The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 28:1-14
The purpose of temporal blessing. After the "Amens" from Mount Ebal had been faithfully given, the Levites turned to Gerizim with the detail of blessings , and received from the assembled thousands the grand "Amen." We have in these verses before us the purpose of the blessing. The children of Israel had been brought out of Egypt by a Divine deliverance, they were about to settle in Canaan as the people of the Lord. They were a spectacle, therefore, to the rest of the world of how a... read more
The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 28:1-14
The blessing. Blessing and curse, as Keil says, are viewed in these verses "as actual powers, which follow in the footsteps of the nation, and overtake it" ( Deuteronomy 28:2 , Deuteronomy 28:15 , Deuteronomy 28:22 ; Zechariah 1:6 ). The blessing of God is a vera causa in human life. It is not to be resolved entirely into natural tendencies. A cheerful mind conduces to health; virtuous habits tend to prosperity, etc. But this is not the whole. Conspiring with natural tendencies,... read more