SANCTIONS OF THE LAW IN DEUTERONOMY. THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE.

Almost every specific portion of the Law in Scripture has a passage of this kind at the end. The code in Exodus 21-23 ends with a declaration of rewards and punishments (Exodus 23:20-33). The laws of holiness, ceremonial and moral, in Leviticus, are closed by chapter 26. This book of Deuteronomy, more profound and more spiritual in its teaching, and more earnest in its exhortation than all the rest of the Law, closes with this denunciation—the most tremendous in all Scripture—of the consequences of disobedience in detail. The Sermon on the Mount, the law of the New Testament, closes with a passage that astonished the hearers by its authority (Matthew 7:21-27). The exhortations of our Lord’s ministry, both public and private, have a similar close: for Israel in Matthew 23, for the disciples in Matthew 25. And the Epistle to the Hebrews, the last appeal to the Jewish nation in God’s word, has a similar passage in Hebrews 12, before the final exhortations and salutations. Finally, the Apocalypse itself puts the same kind of close to all Scripture in Revelation 22:10-19.

We may divide this chapter into four parts.

First, the blessings of obedience to the nation as God’s people, Deuteronomy 28:1-14.

Secondly, the curses of disobedience, Deuteronomy 28:15-48.

Thirdly, the prophecy of the conquest of Israel by a strange nation, and the miseries of the siege of the capital, Deuteronomy 28:49-57.

Fourthly, the continued and protracted misery of the rejected nation, Deuteronomy 28:58-68.

The remarkably prophetic character of this chapter is beyond question. Even were Deuteronomy the work (as some recent critics allege) of some later prophet, it is past all dispute that this chapter is older than the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, and the last dispersion. Eighteen centuries of misery and oppression, with but short intervals, have branded the truth of this Scripture on the mind of Israel. From this argument there is no escape. No thoughtful Jew denies that the present condition of the nation is the fulfilment of this curse. It must be observed, however, as a most significant fact, that this chapter does not form the close of the Pentateuch. Another covenant is made with Israel after this. And Moses departed with words of blessing on his lips. (See on Deuteronomy 29:1.)

Every one who takes note of the proportions of this chapter according to the fourfold division indicated above, will at once see that, verbally, the curse is larger than the blessing. Why is this? Possibly, because the rebellions and disasters of Israel while under the Sinaitic covenant were to cover a larger number of years than their prosperity. But reason. The curses of God’s broken law in this world, however extended and varied in their operation, are describable and finite. But His love is indescribable and infinite, and were all the blessings of His love to be described in detail, the whole Bible would not have sufficed for the first fourteen verses of this chapter of Deuteronomy.

(1) Will set thee on high.—Literally, will make thee Most High, using a name of God, as in Deuteronomy 26:19. Compare what is said of Jerusalem. “She (Jerusalem) shall be called Jehovah-Tzidkenu” (Jeremiah 33:16), and “the name of the city from that day shall be Jehovah-Shammah” (Ezekiel 48:35), and “I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God” (Revelation 3:12), and “His Name shall be in their foreheads” (Revelation 22:4).

And he shall bless thee in the land.—Fixity of tenure in the Divine inheritance is promised here.

And they shall be afraid of thee.—Comp. Jeremiah 33:9 : “And they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity, that I procure unto it” (Jerusalem).

(15) But it shall come to pass.—The following verses to the end of 48 are the contrast to the first fourteen, which declare the blessings of obedience.

In all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do.—Literally, in every putting forth of thine hand which thou makest, i.e., in every undertaking. This is the opposite of Deuteronomy 28:8.

Thou hast forsaken me.—Moses and Jehovah are here identified. This is characteristic. The prophets say, “Thus saith the Lord.” Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, sometimes exhorts Israel in His name without any such introduction. (Comp. the phrase “to forsake Moses” (literally, apostasy from Moses) in Acts 21:21.)

Until he have consumed thee from off the land.—From Deuteronomy 28:21-35, inclusive, we seem to be reading of the gradual consumption of Israel “in the land of promise” before any actual captivity.

Fever.—Only here and in Leviticus 26:16, where it is rendered “burning ague.” ( Comp. Deuteronomy 32:22 : “A fire is kindled in mine anger.”)

Inflammation.—Here only. The word is derived from a verb signifying to burn, or pursue hotly, like a fire that hastens on its way. “A heat greater than the fever” (Rashi).

Extreme burning.—Here only. “A disease which heats the body inwardly” (Rashi).

Blasting and mildew.—“I have smitten you with blasting and with mildew” (Amos 4:9, same words). (See also 1Kings 8:37, where “pestilence, blasting, and mildew” are contemplated as possibilities, very probably in view of this curse. Also Haggai 2:17.)

