Deuteronomy 28:38

"Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather little in; for the locust shall consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards and dress them, but thou shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worm shall eat them. Thou shalt have olive-trees throughout all thy borders, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast its fruit. Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be thine; for thou shalt go into captivity. All thy trees and the fruit of thy ground shall the locust possess. The sojourner that is in the midst of thee shall mount up above thee higher and higher; and thou shalt come down lower and lower. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: and they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed forever. Because thou servedst not Jehovah thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies that Jehovah shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee."

Scott remarked that, "This whole chapter is full of literary and historical difficulties!"[8] And as regards all scholars who follow the critical denial of the supernatural and of predictive prophecy in particular, it is easy to see that the difficulties presented here are insoluble by their methods. (See the chapter introduction for more on this.) The only comment these remarkable predictions, uttered in the form of curses due to disobedience, require is to be found in the history of Israel, which for millenniums has fulfilled and continues to fulfill every line written here.

This paragraph means far more than the captivity that was sent upon Israel, both nations of which did indeed go into captivity, the greater part of them into the hands of the Assyrians, "the breakers," "the emptiers." the most heartless and brutal of all the nations of antiquity! "A perpetual divine cursing of Israel is predicted."[9] "The punishment of Deuteronomy 28:48, here, amounts to a return to the status from which God called Israel in covenant love (Leviticus 26:13)."[10]

FOURTH DENUNCIATION

Summary: "Here we have a description of the calamities and horrors which should ensue when Israel should be subjugated by its foreign foes."[11]