Deuteronomy 28:35

_THE LORD SHALL SMITE THEE IN THE KNEES, AND IN THE LEGS, WITH A SORE BOTCH THAT CANNOT BE HEALED, FROM THE SOLE OF THY FOOT UNTO THE TOP OF THY HEAD._ The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch, х_ SHªCHIYN_ (H7822) _ RA`_ (H7451)] - a malignant ulcerous leprosy, which particularly attacks and swells to hideous deformity the legs and knees. This is an exact description of elephantiasis-a horrible disease, something like leprosy, which covers the body with a foul and ulcerous skin, attacks particularly the lower extremities, which are covered with tumours that degenerate into loathsome and incurable sores....

35._The Lord shall smite thee in the knees_. Since death is common to the whole human race, they must needs also be all subject to disease; nor is it a matter of surprise that the whole posterity of Adam, which is infected with the taint of sin, should so be liable to many afflictions, which are the wages of sin. But, since the offenses of all are not alike, God also maintains a just proportion in the execution of His various punishments; thus, in this passage He does not speak only of common maladies, but of those whereby He openly shews His vengeance against the transgressors of the Law; of which sort are incurable diseases....

15-44 If we do not keep God's commandments, we not only come short of the blessing promised, but we lay ourselves under the curse, which includes all misery, as the blessing all happiness. Observe the justice of this curse. It is not a curse causeless, or for some light cause. The extent and power of this curse. Wherever the sinner goes, the curse of God follows; wherever he is, it rests upon him. Whatever he has is under a curse. All his enjoyments are made bitter; he cannot take any true comfort in them, for the wrath of God mixes itself with them. Many judgments are here stated, which would be the fruits of the curse, and with which God would punish the people of the Jews, for their apostacy and disobedience. We may observe the fulfilling of these threatenings in their present state. To complete their misery, it is threatened that by these troubles they should be bereaved of all comf...

Verse 35. _WITH A SORE BOTCH_] שחין _shechin_, an inflammatory swelling, a burning boil. See Deuteronomy 28:27....

The curses correspond in form and number Deuteronomy 28:15 to the blessings Deuteronomy 28:3, and the special modes in which these threats should be executed are described in five groups of denunciations Deuteronomy 28:20. Deuteronomy 28:20 First series of judgments. The curse of God should rest on all they did, and should issue in manifold forms of disease, in famine, and in defeat in war. Deuteronomy 28:20...

EXPOSITION THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE. Having enjoined the proclamations of the blessing and the curse on their entering into possession of Canaan, Moses, for the sake of impressing on the minds of the people both the blessing and the curse, proceeds here to dilate upon both, dwelling especially upon the latter as that which the people the more needed to have brought home to them. As he proceeds, the language of terrible denunciation passes into that of no less terrible prediction, in which the calamities that should come upon the nation because of their apostasy and rebellion are clearly and pointedly foretold. DEUTERONOMY 28:1 _The_ _blessing_._ _The condition _sine qua non _of all enjoyment of the Divine bounty was obedience on

THE LORD SHALL SMITE THEE IN THE KNEES, AND IN THE LEGS, WITH A SORE BOTCH, THAT CANNOT BE HEALED,.... Which in those parts as it is very painful, so is not easily cured; and this which is threatened was incurable by the art of man, as others in Deuteronomy 28:27; and which should not stop there in the lower parts of the body, but proceed and spread: FROM THE SOLE OF THY FOOT UNTO THE TOP OF THY HEAD; and so be filled with them, as Job was with his boils and ulcers....

24. THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE CHAPTER 28 _ 1. The blessing promised (Deuteronomy 28:1)_ 2. The curse announced (Deuteronomy 28:15) This is one of the most solemn Chapter s in the Pentateuch. Orthodox Hebrews read in their synagogues each year through the entire five books of Moses. When they read this chapter, the Rabbi reads in a subdued voice. And well may they read it softly and ponder over it, for here is prewritten the sad and sorrowful history of that wonderful nation. Here thousands of years ago the Spirit of God through Moses outlined the history of the scattered nation, all their suffering and tribulations, as it has been for well nigh two millenniums and as it is still. Here are arguments for the divine, the supernatural origin of this book which

The curses to follow disobedience. These answer generally to the blessings of Deuteronomy 28:1, only that the order Deuteronomy 28:5; Deuteronomy 28:4 is presumed and Deuteronomy 28:1_ b_ and Deuteronomy 28:2_ b_ are ignored. Deuteronomy 28:21. pestilence: a general term; so Jeremiah 14:12....

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 limits it had observed in the remainder of the blessings, Deuteronomy 28:8, and while here and there it gives the exact contrast of these blessings (cp....