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Curses that shall fall

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DEUTERONOMY.

27 The LORD will smite thee | man shall lie with her

on the disobedient.

"thou

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An. Ex. Isr. 40. with the botch of Egypt, and shalt build a house, and thou An Ex. Isr. 40. with the emerods, and with the shalt not dwell therein: thou scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather be healed. the grapes thereof.

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30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another given unto another people, and thine eyes

P Ver. 35; Exod. ix. 9; xv. 26.91 Sam. v. 6; Psa. lxxviii. 66. Jer. iv. 9. Job v. 14; Isa. lix. 10.— Job xxxi. 10; Jer. viii. 10.

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"Job xxxi. 8; Jer. xii. 13; Amos v. 11; Mic. vi. 15; Zeph. i. 13. Chap. xx. 6.- Heb. profane, or use it as common meat; as chap. xx. 6.

* Heb. shall not return to thee.

And blindness]

ivvaron, blindness, both phy

· Astonishment] timmahon, stupidity and amazement. By the just judgments of God they were so completely confounded, as not to discern the means by which they might prevent or remove their calamities, and to adopt those which led directly to their ruin. How true is the ancient saying, Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat! "Those whom God is determined to destroy, he first infatuates." But this applies not exclusively to the poor Jews: how miserably infatuated have the powers of the continent of Europe been, in all their councils and measures, for several years past! And what is the result? They have fallen-most deplorably fallen!

appears to be chiefly owing to a very fine sand, the particles of which are like broken glass, which are car-sical and mental; the 71 garab, (ver. 27,) destroying ried about by the wind, and, entering into the ciliary their eyes, and the judgments of God confounding their glands, produce grievous and continual inflammations. understandings." Verse 27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch] shechin, a violent inflammatory swelling. In Job ii., one of the Hexapla versions renders it eλepas, the elephantiasis, a disease the most horrid that can possibly afflict human nature. In this disorder, the whole body is covered with a most loathsome scurf; the joints are all preternaturally enlarged, and the skin swells up and grows into folds like that of an elephant, whence the disease has its name.. The skin, through its rigidity, breaks across at all the joints, and a most abominable ichor flows from all the chinks, &c. an account of it in Aretaus, whose language is sufficient to chill the blood of a maniac, could he attend to the description given by this great master, of this most Verse 29. Thou shalt be only oppressed, &c.] Perloathsome and abominable of all the natural produc-haps no people under the sun have been more oppress tions of death and sin. This was called the botched and spoiled than the rebellious Jews. Indeed, this of Egypt, as being peculiar to that country, and particularly in the vicinity of the Nile, Hence those words of Lucretius :

See

Est Elephas morbus, qui circum flumina Nili
Nascitur, Egypto in media; nec præterea usquam.
Lib. vi., ver. 1112.

Emerods] sy ophalim, from y aphal, to be elevated, raised up; swellings, protuberances; probably the bleeding piles.

has been their portion, with but little intermission, for nearly 1,800 years. And still they grope at noon day, as the blind gropeth in darkness-they do not yet discover, notwithstanding the effulgence of the light by which they are encompassed, that the rejection of their own Messiah is the cause of all their calamities.

Verse 30. Thou shalt betroth a wife, &c.] Can any heart imagine any thing more grievous than the evils threatened in this and the following verses? To Scab] garab does not occur as a verb in the be on the brink of all social and domestic happiness, Hebrew Bible, but gharb, in Arabic, signifies a and then to be suddenly deprived of all, and see an distemper in the corner of the eye, (Castel.,) and may enemy possess and enjoy every thing that was dear to amount to the Egyptian ophthalmia, which is so epi- them, must excite them to the utmost pitch of distracdemic and distressing in that country: some supposetion and madness.. They have, it is true, grievously the scurvy to be intended.

Itch] D cheres, a burning itch, probably something of the erysipelatous kind, or what is commonly called St. Anthony's fire.

Whereof thou canst not be healed.] For as they were inflicted by GoD's justice, they could not of course be cured by human art.

