Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Deuteronomy 28:16-20
The First Sixfold Curse (Deuteronomy 28:16).
These curses parallel the blessings in Deuteronomy 28:3 and must therefore all be seen together.
‘Cursed shall you be in the city,
And cursed shall you be in the field.
Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough.
Cursed shall be the fruit of your body,
And the fruit of your ground,
The increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.
Cursed shall you be when you come in,
And cursed shall you be when you go out.'
They will be cursed in the city, in all their comings in, and in their production of offspring; they will be cursed in the countryside, and in all their goings out, and in the increase of their cattle, and the young of their flock; they will be cursed in their basket and their kneading-trough, because the fruit of their ground has been cursed and there is nothing to fill them. This is the tragedy of the Garden of Eden multiplied. Not only is the ground cursed but everything is cursed. They had been on the edge of Paradise and by their folly they have lost everything.
‘ Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion (discomfiture), and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to, to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly, “because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me”.'
In everything that they now do they will be cursed, they will suffer discomfiture and confusion (compare Deuteronomy 7:23; 1Sa 5:9; 1 Samuel 5:11; 1 Samuel 14:20; Isaiah 22:5), and they will experience constant rebuke in all that they seek to do (compare Isaiah 30:17; Malachi 3:11), and this will go on until they are destroyed, until they perish quickly, and all because of the evil of their doings as a result of which they have forsaken Yahweh.
“Send on you” is emphasised by coming first in the sentence. Like the blessings these cursings will be the result of Yahweh's personal response, as is now made evident. But this time it is not the natural result of the application of the covenant but specifically as a response to their sin.
“Because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me.” The sudden introduction of a direct word from Yahweh heightens the impact. This is what they are suffering, because of the evil of their doings resulting from the fact that they have forsaken Him.
This summary compounds the individual curses and warns of the final consequences. They will be destroyed because of the evil of their ways. It is comparable to the summary in Deuteronomy 28:2 which introduces the blessings. Note again how this first six-fold curse with the summary resembles very closely the blessings lost as described in Deuteronomy 28:2.