Deuteronomy 28:25-35

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 28:25-35

490.

Consider the map as to the location of Israel. How would the geographical location of Israel relate to the promise, tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms?

491.

List the personal bodily afflictions here promised. When were these promises fulfilled?

492.

List the domestic tragedies.

493.

Where and when and by whom were these words first fulfilled? With what result?

AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 28:25-35

25 The Lord shall cause you to be struck down before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them, and you shall be tossed to and fro and be a terror among all the kingdoms of the earth. [Fulfilled, 2 Chronicles 29:8.]

26 And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.
27 The Lord will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with the tumors, the scurvy and the itch, of which you cannot be healed.
28 The Lord will smite you with madness and blindness and dismay of [mind and] heart.
29 And you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways; and you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to save you.
30 You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, and not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard and not gather its grapes.
31 Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away before your face, and not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to help you.

32 Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all the day, and there shall be no power in your hands to prevent it. [Fulfilled, 2 Chronicles 29:9.]

33 A nation which you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your land and of all your labors; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually.] Fulfilled, Judges 6:1-6; Judges 13:1.

34 So that you shall be driven mad by the sight which your eyes shall see.
35 The Lord will smite you on the knees and on the legs and a sore boil that cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

COMMENT 28:25-35

AND THOU SHALT BE TOSSED TO AND FRO AMONG THE KINGDOMS OF THE EARTH[47] (Deuteronomy 28:25)a ball for all the kingdoms to play with (Shultz). If any nation on earth has fulfilled these words, Israel has. She has been a literal football for centuries. Perhaps that period of history immediately after the conquest of Alexander the Great best illustrates these verses, Palestine then lay between the kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucidae in Syria. These royal families and their kingdoms were constantly at one another's throats, and Israel became a literal battlefield for their warsSometimes held by one power, sometimes by the other. (How ridiculous, then, the later defense of the JewsWe are Abraham's seed, and have never been in bondage to any man (John 8:33)!

[47] A number of modern translators have rendered this phrase a horrible spectacle to all the kingdoms of the earth or similarly.

BOIL OF EGYPT (Deuteronomy 28:27)The A.V. has botch of Egypt, Compare also Deuteronomy 28:35; Deuteronomy 28:60,Exodus 9:9-10, though these may not all refer to the same affliction. Whatever kind of boil or inflammation it was, it is hard to imagine one that was pleasant!

EMEROIDS (Deuteronomy 28:27)Heb. ophel, probably hemorrhoids or piles.

MADNESS, BLINDNESS, etc. (Deuteronomy 28:28)Note how these diseases are either of the head or mental, while the previous ones were basically bodily afflictions.

MADNESS (Deuteronomy 28:28)Heb. shiggaan, a form of which also appears in Deuteronomy 28:34. Baumgartner says it is derived from an Arabic word which was used of the continuous cooing of a male pigeon, (apparently one in distress). But the Hebrew word always refers to a distressed individual, a madman.

BETROTH A WIFE. ANOTHER SHALL LIE WITH HER (Deuteronomy 28:30)This, as well as other statements in Deuteronomy 28:29-30, show the unstable and insecure social conditions that would exist in Israelespecially an Israel continually threatened, invaded, or dominated by heathen nations. Law, order, morality, respect for the rights of others, respect for private propertythese are lacking when evil dominates, for Righteousness exalteth a nation; But sin is a reproach to any people (Proverbs 14:35).

36 Jehovah will bring thee, and thy king whom thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation that thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. 37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples whither Jehovah shall lead thee away. 38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather little in; for the locust shall consume it. 39 Thou shalt plant vineyards and dress them, but thou shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worm shall eat them. 40 Thou shalt have olive-trees throughout all thy borders, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast its fruit. 41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be thine; for they shall go into captivity. 42 All thy trees and the fruit of thy ground shall the locust possess. 43 The sojourner that is in the midst of thee shall mount up above thee higher and higher; and thou shalt come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. 45 And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: 46 and they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.