Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 28:25

The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

25. See on Deu 28:7 ; Deu 28:20 a.

tossed to and fro ] Rather, for a trembling or a horror (Heb. l e za‘ a vah). So the v. does not necessarily imply exile. Cp. Jer 15:4; Jer 24:9; Jer 29:18; Jer 34:17.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Removed. Heb. for a removing; to be tossed like a football from place to place, and from people to people.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten fore thine enemies,…. And by them, as they sometimes were by the Philistines and others, before their utter destruction, when they sinned against the Lord; and by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans:

thou shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them; march out against them in a body, promising themselves victory, but be utterly routed; so that they shall flee every way they can for their safety; see De 28:7;

and shall be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth; this shows that Manasseh’s case 2Ki 21:1, observed De 28:15; will not strictly and entirely hold good, nor is there any necessity to adhere closely to it; it is enough that the things threatened and prophesied of were at one time or another fulfilled in these people; for neither the ten tribes, when taken captive by Shalmaneser, were carried into all the kingdoms of the earth, only to some particular places mentioned in 2Ki 17:6; nor the two tribes by Nebuchadnezzar, who were carried by him to Babylon, and returned from thence again at the end of seventy years; but this was exactly fulfilled at their last destruction by the Romans, when they were sent by them into various countries, and have been ever since scattered about in each of the nations of the world. And yet it must be owned that Strabo g, who wrote before the last destruction of them, affirms, that it was not easy to find any place in the world which had not received them, and was not occupied by them.

g Apud Joseph. Antiqu. l. 14. c. 7. sect. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

25. The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies. What He had briefly threatened in His mention of “the sword,” He now more fully pursues, that they should be given up to the will of their enemies, so as to be indiscriminately slaughtered. We have previously seen that those who execute punishment on the transgressors of the Law, are stirred up and armed by the just judgment of God; Moses does not now touch on that point, but merely declares that the enemies of the people should be their conquerors, should cruelly entreat them and pursue them in their flight. Moreover, in order that God’s judgment might be more conspicuous, He says, that when they have gone out to battle by one way, i e. , with their army in regular order, they should return by seven ways, because, in the confusion of their flight, they should be dispersed in all directions. Hence we gather that the bravery of men is in God’s power, so that He can make cowards of the boldest whenever He so pleases. And we must bear in mind what we shall see elsewhere, “How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except God had sold them and had shut them up” under their hand? (Deu 32:30.) And for this reason God calls Himself the God of hosts, in order that believers may live securely under His guardianship; whilst the wicked, and the despisers of the Law, should dread the slightest motion when He is wroth with them.

What follows, that they should be “for (241) a removing in all the kingdoms of the earth,” some take to mean that they should be a laughing-stock; because we usually shake or move our heads by way of insult; but others explain it, that they should be wanderers and vagabonds in unknown places of exile. The first exposition is the one I prefer. In Ezekiel (242) (Eze 23:46,) it is used for a tumultuous rout; nor am I indisposed to understand it in this way, that whatever nations shall assail them, they should be shaken by their slightest attacks.

(241) See Margin, A. V. “In commotionem.” — Lat. The first exposition, approved by C. , is that of S. M. and Malvenda, who refers to Psa 21:8, and Psa 44:15. See Poole’s Synopsis in loco.

(242) This reference is omitted altogether in Fr.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 28:2535

490.

Consider the map as to the location of Israel. How would the geographical location of Israel relate to the promise, tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms?

491.

List the personal bodily afflictions here promised. When were these promises fulfilled?

492.

List the domestic tragedies.

493.

Where and when and by whom were these words first fulfilled? With what result?

AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 28:2535

25 The Lord shall cause you to be struck down before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them, and you shall be tossed to and fro and be a terror among all the kingdoms of the earth. [Fulfilled, 2Ch. 29:8.]

26 And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.
27 The Lord will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with the tumors, the scurvy and the itch, of which you cannot be healed.
28 The Lord will smite you with madness and blindness and dismay of [mind and] heart.
29 And you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways; and you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to save you.
30 You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, and not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard and not gather its grapes.
31 Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away before your face, and not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to help you.

32 Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all the day, and there shall be no power in your hands to prevent it. [Fulfilled, 2Ch. 29:9.]

33 A nation which you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your land and of all your labors; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually.] Fulfilled, Jdg. 6:1-6; Jdg. 13:1.

34 So that you shall be driven mad by the sight which your eyes shall see.
35 The Lord will smite you on the knees and on the legs and a sore boil that cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

COMMENT 28:2535

AND THOU SHALT BE TOSSED TO AND FRO AMONG THE KINGDOMS OF THE EARTH[47] (Deu. 28:25)a ball for all the kingdoms to play with (Shultz). If any nation on earth has fulfilled these words, Israel has. She has been a literal football for centuries. Perhaps that period of history immediately after the conquest of Alexander the Great best illustrates these verses, Palestine then lay between the kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucidae in Syria. These royal families and their kingdoms were constantly at one anothers throats, and Israel became a literal battlefield for their warsSometimes held by one power, sometimes by the other. (How ridiculous, then, the later defense of the JewsWe are Abrahams seed, and have never been in bondage to any man (Joh. 8:33)!

[47] A number of modern translators have rendered this phrase a horrible spectacle to all the kingdoms of the earth or similarly.

BOIL OF EGYPT (Deu. 28:27)The A.V. has botch of Egypt, Compare also Deu. 28:35; Deu. 28:60, Exo. 9:9-10, though these may not all refer to the same affliction. Whatever kind of boil or inflammation it was, it is hard to imagine one that was pleasant!

EMEROIDS (Deu. 28:27)Heb. ophel, probably hemorrhoids or piles.

MADNESS, BLINDNESS, etc. (Deu. 28:28)Note how these diseases are either of the head or mental, while the previous ones were basically bodily afflictions.

MADNESS (Deu. 28:28)Heb. shiggaan, a form of which also appears in Deu. 28:34. Baumgartner says it is derived from an Arabic word which was used of the continuous cooing of a male pigeon, (apparently one in distress). But the Hebrew word always refers to a distressed individual, a madman.

BETROTH A WIFE . . . ANOTHER SHALL LIE WITH HER (Deu. 28:30)This, as well as other statements in Deu. 28:29-30, show the unstable and insecure social conditions that would exist in Israelespecially an Israel continually threatened, invaded, or dominated by heathen nations. Law, order, morality, respect for the rights of others, respect for private propertythese are lacking when evil dominates, for Righteousness exalteth a nation; But sin is a reproach to any people (Pro. 14:35).

36 Jehovah will bring thee, and thy king whom thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation that thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. 37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples whither Jehovah shall lead thee away. 38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather little in; for the locust shall consume it. 39 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. 40 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. 41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be thine; for they shall go into captivity. 42 All thy trees and the fruit of thy ground shall the locust possess. 43 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. 44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. 45 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: 46 and they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(25) The contrary to Deu. 28:7.

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

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

25. To be smitten before thine enemies In contrast with the blessing in the seventh verse.

Thou shalt go out one way and flee seven How graphic the description of an army marching to battle in confident expectation of victory, and then beaten disastrously, fleeing in every direction!

Shalt be removed “Tossed about like a ball from one nation to another.” Wordsworth.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments