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It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the LORD your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
Verse 1. Earth. Similar denunciations are made. Leviticus 26. Menochius.
All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to the LORD your God’s voice.
Verse 2. All these blessings, and so forth In the Old Testament God promised temporal blessings to the keepers of his law, heaven being not opened as yet; and that gross and sensual people being more moved with present and sensible things. But in the New Testament, the goods that are promised us are spiritual and eternal: and temporal evils are turned into blessings.
You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field.
Verse 3. Field. Wherever thou art, all thy undertakings shall prosper. Calmet.
You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock.
Verse 4. Womb. This was most fully verified in the birth of the Messias, as the Holy Ghost insinuated, by causing S. Elizabeth to address these words to the mother of Jesus Christ. Luc. 1:42. Calmet.
Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed.
Verse 5. Barns. Hebrew tene, is translated (Calmet. 26:2,) basket, in which bread was kept, and served up at table. Loaves were placed thus in baskets, near the altar of holocausts.—Stores. What thou hast laid up for thy provisions in corn, fruit, and so forth Calmet.
You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out.
Verse 6. Out, in all thy actions and affairs, ( Menochius.) at home and abroad; in peace and war.
The LORD will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways.
Verse 7. Down. Hebrew “dead.” Septuagint “bruised to pieces,” verse 25. Calmet.—Seven. This denotes the confusion and hurry with which the enemy shall endeavour to escape. Menochius.
The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
The LORD will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and walk in his ways.
All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the LORD’s name, and they will be afraid of you.
Verse 10. Upon thee; so that thou art called God’s people ( Calmet.) with truth. Menochius.—He has taken thee under his protection, and defended them against every attack. Bible.
The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
The LORD will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow.
Verse 12. Lend. To do this with usury, is far from being a blessing; but to be able to assist those who are in distress, is a happiness; particularly for that nation which as yet does not know the merit of evangelical poverty. Calmet.
The LORD will make you the head, and not the tail. You will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today, to observe and to do,
Verse 13. Tail, as he had promised, verse 1. Menochius.—You shall have dominion over others. Calmet.—So Isaias (9:14,) says, the Lord shall destroy the head, (the magistrate) and the tail, or (verse 15,) the lying prophet. Bible.
and shall not turn away from any of the words which I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the LORD your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come on you and overtake you.
Verse 15. All these curses, and so forth Thus God dealt with the transgressors of his law in the Old Testament: but now he often suffers sinners to prosper in this world, rewarding them for some little good they have done, and reserving their punishment for the other world.
You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the field.
Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed.
You will be cursed when you come in, and you will be cursed when you go out.
The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me.
Verse 20. Rebuke, or “curse.” Septuagint the pestilence, ( Calmet.) or destruction, (analosin.) Bible.
The LORD will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land where you go in to possess it.
The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew. They will pursue you until you perish.
Verse 22. Cold. The word occurs no where else. The Chal. Syr. and so forth have the reverse, “heat.”—Blasting. In the original, either the mildew destroying the corn, ( Bible.) or the jaundice, which attacks the human body, may be meant. Calmet.
Your sky that is over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron.
Verse 23. Of brass, and yield no rain. Menochius.—Pindar says, (Pyth. x.) “The heaven of brass they never can ascend.” See Leviticus 26:19.
The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come down on you from the sky, until you are destroyed.
Verse 24. Consumed. Prot. “The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven it shall come down upon thee, till thou be destroyed.” Bible.—The dust coming instead of rain shall render the land more barren. Calmet. In those dreary regions, where clouds of sand and dust overwhelm the poor traveller, the Israelites would have a good idea what inconveniences would attend such a state of the atmosphere, if it were only for a short continuance. But when it was intended for destruction, how could they possibly support life!
The LORD will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.
Verse 25. Scattered, as they are at present. The real import of the Hebrew is doubtful. Some agree with the Vulg. and Sept.; ( Bible.) others translate, Thou shalt be trembling, an object of astonishment and horror. Others, All who see thee shall quake; they shall insult over thee, wagging their head. Calmet.
Your dead bodies will be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there will be no one to frighten them away.
