Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 28:27
The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
27. the boil of Egypt ] Cp. P, Exo 9:9 with Driver’s note. One of the skin-diseases common in Egypt. Boil, Heb. sh e n; Eg. sn, ‘an abscess.’ Some think of small-pox, others of elephantiasis. But it may be the bubonic plague; see next note.
emerods ] LXX . . Rather, as R.V. marg., tumours; Heb. ‘ o phalim, swellings. Probably the buboes of the bubonic plague (so Macalister). On this see HGHL, 157 ff.
scurvy ] Heb. garab (Ar. garab = mange), Lev 21:20; Lev 22:22; LXX , Vulg. scabies. ‘Favus’ (Macalister).
itch ] Heb. eres, Lev 21:20, LXX , Vulg. prurigo.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch] shechin, a violent inflammatory swelling. In Job 2:7, one of the Hexapla versions renders it , 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. See an account of it in Aretaeus, 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 loathsome and abominable of all the natural productions of death and sin. This was called the botch of Egypt, as being peculiar to that country, and particularly in the vicinity of the Nile. Hence those words of Lucretius: –
Est Elephas morbus, qui circum flumina Nili
Nascitur, AEgypto in media nec praeterea usquam.
Lib. vi., ver. 1112.
Emerods] ophalim, from aphal, to be elevated, raised up; swellings, protuberances; probably the bleeding piles.
Scab] garab does not occur as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, but [Arabic] gharb, in Arabic, signifies a distemper in the corner of the eye, (Castel.,) and may amount to the Egyptian ophthalmia, which is so epidemic and distressing in that country: some suppose the scurvy to be intended.
Itch] 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
27. the botch of Egyptatroublesome eruption, marked by red pimples, to which, at the risingof the Nile, the Egyptians are subject.
emerodsfistul orpiles.
scabscurvy.
itchthe diseasecommonly known by that name; but it is far more malignant in the Eastthan is ever witnessed in our part of the world.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt,…. Which some understand of the leprosy, Of that sort of it called “elephantiasis”, frequent among the Egyptians; [See comments on Le 13:2]. Thevenot i relates, that when the time of the increase of the Nile expires, the Egyptians are attended with sharp prickings in their skin like needles. So Vansleb says k,
“the waters of the Nile cause an itch in the skin, which troubles such as drink of them when the river increases. This itch is very small, and appears first about the arms, next upon the stomach, and spreads all about the body, which causes a grievous pain; and not only the river water, but that out of the cisterns drank of, brings it, and it lasts about six weeks.”
Though some take this botch to be the botch and blain which the Egyptians were plagued with for refusing to let Israel go, Ex 9:9;
and with the emerods; or haemorrhoids, the piles, a disease of the fundament, attended sometimes with ulcers there; see 1Sa 5:9;
and with the scab and with the itch: the one moist, the other dry, and both very distressing:
whereof thou canst not be healed; by any art of men; which shows these to be uncommon ones, and from the immediate hand of God.
i Apud Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. vol. 3. p. 426, 427. k Relation of a Voyage to Egypt, p. 35, 36.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Verses 27-34:
The second group of curses: those in this group include affliction with various diseases, with humiliating calamities, and oppression at the hand of their enemies.
(1) Botch, schechin, “inflammation,” of Egypt, a form of disease peculiar in Egypt, possibly elephantaisis.
(2) Emerods, ophel, tumors, possibly piles or hemorrhoids.
(3) Scab, garab, a kind of malignant scurvy.
(4) Itch, cheres, implying a burning; itching disease, of which there are many varieties in the Orient.
These plagues affect the individual physically.
In addition to the physical ailments which would result from disobedience, there were the psychological distresses.
(1) Madness, shiggaon, “erring,” insanity, inability to make proper decisions.
(2) Blindness, ivvaron, “closing,” see also Zec 12:4. Likely this term is symbolic of lack of clear perception.
(3) Astonishment, timmahon, “wonder,” denoting mental confusion.
