Enforcement of Blessings and Curses With no title this discourse is clearly a continuation of ch. 26, but whether through Deuteronomy 27:9 f. or not is uncertain. The contents are the blessings and curses which shall follow respectively on Israel's observance and neglect of the Law; already announ... [ Continue Reading ]
For the connection see on Deuteronomy 27:9 f. Parallels in Deuteronomy 11:13; Deuteronomy 15:5. _set thee on high_ See on Deuteronomy 26:19.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Blessings Parallels in Deuteronomy 7:12-24; Deuteronomy 11:13-15; Deuteronomy 11:22-25. On the assurance of material blessings as the consequence of obedience to the commandments of God see the word of Jesus, Matthew 6:33.... [ Continue Reading ]
_overtake_ This vb. is used of the avenger, Deuteronomy 19:6. A man's goodness as well as his sin is sure to find him out, even when he does not expect this: see Matthew 25:37.... [ Continue Reading ]
Six forms of blessing, each introd. by the pass. part, of the vb. _to bless_. They cover Israel's life: in town and field, in their offspring, crops and cattle, annual harvests and daily bread, all their movement out and in. The structure of the first two and last three is uniform: with 3 accents. T... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Deuteronomy 7:13, and notes there on _increase_and _young_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_basket_ See on Deuteronomy 26:2. _kneading_- BOWL] See Dri. on Exodus 8:3. Cp. _mill_, Deuteronomy 24:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Deuteronomy 31:2; Joshua 14:11; 1 Kings 3:7; Psalms 121:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
_smitten before thee_ See Deuteronomy 1:42.... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall command_ Heb. has the jussive, _command_; it is uncertain which we should read; _upon thee_, lit. _with thee_. _barns_ Only here and Proverbs 3:10. Cp. above, Deuteronomy 15:10. _and he shall bless thee_ LXX (except some cursives) omits.... [ Continue Reading ]
_holy_ See Deuteronomy 7:6, and note on Holiness, p. 108. Here (as the context shows) the meaning is not ethical, but = set apart for Himself, therefore inviolate; cp. Jeremiah 2:3. _if thou shalt keep_ Rather, FOR (_ex hypothese_) THOU WILT BE KEEPING. Cp. Dri.; Marti.: _in case thou shalt_. So th... [ Continue Reading ]
_thou art called by the name of the Lord_ Lit. _the name of Jehovah is called over thee_, as that of thine owner. Other instances of the figure in 2 Samuel 12:28; Amos 9:12; Jeremiah 7:10 f., Deuteronomy 14:9; Deuteronomy 15:16, etc., Isaiah 13:19.... [ Continue Reading ]
_make thee plenteous for good_ Lit. _make thee to have an excess_, or _surplus, of prosperitythrough the fruit of thy body_, etc.... [ Continue Reading ]
_his good_ TREASURY _the heaven_ As in R.V. marg. Cp. Genesis 1:7; Genesis 7:11; Genesis 8:2; Job 38:22 (_treasuries of snow and hail_); Jeremiah 10:13; Book of Enoch, 60:11 22. On _the rain_see Deuteronomy 11:11; Deuteronomy 11:17; on _the work of thine hand_, i.e. in the field, see... [ Continue Reading ]
_the head, and not the tail_ Isaiah 9:14; Isaiah 19:15. _only_ Heb. _raḳ_; see on Deuteronomy 10:15. Here = _nothing but_. _if thou shalt_ Rather (as in Deuteronomy 28:9), _for thou wilt_, or _in case thou shalt_. _to observe and to do_ See on Deuteronomy 4:6; Deuteronomy 5:32.... [ Continue Reading ]
_turn aside_, etc.] Deuteronomy 5:32. For _you_read THEE. Sam., Gk., Syr. _go after other gods_ Deuteronomy 6:14; Deuteronomy 8:19; Deuteronomy 13:2 (3).... [ Continue Reading ]