Verse 26. Away. No threat could be more terrible to the Jews. They did not refuse burial to those who had been hung on the gibbet. Calmet. 21:23. Even the high priest, if he should find a corpse in the field, was obliged to bury it; though he was not allowed on other occasions, to attend the funeral of his relations. God threatens the impious king ( Calmet.) Joachim, that he shall be buried with the burial of an ass. Jeremiah 22:19. Bible.—The ancient Christians allowed the sacred vessels to be sold, in order to bury the dead. “For we shall not suffer the figure and the work of God to be exposed a prey to the wild beasts and birds.” Lactant. 6.
The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with the tumors, with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed.
Verse 27. Egypt. See Calmet. 6:15, 28:60. Exodus 9:9, and 15:25; or with such diseases as those with which he afflicted Egypt. Calmet.—Out. Hebrew “with the emerods, scab, and itch.” Bible. 1 Kennicott. 5:6. 12.
The LORD will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of heart.
Verse 28. Madness, folly, or phrensy; with such Saul was attacked, and David feigned himself (1 Kennicott. 21:13,) to be in a similar condition at the court of Achis.
You will grope at noonday, as a blind person gropes in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you.
Verse 29. Ways. Is not this visibly the present condition of the Jews, amid the blaze of the gospel light, the miracles and divine conduct of the Son of God! They shut their eyes, and will not acknowledge him for the Messias. Calmet.
You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit.
Verse 30. Her. Job makes use of the same imprecation. Calmet. 31:10. Let my wife be the harlot of another. But he immediately subjoins, For this is a heinous crime, and so forth which may be applied, both to him who seeks to commit an impure action, (verse 9,) and to those who attempt to punish it by a similar abomination. No person is allowed to wish that a sin may be committed. The Hebrew and Septuagint very properly render all these imprecations in the future tense. “Thou shalt marry (or betroth) a wife, and another man shall,” which, no doubt, would be an intolerable provocation. Bible.
Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from before your face, and will not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you.
Verse 31. Slain, (immoletur,) for a feast, and not for a sacrifice. Menochius.
Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look and fail with longing for them all day long. There will be no power in your hand.
Verse 32. Hand. Hebrew also, “thy hand shall not be lifted up towards God.” Targ. of Jerusalem says, Thou shalt possess nothing, wherewith thou mayest render God propitious. Calmet.—Thou shalt not be able to rescue, ( Menochius.) or to assist thy distressed children.
A nation which you don’t know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always,
Verse 33. A people. The Gentiles, whom the Jews so much despised, and whom the Scripture styles not a nation, have supplanted the Israelites, and entered into the inheritance, which they had lost by their prevarications. Romans 10:19. Bible.
so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad.
Verse 34. Astonished. Hebrew “go mad,” become stupified at such a scene of misfortunes.
The LORD will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
The LORD will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone.
Verse 36. Thy king. Nabuchodonosor thus led Joachin and Sedecias, with almost all their people, captives to Babylon, 4 Kennicott. 24 and 25:7.—Stone. The ten tribes mixed with other nations, ( Calmet.) and for the most part followed their idolatrous worship. Only some few returned with the tribes of Juda, Benjamin, and Levi, and became more careful than before not to irritate God by that hateful sin. Bible.
You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you away.
Verse 37. Lost. Hebrew “an object of desolation, a fable and a mockery.” Septuagint “thou shalt be a riddle, a parable, and an example,” to employ the thoughts and tongues of all nations, who will not be able to comprehend the greatness of thy distress. Calmet.
You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in, for the locust will consume it.
Verse 38. All: so that the little which thou mayst gather will not be worth mentioning. Bible.—Hebrew may also signify, “Thy field shall produce a great deal, and give thee abundant expectations, but the locusts shall consume it,” to mortify thee the more.
You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat them.
You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won’t anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off.
You will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity.
Locusts will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground.
Verse 42. Blast. This is a different word from that mentioned, verse 22. Tselatsal may here probably denote a grasshopper, which delights in the shade, and has a shrill note. In hot countries it does great hurt to trees, and so forth Calmet.
The foreigner who is among you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower.
