Deuteronomy 28:7

_THE LORD SHALL CAUSE THINE ENEMIES THAT RISE UP AGAINST THEE TO BE SMITTEN BEFORE THY FACE: THEY SHALL COME OUT AGAINST THEE ONE WAY, AND FLEE BEFORE THEE SEVEN WAYS._ Flee before thee seven ways - i:e., in various directions, as always happens in a rout....

1-14 This chapter is a very large exposition of two words, the blessing and the curse. They are real things and have real effects. The blessings are here put before the curses. God is slow to anger, but swift to show mercy. It is his delight to bless. It is better that we should be drawn to what is good by a child-like hope of God's favour, than that we be frightened to it by a slavish fear of his wrath. The blessing is promised, upon condition that they diligently hearken to the voice of God. Let them keep up religion, the form and power of it, in their families and nation, then the providence of God would prosper all their outward concerns....

Verse Deuteronomy 28:7. _THE LORD SHALL CAUSE THINE ENEMIES, C._] This is a promise of security from foreign invasion, or total discomfiture of the invaders, should they enter the land. _They shall come_ _against thee one way _- in the firmest and most united manner. _And_ _flee seven ways _- shall be utterly broken, confounded, and finally routed....

A comparison of this chapter with Exodus 23:20 and Leviticus 26 will show how Moses here resumes and amplifies the promises and threats already set forth in the earlier records of the Law. The language rises in this chapter to the sublimest strains, especially in the latter part of it; and the prophecies respecting the dispersion and degradation of the Jewish nation in its later days are among the most remarkable in scripture. They are plain, precise, and circumstantial; and the fulfillment of them has been literal, complete, and undeniable. The Blessing. The six repetitions of the word “blessed” introduce the particular forms which the blessing would take in the various relations of life....

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 CAUSE THINE ENEMIES THAT RISE UP AGAINST THEE TO BE SMITTEN BEFORE THY FACE,.... As the Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Edomites, and Ammonites were, especially in the times of David: THEY SHALL COME OUT AGAINST THEE ONE WAY: in a body, all together, in large numbers, marching in great order, to give them battle: AND FLEE BEFORE THEE SEVEN WAYS; be entirely routed, and flee some one way, and some another, even every way they could take to make their escape. The phrase is expressive of an entire victory, and of a complete rout and dispersion of an enemy....

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

DEUTERONOMY 28. BLESSINGS AND CURSES. This chapter is held by Kuenen, Dillmann, Driver, Addis, etc. to belong in the main to D (Deuteronomy 28:12 or Deuteronomy 28:5?). In favour of this conclusion note: (_a)_ Moses speaks in the first person as in Deuteronomy 28:5. (_b)_ It forms a fitting hortatory conclusion to Deuteronomy 28:12 (or Deuteronomy 28:5); _cf._ Exodus 23:20, and...

The Blessings Parallels in Deuteronomy 7:12-24; Deuteronomy 11:13-15; Deuteronomy 11:22-25. On the assurance of material blessings as the consequence of obedience to the commandments of God see the word of Jesus, Matthew 6:33....

_VER._ 7. _THE LORD SHALL CAUSE THINE ENEMIES—TO BE SMITTEN BEFORE THY FACE_— "Upon any invasion from foreign enemies, be their numbers and valour ever so great, God himself will undertake your cause; and so order it, that you shall always come off at last with entire victory:" for, _fleeing seven ways_ imports a total overthrow, which made every man shift for himself, and run straggling hither and thither, without any order or leader, as soldiers do when they are entirely routed....