This confusion of mind, will, and emotions would cause the disobedient to grope, mashash, like a blind man seeking to find his way but stumbling over the slightest obstacle in his path, see Isa 42:19; La 4:14; Mat 15:14.
God warned that disobedience would cause Him to permit them to be utterly spoiled. Their dearest possessions would be taken from them:
(1) Family: the wife and children.
(2) Field: the ancestral inheritance.
(3) Livestock: cattle, sheep, donkeys.
The sight of this utter devastation would drive them to madness.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt. Whether you understand this passage of the extraordinary plagues which God inflicted on the Egyptians at the time of His people’s deliverance, or of the ordinary diseases which had before prevailed among them, though the latter is more probable, still Moses signifies, that whilst the Egyptians were smitten with these plagues, God’s people escaped them, in order that this distinction might more clearly represent His favor. For it could not happen naturally that in the same place the diseases, from which the Israelites were free, should afflict the Egyptians alone. God therefore threatens, that if they should despise His Law, He would deal with them as they had seen Him deal with heathen nations. And assuredly, since God then chose to multiply His people miraculously, it can be by no means doubted but that He wonderfully privileged them by the bestowment of health and rigor. It is doubtful whether by diseases of the fundament He signifies hemorrhoids or prolapsus, or some other secret disease, such as that which attacked the Philistines when they captured the ark of the covenant. (1Sa 5:6.) He subjoins other diseases, in which there appear special marks of God’s wrath; for although they sometimes affect the children of God also, still I have shewn elsewhere that the same punishments are so dealt out to them respectively, that they widely differ from each other. When Job was smitten with terrible ulcers, so as to become corrupt, he seemed for a time to present the marks of a reprobate person; but what in that holy man was an exercise of patience, is in the transgressors of the Law the just reward of their crimes by the curse of God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(27) The botch of Egypt.The boil, with which the Egyptians were plagued (Exo. 9:9, &c.) is the same word. (See also 2Ki. 20:7; Job. 2:7.) Rashi says of this boil, It was very bad, being moist on the inside, and dry outside. A learned Dalmatian Jew, with whom I have read this passage, tells me that he has seen many cases of this kind among the Hungarian and Polish Jews, and that it prevails among them, being traceable partly to their uncleanliness.
Emerodsi.e., hmorrhoids (as in 1Sa. 5:6).
The scab.In Lev. 21:20; Lev. 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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
27. The botch of Egypt Probably the disease called elephantiasis. Comp. Exo 9:9, where the Hebrew word is translated boil. This section (27-34) announces some further disasters that will follow upon disobedience. Physical and mental calamities will come desolation of the home and destruction of property.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, &c. shechin, rendered the botch, signifies an inflammatory swelling, a burning boil, a morbid tumour attended with a sense of heat. In Job 2:7 one of the versions of the Hexapla renders it the elephantiasis, a kind of leprosy. It is most probably the same malady mentioned Exo 9:9. See Parkhurst on the word. Thevenot, in his Description of the Diseases of Egypt, mentions, among others, a kind of inflammation breaking out in pustules or botches, over all the skin, about the time of the Nile’s beginning to overflow. By the emerods are meant those painful swellings in the hemorrhoidal vessels, which sometimes turn into ulcers. The word is nowhere found in Scripture, except here and 1Sa 5:6 : The superstitious vulgar of Egypt were made to believe, that these ulcers, &c. were inflicted by the goddess Isis, and their other idols. See Persius, sat. v. l. 186. and Juv. sat. xiii. l. 92.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Deu 28:27 The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
Ver. 27. With the botch of Egypt, ] i.e., With the leprosy called Elephantiasis, when the skin grows hard as the elephant’s skin. This, saith one, was bred only about Nile, the river of Egypt.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Deu 28:27-37
27The LORD will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28The LORD will smite you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart; 29and you will grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways; but you shall only be oppressed and robbed continually, with none to save you. 30You shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; you shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not use its fruit. 31Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey shall be torn away from you, and will not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you will have none to save you. 32Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and yearn for them continually; but there will be nothing you can do. 33A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed continually. 34You shall be driven mad by the sight of what you see. 35The LORD will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. 36The LORD will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone. 37You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the Lord drives you.