Verse 43. Lower. Hebrew repeats this word, to signify the utmost abjection. Bible.—The Fathers gather hence the glorious superiority to which the Christian Church is raised. Orig. Rom. ii. Theod. q. 34.
He will lend to you, and you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
All these curses will come on you, and will pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you didn’t listen to the LORD your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you.
They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your offspring forever.
Verse 46. For ever. The nations which were employed by God to scourge the Jews, recognized that they were the instruments of his indignation. We are accustomed to consider many evils as the necessary appendages of human nature; but the surprising misfortunes, with which God visited his people, subjecting them to the Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans, could not be taken in this light. Calmet.
Because you didn’t serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;
Verse 47. Things: as in gratitude thou oughtest to have done. On the contrary, the more the Jews were cherished by God, the more insolent they became. Calmet. 32:15.
therefore you will serve your enemies whom the LORD sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies: a nation whose language you will not understand,
Verse 49. Swiftly. The Chaldees are designated in the same manner. Jeremiah 5:5. Ezekiel 17:3. 12. The Romans also carried an eagle, as their chief standard, and the rapidity of their conquests astonished all the world.
a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young.
Verse 50. Insolent. Hebrew “of a fierce countenance.” It is well known how the Babylonians treated the princes of the Jews. Calmet.
They will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
Verse 51. Until thou be destroyed. This was not expressed in the Sept.
They will besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you.
You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you.
Verse 53. Womb; a cruelty which the Jews were guilty of in the sieges of Samaria and of Jerusalem. See Baruch 2:2. 13. Lament. 2:20 and 4. 4 Kennicott. 6:28. Josep. Bel. vii. 8. Calmet.
The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye will be evil toward his brother, toward the wife whom he loves, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining,
Verse 54. Delicate, (luxuriosis,) abandoned to his pleasures. Josephus (Bel. vi. 11,) seems to have had this passage in view, when he informs us, that parents and children snatched from each other’s mouths the wretched food, with which they endeavoured to support themselves. Calmet.
so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left to him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates.
The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil toward the husband that she loves, toward her son, toward her daughter,
Verse 56. Envy. Hebrew “her eye shall be evil towards the husband of her bosom,” and so forth Bible.
toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your gates.
Verse 57. And the filth, and so forth They will eat the child just born, through extreme hunger. Lament. 2:20. The Chal. Septuagint and so forth agree with the Vulg. which conveys an idea of the most horrible distress. Calmet.—Indeed it is so horrible and disgusting, that we find no vestiges in history of the completion of the prophecy, taken in this sense. Some, therefore, explain the original, “And her feast, or dressed meat, (shall be) between her feet, even of her own children, which she shall bring forth.” Bate, p. 71. Parkhurst on itsoth. Others believe that the Hebrew is corrupted by the insertion of b before another b, in children; and by the transposition or addition of i in the first word; so that to translate, with the generality of interpreters, “She shall grudge ever bit, or her eye shall be evil towards her husband, and towards her son, and towards her daughter, and towards her afterbirth … and towards her sons which she shall have brought forth,” seems absurd enough. If the woman’s eye be evil towards her son, and towards her afterbirth, (which, however, is incapable of depriving her of food) what need of repeating, and towards her sons? Yet the present construction requires this translation; though it is obvious that the woman must have been actuated in a different manner, with respect to these different things, as all allow that she was afraid lest those who were grown up, how dear soever to her, might deprive her of her abominable food, while her eye was evil towards her afterbirth, (or secundines, if the word ssolithe can have this meaning) because she was designing to eat it privately. The Septuagint translate Korion, “the skin,” or Chorion, “a little girl,” (Houbigant) unless ( Bible.) the former word may rather have this signification. Hill.—The Arab. deviates a little from the Hebrew “She will deny her husband, her son, and her daughter, her secundies, which fall from her.” If, therefore, the two corrections proposed by Houbigant, and approved by Kennicott, (who produces for one of them (ubnie) the authority of the oldest Hebrew MS. in England) be admitted, all will be clear and conformable to the event. “56. Her eye shall be evil towards … her son, and towards her daughter. 57. And she shall boil, (ubossilthe, instead of ubossolithe) that which cometh out from between her feet, even her children, (ubnie, not ubobnie) which she shall bear; for she shall eat them, for want of all things, secretly.” This prophetical and terrible denunciation was realized in the siege of Samaria, when two women agreed to eat their own children, one of whom was actually boiled, and the very word here in dispute is used, 4 Kennicott. 6:29. Kennicott.—And in the last siege of Jerusalem we read (Joseph. vii. 8) of a mother killing her own child, to satisfy the cravings of hunger and rage against the rioters who had repeatedly plundered her house. Her name was Mary. She also boiled her suckling infant, and actually devoured a part of it. Bible.
