Deuteronomy 28:40

_THOU SHALT HAVE OLIVE TREES THROUGHOUT ALL THY COASTS, BUT THOU SHALT NOT ANOINT THYSELF WITH THE OIL; FOR THINE OLIVE SHALL CAST HIS FRUIT._ Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts ... Syria, especially that part of it which the Israelites inhabited, was the native country of the olive. So valuable were olive trees, that almost all classes of that people possessed oliveyards (1 Samuel 8:14; 1 Chronicles 27:28; Nehemiah 5:11). 'It is a curious and interesting fact, that during more than 2,000 years Hebrews, Romans, Moslems, and Christians have been successively in possession of the rocky mountains of Palestine; yet the olive vindicates its paternal soil, and is found at

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 HAVE OLIVE TREES THROUGHOUT THY COASTS,.... In the several parts of the land of Canaan, which is therefore called a land of olive oil, Deuteronomy 8:8; BUT THOU SHALT NOT ANOINT [THYSELF] WITH THE OIL; nor any other relations, friends, guests, as was usual at entertainments; see Psalms 23:5; for the phrase "thyself" is not in the text. The reason why they should not anoint is, because they would have no oil to anoint with: FOR THINE OLIVE SHALL CAST [HIS FRUIT]; before it is ripe, by one means or another, as by winds, or blasting and mildew; see Amos 4:9....

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....

COASTS. borders, or confines....

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....