For the terminology see notes on Deuteronomy 28:1. 20A forms with 25 a clear antithesis to Deuteronomy 28:7, but is more elaborate than the latter. For _cursing_cp. Malachi 2:2; Malachi 3:9; for _discomfiture_see on Deuteronomy 7:23; _rebuke_is found only here. On _for to do_(lit. _which thou shalt... [ Continue Reading ]
The Curses The opening Deuteronomy 28:15, correspond to the blessings in Deuteronomy 28:1, except that there are no antitheses to Deuteronomy 28:1 _b_and Deuteronomy 28:2 _b_, and that the curse on basket and kneading-bowl precedes that on _fruit of thy body_, etc. Then the Discourse leaves the lim... [ Continue Reading ]
_pestilence_ Heb. _deber_, a general word (originally = _death_); in J, Exodus 5:3; Exodus 9:15; Hosea 13:14; Amos 4:10. See Baldensperger, _PEFQ_, 1906, 97 ff. LXX here θάνατος. _whither thou goest in to possess it_ The usual phrase in the Sg. passages; see on Deuteronomy 6:1. For the correspondin... [ Continue Reading ]
Seven Plagues, four on men, and three on their crops. On the former see Leviticus 26:16, and consult A. Macalister, art. -Medicine" in Hastings" _D.B._ consumption Heb. _shaḥepheth_; from the meaning of the corr. Ar. _saḥaf_, -to affect with consumption of the lungs," this is usually conceived as p... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Leviticus 26:19: _heaven as iron, earth as brass_.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Sirocco (_Sherḳiyeh_), as the present writer has more than once encountered it in Judaea, brings up a fog of dust as dense and fine as a sea-mist, but very destructive. _Until thou be destroyed_, see Deuteronomy 28:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
See on Deuteronomy 28:7_; Deuteronomy 28:20a_. _tossed to and fro_ Rather, _for a trembling_or A HORROR (Heb. _leza-avah_). So the _v_. does not necessarily imply exile. Cp. Jeremiah 15:4; Jeremiah 24:9; Jeremiah 29:18; Jeremiah 34:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
Jeremiah 7:33; cp. Jeremiah 16:4; Jeremiah 19:7; Jeremiah 34:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the boil of Egypt_ Cp. P, Exodus 9:9 with Driver's note. One of the skin-diseases common in Egypt. _Boil_, Heb. _sheḥîn_; Eg. _sḥn_, -an abscess." Some think of small-pox, others of elephantiasis. But it may be the bubonic plague; see next note. _emerods_ LXX ἕλκος Αἰγ. εἰς τὴν ἕδραν. Rather, as R... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Zechariah 12:4; _astonishment_, better, DISMAY.... [ Continue Reading ]
The mental weakness and even infatuation which possess nations and individuals physically debilitated lead to their oppression by stronger peoples; the details of which are illustrated in the next Deuteronomy 28:30.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Deuteronomy 20:5-7. The Heb. text employs a more violent term.... [ Continue Reading ]
Judah suffered from a large deportation of her people by Sennacherib in 701. On any of the conflicting estimates of the deportations under Nebuchadrezzar, there must have remained in the land a majority of the people, lamenting, as this _v_. describes, the exile of the rest. See _Jerusalem_, ii. 266... [ Continue Reading ]
_thou knowest not_ So of the land of the invading nation, Jeremiah 14:18; Jeremiah 15:14; Jeremiah 17:4; Jeremiah 22:28.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Deuteronomy 28:28; _mad_, rather DRIVEN MAD. 35 breaks the connection between Deuteronomy 28:34_; Deuteronomy 28:36_, and is more in place after 27, _q.v._on _boil_. Here _sore boil_on _knees_and _legs_points to the -joint-leprosy," a species of elephantiasis; cp. Job 2:7 f., Deuteronomy 7:3-6;... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord_ BRING _thee_ The Heb. vb. is a jussive. _thy king_ The first Jewish king to be deported seems to have been Jehoiakin in 597 b.c., 2 Kings 24:8 ff. But cp. 2 Chronicles 33:10-13 on Manasseh; and for the probable fact underlying this statement see _Jerusalem_, ii. 184. _there shalt thou s... [ Continue Reading ]
