Deuteronomy 28:62

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, Jeremiah 39:10; and how much they were reduced by the Romans will appear by the accounts Josephus gives of those that were slain, and made prisoners by them: he says i,

"there were 1,100,000 slain at the siege of Jerusalem and by the war, and 97,000 made prisoners;''

and it is computed that 1,240,490 were destroyed in Jerusalem and other parts of the nation k; and it is also said by their historian l, that of those that were transported from Jerusalem and other parts of Palestine into Spain, scarce a thousandth part remained and that an infinite number were slain in France and Germany; and though their number equalled those that came out of Egypt, yet scarce five thousand of them were left:

whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; and, as it is sometimes said, as the sand of the sea, as was promised to Abraham, Genesis 15:5; and was fulfilled in the days of Solomon 1 Kings 4:20;

because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God; in his law, and by his prophets; and especially by the voice of the true Messiah, in his everlasting Gospel; of whom it is said, "today if ye will hear his voice"; c. Hebrews 3:7.

i De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 3. k See Dr. Newton (Bp. of Bristol) on Prophecies, vol. 1. Dissert. 7. sect. 6. p. 186. l Shebet Judah, sect. 49. p. 316.