Verse 28. The Lord shall smite thee with madness] pya shiggaon, distraction, so that thou shalt not know what to do.

sinned; but, O ye Christians, have they not grievously suffered for it? Is not the stroke of God heavy enough upon them? Do not then, by unkind treatment or cruel oppression, increase their miseries. They are, above all others, the men who have seen affliction by the stroke of his rod; Lam. iii. 1..

Verse 32. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people] In several countries, particularly in Spain and Portugal, the children of the Jews have been taken from them by order of govern

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34 So that thou shalt be mad for the sight upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

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39 Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.

thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkeneḍst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:

46 And they shall be upon thee P for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. 47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;

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50 A nation of fierce countenance, shall not regard the person of the old, nor

40 Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thy-show favour to the young: self with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.

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51 And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed

42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall thee. the locust consumè.

y Psa. cxix. 82. -z Ver.. 51; Lev. xxvi. 16;. Jer. v. 17. a Ver. 67. Ver. 27. 2 Kings xvii. 4, 6; xiv. 12, 14; xxv. 7,11; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11; xxxvi, 6, 20. Chap. iv. 28; ver. 64; Jer. xvi. 13. 1 Kings ix. 7,8; Jer. xxiv. 9; xxv. 9; Zech. viii. 13.- Psa. xliv. 14. Mic. vi, 15; Hag. i. 6. h Joel i. 4. Heb. they shall not be thine.- Lam, i. 5. Or, possess. Ver. 12. n Ver. 13; Lam. i. 5.

ment, and educated in the Popish faith. There have been some instances of Jewish children being taken from their parents even in Protestant countries.

Verse 35. With a sore botch] 'n shechin, an inflammatory swelling, a burning boil. See ver. 27. Verse 36-45. Can any thing be conceived more dreadful than the calamities threatened in these verses? Verse 48. Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies] Because they would not serve GOD, therefore they became slaves to men,

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52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy

o Ver. 15.- -P Isa. viii. 18; Ezek. xiv. 8.- - Neh. ix. 35, 36, 37.- - Chap. xxxii. 15.- Jer. xxviii. 14. Jer. v. 15; vi. 22, 23; Luke xix. 43.- " Jer. xlviii. 43; xlix. 22; Lam. iv. 19; Ezek. xvii. 3, 12; Hos. viii. 1.- Heb. hear Heb. strong of face; Prov. vii. 13; Eccles. viii. 1; Dan. viii. 23. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17; Isa. xlvii. 6.- -y Ver. 33; Isa. i. 7; lxii. 8. 12 Kings xxv. 1, 2, 4.

Verse 49. A nation-from far] Probably the Romans.

As the eagle flieth] The very animal on all the Roman standards. The Roman eagle is proverbial.

Whose tongue thou shalt not understand] The Latin language, than which none was more foreign to the structure and idiom of the Hebrew.

Verse 52. He-Nebuchadnezzar first, (2 Kings xxv. 1, 2, &c.,) and Titus next; shall besiege theebeset thee round on every side, and cast a trench

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gates, until thy high and fenced children which she shall bear : An. Ex. Isr. 40. Walls come down, wherein thou for she shall eat them for want An. Ex. Isr. 40. trustedst, throughout all thy land: of all things secretly in the siege and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy distress thee in thy gates. God hath given thee.

53 And a thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own b body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:

54 So that 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 which he shall leave :

55 So that he will not give to any of them. of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.;

56 The tender and. delicate woman among you, which 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,

57 And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her

a Lev. xxvi. 29; 2 Kings vi. 28, 29; Jer. xix. 9; Lam. ii. 20; iv. 10; Bar. ii. 3. b Heb. belly.- - Chap. xv. 9. d Chap. xiii. 6.- Ver. 54. Heb. after-birth. Gen. xlix. 10,

around thee, viz., lines of circumvallation, as our Lord predicted; (see Matt. xxiv. 1, &c., and Luke xxi. 5, &c. ;) in all thý gates throughout all thy land—all thy fenced cities, which points out that their subjugation should be complete, as both Jerusalem and all their fortified places should be taken. This was done literally by Nebuchadnezzar and the Romans.