_a proverb_ Rather, _a taunt_. _byword_ Only here, Jeremiah 24:9; 1 Kings 9:7; 2 Chronicles 7:20; lit. the object of _biting remarks_. _shall lead thee away_ So in Deuteronomy 4:27.... [ Continue Reading ]
Here the Discourse returns to Israel's misfortunes on their own land, and the connection seems to be with Deuteronomy 28:15 (or 25), to which Deuteronomy 28:38-44 are more or less parallel.... [ Continue Reading ]
Consumption of corn by locusts and of grapes by worms, and casting of olives. For these products see on Deuteronomy 7:13. _Locust_, Heb. _"arbeh_, properly _locust-swarm. Worm_, Heb. _tola-ath_; the grub which ruins vines, Gk. ἴψ or ἶξ (Strabo, xiii. i. 64), Lat. _convolvulus_(Pliny, _H.N._xvii. 47)... [ Continue Reading ]
_locust_ Heb. _ṣelaṣal_, from the rustling of its wings.... [ Continue Reading ]
The antithesis to 12 _b_, 13 _a_(_q.v._).... [ Continue Reading ]
Return to the keynote of the section (cp. Deuteronomy 28:15), and obvious conclusion to the curses which may originally have closed here. _for a sign and for a wonder_ See on Deuteronomy 4:34.... [ Continue Reading ]
This should be a new sentence opening a new paragraph. BECAUSE THOU HAST NOT SERVED _the Lord thy God_ or _worshipped_. _with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart_ Characteristic of the temper of D; 12. 7, 12, 18, Deuteronomy 16:11; Deuteronomy 16:14 f. (_be altogether joyful_), Deuteronomy 26:1... [ Continue Reading ]
A Further Development of the Curses Invasion by a far-off, unknown nation, who shall ruthlessly devastate the land and besiege Israel's cities; with the horrors of his siege. All this is not threatened conditionally on the possible disobedience of the people, but predicted absolutely because of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_a yoke of iron_ Jeremiah 28:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
_from far_, etc.] Isaiah 5:26 of Assyrians, Jeremiah 5:15 of Babylonians (though perhaps originally of Scythians). _as the_ VULTURE SWOOPETH] See on Deuteronomy 14:12 f.; cp. Hosea 8:1 of Assyrians; Habakkuk 1:8; Jeremiah 48:40; Jeremiah 49:22 of Babylonians. _whose tongue thou shalt not understand... [ Continue Reading ]
_fierce countenance_ Lit. _strong_, HARD or _inflexible_. So Daniel 8:23 of Antiochus Epiphanes. Cp. Ezekiel 2:4; Ezekiel 3:7. On _regard the person_see on Deuteronomy 1:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
See Deuteronomy 28:4_; Deuteronomy 28:18; Deuteronomy 28:20; Deuteronomy 28:24_. All but a few LXX codd. omit _until thou be destroyed_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_in all thy gates_ Deuteronomy 12:17; _come down_, Deuteronomy 20:20; _wherein thou trustedst_, so Jeremiah 5:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And thou shalt eat_, etc.] Cp. Leviticus 26:29; Ezekiel 5:10, and for instances of this horror 2 Kings 6:28 f., Lamentations 2:20; Lamentations 4:10. _in the siege and in the straitness_ A Refrain as in Deuteronomy 28:55_; Deuteronomy 28:57_. Similarly... [ Continue Reading ]
_The man that is_ THE MOST TENDER _among you, and the_ VERY MOST DELICATE] or _dainty_. The same adjs. in Isaiah 47:1. _his eye shall be evil_ See on Deuteronomy 15:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The_ MOST TENDER _and_ MOST DELICATE _woman among you_ Almost as in Deuteronomy 28:54. _which would not adventure_ Rather, WHO HAD NEVER VENTURED or _tried_(for the vb. see on Deuteronomy 4:34), having been accustomed to be carried.... [ Continue Reading ]