Removed.—Literally, a removing. The LXX. in this place has διασπορά, or dispersion, the word used for the dispersed Israelites in the New Testament. (See Revised Version, John 7:35; 1Peter 1:1.) The threat is repeated in Jeremiah 15:4 for the sins of king Manaseeh.

No man shall fray (i.e., frighten) them away.—Not even a woman like Rizpah, who at the foot of the gallows watched her children’s bodies for half the year, and “suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night” (2Samuel 21:10). There shall be no one to do it.

Emerods—i.e., hœmorrhoids (as in 1Samuel 5:6).

The scab.—In Leviticus 21:20; Leviticus 22:22 “scurvy.” It would make both a priest and a victim unclean, and unfit for the service of Jehovah.

The itch.—Here only. “A dry ulcer like a sherd” (Rashi).

Whereof thou canst not be healed.—Not that these things are in themselves incurable, but that they should have them incurably.

But in that place the threat seems directed against the enemies of Jerusalem (see Deuteronomy 30:7).

Oppressed.—The children of Israel and of Judah were “oppressed “together (Jeremiah 50:33). But it is added, “Their Redeemer is strong” (Deuteronomy 28:34).

Spoiled.—The word occurs again in Deuteronomy 28:31 : “Violently taken away.”

Thine eyes shall . . . fail—i.e., shall consume. “All longing after that which comes not is called consumption of the eyes” (Rashi).

And there shall be no might in thine hand.—The Hebrew phrase here is very remarkable. It occurs also in Genesis 31:29. “It is in the power of mine hand to do you hurt.” But it means, literally, thou shalt have no hand toward God, i.e., “thou shalt not be able to lift a hand to Him.” We may compare Jacob wrestling with the angel, and Moses in the fight with Amalek: “When he held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.” Some would perhaps explain the phrase in another way; but this explanation is thoroughly in accordance with the genius of the Hebrew language, and I have good authority for it. Hezekiah said, “Mine eyes fail with looking upward.” Here the eyes fail with looking, but cannot look up.

In the knees.—Comp. Ezekiel 7:17; Ezekiel 21:7, “All knees shall be weak as water.”

Several kings went into captivity. Jehoahaz was taken to Egypt; Jeconiah and Zedekiah to Babylon. Hoshea’s fate is not recorded in Scripture; but he was taken (apparently) with Samaria by the Assyrians.

Shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.—See Note on Deuteronomy 4:28.

(49) The Lord shall bring a nation against thee.—Comp. “Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: it is a mighty nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say” (Jeremiah 5:15). In this instance the Chaldseans were intended, “that bitter and hasty nation” (Habakkuk 1:6).

As swift as the eagle flieth.—The eagles of Rome may be alluded to here. And of the Chaldæans it is said, “They shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat” (Habakkuk 1:8).

Whose tongue thou shalt not understand.—I am told by a learned Jewish friend that (excellent linguists as the Jews often are) hundreds of the people never attain the least acquaintance with the tongue of the countries where they are dispersed, and seem to lose the power of doing so. I have myself been surprised by more than one example, even in London, of their being wholly unable to take up the commonest matter of business when presented to them in an English way. It is not from lack of ability, but from a kind of paralysis of the understanding, except within a certain range of thought.

This glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God.—The first Note of the Decalogue is here referred to, as the great curse of the Law draws to its close. It is no light matter when the Almighty says to any people or to any person, “I am Jehovah thy God.” They who are His must obey Him, love Him, and acknowledge Him. He will not be mocked. Never did He in all history “assay to go and take Him a nation” from the midst of other nations as he took Israel. Hence these tremendous consequences.

Of long continuance.—Eighteen hundred years have they lasted, and seem to be breaking out afresh now (1882) as though they were in full force. “To chastise thee permanently is their mission” (Rashi).

Thou shalt serve other gods.—We do not know of Israel’s falling into actual idolatry in dispersion, except in Egypt (Jeremiah 44:17), and possibly in Babylon (Ezekiel 14:22-23. Comp. Deuteronomy 33:25). But they were slaves to the worshippers of other gods.

And failing of eyes.—“Looking for salvation, and it cometh not” (Rashi). How many years have they gone on praying that they may keep the feast “next year” in Jerusalem? and still the hope is deferred.

Thou shalt see it no more again.—Deuteronomy 17:16.

Ye shall be sold . . . and no man shall buy you.—Rashi explains thus: “Ye shall desire to be sold—ye shall offer yourselves as slaves to your enemies, and shall be refused, because you are appointed to slaughter and destruction. Or the sellers shall sell you to other sellers, and no one will care to keep you.” But the same word is used in the following passage by Nehemiah, “We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold to the heathen” (Nehemiah 5:8). Probably the meaning in Deuteronomy is similar: “Ye shall be sold as slaves to your enemies, and there will be no one to redeem you.”