Verse 56. The tender and delicate woman]. This was literally fulfilled when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans; a woman named Mary, of a noble family, driven to distraction by famine, boiled and ate her own child! See a similar case 2 Kings vi. 29; and see on Lev. xxvi. 29.

Verse 57. Toward her young one—and toward her children which she shall bear] There seems to be a species of tautology in the two clauses of this verse, which may be prevented by translating the last word, nny shilyathah, literally, her secondines, which is the meaning of the Arabic sala, not badly understood by the Septuagint, xoplov aurns, the chorion or exterior membrane, which invests the fœtus in the womb; and still better translated by Luther, die after geburth, the after-birth; which saying of Moses strongly marks the deepest distress, when the mother is represented

58 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious, and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD:

59 Then the LORD will make thy plagues i wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long. continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. 60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee...

61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

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62 And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God.

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as.:

n

Chap. vii. 15. Heb. Chap. x. 22; Neh. ix. 23. P Prov. i. 26; Isa. i. 24.

feeling the most poignant regret that her child was brought forth into such a state of suffering and death; and 2dly, that it was likely, from the favourable circumstances after the birth, that she herself should survive her inlaying. No words can more forcibly depict the miseries of those dreadful times. On this ground I see no absolute need for Kennicott's criticism, who, instead of nubeshilyathah, against her secondines, reads 1 ubashelaḥ, and she shall boil, and translates the 56th and 57th verses as follows: "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. 57. And she shall boil that which cometh out from between her feet, even her children which she shall bear, for she shall eat them, for want of all things, secretly." These words, says he, being prophetical, are fulfilled in 2 Kings vi. 29, for we read there that two women of Samaria having agreed to eat their own children. one was actually boiled, where the very same word, ɔwɔ bashal, is used. See Kennicott's Dissertations on 1 Chron. xi, &c., p. 421.

A recapitulation of God's

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land whither thou goest to pos- thee; and thou shalt fear day and An. Ex. Isr. 40. sess it. night, and shalt have none assu- An. Ex. Isr. 40. rance of thy life:

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64 And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and

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67 In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. 68 And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no

66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before man shall buy you.

4 Lev. xxvi. 33; chap. iv. 27, 28; Neh. i. 8; Jer. xvi. 13. Ver. 36. Amos ix. 4.- - Lev. xxvi. 36.

Verse 64. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people] How literally has this been fulfilled! The people of the. Jews are scattered over every nation under heaven.

Verse 65. No ease—a trembling heart, and failing of eyes] The trembling of heart may refer to their state of continual insecurity, being, under every kind of government, proscribed, and, even under the most mild, uncertain of toleration and protection; and the failing of eyes, to their vain and ever-disappointed expectation of the Messiah.

Verse 68. And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again] That is, into another state of slavery and bondage similar to that of Egypt, out of which they had been lately brought. And there ye shall be sold, that is, be exposed to sale, or expose yourselves to sale, as the word hithmaccartem may be rendered; they were vagrants, and wished to become slaves that they might be provided with the necessaries of life. And no man shall buy you; even the Romans thought

w Ver. 34.
Jer. xliv. 7;
- Chap. xvii. 16.

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Lev. xxvi. 16.- Job vii. 4.Hos. viii. 13; ix. 3.it a reproach to have a Jew for a slave, they had become so despicable to all mankind. When Jerusalem was taken by Titus, many of the captives, which were above seventeen years of age, were sent into the works in Egypt. See Josephus, Antiq., b. xii., c. 1, 2, War, b. vi., c. 9, s. 2; and above all, see Bp. Newton's Dissertations on the Prophecies.

THE first verse of the next chapter, in some of the most correct Hebrew Bibles, makes the 69th of this; and very properly, as the second verse of the following chapter begins a new subject.

