey, and curse if they turn away — and this verse belongs to the curse. It raises hard questions: why God spelled out defeat in advance, whether it came true, and whether it was ever the end of the story.
The balance of the chapter is itself a clue. One commentator ties the extra weight given to the warnings to what God already knew about the people He was addressing.
The section on the curses takes up far more space than the section on the blessings. The reason is likely this: God knew full well that Israel would soon turn away from Him in hard-hearted disobedience. So they would never get to enjoy the blessings promised for obedience. But they would have every opportunity to feel the many curses, which were really their own choice.
The verse names the LORD Himself as the one who hands Israel over. The defeat is drawn in numbers: out by one road, back by seven.
The Lord too would deliver them to humiliating defeat before their enemies (v.25). They would "go out one way," that is, in apparent unity, but would "flee seven ways," in total defeat and disarray. All nations also would consider Israel a troublesome people to all the earth.
Israel later went out to fight the Philistines and lost. One commentator points to that battle as this verse coming true.
Here God was making Israel feel the curse of a broken law. See Deut. 28:25. They could not stand before their enemies. Their disobedience had left them weak and powerless.
Their response showed where their confidence lay. They sent for the ark, the sacred chest of the covenant, instead of turning to God Himself.
Not a word about the Lord Himself. They did not think of Him as the source of their strength. They did not make Him their shield and defence. No! They trusted in the ark. They imagined it could save them, but that hope was empty.
The verse ends with all the kingdoms of the earth in view, not one battlefield. Translations differ on the last clause: the ESV says Israel will become a horror to those kingdoms, while others say Israel will be driven about among them. Either way, one writer treats the long record of Jewish history as proof that the warning came true.
God threatens the nation He called to blessing with the most terrible judgments and disasters. And all these have become historical facts. Jewish history through many weary centuries records how steadily these solemn words came true. So this chapter, in the curses foretold and then literally fulfilled, gives us powerful and valuable evidence of inspiration. The Jew and his history, the land and its ruin, are God's standing witness to the nations that the Bible is the Word of God.
The punishment was not an end in itself. It pointed somewhere, and one way back stayed open.
This was not just punishment. It was God's way of trying to drive them back to Him. Yet it would continue until they perished, for God knew the stubbornness of their hearts. If only they would confess their guilt and turn from it, God would surely forgive and restore them. But Israel's history up to now has been one of rebellion.
The blessings of this chapter hung on obedience, so failure lost them. But the loss is not the last word.
They have completely failed to obey, as we know, and so they have forfeited all those blessings. But, as we have seen again and again in Scripture, they are to be brought back. Grace will restore to them every blessing they forfeited. The righteous rule of the Lord Jesus Christ will keep them in the enjoyment of it.
Forgiveness and consequence are not the same thing. One commentator sets the two side by side.
"Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." The sin of sowing weeds may be forgiven, but the harvest still matches the sowing. Forgiveness is grace; the harvest is government. Each works in its own sphere, and neither interferes with the other.
- Disobedience — the curses fill most of the chapter, because God foresaw which future Israel would choose.
- Defeat — one road out, seven roads back: unity on the way to battle, scattering on the way home.
- Dispersion — the threat reached past one lost battle to all the kingdoms of the earth, and Jewish history records its fulfilment.
- Discipline — the blows aimed to drive them back to God, and forgiveness waited the moment they confessed.
- Deliverance — grace restores what disobedience forfeited, and the righteous rule of the Lord Jesus Christ keeps them in it. Even then, grace and government stay in their own spheres: forgiven sin still reaps its harvest.
And thy carcase shall be meat unto all the fowl of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no man to scare them away.
Moses is listing what will follow if Israel refuses to listen to God. Here the warning reaches the dead of a lost battle, left where they fell. Two questions press. Why does God speak this way to His own people? And is a warning this bleak His last word?
First, the category matters. This chapter is about how God governs a nation on earth. It is not about how God accepts a sinner.
In Deuteronomy 28 we have the principles of God's government among that people. We also have the immediate consequences of obedience or disobedience. Those consequences came true, in a most solemn way, in the fate of that unhappy people, still loved for the fathers' sakes. Breaking the law as a principle of relationship with God had its own consequences, in terms of a righteousness that was an adequate ground of God's acceptance. Do not confuse those with the temporary consequences of disobedience under the government of God. Chapter 28 is about the temporary ones.
The length of the warning is itself part of the message, and the lesson reaches past Israel.
It divides itself into two parts. In the first, we have a full and most blessed statement of the results of obedience. In the second, we have a solemn and moving statement of the awful consequences of disobedience… The section containing the curses is more than three times the length of the one containing the blessings. That one has fifteen verses; this one has fifty-three… All the nations of the earth may learn from Israel's remarkable history that God must punish disobedience, and that first of all in His own. And if He has not spared His own people, what shall be the end of those who do not know Him?
This is not a random disaster. It follows the defeat described just before. An army marches out together and scatters in every direction.
They would "go out one way," that is, in apparent unity, but would "flee seven ways," in total defeat and disarray.
The humiliation then goes further.
The nation would suffer further humiliation. Many of its dead would lie without burial. Birds and animals would feed on their dead bodies, with no one there to frighten them away (v.26).
To feel the sting, you have to know what a grave meant in Israel. Burial was more than custom. It carried a claim about the land itself.
There is also another thing here, and that is the honour of the grave… Burial was very important to the Jews. The reason, I have no doubt, is that in their earlier history it was a testimony that they were to have the land. They were told not to leave Joseph's bones in Egypt. You remember how they brought his bones up, no doubt as a testimony to the expectation of resurrection in the land.
Jeremiah draws on this book again and again. One of his lines points straight back to this verse.
Jeremiah quotes and refers to the Book of the Covenant too many times to mention. Here are a few from Deuteronomy… Compare Jer. 7:33 and Deut. 28:26.
