Deuteronomy 28:57

_AND TOWARD HER YOUNG ONE THAT COMETH OUT FROM BETWEEN HER FEET, AND TOWARD HER CHILDREN WHICH SHE_ _ AND TOWARD HER YOUNG ONE THAT COMETH OUT FROM BETWEEN HER FEET, AND TOWARD HER CHILDREN WHICH SHE SHALL BEAR: FOR SHE SHALL EAT THEM FOR WANT OF ALL THINGS SECRETLY IN THE SIEGE AND STRAITNESS, WHEREWITH THINE ENEMY SHALL DISTRESS THEE IN THY GATES._ Toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet - i:e., a foetus, as distinguished from her children which she shall bear." [The Septuagint has: to chorion autees to exelthon dia toon meeroon autees.] Such were the dreadful extremities to which the inhabitants during the siege were reduced that, according to the testimony of Josephus, many women sustained a wretched existence by eating the flesh of their own children. Parental affection was extinguished, and the nearest relatives were jealously avoided lest they should discover a...

45-68 If God inflicts vengeance, what miseries his curse can bring upon mankind, even in this present world! Yet these are but the beginning of sorrows to those under the curse of God. What then will be the misery of that world where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched! Observe what is here said of the wrath of God, which should come and remain upon the Israelites for their sins. It is amazing to think that a people so long the favourites of Heaven, should be so cast off; and yet that a people so scattered in all nations should be kept distinct, and not mixed with others. If they would not serve God with cheerfulness, they should be compelled to serve their enemies. We may justly expect from God, that if we do not fear his fearful name, we shall feel his fearful plagues; for one way or other God will be feared. The destruction threatened is described. They have, indeed,...

Verse Deuteronomy 28:57. _TOWARD HER YOUNG ONE - AND TOWARD HER CHILDREN WHICH_ _SHE SHALL BEAR_] There seems to be a species of _tautology_ in the two clauses of this verse, which may be prevented by translating the last word, שליתה _shilyathah_, literally, _her secondines_, which is the meaning of the Arabic [Arabic] _sala_, not badly understood by the Septuagint, χοριον αυτης, the _chorion_ or exterior membrane, which invests the foetus in the womb; and still better translated by _Luther_, [Anglo-Saxon] the _after-birth_; which saying of Moses strongly marks the deepest distress, when the mother is represented as feeling the most poignant regret that her child was brought forth into such a state of suffering and death; and 2dly, that it was likely, from the favourable circumstances _after the_ _birth_, that...

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

AND TOWARD HER YOUNG ONE THAT COMETH OUT FROM BETWEEN HER FEET,.... Or her secundine, "her afterbirth", as in the margin of our Bibles; so the Targum of Jonathan and Aben Ezra interpret it. The latter describes it, "the place of the fetus, while it abides in the womb of its mother;'' the membrane in which the child is wrapped; and it is suggested that, as nauseous as that is, the delicate woman should eat it, and then the newborn child that was wrapped in it; so Jarchi interprets it, little children; though it seems to be distinguished from the children she bears or brings forth in the next clause: AND TOWARDS HER CHILDREN WHICH SHE SHALL BEAR; that is, have an evil eye towards them, to eat them as follows: FOR SHE SHALL EAT THEM FOR WANT OF ALL [THINGS] SECRETLY IN THE SIEGE AND STRAITNESS WHEREWITH THINE ENEMY SHALL DISTRESS THEE IN THY GATES; that is, eat her children, being reduc...

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....

A Further Development of the Curses Invasion by a far-off, unknown nation, who shall ruthlessly devastate the land and besiege Israel's cities; with the horrors of his siege. All this is not threatened conditionally on the possible disobedience of the people, but predicted absolutely because of their actual failure to serve God....

_VER._ 57. _AND TOWARDS HER YOUNG ONE,_ &C.— For a critical discussion of this passage, we refer to Houbigant's note on the place, and to his Prolegomena, p. 35. He renders it, _and she shall boil that which cometh,_ &c. _even her infants, whom she shall spare that she may eat them secretly for want,_ &c....