_young one_ Rather as in R.V. marg. The objects in this _v_. are under the same predicate as those in Deuteronomy 28:56 but with a difference. To those she shall grudge a share of her awful food; these she shall devour.... [ Continue Reading ]
_observe to do_ See on Deuteronomy 28:1. _all the words of this law_ Heb. _of this Tôrah_, see on Deuteronomy 1:5; Deuteronomy 31:9. In Deuteronomy 17:19; Deuteronomy 29:29 (28), Deuteronomy 31:12; Deuteronomy 32:46, with the same, or a similar, formula preceding; also in... [ Continue Reading ]
Still Further Development of the Curses After a fresh statement of the condition on which they will be inflicted, viz. Israel's disobedience to the law (Deuteronomy 28:58), diseases are again threatened with the sore diminution of the people (Deuteronomy 28:59-62); and their banishment is predicted... [ Continue Reading ]
_plagues_ As in Deuteronomy 28:61; Deuteronomy 29:22 (21), Leviticus 26:21. In Deuteronomy 25:3 the word is used of stripes. In Deuteronomy 26:8 another word is used for plague. _wonderful Extraordinary_or _exceptional_. _of long continuance_ Lit. _faithful, sure, assured_, usually in a moral sense... [ Continue Reading ]
_diseases of Egypt_ As in Deuteronomy 7:15; cp. above Deuteronomy 28:27. On _cleave_cp. Deuteronomy 28:21.... [ Continue Reading ]
_every sickness_, etc.] Cp. Jeremiah 6:7. _the book of this law_ Heb. _this Tôrah_(see Deuteronomy 1:5; Deuteronomy 31:9) Elsewhere (Deuteronomy 29:21 (20), Deuteronomy 30:10; Deuteronomy 31:26; Joshua 1:8) _this book of the law_. _until thou be destroyed_... [ Continue Reading ]
The only _vv_. in this ch. (except Deuteronomy 28:68 _b_) in which the Pl. address occurs. The text, including the change to Sg. in the final clauses of both _vv_., is on the whole confirmed by LXX. Sam., some LXX codd. and Luc. give Deuteronomy 28:62 _b_in Pl. The change to Pl. is explicable logica... [ Continue Reading ]
_rejoiced over you_, etc.] Cp. Deuteronomy 8:16; Deuteronomy 30:9. _Rejoice_or _exult_, found only in exilic or post-exilic passages. _to multiply you_ See on Deuteronomy 1:10; Deuteronomy 7:13. _rejoice … to destroy you_ This rhetorical figure is characteristic of the deuteronomic style. Contrast... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Deuteronomy 4:27 f., in the Pl. address. _From the one end_, etc., Deuteronomy 13:7 (8). On _other gods_, etc., Deuteronomy 13:6 (7); _wood and stone_, Deuteronomy 4:28.... [ Continue Reading ]
_shalt thou find no ease_ The vb. is found only in Jeremiah 31:2; Jeremiah 47:6; Jeremiah 50:34; Isaiah 52:4; its substantive in Isaiah 28:12. _no rest_, etc.] Genesis 8:9. _a_ QUAKING _heart_ The vb. occurs in Deuteronomy 2:25. _failing of eyes_ With disappointment of hope: cp.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and thy life shall_ BE HANGING _before thee_ Shall be _in suspense_, as on a thread. As indicated later in the _v_., thou shalt have no assurance of thy life. The vb is the same as that whose part. is rendered of _long continuance_in Deuteronomy 28:59. Cp. Job 24:22, R.V. marg.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Job 7:4 and above Deuteronomy 28:34. There were two sides to Israel's life in exile. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 29:4 ff.) advised the exiles in Babylon to settle down quietly into their new conditions and prosper as they could. This many of them did so thoroughly that it was difficult, if not impossibl... [ Continue Reading ]
_into Egypt_ A startling climax but one very natural to D, which has dwelt so frequently on the evils endured by Israel in _the house of bondmen_(see on Deuteronomy 6:12, and cp. Deuteronomy 17:16). Even Hosea (Hosea 8:13) had predicted a return to Egypt as a punishment for Israel's sins. Therefore... [ Continue Reading ]