When it happened, those who prayed admitted their sins deserved it. Still they brought the horror to God as something that touched Him.
They have given the dead bodies of His servants as food to the birds and beasts of prey. No doubt their sins have provoked the Lord to anger, and they own it to be so. But here are enemies of His. They have come in to slaughter those who at least were His servants, worshippers of His… Their blood ran like water around the city of peace, so that no one was left to bury them.
The picture does not stay fixed. In a coming day the roles switch. The nation that once lay unburied buries the invading army instead.
This burial of the slain shall be for Israel a renown. It will give them a name of fame, of honour, before all nations. They bury the foe, instead of lying buried themselves under the weight of Gog's invading army.
Two chapters later Moses himself shows that the curses are not the destination.
Further, in Deuteronomy 30 Moses declares what will happen 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 bring them back from captivity. In His compassion He will gather them and bring them into the land. He will not only bless and multiply them there, but put all the curses on their enemies and persecutors.
- Category. This is God's government of a nation on earth. It is not the ground on which He accepts anyone.
- Cause. The unburied dead follow the defeat of verse 25 — a people who march out united and scatter seven ways.
- Cost. Losing burial stripped Israel of the honour of the grave, which testified to their hold on the land.
- Confirmation. Jeremiah takes up this warning again, and later sufferers lay the horror before God as a reproach He should answer.
- Comeback. The day comes when Israel buries its enemies instead, and repentance brings them back, gathered and blessed.
Jehovah will smite thee with the ulcers of Egypt, and with boils, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
The verse names four afflictions, and the first carries the name of the country Israel had just left. Why would God threaten His own people with the diseases of Egypt? And what does such a threat say about the way He was dealing with them?
This chapter sets out God's rule over a nation on earth. It does not settle the separate question of how God accepts a guilty person.
In Deuteronomy 28 we have the principles of God's government among that people. We also have the immediate consequences of obedience or disobedience. Those consequences were solemnly fulfilled in the fate of that unhappy people, still loved for the fathers' sakes. Breaking the law had one set of consequences for the law as a way of relating to God — 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 God's government.
The list is physical and specific, and it continues into the next verses.
The Lord Himself would also strike them with boils, tumors, scabs and itching, and they would find no way of easing it (v.27). To this He would add madness, blindness and confusion of heart (v.28). Even in broad daylight they would grope about, trying to find their way. Oppressors and robbers would take advantage of them, and no one would step in for them (v.29).
Older translations call the second of these "emerods":
Hemorrhoids or tumours. One of the diseases of the Egyptians, and with which the Philistines were smitten when they had possession of the ark.
Naming Egypt is deliberate. God had already told Israel the opposite — that obedience would keep those very diseases away from them.
God promised Israel that if they would be obedient He would take away from them all sickness, and would put upon them none of the evil diseases of Egypt which they had known (Deut. 7:15). When the Lord was on earth He healed every sickness and every disease among the people (Matt. 9:35). On the ground of obedience they failed to gain freedom from diseases, but their Messiah healed them all in grace.
The proportions of the chapter itself carry a message.
In the first part we have a full and blessed statement of the results of obedience (verses 1-15). In the second we have a solemn and moving statement of the awful consequences of disobedience (verses 16-68). And it is striking that the section of curses is more than three times as long as the section of blessings... All the nations of the earth may learn from Israel's remarkable history that God must punish disobedience. And He punishes it first of all in His own people. And if He has not spared His own people, what shall be the end of those who do not know Him?
These were not empty threats. Words spoken before Israel entered the land still described the nation long afterwards.
In Deuteronomy 28 we get certain blessings and then curses. So in part of this chapter we see the condition Israel would remain in right down to the present day.
When the Philistines captured the ark, the plague named in this verse struck them. Their reaction carries a warning.
"The boils of Egypt, and tumors and scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed" were, according to Deut. 28:27, marks of the curse of an offended God. And healing was what the Philistines cared about most — a remedy, not for their diseased souls, but for their suffering bodies. How many today are eager to get healing for the body, while caring nothing for God's remedy for the sin-sick soul.
This verse links disease with disobedience. It was easy to flip that around and read every sore as God's verdict on the sufferer.
In Old Testament times, almost all God's dealings with people were on an earthly level. So people would take such an affliction as a special sign of His displeasure — at least those who had not learned the many uses of hardship in the school of God. We shall find that almost all of them — Job's friends, and even Job himself — held this mistaken view.
- Government, not acceptance. The threat here belongs to God's rule over a nation in this world; it is not the measure of how a soul stands before Him.
- Egypt returned. The diseases God had promised to withhold from an obedient people are the diseases He names as their punishment.
- Incurable. The verse leaves no cure in view, and Israel would find no way of easing what God sent.
- Verified. The Philistines felt this plague. Israel's later history worked out the chapter, and the curses fill three times more space than the blessings.
- Two mistakes. The Philistines wanted the body healed and left the soul untouched. Job's friends read every affliction as proof of God's anger.
Jehovah will smite thee with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart;
Deuteronomy 28 lists what follows if Israel obeys, and what follows if Israel refuses. This verse belongs to the second list, and the blow it names lands on the mind itself.
One writer measures the chapter's two halves:
It is striking that the section holding the curses is more than three times as long as the section holding the blessings. That one has fifteen verses; this one has fifty-three. The whole chapter is a striking commentary on the government of God. It shows in force that "our God is a consuming fire." All the nations of the earth may learn from Israel's remarkable history that God must punish disobedience. And He punishes it first of all in His own people. And if He has not spared His own people, what will be the end of those who do not know Him?
One writer marks off what this chapter is not about:
Breaking the law as a principle of relationship with God has its own consequences. They concern righteousness — whether there is an adequate ground for God's acceptance. Do not confuse those with the temporary consequences of disobedience under the government of God. Chapter 28 refers to these last.
