Those of them that survived the plagues that should come upon them, and the horrors of the siege, should be scattered amongst all nations to the ends of the earth, and there subjugated to the utmost indignities and sufferings. read more
Mental torture as a result of sin. The picture here drawn is true in an especial sense of the Jews in their state of exile, maddened, affrighted, and kept in continual torture and suspense by the persecutions and miseries they have been made to endure. We apply it to the state of the ungodly generally—a state of internal misery resulting from transgression. I. UNAPPEASABLE RESTLESSNESS . ( Deuteronomy 28:65 .) The sinner is destitute of peace ( Isaiah 57:21 ). 1. There is... read more
Thy life shall hang in doubt before thee ; literally, Thy life shall be hung up before thee ; i . e . shall be like an object suspended by a thread which hangs dangling before the view, ready to fall or to be cut down at any moment. Comp.— " Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo Et subito casu quae valuere ruunt ." (Ovid, 'Epp. ex Ponto,' 4.3, 35.) read more
Worst of all, they should be again reduced to bondage, carried back to Egypt, put up for sale as slaves, and be so utterly despicable that no one would purchase them. Bring thee into Egypt again. "If the Exodus was the birth of the nation of God as such, the return would be its death" (Schultz; cf. Hosea 8:13 ; Hosea 9:3 ). With ships. They came out of Egypt by land, as free men; they should be carried back imprisoned and cooped up in slave-ships. By the way whereof I spake unto thee,... read more
The curses correspond in form and number Deuteronomy 28:15-19 to the blessings Deuteronomy 28:3-6, and the special modes in which these threats should be executed are described in five groups of denunciations Deuteronomy 28:20-68.Deuteronomy 28:20-26First 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 28:20Vexation - Rather, confusion: the word in the original is used Deuteronomy 7:23;... read more
Deuteronomy 28:56-57. The tender and delicate woman shall eat her children secretly Not in order to escape the infamy of the action, but lest others should have a share with her. In the siege and straitness This was fulfilled about six hundred years after the time of Moses, among the Israelites, when Samaria was besieged by the king of Syria, and two women agreed together, the one to give up her son to be boiled and eaten that day, and the other to deliver up her son to be dressed and... read more
Deuteronomy 28:62. Ye shall be left few in number “Not to mention here any other of the calamities and slaughters which the Jews have undergone, there was in the last siege of Jerusalem, by Titus, an infinite multitude, saith Josephus, who perished by famine; and he computes that, during the whole siege, the number of those who were destroyed by that and by the war amounted to eleven hundred thousand, the people being assembled from all parts to celebrate the passover. And the same author... read more
Deuteronomy 28:63. The Lord will rejoice over you, to destroy you His just indignation against you will be so great, that it will be a pleasure to him to take vengeance on you. For though he doth not delight in the death of a sinner in itself, yet he doth delight in glorifying his justice upon incorrigible transgressors, seeing the exercise of all his attributes must needs please him, else he were not perfectly happy. And ye shall be plucked from off the land, &c. This was fulfilled... read more
Deuteronomy 28:64. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people According to Nehemiah, (Nehemiah 1:8-9,) these words were fulfilled in the Babylonish captivity; but they have been far more amply fulfilled since the great dispersion of the Jews by the Romans. “What people have been scattered so far and wide as they? And where is the nation that is a stranger to them, or to which they are strangers? They swarm in many parts of the East, are spread through most of the countries of Europe and... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 28:63
God rejoicing in judgment. The language in this verse is bold, almost beyond example. It jars with our conceptions of the Divine Being to think of him as "rejoicing" in the destruction of even the most obdurate of sinners, he declares that he has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth ( Ezekiel 18:32 ). Christ predicted Jerusalem's fall, but "wept over it" ( Luke 19:41 ). The language is best interpreted, not of actual joy felt by God in the execution of his judgments, but... read more