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, Deut.

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God In his law, and by his prophets: to observe and to do all his commandments, which I command thee this day; for without observing them to do them, hearing them would be to little purpose, and they were all…

And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee, &c.] After mentioned, which should come upon them from God from heaven, by the direction of his providence, and that freely and plentifully, and beyond their expectations and deserts, and continue with them: if thou shall hearken to the…

Blessed shalt thou be in the city Not only in the city of Jerusalem, where the temple would be built, and there be blessed with the service, worship, and ordinances of God, but in all other cities of the land; where they should dwell in title, large, and spacious houses, and their cities should be…

Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body Their children, of which they should have many, and these live; be healthful, thrive, and arrive to manhood, and increase and perpetuate their families.

Blessed shall be thy basket Which the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem restrain to the basket of firstfruits, and the cake of the first of their dough; but it intends any and every vessel in which they put their provisions for present use, and that that should never be empty of them, and that they…

Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. ] In all their business and employments of life whether within doors or without; in the administration of every office, whether more public or private; and in all their journeys going out and coming home; and…

The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face As the Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Edomites, and Ammonites were, especially in the times of David: they shall come out against thee one way: in a body, all together, in large numbers, marching in great…

The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses Barns, granaries, and cellar, where their corn, wine, and oil, were laid up; by preserving the corn from being devoured by vermin, and the casks of wine and oil from bursting and running out: and in all thou settest thine hand unto;…

And the Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, &c.] Having separated them from all others, for his service, honour, and glory, should continue them as such, and settle them in the land, and confirm all their privileges, natural, civil, and religious.

And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord Called his children, his people, his portion, and his inheritance; and that they are his, and he is theirs, by the care he takes of them, the provision he makes for them, and the protection they have from him:…

And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods In all temporal good things, give them an affluence of them, even all things richly to enjoy; the Targum of Jonathan is, “the Word of the Lord shall” in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground: increase…

The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure The Lord has his treasures of snow and of hail, and of wind, ; but here his good treasure, as appears by what follows, is his treasure of rain.

And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail Give them dominion over others, and not make them subject to them; the head signifies rulers and governors, and the tail the common people that are subjects; or the one such that are honourable and in high esteem, and the other such that are…

And thou shall not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day Depart from them as a rule to walk by, turn out from them as a path to walk in, neglect and disobey them, and go into practices contrary to them: turning to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve…

But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God As directed, exhorted, and encouraged to, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day; both moral and ceremonial: that all these curses shall come upon thee; from the hand…

Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. ] In the curses are delivered out in form, as the reverse of the blessings in ; and by observing what the blessings mean, the sense of the curses may easily be understood, the one being directly opposite to the other.

Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. ] (See Gill on Deut. 28:5). (See Gill on Deut. 28:16).

Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. ] (See Gill on Deut. 28:4). (See Gill on Deut. 28:16).

Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. ] (See Gill on Deut. 28:6). (See Gill on Deut. 28:16).

The Lord shall send upon thee cursing Which is either a general word for all that follows, or rather, since that had been expressed before in various instances, this may denote some particular judgment.

The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee Not only to come upon them; but to continue with them: until he have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it; which shows that this respects not some particular seasons, when the pestilence came and continued awhile, and…

The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption An emaciation of their bodies, either through famine or wasting diseases, whereby the fluids are washed off, and men are reduced to skin and bones: and with a fever; a hot burning disease, which dries up the radical moisture, consumes it, and so…

And the heaven that is over thy head shall be brass Or like brass, not for its clearness, brightness, and splendour, or for its being spread out like a molten looking glass which was of brass, ; but for its dryness and hardness, no moisture being in it, or passing through it; no showers of rain nor…

The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust That is, instead of showers of rain in their season, to water, refresh, and enrich the earth, and make it fruitful; and for want of them, and through the heat of the sun, being dried and parched, and its clods crumbled into dust, this should…

The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten fore thine enemies, &c.] And by them, as they sometimes were by the Philistines and others, before their utter destruction, when they sinned against the Lord; and by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans: thou shall go out one way against them, and flee…

And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth Which was always reckoned a very grievous calamity, have no other burial than in the bowels of beasts and birds; and was the case of many of the Jews in the Antiochian persecution, ; and in a treatise of…

The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt Which some understand of the leprosy, Of that sort of it called “elephantiasis”, frequent among the Egyptians; (See Gill on Lev. 13:2).