All three blows named here fall on the mind. Older translations render the third one "astonishment of heart" or "confusion of heart," which is where the wording below comes from. The next verse shows what this looks like day to day:
The Lord Himself would also strike them with boils, tumours, scabs and itching that they would find no way of relieving (v.27). To this He would add mental derangement, blindness and confusion of heart (v.28). Even in broad daylight they would grope about, trying to find their way. Oppressors and robbers would take advantage of them, and no one would step in for them (v.29).
This judgment on the mind has fallen before, and never without cause. One writer shows the timing:
Worldly men ignore the clearest and most sensible ways to serve their own interests. Religious men wander from the simplest instructions of the truth. Nothing should surprise us. There is no folly, no unbelievable blindness of mind, that the deluded heart of man will not show. But God never sends this madness on a man until he has justly laid himself open to judgment. All the cases show this. Pharaoh, for instance, had forgotten Joseph in the deepest ingratitude. The Amorites of Canaan had filled up the measure of their sins.
God does not strike a mind at random. The judgment lands where a man has already earned it.
One writer finds this curse at work when Jesus walked through Israel's towns healing the sick:
They all needed the same grace of the divine physician. They did not know it. So, instead of knowing and confessing that "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint," they made sin an occasion for judging and comparing among themselves. It was useless, and deadly to them. The curse on disobedience (Deut. 28:28) had now struck them with madness, blindness and confusion of heart. Every city and village of theirs saw it as Jehovah their healer passed through, and they did not know it.
Moses spoke this chapter before any of it happened. Israel has read it ever since:
This is one of the most solemn chapters in the Pentateuch. Orthodox Jews read through all five books of Moses in their synagogues each year. When they read this chapter, the Rabbi reads in a subdued voice. They do well to read it quietly and think it over. This chapter records in advance the sad and sorrowful history of that remarkable nation.
Moses did not stop at the curse. Two chapters later he opens a door:
In Deuteronomy 30 Moses says more. One day Israel will repent among the nations where they have been driven. They will return to Jehovah their God and obey His voice. Then He will bring them back from captivity. In His compassion He will gather them and bring them into the land. There He will bless them and multiply them. And He will put all the curses on their enemies and persecutors.
- Government — This chapter is God ruling a nation on earth. Its curses are not the question of how God accepts a soul.
- Blindness — All three blows fall on the mind. The next verse pictures a man groping in full daylight.
- Ripened — God never sends this judgment until a person has already laid himself open to it. Pharaoh and the Amorites show the pattern.
- Unrecognised — The worst part is not the pain but the not knowing. Israel's healer walked through their villages, and they did not see Him.
- Reversible — The same Moses who spelled out the curse also promised mercy. A people that repents will be gathered and brought home.
and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways; and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled continually, and there shall be none to save.
This curse falls on a people who have turned from God. It describes a strange misery: full daylight, yet no ability to see, and constant loss with nobody stepping in. Two questions press. Is this judgment eternal, or something temporary? And why would God answer disobedience by taking away sight?
This chapter deals with God's government of Israel as a nation in the land. One writer keeps that separate from the question of how a person stands accepted before God.
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 solemnly fulfilled in the fate of that unhappy people, still beloved for the sake of their fathers. Take the law as the principle of relationship with God, and breaking it has its own consequences: the question then is whether a person has a righteousness good enough to be the ground of God's acceptance. Do not confuse that with the temporary consequences of disobedience under God's government. Chapter 28 speaks of the second.
The verse continues the list of afflictions from the verses just before it. It adds a social collapse to the physical one.
Even in broad daylight they would grope, trying to find their way. Oppressors and robbers would take advantage of them, and no one would step in for them (v.29).
Groping at noon is a contradiction — the light is there, the eyes are not. Commentators trace a settled pattern in God's dealings that explains it.
A principle of judgment runs through God's dealings with people down the ages: when they have despised and resisted light from God, He sends blindness. So Pharaoh's heart was hardened. The Jews are another instance. Jesus warned them: "Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you… While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light" (John 12:35-36). They rejected the Saviour, and then rejected the testimony of the Holy Spirit from Pentecost onwards. So Paul writes in Romans 11 that "a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" (Rom. 11:25).
That blindness struck hardest when Israel's own healer walked through their towns and villages.
They had now been struck with madness, blindness and confusion of mind, according to the curse on disobedience (Deut. 28:28). The LORD their healer was passing through every city and village of theirs. They saw it, and did not know it.
Moses spoke this curse as a warning. A later prophet puts almost the same words into the mouth of the people themselves, as a confession.
He was among them as the "Light of the world" (John 8:12); but this did not help their moral perception, for to them noonday was no better than night. The light shone; but they were blind. Had they confessed their true state then, as they will do in a later day, they would have said, "We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight" (Isa. 59:10).
(Older translations end Isaiah 59:10 with "we stumble at noonday as in the night" — closer to the wording of this verse.)
The same book that spells out the groping and the plundering also spells out the way back, and it turns on repentance rather than on any fresh performance.
In Deuteronomy 30 Moses declares what will happen when Israel comes to repentance among the nations where they are driven, and returns to the LORD their God, and obeys His voice. Then He will restore them from captivity. In His compassion He will gather them back and bring them into the land. He will not only bless and multiply them there, but also put all the curses on their enemies and persecutors.
- Government, not damnation. Chapter 28 sets out the temporary consequences of disobedience under God's government of Israel. It is not about the righteousness that makes a person acceptable to God.
- Light refused, sight removed. When people despise and resist light from God, He sends blindness. Pharaoh is one example, Israel another.
- Noonday as night. The Light of the world walked their streets and healed their diseases. They did not recognise Him — daylight all around, and no eyes to use it.
- No one to save. Beyond the blindness comes the plundering, and the sting of the verse is the last line: nobody steps in to help.