Deu 28:27 with the boils of Egypt Notice the list of plagues and problems (plagues of Egypt and reversal of covenant blessings) YHWH will visit on Israel if they do not obey His covenant. To whom much is given, much is required (e.g., Luk 12:48).
1. NASB, NKJV, NRSV, TEVboils, cf. Deu 28:27; Deu 28:35
NJBEgyptian ulcers
JPSOAinflamation
BDB 1006, cf. Exo 9:9-11. It refers to some king of abscess.
2. NASB, JPSOAtumors, Deu 28:27
NKJVemerods
NRSV ulcers
TEV sores
NJB swelling in the groin
BDB 779 II, cf. 1Sa 5:6; 1Sa 5:9; 1Sa 5:12. Many scholars have interpreted this as the symptoms of plague (i.e., buboes, large darkened, swollen areas, cf. 1Sa 5:9 to 1Sa 6:17, which, by implication, associates it with mice)
3. NASB, NKJV the scab, Deu 28:27
NRSV, NJB scurvy
JPSOA boil-scars
BDB 173, cf. Lev 21:20; Lev 22:22
4.NASB, NKJV, NRSV, TEV, NJBthe itch, Deu 28:27
BDB 360 III. This term is found only here in the OT and refers to skin irritation caused by mites (cf. NIDOTTE, vol. 2, p. 278).
5. NASB, NKJV, NRSV, NJB madness, Deu 28:28; Deu 28:35
TEV lose your mind
BDB 993, cf. Zec 12:4
6.NASB, NKJV, NRSV, TEV, NJBblindness, Deu 28:28-29
BDB 734, cf. Lam 4:14; Zep 1:17
7. NASB bewilderment of heart, Deu 28:28
NKJV confusion of heart
NRSV confusion of mind
TEV confusion
NJBdistraction of mind
BDB 1069, cf. Zec 12:4
8. NASB, NKJV oppressed … continually, Deu 28:29
NRSV continually abused
TEV constantly oppressed
NJB exploited
BDB 798, Qal PASSIVE PARTICIPLE, cf. Lev 6:2
9. NASB, TEV robbed continually, Deu 28:29
NKJV plundered continually
NRSV continually robbed
NJB plundered
BDB 159, Qal PASSIVE PARTICIPLE, cf. Lev 6:2
10. NASB wife … violated, Deu 28:30
NKJV, NRSV lie with her
BDB 993, KB 1415, Qal IMPERFECT
11. your home lived in by another, Deu 28:30
12. your vineyard enjoyed by another, Deu 28:30
13. your livestock taken by another, Deu 28:31
14.your children taken, Deu 28:32
15.your crops given to another, Deu 28:33
16. your labors enjoyed by another, Deu 28:33
17.NASB, NKJV oppressed, Deu 28:33
NRSV abused
TEV oppression
NJB exploited
BDB 798, KB 897, Qal PASSIVE PARTICIPLE, cf. Deu 28:29; 1Sa 12:4; Amo 4:1
18. NASB, NKJV, NRSV, NJB crushed, Deu 28:33
TEV harsh treatment
BDB 954, KB 1285, Qal PASSIVE PARTICIPLE, cf. 1Sa 12:3-4; Amo 4:1
19. NASB, NKJV, NRSV, NJBdriven mad, Deu 28:34
TEV make you lose your mind
BDB 993, KB 1415, Pual PARTICIPLE, cf. Deu 28:30
20. NASB strike you. . .with sore boils, Deu 28:35
NKJV strike you. . .with severe boils
NRSV strike you. . .with grievous boils
TEV will cover you. . .painful sores, boils
NJB strike you down with foul ulcers
BDB 645, KB 697, Hiphil IMPERFECT and two OBJECTS, BDB 1006 and 948
21. your king removed and replaced by pagan rulers, Deu 28:36
22. you shall serve foreign gods, Deu 28:36
23. you will become:
a.
