Deuteronomy 28:39

_THOU SHALT PLANT VINEYARDS, AND DRESS THEM, BUT SHALT NEITHER DRINK OF THE WINE, NOR GATHER THE GRAPES; FOR THE WORMS SHALL EAT THEM._ Thou shalt plant vineyards ... but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. The vine, in all stages of its growth, is the prey of insects. While the Curculio vastator feeds upon the young shoots, often killing them the first year; while the small caterpillar of a Procris or Zygaena is destructive to the vine-buds as they open in the spring, eating its way into them, and devouring the germ of the grape; while the larvae of a moth (Pyralis vitana, F.) are in France very destructive to the leaves, and another species does great injury to the young bushes, preventing their expansion by the webs in which it involves them, a third (Pyralis fasciana, F.) makes the grapes themselves its food; and it is this, or a sim...

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...

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

THOU SHALT PLANT VINEYARDS, AND DRESS [THEM],.... Plant them and prune them, in expectation of much fruit from them: BUT SHALL NEITHER DRINK [OF] THE WINE NOR GATHER [THE GRAPES]; so far from drinking of the wine of them, that they should not be able to gather any grapes from them: FOR THE WORMS SHALL EAT THEM; a sort of worms pernicious to vines, which the Greeks call "ipes", or "ikes" o; and the Latins "convolvuli" and "volvoces", as Pliny p. o See Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 27. col. 622, 623. p Nat. Hist. l. 17. c. 28....

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....

_VER._ 38-42. _THOU SHALT CARRY MUCH SEED OUT INTO THE FIELD,_ &C.— The plagues wherewith the nation is threatened in these verses, fell upon it successively. A great famine laid waste the country in the time of Elisha; the _locusts_ made havoc of it; and the olive-trees yielded no fruit. 2 Kings 8:1.Joel 1:10; Joel 1:20. A famine afterwards broke out in the time of Jeremiah, ch. Deuteronomy 14:1, &c. which is that whereof Moses seems to speak in this place. The invasions of the enemy were frequent; 2 Kings 13:20....

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 28:36-46 494. Consider the chronology involved in Deuteronomy 28:36. How many years for the conquest? How many years in the period of Judges? How long before the nation of Israel was taken into captivity? 495. Which captivity is prophesied here? 496. We should learn the oft repeated lesson: what is so many times referred to as good luck is actually God's blessing; what is called bad luck is God's chastizment. 497. Read Jeremiah 16:13; Jeremiah 44:17-19 for one fulfillment. 498. There is a contrast in Deuteronomy 28:15 and...