- Repentance reopens the door. Deuteronomy 30 promises a way back. When the scattered people turn to God and obey His voice, He will gather them, bless them in the land, and turn the curses on their oppressors.
Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her; thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not eat of it.
Moses is warning a nation about to enter its land, and here the warning turns personal: a wife lost to another man, a house never lived in, a vineyard never enjoyed. Does such loss say anything about a person's standing before God?
Verse 30 sits in the second half of a chapter that opens with blessings. One writer counts the space given to each half.
In the first, we have a full and most blessed statement of the results of obedience. In the second we have a solemn and moving statement of the terrible consequences of disobedience. And it must strike us that the section holding the curses is more than three times the length of the one holding the blessings. That one has fifteen verses; this one has fifty-three. The whole chapter is a powerful commentary on the government of God.
These losses belong to God's government of a people on earth. That is a different question from how God accepts a person.
The law can be broken as a principle of relationship with God — that is the question of a righteousness good enough to be the ground of God's acceptance. Those consequences must not be confused with the temporary consequences of disobedience under the government of God. Chapter 28 has to do with these latter ones.
The blessings earlier in the chapter work the same way. Another writer says what they cannot give a guilty conscience.
It is merely national. It has nothing to do with the soul in the sight of God… This is not what a poor soul wants. It in no way meets a sense of guilt or a dread of judgment. The sinner needs something that will stand for ever. He wants what will be in heaven, and not merely in the field or in the city.
The first loss named is not a broken engagement in the modern sense.
Among the Jews this was looked on as being as binding as marriage, and could not be dissolved except by divorce. Certain laws were given about a betrothed woman. Ex. 21:8-9; Deut. 20:7; Deut. 28:30.
One writer takes the three losses in order and traces each to disobedience.
One might be engaged to marry a woman and another man commit fornication with her (v.30)… But when disobedient to God, an Israelite might build a house and never live in it, or he might plant a vineyard and never enjoy its fruits.
Earlier in the same book, those same three cases were grounds for sending a man home from the army.
A man might have built a new house and not lived in it. He might have planted a vineyard and not eaten from it. He might have betrothed a wife and not taken her. In each case nothing was to part a man from what he was pursuing. There was to be no bringing homesickness onto the battlefield.
One writer traces these words into Israel's later history.
Have not the predictions of Moses (Deut. 28:30-33) been fulfilled to the very letter? Those to whom the land of Canaan belongs are strangers in it to this day.
One writer applies the same principle to Christian service today.
Whatever planting we do, whatever energy we have in declaring the Word of God to others, it will bear little fruit if we ourselves are guilty of disobedience to God. How important that our spoken words be backed by a faithful, practical life!
A later promise to the same people reverses this verse point by point. The writer quotes Isaiah from an older translation.
"And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit… My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain" (Isaiah 65:21-22). Now all this is very cheering… It is not the eternal state, but a day of great glory.
- Government. This verse is about God's government of a nation on earth. It deals with the consequences of disobedience, not with how God accepts a person.
- Weight. The curses run more than three times longer than the blessings. The chapter is one long commentary on God's government of His own people.
- Aim. The losses fall on wife, house and vineyard. Those are the same three cases that once sent a man home from the battle.
- Fulfilment. These words came true to the letter. The people who own the land have lived in it as strangers.
- Reversal. A later promise undoes the exact wording. They will build and live in their houses, plant and eat the fruit, and not labour in vain.
Thine ox shall be slaughtered before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof; thine ass shall be snatched away from before thy face, and shall not return to thee; thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to recover them.
This verse sits deep inside a long list of what would follow if Israel disobeyed God. A man watches his ox killed, his donkey seized and his sheep handed to enemies, and nobody steps in — so is this curse God's last word?
A curse can mean two very different things, and commentators keep them apart.
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 in the fate of that unhappy people, who are still loved for the sake of their fathers. There are also consequences of breaking the law taken as a principle of relationship with God — the question of a righteousness that was adequate ground for God's acceptance. The two must not be confused. Chapter 28 deals with the temporary consequences of disobedience under the government of God. As for Israel, the whole of history shows us the fulfilment of the threats of this chapter.
The verse is one line in a run of losses. Each one takes away something a family owned and worked for.
If an Israelite disobeyed God, he might build a house and never live in it. He might plant a vineyard and never enjoy its fruit. Their livestock might be killed in front of them, yet do them no good. Or someone might take their livestock by force and never give it back.
The verse ends with the worst part: nobody steps in. One writer traces that back to what a nation loses when it deserts God.
When God has entrusted a government to men, He has the right to take it away from them completely. He can hand them over as prey to those He gives the power to. So it would soon go with the nations conquered by Babylon. The same fate would fall on Israel, which once stood as one whole under God's government. It had deserted the Lord, and God would leave it without king, without prince, and without help against the enemy (Isaiah 63:19; Hosea 3:4).
The size of each half of the chapter is itself a message.
The section that contains the curses is more than three times the length of the one that contains the blessings. That one has fifteen verses; this one has fifty-three. The whole chapter gives an impressive commentary on the government of God, and a powerful illustration of the truth that "our God is a consuming fire." All the nations of the earth may learn from Israel's remarkable history that God must punish disobedience, and that He does so first of all in His own people. And if He has not spared His own people, what shall be the end of those who do not know Him?
This was not a forgotten threat. Centuries later Jeremiah warned Judah in the words of this chapter.
Jeremiah 5:15, "Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the LORD… a nation whose language you do not know," is a quotation from Deuteronomy 28:49. Jeremiah 5:17, "They shall eat up your harvest and your food," comes from Leviticus 26:16 and Deuteronomy 28:31.
The threat is not the end of the story. Two chapters later Moses sets out what happens when the scattered people turn back.
In Deuteronomy 30 Moses declares what will happen when Israel come to repentance among the nations where they are driven. They will return to the LORD their God and obey His voice. Then He will bring them back from captivity. In His compassion He will gather them and bring them into the land. He will not only bless them and make them many there, but also put all the curses on their enemies and persecutors.