The Lord shall smite thee with madness At the calamities befallen them, and through the force of diseases on them: and blindness; not of body, but of mind; with judicial blindness and hardness of heart: and astonishment of heart; at the miserable condition they and their families should be in.

And thou shalt grope at noon day as the blind gropeth in darkness That is, being in darkness through the loss of their sight; otherwise the darkness and the light are alike to them, and they grope in the one as well as in the other.

Thou shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her Espouse a woman in order to make her his wife, and before he can take her home, and consummate the marriage, through some calamity or another coming upon them, they should be set at a distance from each other, and she should fall into…

Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof Shall be taken from the herd, and out of the field or stall, by the enemy, and killed for the soldiers to feed on, and not the least part of it given to them: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and…

Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people This also was not true in the Babylonish captivity; for then their sons and daughters went with them, and continued with them, and returned again; but has been oftentimes verified since their captivity by the Romans; frequently their…

The fruit of thy land, and all thy labour, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up The same was prophesied of by Jeremiah, concerning the Babylonish captivity, and was fulfilled in it, ; and has been also verified in the frequent pillage and spoil of this people, in their present state; for…

So that thou shalt be mad, for the sight of thine eyes that thou shall see. ] On account of the shocking things seen by them, their dreadful calamities, oppressions, and persecutions, such as before related; not only violent diseases on their bodies, which were grievous to behold, as well as their…

The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch, that cannot be healed Which in those parts as it is very painful, so is not easily cured; and this which is threatened was incurable by the art of man, as others in ; and which should not stop there in the lower parts of…

And the Lord shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shall set over thee This was fulfilled both in Jehoiachin and in Zedekiah, kings of Judah, who were carried captive to Babylon, by Nebuchadnezzar, (2 Kings 25:6, 2 Kings 25:7) ; unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; the…

And thou shall become an astonishment To neighbouring nations, that shall hear of their overthrow and captivity, and that shall see the miserable condition they are brought into: a proverb and a byword among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee; both for the wickedness committed by them,…

Thou shall carry much seed into the field And sow it plentifully; this and what is said in some following verses plainly refer to them while in their own land, before carried captive, and not to their present case and circumstances: and shall gather but little in at harvest; little springing up, or…

Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them Plant them and prune them, in expectation of much fruit from them: but shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; so far from drinking of the wine of them, that they should not be able to gather any grapes from them: for the worms shall eat…

Thou shalt have olive trees throughout thy coasts In the several parts of the land of Canaan, which is therefore called a land of olive oil, ; but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; nor any other relations, friends, guests, as was usual at entertainments; see (Luke 7:38, Luke 7:46) ; for…

Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shall not enjoy them Or, “they shall not be thine” [[15]]; being taken from them, and given to others, see ; and for the following reason: for they shall go into captivity; as when the ten tribes were carried captive by Shalmaneser, and the two tribes…

All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume. ] Which is a creature that not only consumes grass, and herbs, and the corn of the field, but all green trees; see .

The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high In wealth and riches, in power and authority, in honour and dignity. This Manasseh Ben Israel [[16]] interprets of the Samaritans, whom the king of Assyria drove out of Samaria, and the neighbouring places; but the design of the…

He shall lend to thee, and thou shall not lend to him The stranger, or one of another nation, shall be in a capacity of lending to the Jew, when the Jew would not be able to lend to the Gentile, his circumstances being so low and mean; to show which is the design of the expression, and not the…

Moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee Before related, as well as what follow: and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee till thou be destroyed; which though they would endeavour to flee from and escape, should not be able, since they would follow them so closely and swiftly, and overtake…

And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder That is, those curses before pronounced, , and what follow, should rest and remain upon them, continue with them, and be very visible on them; so as to be observed by others, as a sign of the wrath and displeasure of God, and of the fulfilment…

Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God By attending his worship, and keeping his commandments: with joyfulness and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; which they enjoyed in the land of Canaan, a land that abounded with all good things; which laid them under great obligations to…