NASB a horror, Deu 28:37
NKJV an astonishment
NRSV object of horror
NJB the astonishment
BDB 1031 I, cf. 2Ki 22:19; Jer 5:30; Jer 25:9; Jer 25:11; Jer 25:18; Jer 25:38; Jer 29:18; Jer 42:18; Jer 44:12; Jer 44:22; Jer 49:13; Jer 49:17; Jer 50:23; Jer 51:37; Jer 51:41
b.
NASB, NKJV, NRSV a proverb, Deu 28:37
NJB the byword
BDB 605, cf. 1Ki 9:7; Jer 24:9
c.
NASB a taunt, Deu 28:37
NKJV, NRSV a byword
NJB the laughing-stock
BDB 1042, cf. 1Ki 9:7; Jer 24:9
24. NASB the LORD will drive you
NKJV, NRSV the LORD will lead you
NJB Yahweh is taking you
This VERB (BDB 624 I, KB 675, Piel IMPERFECT) is used of leading livestock (e.g., Exo 3:1). It became a metaphor of (1) leading people in judgment (e.g., Deu 4:27; 1Sa 30:2; 1Sa 30:22; Isa 20:4) or (2) YHWH leading as a caring shepherd (cf. Psa 48:14; Psa 78:26; Psa 78:52; Psa 80:1). Humans will be led (shepherd) or driven (judge) by their faith obedience.
This reminds them of the plague of the boils on the Egyptians (cf. Exo 9:8 ff). These plagues are now visited on disobedient Israel (cf. Deu 7:15; Deu 28:60-61).
Deu 28:32 Notice the plight of these Israeli parents:
1. children given to other people (BDB 678, KB 733, Qal PASSIVE PARTICIPLE)
2. they see it happening (BDB 906, KB 1157, Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLE)
3. their eyes fail with longing all the day (the term, BDB 479, is found only here in the OT)
4. they have no power to stop it (BDB 34 II, CONSTRUCT BDB 43)
Deu 28:33 oppressed This term was used regularly of the wealthy taking advantage of the poor and socially ostracized, but here it is used of YHWH breaking His disobedient people.
Deu 28:35 from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head This is a metaphor for widespread sickness of which one cannot be healed (cf. Job 2:7; Isa 1:5-6).
Deu 28:36 your king Moses recognized that there would be a king someday (cf. Deu 17:14-20). The Israelites were a tribal society. There was no king until Saul (cf. 1 Samuel 8).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
botch = elephantiasis.
emerods = Old English spelling of modern Hemorrhoids. or “piles”. Written “posteriors” in Hebrew text, but read “tumours” by way of Figure of speech Euphemism.
scab = aggravated psoriasis.
itch = prurigo.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the botch: Deu 28:35, Exo 9:9, Exo 9:11, Exo 15:26
emerods: 1Sa 5:6, 1Sa 5:9, 1Sa 5:12, Psa 78:66
scab: Lev 13:2-8, Lev 21:20, Isa 3:17
Reciprocal: Exo 9:10 – a boil Num 11:33 – smote Deu 7:15 – will put none 2Sa 24:13 – three days’ 1Ch 21:12 – even the pestilence 2Ch 21:15 – the sickness Job 2:7 – sore boils Isa 33:24 – the inhabitant Amo 4:10 – pestilence Rev 16:2 – a noisome
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 28:27-29. The botch of Egypt Such boils or blains as the Egyptians were plagued with, spreading from head to foot. The emerods Those painful swellings of the hemorrhoidal vessels, called piles. Blindness Of mind, so that they should not know what to do. Astonishment They should be filled with wonder and horror because of the strangeness and soreness of their calamities. Grope at noon-day In the most clear and evident matters thou shalt grossly mistake. Thy ways Thy counsels and enterprises shall be frustrated and turn to thy destruction. Compare Jer 25:16; Jer 25:18; Zep 1:17; Lam 4:14; Jer 4:9; Eze 4:17.