- Government, not acceptance. This chapter is about God's rule over a nation on earth. It shows the immediate results of obedience and disobedience, not how a soul is accepted by God.
- Loss, item by item. The ox, then the donkey, then the sheep: each one owned, none enjoyed, none given back.
- Helplessness. The sting is that no one rescues. When a people deserts God, He can take back the government He gave and hand them over as prey.
- Weight of warning. Fifty-three verses of curse against fifteen of blessing. God must punish disobedience, and He begins with His own people.
- Not the end. The same voice that gave this threat also gave a promise. If the scattered people repent, God brings them home and turns the curses on their persecutors.
Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and languish for them all the day long; and there shall be no power in thy hand [to help it].
Here Moses names the cost of disobedience in the most personal terms. Not fields, not livestock, but children — handed to another nation while their parents look on, helpless. What kind of curse is this, and is there anything beyond it?
The verse leaves the parents two things: eyes that keep looking, and hands with no power. One writer describes them, then follows one captive child into a later part of Israel's story:
Their sons and daughters would be taken captive and given as slaves to people of another nation. That would leave the parents in deep anxiety, with no power to do anything about it (v.32). Take one example. A little girl was taken from her home to be a slave for the wife of Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5:2). How would her parents feel about this? Yet in the little girl's own heart the grace of God won a beautiful victory. It lifted her above the pain of being torn from her country and her relatives. She truly cared about the health of the man who had taken her captive (v.3). This is a lovely picture of a great truth. However devastating the results of disobedience to God may be, the grace of God can overcome them where there is an honest turning to Him.
These blessings and curses concern a nation's life on earth — its city, its fields, its families — and not a person's standing before God. That distinction matters for anyone who reads the chapter and fears it describes their eternal state:
Blessed in the city, blessed in the field, if you listen to the voice of Jehovah your God — this is not what a poor soul wants. It does nothing for a guilty conscience or a fear of judgment. The sinner needs something that will last for ever. He wants what will be in heaven, not just in the field or in the city. He wants God to accept him, not just to receive in his basket and his storehouse. There is nothing of that sort here.
Another writer sums up the chapter the same way: it sets out blessing and cursing "with respect to God's government," and the history of Israel supplies the facts.
Verse 32 sits in a run of warnings that one writer says Israel's history has already matched:
Since Solomon's death, how different has Israel's past been! The brotherhood between Israel and Judah was broken... and since the kingdom of Israel fell, have not the predictions of Moses (Deut. 28:30-33) been fulfilled to the very letter? Those to whom the land of Canaan belongs are strangers in it to this day.
Writing on a matching prophecy about boys and girls being sold, another writer points to what followed the fall of Jerusalem:
These words were fulfilled during the Babylonian captivity and in that great dispersion brought about by the Roman Empire. After the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 the very thing happened that the prophet spoke of... More than 100,000 were taken prisoner. According to Josephus, Titus dealt with these Jews in this way: "Those under seventeen years of age were sold in public. Of the rest, some were executed at once, some were sent away to work in the Egyptian mines, and some were kept for public shows to fight with wild beasts in the chief cities. Only the tallest and best-looking were kept for the victory parade in Rome."
Moses does not stop with the curse. The same speech that sets out God's government of Israel also promises a return:
Moses declares in Deuteronomy 28 the principles of God's government of Israel. But the sum of it all is the blessing of Jehovah in the land which He gives them, according to His oath to the fathers. In this same chapter He warns Israel with even greater detail and weight. If they will not listen to His voice, Jehovah will send curses on them. Those curses will consume Israel out of the land and follow them elsewhere. All nations will be shocked at them and will use their name as a proverb and a byword... Further, in Deuteronomy 30, Moses declares more. When Israel comes to repentance among the nations where they are driven, and returns to Jehovah their God and obeys His voice, then He will bring them back from captivity. In His compassion He will gather them and bring them into the land. There He will not only bless them and multiply them. He will also put all the curses on their enemies and persecutors.
The chapter's strongest word for ruin points the same way. One writer notes that "destroy" appears six times in Deuteronomy 28 about Israel, and it "never once signifies their extinction." The same book goes on to promise that God will bring them back from captivity.
- Loss — Children handed to another nation, watched all day long, with nothing the parents can do. The curse strikes a family where it is most tender.
- Level — The blessing and the curse here are national and earthly. They settle a people's life in the land, not a soul's acceptance with God.
- Literal — Writers read verses 30–33 as fulfilled "to the very letter." Jewish children were sold in public after Jerusalem fell in AD 70.
- Limit — "Destroy" in this chapter never means the end of Israel. The same Moses who spoke the curse also promised a return from captivity.
- Light — The captive girl in Naaman's house shows grace at work inside the judgment itself. No ruin from disobedience is beyond God's reach where there is an honest turning to Him.
The fruit of thy ground and all thy labour, shall a people that thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed continually.
Moses is still listing what will follow if Israel turns away from God. Here the harvest of their own fields goes to a people they have never met. Two questions follow. Why would God let strangers live off His people's work? And does a warning this severe touch a believer's standing with God, or only his circumstances?
Commentators are careful to mark off this chapter from the one before it. The curses listed here are not about a person's eternal acceptance, but about life in the land:
In Deuteronomy 28 we have law, not looked at in its own nature as a question between God and man, but regarded as the rule of earthly government, as having to do with the circumstances of man. And here accordingly we have the blessing on the one hand and the curse on the other. Nothing can be plainer than the teaching conveyed once the idea is grasped.