If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD your God,
LORD or GOD in all caps is from the Hebrew יהוה Yahweh except when otherwise noted as being from the short form יה Yah.
then the LORD will make your plagues and the plagues of your offspring fearful, even great plagues, and of long duration, and severe sicknesses, and of long duration.
Verse 59. Increase. Hebrew distinguish, or render thy plagues wonderful. Calmet.—Perpetual. Hebrew “lasting.” Bible. See verse 27.
He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they will cling to you.
Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring them on you until you are destroyed.
You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude, because you didn’t listen to the LORD your God’s voice.
It will happen that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be plucked from the land that you are going in to possess.
The LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will serve other gods which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone.
Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul.
Verse 65. Fearful, dejected, distrustful. The Jews are under continual alarms. Calmet.
Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life.
Verse 66. Thy life, being in danger from all sides. The Fathers explain this verse of the behaviour of the Jews towards their Messias, who was crucified before their eyes; and still they will not believe in him, though he is their life, (Calmet. 30:20,) the way, the truth, and the life. John 14:6 and 1:4. S. Leo. Saint Augustine c. Faust. xvi. 22, and so forth Bible.
In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening!” and at evening you will say, “I wish it were morning!” for the fear of your heart which you will fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see.
The LORD will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I told you that you would never see it again. There you will offer yourselves to your enemies for male and female slaves, and nobody will buy you.
Verse 68. With ships, so that thou wilt have no means of escaping by flight. Menochius.—The Romans had a fleet in the Mediterranean, with which thy would probably convey the captives into Egypt. Josephus (Ant. xii. 2, and so forth Bel. vii. 16) informs us, that many of the Jews had been conveyed into that country after Jerusalem had been ruined by the Chaldees; ( Calmet.) and after it was at last destroyed by the Romans, some of “those who were above 17 years of age, were sent thither in chains to work at the public works;” others were reserved to grace the victor’s triumph, or “to be destroyed by the sword, or by wild beasts in the theatres, while those who were under 17, were sold. During the time that Fronto was making the selection, 12,000 were starved to death, either by the cruelty of their keepers, or because they refused food; the multitudes causing it to be very scarce. In the course of the war 97,000 were taken prisoners, and in the siege 1,100,000 perished. For then the whole nation was shut up in prison, as it were by fate, and the city was besieged when full of inhabitants,” at the feast of the Passover; “so that the number of those whom the Romans slew publicly, or took prisoners, was greater than ever was destroyed,” at once, “by the fury of man, or by the wrath of God.” ib. Calmet. 17. Pompey had carried away many captives into Egypt about 120 years before. Pharao Sesac took and pillaged the city, under Roboam, 2 Chronicles 12:2.—That. Hebrew “by the way, concerning which I spoke to thee (that is, by returning back, through this wilderness, as thou formerly desiredst,) thou shalt see it no more.”—Set to sale, (venderis,) lit. “shall be sold.” After the Jews had been sold, their new masters could not find any to take them off their hands. Bible.—Buy you. Protestants, “there ye shall be sold … and no man shall buy you.” Can a man be sold without being bought? Whereas if the verb hithmaccartem was rendered, and ye shall offer yourselves to sale, the sense would be proper, and expressive of the most bitter sufferings. Kennicott.—Hegesippus (verse 47,) says, “there were many to be sold, but few purchasers; because the Romans disdained receiving the Jews as slaves, nor were there any Jews left to redeem their countrymen.”