This is an astonishing chapter: in it are prophecies delivered more than 3,000 years ago, and now fulfilling. O God, how immense is thy wisdom, and how profound thy counsels! To thee alone are known all thy works from the beginning to the end. What an irrefragable proof does this chapter, compared with the past and present state of the Jewish people, afford of the truth and Divine origin of the Pentateuch!

CHAPTER XXIX.

A recapitulation of God's gracious dealings with Israel, 1-8. An exhortation to obedience, and to enter into covenant with their God, that they and their posterity may be established in the good land, 9–15. They are to remember the abominations of Egypt, and to avoid them, 16, 17. He who hardens his heart, when he hears these curses, shall be utterly consumed, 18–21. Their posterity shall be astonished at the desolations that shall fall upon them, 22, 23; shall inquire the reason, and shall be informed that the Lord has done thus to them because of their disobedience and idolatry, 24-28. A caution against prying too curiously into the secrets of the Divine providence, and to be contented with what God has revealed, 29.

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vants, and unto all his land;.

3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: 4 Yet the LORD hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

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5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: f your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.

6 Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.

7 And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:

8 And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.

Chap. iv. 34; vii. 19. See Isa. vi. 9, 10; Ixiii. 17; John viii. 43; Acts xxviii. 26, 27; Eph. iv. 18; 2 Thess. ii. Ú, 12. Chap. i. 3; viii. 2.- Chap. viii. 4. -5 See Exod. xvi. 12; chap. viii. 3; Psa. lxxviii. 24, 25.- Num. xxi. 23, 24, 33; chap. ii, 32; iii. 1.

exhorted to obedience.

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9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, An. Ex. Isr. 40. that ye may prosper in all that ye do.

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on the occasion and divided, as is explained, Gen. and keep all my commandments always, that it might . 18.

XV.

Beside the covenant which he made—in Horeb:] What is mentioned here is an additional institution to the ten words given on Horeb; and the curses denounced here are different from those denounced against the transgressors of the decalogue.

be well with them and with their children for ever!" See chap. v. 29, and the note there.

Verse 5. Your clothes are not waxen old] See on chap. viii. 4.

Verse 6. Ye have not eaten bread, &c.] That is, ye have not been `supported in an ordinary providential Verse 4. The Lord hath not given you a heart, &c.] way; I have been continually working miracles for Some critics read this verse interrogatively: And hath you, that ye might know that I am the Lord. Thus not God given you a heart, &c.? because they sup- we find that God had furnished them with all the means pose that God could not reprehend them for the non- of this knowledge, and that the means were ineffectual, performance of a duty, when he had neither given them not because they were not properly calculated to ana mind to perceive the obligation of it, nor strength to swer God's gracious purpose, but because the people perform it, had that obligation been known. Though were not workers with God; consequently they rethis is strictly just, yet there is no need for the inter-ceived the grace of God in vain, See 2 Cor. vi. 1. rogation, as the words only imply that they had not Verse 10. Ye stand-all of you before the Lord] such a heart, &e., not because God had not given them.They were about to enter into a covenant with God; all the means of knowledge, and helps of his grace and as a covenant împlies two parties contracting, God and Spirit, which were necessary; but they had not is represented as being present, and they and all their made a faithful use of their advantages, and therefore families, old and young, come before him. they had not that wise, loving, and obedient heart which they otherwise might have had. If they had had such a heart, it would have been God's gift, for he is the author of all good; and that they had not such a heart was a proof that they had grieved his Spirit, and abused the grace which he had afforded them to produce that gracious change, the want of which is here deplored. Hence God himself is represented as grieved because they were unchanged and disobedient: "O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me,

Verse 12. That thou shouldest enter] a leaber, to pass through, that is, between the separated parts of the covenant sacrifice. See Gen. xv. 18.

And into his oath] Thus we find that in a covenant were these seven particulars: 1. The parties about to contract were considered as being hitherto separated. 2. They now agree to enter into a state of close and permanent amity. 3. They meet together in a solemn manner for this purpose. 4. A sacrifice is offered to God on the occasion, for the whole is a religious act.

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