That distinction has a practical edge. The losses described are real and measurable, yet they belong to a different order from the question of righteousness before God:
In Deuteronomy 28 we have the principles of God's government among that people, and the immediate consequences of obedience or disobedience. Those consequences came true, with awful solemnity, in the fate of that unhappy people — still loved for the sake of their fathers. Breaking the law as a principle of relationship with God brings its own consequences. There the question is a righteousness good enough to be the ground of God's acceptance. Do not confuse that with the temporary consequences of disobedience under God's government. Chapter 28 is about the second kind.
The threat is invasion, then confiscation, then a mind that breaks under what it has to watch:
A foreign nation, before unknown to Israel, would come from a distance to overrun their land, oppressing and crushing the people and eating what they had produced for themselves (v.33). So Israel would lose their minds at the sight of things too terrible to bear (v.34).
Earlier in the same chapter God had promised the opposite. One writer sets promise and threat side by side, then brings the lesson forward to God's children now:
This is the fulfilment of the promises God made to His people on condition that they observed and kept His commandments (see Deut. 28:1-12). The contrast stands in that same chapter. There God warns them that, if they turned aside from His statutes and laws, others would eat the fruit of their land and all their labours (v. 33). And let it not be forgotten that there is a sense in which this may be true now of the children of God. If they walk with no regard for His word, and have themselves as their object, God will often step in and deal with them in their circumstances. How many have decided to get on in the world! They have worked long and hard to secure their ends. Then, just as the goal came in sight, all the fruit of their toil vanished!
Later in the chapter Moses names the root of the loss. It is not some great crime. It is taking God's plenty without gladness:
Deuteronomy gives us one more solemn word of warning. It is the only other mention of joy in the book. I refer to Deuteronomy 28:47-48: "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything." When joy fails, we lose the possession in practice — here, on our tested path. Is there no danger for us? … How we need to guard the heart, with care and watchfulness, against the first weakening of joy! It shows that decline has begun. Once the heart begins to go, the fall is easy and fast.
The words did not stay on the page. One writer points to Israel's later history:
Have the predictions of Moses (Deut. 28:30-33) not come true to the very letter? Those to whom the land of Canaan belongs are strangers in it to this day.
Yet Moses did not stop with the curse. Two chapters later he promises a reversal:
Further, in Deuteronomy 30 Moses declares this. When Israel come to repentance among the nations where they are driven, and return to the LORD their God, and obey His voice, then He will bring them back from captivity. In His compassion He will gather them home and bring them into the land. He will not only bless and multiply them there, but also put all the curses on their enemies and persecutors.
- Cause — service without joy. God gives plenty, the heart withholds gladness, and decline begins at the first weakening of joy.
- Loss — the promise turns inside out. Instead of eating the fruit of his own labour, the disobedient man watches strangers eat it.
- Scope — this is God's government of life on earth, not the question of acceptance before Him. The consequences are real, but temporary.
- Reach — the principle still touches God's children. When they disregard His word, He deals with them in their circumstances.
- Hope — the curse is not the last word. When they repent and return, God gathers His people back and turns the curses on their oppressors.
And thou shalt be mad through the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
Moses is listing what will follow if the nation turns away from God. Here the punishment is not disease or defeat. The mind itself gives way. The eyes do the damage — which raises two questions. Where does such a judgment come from, and does it ever end?
Where does a curse like this belong? Kelly answers by comparing this chapter with the one before it.
Paul is not dealing merely with what belongs to the present life. He is looking at law as that which brings in the curse forever. Using this light then, it is not a question of present things, but of a curse in the sight of God. This gives the true key to the passage as compared with the next chapter. We shall see that the blessings and the curses of Deuteronomy 28 belong strictly to the actual curse of man here below.
So the madness of verse 34 falls in this present life. It is not the curse that stands before God forever.
Leslie Grant reads verse 34 together with the verse before it.
A foreign nation, unknown to Israel before, would come from far away to overrun their land. They would oppress and crush the people and eat what Israel had produced for themselves (v.33). So Israel would go insane from watching things they could not bear (v.34).
The eyes are the instrument. Nothing touches the mind directly. It collapses under what it cannot stop and cannot forget.
One writer treats this darkened mind as something God sends, and names the point at which He sends it.
Worldly men break the clearest and most sensible rules of their own interests. Religious men wander from the simplest instructions of the truth. We are not to wonder at anything. The very idols which men have taken as spoils of war, they have afterwards bowed down to as their gods (2 Chron. 25:14). But this madness is never sent out to visit man until he has righteously exposed himself to judgment. All the cases show this. Pharaoh, for instance, had, in deepest ingratitude, forgotten Joseph. The Amorites of Canaan had filled up the measure of their sins.
Arno Gaebelein points to how Jewish congregations handle this chapter.
Orthodox Jews read through all five books of Moses in their synagogues each year. When they reach this chapter, the Rabbi reads in a lowered voice. They do well to read it quietly and think it over. The sad and sorrowful history of that wonderful nation is written here in advance... Here are arguments for the divine, the supernatural origin of this book, and no unbeliever has ever been able to answer them.
The same writer does not leave the chapter with Israel.
It would take a great many pages to follow the different predictions and show how literally they were fulfilled. The nation turned away from the Lord and disobeyed His Word. What a warning this chapter is to the non-Jewish Christian world! "If God did not spare the natural branches, take care in case He does not spare you either" (Rom. 11:21). Moses clearly predicted the Roman power that would later break the Jews, and that at a time when no such power existed (verses 49-50). The eagle was the standard of the Roman armies. The Jews understood many eastern languages, but did not know Latin. Rome killed the old people and the children. Every verse from the fifteenth to the end of this chapter has found its repeated fulfilment.
Moses does not stop at chapter 28. Two chapters later he sets out what happens when the scattered people come to their senses.
Further on, in Deuteronomy 30, Moses declares what will happen when Israel come to repentance among the nations where they are driven. If they return to the Lord their God and obey His voice, then He will bring them back from their captivity. In His compassion He will gather them and bring them into the land. He will not only bless and multiply them there, but also put all the curses on their enemies and persecutors.