Therefore shall thou serve thine enemies, which the Lord shall send against thee Since they would not serve the Lord their God, who was so good a master to them, and supplied them with all good things, and with plenty of them, they should serve other lords, their enemies, whom God would raise up…

The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth Now though Babylon is represented as a country distant from Judea, and said to be a nation “from far”, ; yet not “from the end of the earth”; as here; and though the Roman nation, strictly speaking, was not at so great a…

A nation of fierce countenance Or, “strong of face” [[23]]; which aptly describes the old Romans, who are always represented as such; and whereas it is said of the Chaldeans, that they were a nation dreadful and terrible, ; the same is said of the fourth beast, or Roman empire, ; who were a terror…

And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle Larger and lesser, oxen and sheep, as their calves and lambs, and kids of the goat: and the fruit of thy land; their wheat, barley, figs, grapes, pomegranates, olives, and dates: until thou be destroyed; the land of Judea, and all the increase of it: this…

And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates That is, in all their cities and walled towns, which had gates and bars for security: until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land; the Jews had several cities well fenced and strongly fortified, besides…

And thou shall eat the fruit of thine body Than which nothing can be more shocking and unnatural, which is explained as follows: the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee; which is an aggravation of the cruel and inhuman fact: in the siege, and in the…

So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate Not only the rustic that has been brought up meanly, and used to hard living; but one that has been bred very tenderly, and lived in a delicate manner, like the rich man in ; that fared sumptuously every day: his eye shall be evil towards…

So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat Neither give to a brother, nor to a wife, nor to any of his remaining children, the least bit of the flesh of a child he has killed and dressed for his own food; which adds to the barbarity of his action: because…

And the tender and delicate woman amongst you Who is instanced in because of her sex, which is more pitiful and compassionate, and especially one that has been brought up genteelly, and has always lived deliciously, on the most delicate fare, and nicest dainties, and used to all the delights of…

And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet Or her secundine, “her afterbirth”, as in the margin of our Bibles; so the Targum of Jonathan and Aben Ezra interpret it.

If thou wilt not observe to do all the words this law, that are written in this book Of Deuteronomy, in which there is a repetition of the laws before delivered, and an addition of some new ones; all which were to be so observed as to be done, to this end, that thou mayest fear this glorious and…

Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful Visible, remarkable, distinguishable, and astonishing to all that see them: and the plagues of thy seed; for they were to continue, as they have done, With their posterity, age after age: even great plagues, and of long continuance; great as to quality…

Moreover, he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, &c.] All that in a way of judgment were brought upon the Egyptians for refusing to let Israel go; or all such diseases as were peculiar to them, and common among them, as the leprosy, the itch, ulcers which thou wast afraid of; when…

Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law Which is not here mentioned or threatened; and it suggests, that whatsoever sickness or disease that could be thought of or named, or were at any time in any place among men, might be expected to come upon them for…

And ye shall be left few in number There were but very few left in the land of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar’s general when Jerusalem was taken by him; and these were of the poorer sort, and were left for vinedressers and husbandmen, ; and how much they were reduced by the Romans will appear by the…

And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good The Word of the Lord, as the Targum of Jonathan; who with great delight and pleasure in them brought them out of Egypt, conducted them through the wilderness, protecting them and providing all good things for them; and…

And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even to the other Which refers to their present dispersion, being now, more or fewer, in all parts of the world, east, west, north, and south: and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers…

And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest No quiet settlement, nor certain dwelling, being obliged to move from place to place through cruel edicts, heavy fines and mulcts, exorbitant taxes and impositions, and diligent search made after them by…

And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee Whether it shall be spared or not by the enemy: and thou shalt fear day and night; being in continual dread of being killed: and shalt have none assurance of thy life; of its being continued a moment scarcely, but live in constant fear and expectation of…

In the morning thou shalt say, would God it were even Wishing they might get through the day well, fearing their life would be taken away before night, or some sad calamity befall them before the day was past: and at even thou shall say, would God it were morning; dreading what would happen to them…

And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, &c.] Either into a state of hard bondage and slavery, like that their fathers were in, in Egypt; or rather, strictly and literally, should be brought into Egypt again, since it is said to be “with” or “in ships”.