Deuteronomy 28:49

"Jehovah will bring against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, that shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young, and shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy ground, until thou be destroyed; that also shall not leave the grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of thy cattle, or the young of thy flock, until they have caused thee to perish. And they shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fortified walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land; and they shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which Jehovah thy God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, whom Jehovah thy God hath given thee, in the siege and in the distress wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee. The man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he hath remaining; so that he shall not give to any of them the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing left him, in the siege and in the distress wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for the want of all things secretly, in the siege and in the distress wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates."

It is obvious that this account of the curses far exceeds in length the summary of the blessing in the first fourteen verses. However, as was pointed out in that section, one cannot imagine any more blessings than those mentioned in that brief account. This unevenness in the volume of words as between the blessings and curses has given rise to all kinds of foolish guesses and suppositions by speculative scholars, usually issuing in the mention of redactors, editors, composite documents, etc., etc., but none of that has any credibility whatever. For example, Watts claimed, without any proof or evidence whatever, that, "This chapter has been expanded in later versions of the book."[12] But as Craigie pointed out, "This imbalance finds several parallels in other Near Eastern texts (patterned after the suzerainty treaties) containing blessings and curses." "For example, in the Code of Hammurabi, the imbalance runs 20 to 1; and in the Lipit-Ishtar laws, the curses outnumber the blessings on a ratio of 3 to 1."[13] In this light, those constant rearrangers and rebuilders of the Bible should keep their hands off Deuteronomy.

A terrible feature of this fourth denunciation is the detailed prophecy of cannibalism, but terrible as these words are, Cook informs us that, "The Hebrew text in fact suggests an extremity of horror which the KJV fails to exhibit."[14] The question that arises here is, "What could possibly have motivated Jewish priests of any century whatever, to put such language, without any authority, into the sacred book of the Hebrew people?" Until the critics can come up with the answer to that, they should forget about their little fairy tale about the Jewish priests authoring any part of Deuteronomy.

The gruesome scenes here predicted (Deuteronomy 28:52-57) were accomplished in the siege of Samaria (2 Kings 6:28).[15] However, as many discerning writers have noted, "The description here applies especially to the Romans and carry one's thoughts immediately to those terrible scenes during the wars of Vespasian and Titus as narrated by Josephus."[16] We might go further and add that only the Romans fulfilled this prophecy, because they alone were from "the ends of the earth" (Deuteronomy 28:49), a stipulation by no means applicable to other alleged fulfillment of this awful prophecy. Josephus indeed has an extensive account of the horrors here foretold.[17]

Cook pointed out that the word translated "young one" (Deuteronomy 28:57), "is actually afterbirth."[18]

As is repeatedly evident, and as categorically stated, over and over again in this list of curses, it should be clear to all that, "The fulfillment of the promises (Deuteronomy 28:1-14) is conditioned upon full obedience to God's will."[19]

Ackand's summary of this portion of Deuteronomy states that, "The circumstances of Israel's eventual decline and fall, and present conditions, are here described with amazing accuracy."[20]

The persistent habit, seen throughout the O.T., of using various names for God, is conspicuous in Deuteronomy. As Harrison pointed out, we have the following names of God:[21] "The Living God" (Deuteronomy 5:26), "The Lord, the God of your fathers" (Deuteronomy 6:3), "The God of gods, and Lord of lords" (Deuteronomy 10:17), "The Rock, a God of faithfulness (Deuteronomy 32:4), "The Most High" (Deuteronomy 32:8), and "The Eternal God" (Deuteronomy 33:17).

FIFTH DENUNCIATION

Summary: "Here we have the uprooting of Israel from the Promised Land, and its dispersion amongst other nations."[22]