- Cause. The madness is not an accident. God never sends it until a person has justly brought judgment on himself.
- Sight. The punishment works through the eyes. A man watches what he cannot stop, and his mind breaks.
- Scope. These curses fall on life here below. They are not the curse that stands before God forever.
- Witness. Israel's history matched the words written in advance. The reader in the synagogue lowers his voice, and no unbeliever has answered the argument that God wrote this book.
- Hope. The same Moses wrote Deuteronomy 30. When the scattered people repent and obey, God brings them home.
Jehovah will smite thee in the knees and in the legs with evil ulcers, whereof thou canst not be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.
Moses is still listing what disobedience would cost Israel, and now the blow reaches the body — knees, legs, and everything from foot to head, with no cure. Two questions press: what sort of dealing is this, and can a disease no one can heal be the end of the story?
Deuteronomy 28 sets out what obedience and disobedience would bring on Israel in the land. One writer draws a firm line between those results and the question of how anyone stands righteous before God:
In Deuteronomy 28 we have the principles of God's government among that people, and the immediate results of obedience or disobedience. Those results were solemnly fulfilled in the fate of that unhappy people, still loved for the sake of their fathers. The law can be taken as the basis of relationship with God, and breaking it then has consequences for righteousness — for whether a person has solid ground to be accepted by God. Do not confuse those with the temporary results of disobedience under God's government. Chapter 28 speaks of these last ones.
One writer weighs the two halves of the chapter and counts the verses:
The section containing the curses is more than three times the length of the one containing the blessings. That one has fifteen verses; this one has fifty-three. The whole chapter is a striking commentary on the government of God, and a powerful illustration that "our God is a consuming fire." All the nations of the earth may learn from Israel's remarkable history that God must punish disobedience, and that He punishes it first of all in His own people. And if He has not spared His own people, what will be the end of those who do not know Him?
The verse names knees and legs first, then widens to every part. One writer notes what that costs:
No strength would be left in their knees or legs because of sore boils that resisted healing, and the whole body would suffer terribly (v.35).
A reference work can say little more than this:
An incurable skin disease, otherwise undefined. Deut. 28:27, 35.
One writer traces this same disease from Egypt to a poor man dying in the street:
The plague called "an evil and grievous sore" reminds us of the sixth Egyptian plague (Ex. 9:10-11). This was the first of the plagues that struck the bodies of the Egyptians... It was a disgusting and loathsome disease (see Deut. 28:27, 35)... In Luke 16:20-21 we learn that Lazarus, dying among the dogs on the street, was covered with these painful sores that usually could not be healed. Yet the angels of God waited on the soul of that poor man.
Such a stroke looked like a mark of God's displeasure, and some turned that into a rule: every sufferer must be under judgment. The book of Job corrects it:
Without going into speculation, we may recall God's solemn warnings about what would come if His people turned away from Him... In Old Testament times, nearly all God's dealings with people were on an earthly level. So such an affliction was bound to look like a special sign of His displeasure — at least to those who had not learned the varied uses of hardship in the school of God. We shall find that nearly all of them — Job's friends, and even Job himself — made this mistake. That explains the long and painful argument between them, in which neither side could reach what God could approve.
Punishment was not God's whole aim in these blows:
This was not just punishment. It was God's way of seeking to drive them back to Him.
The same speech looks past the curses to repentance and return:
Further on, in Deuteronomy 30, Moses says that when Israel repent among the nations where they have been driven, and return to the LORD their God, and obey His voice, He will bring them back from captivity. In His compassion He will gather them and bring them into the land. He will bless and multiply them there, and He will put all the curses on their enemies and persecutors.
One writer shows where the blow finally fell:
Think of the curse as a great sword hanging by a thread over my head. It may fall at any moment and destroy me. Christ came above me, between me and the sword. The sword fell on Him; He received the blow that must have taken us down to hell; He took us out from under the curse.
- Government. Chapter 28 is about how God governed Israel in the land. It shows the temporary results of obedience or disobedience, not the ground of acceptance with Him.
- Weight. Fifty-three verses of warning stand against fifteen of blessing. God punishes disobedience, and He begins with His own people.
- Reversal. The incurable boils are Egypt's own plague, now falling on Israel instead of Egypt.
- Caution. Job's friends made this into a rule: every sufferer is under God's displeasure. God approved neither side of their long argument.
- Aim. The strokes were meant to drive Israel back to God. The same speech promises that repentance brings compassion and a way home. And the heaviest blow of all fell on Christ, not on us.
Jehovah will bring thee, and thy king whom thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation that neither thou nor thy fathers have known, and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.
Moses names one of the sharpest curses of all: God will carry the whole nation away, king included, into a land of idols it has never known. Two questions follow — why is the king exiled with his people, and is exile the end of the story?
These curses deal with life on earth. One writer explains how the law is being used in this chapter:
In Deuteronomy 28 we have law. It is not looked at in its own nature, as a question between God and man. It is looked at as the rule of earthly government, dealing with the circumstances of man. So here we have the blessing on one side and the curse on the other.
The words point back to a choice Israel made for itself. One writer names what was wrong with that choice:
It was Israel's rebellious will that demanded, as they said, "our" king, instead of waiting for the King Jehovah had purposed (1 Sam. 2:10; Ps. 2; compare also Num. 24:7; Deut. 17:14-15; Deut. 28:36; Ps. 45). He will still set that King in His own time on His holy hill of Zion. Israel refused both appeal and warning, so God gave them their king in His anger.
Waiting would have given them a very different king:
If they had waited in faith, God might have raised up for them, when Samuel died, a king of His own providing: "a man after His own heart," David. David was a model prince, and a picture of the One who is both "King of Israel" and "Prince of peace." But no. They could not wait. They would not take advice, and so God gave them what they wanted. But "sudden decisions and hasty desires make work for painful, slow repentance."
The exile threatened here came more than once. One writer follows it through Israel's history:
They would not only suffer in their own land. The Lord would also see to it that they, and the king they had wanted, were taken captive to a foreign country. There the only worship they would know was the worship of idols (v.36). In those conditions they would find no rest. Instead they would become the object of contempt and ridicule among all the nations (v.37). How sadly true this has proved in all of Israel's history. The Assyrians and the Babylonians carried them away centuries ago, and the same thing happened again when Judah was scattered from their land after the crucifixion of their Messiah.
The punishment matches the sin. Israel wanted idols, so God hands them over to people who serve idols:
If the children of Israel will abandon Jehovah to serve idols, then Jehovah gives them up to serve idolaters. It is the same with us. If we sin, that sin measures and shapes our discipline. And so grace works repentance in us when we turn and cry to the Lord in our distress.
An idol need not be carved to rule a heart:
You may say that we never bowed down to wood and stone. But we may still give plenty of room in our hearts to the world, the flesh, and the devil. These are idols — as truly idols to our hearts as wood and stone were to the Thessalonians.
Exile is not Moses' last word. The next two chapters give the reason for the curse, and then the way home:
In Deuteronomy 29 He shows all the nations asking why Jehovah had laid the holy land waste, and why His anger burned so hot. The answer is this: Israel abandoned the covenant of Jehovah for false gods. So the curse fell, and He tore them out of their land in great anger. Then in Deuteronomy 30 Moses declares that Israel will come to repentance among the nations they are driven to. When they return to Jehovah their God and obey His voice, He will bring them back from captivity. In His compassion He will gather them and bring them into the land.
- Choice. Israel set this king over itself. They demanded "our" king instead of waiting for the King God had purposed.
- Concession. God let them have what they wanted. A hasty demand bought a long and painful repentance.
- Captivity. God carries king and people alike to a nation they never knew. It happened under Assyria, under Babylon, and again when Judah was scattered after the crucifixion of their Messiah.
- Contempt. In exile they find no rest. The nations around them make them an object of ridicule.
- Compassion. Deuteronomy 30 opens the way home. When a scattered people repents and obeys His voice, God gathers them back into the land.
And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples whither Jehovah shall lead thee.
Moses is listing what will follow if Israel will not listen to God. Here the punishment becomes public. The nation itself turns into a saying on other people's lips wherever God drives it. Two questions press on the verse. What kind of dealing is this, and does the story stop there?
Chapter 28 sets blessings beside curses. One commentator asks what these curses show about God — and what they do not.
In Deuteronomy 28 we get certain blessings and then curses. So part of this chapter shows us the state Israel would be in down to the present day… "You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away." So this is not a question of dealing according to God's nature. It is a matter of His governmental ways with a nation in this world, and nothing more.
The same line matters for the whole chapter. Another writer marks off two things a reader can easily run together.
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 solemnly fulfilled in the fate of that unhappy people, still beloved for the fathers' sakes. The consequences of breaking the law as a principle of relationship with God bear on a righteousness that is adequate ground for God's acceptance. Do not confuse them with the temporary consequences of disobedience under the government of God. Chapter 28 has these temporary consequences in view… As to Israel, world history shows us the threats of this chapter fulfilled.
The word behind "proverb" carries a sense worth knowing.
The word usually translated "proverb," and used for the Book of Proverbs, is mashal. It means "comparison, likeness." Proverbs are short sentences designed to catch attention and stay in the memory. Deut. 28:37; 1 Sam. 24:13; Ps. 69:11; Prov. 1:1; Isa. 14:4; Jer. 24:9; etc.
So the verse promises more than scattering. Israel itself would become the illustration other nations reach for.
One writer points to the survival of the scattered Jewish people as this verse fulfilled in plain sight.
The existence of that generation — the Jews dispersed among all nations and yet separate from them — is one of the wonders of the world. Bishop Butler calls it "the appearance of a standing miracle, in the Jews remaining a distinct people in their dispersion." He says: "The Jewish nation and government were destroyed in a very remarkable way. The people were carried away captive and scattered through the most distant countries. In that scattered state they have remained fifteen hundred years. They are still a large people, united among themselves, and marked off from the rest of the world — as they were in the days of Moses — by holding to His law. Everywhere people regard them in a way one hardly knows how to put into words, except in the words of the prophecy given so many ages before it came to pass (Deut. 28:37)."
The warning is not the end of Moses' argument. Read on: the nations ask why the land was ruined, and repentance opens a road home.
He warns Israel with still greater detail and solemnity. If they will not listen to His voice, the Lord will send curses on them. Those curses will consume Israel from the land and pursue them elsewhere, so that they become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all nations. In Deuteronomy 29 He shows all nations asking why the Lord had so ruined the holy land, and why such fierce anger. The answer is: because Israel abandoned the covenant of the Lord for false gods… In Deuteronomy 30 Moses declares more. When Israel come to repentance among the nations where they are driven, and return to the Lord their God and obey His voice, then He will turn their captivity. In His compassion He will gather them back.
One writer traces the reversal of this curse, and names the ground it rests on.
"And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing" (v. 13). The Lord in His anger had scattered them among all the nations. Of all the nations they alone had known the Lord's name, so they should have been His witnesses. Instead they had been a curse through their idolatry… It was on this ground, "For My holy name's sake," that God would act and save His people.
- Government. The verse belongs to God's government of a nation on earth. It does not settle how anyone is accepted by Him.
- Proverb. Mashal means a comparison — a short line made to stick. Israel became the illustration other nations quote.
- Cause. In Deuteronomy 29 the nations ask why. The answer: Israel traded the covenant for false gods.
- Witness. Israel should have been God's witness. Instead they became a witness of another kind — still a distinct people after centuries of scattering.
- Reversal. For His own name's sake God promises the exact opposite: repentance, regathering, and a people who become a blessing.