Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 28:20
The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
Verse 20. Cursing] This shall be thy state; vexation – grief, trouble, and anguish of heart; rebuke – continual judgments, and marks of God’s displeasure.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Vexation, or, disturbance. This seems chiefly to concern the mind, and its torment arising from the disappointment of hopes, the presages of its approaching miseries.
Rebuke, to wit, from God, not so much in words as by his actions, by cross providences, by sharp and sore afflictions, which are oft called rebukes, as 2Ki 19:3; Psa 18:15; Psa 39:11; 80:16; Isa 51:20; 66:15; Eze 5:15; 25:17.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
The Lord shall send upon thee cursing,…. Which is either a general word for all that follows, or rather, since that had been expressed before in various instances, this may denote some particular judgment. Jarchi interprets it of penury, of want of all good things, extreme poverty, so as to be reduced to the utmost necessity, and as to stand in need of the common comforts and supports of life, and even to have their blessings and mercies turned into curses; the consequence of which must needs be
vexation; trouble, distress, and anguish of spirit:
and rebuke; this may well be considered as a rebuke and correction in Providence for sins committed, to awaken to a sense and acknowledgment of them, and to repentance for them:
in all that thou settest thine hand to do; nothing done should prosper, to relieve them under their pressing wants, a curse attending all their efforts, and so sad disappointment follows; and all as a just rebuke for their many sins: and this would be their case more or less,
until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; through famine, and want of the common necessaries of life; as at the sieges of Samaria and Jerusalem, by the kings of Syria, Assyria, and Babylon:
because of the wickedness of thy doings, because thou hast forsaken me; their several immoralities and impieties, and particularly their idolatry, which was a forsaking the worship of the true God, and following idols; an iniquity to be punished by the judge, and of all things the most provoking to the Lord.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Verses 20-26:
The first group of curses: the curses listed in this text would come upon the disobedient and fill them with terror, threatening them with ruin. As a consequence of their rebellion, Jehovah would send upon them:
(1) cursing, meerah, not a swearing with words of imprecation, but a judgment of destruction. ,
(2) Vexation, mehumah, “trouble, ,destruction,” also translated “trouble (Pro 15:16; Isa 22:5), and tumult (Amo 3:9; Zec 14:13).”
(3) Rebuke, migereth, the only occurrence of this term in Scripture. It suggests reproach and ill-favor.
(4) Pestilence, deber, “plague,” likely a generic term denoting any fatal epidemic.
(5) Consumption, shachepheth, “wasting away,” a term denoting any wasting away of a body part, as a “withered hand,” Mat 12:10.
(6) Fever, qaddachath, burning heat.”
(7) Inflammation, delleqeth, the only occurrence of this term in the Old Testament.
(8) Extreme burning, charchur.
The latter four calamities listed appear to describe the nature of the “pestilences” to come upon the disobedient.
(9) Sword, chereb, symbolic of ceaseless warfare.
(10) Blasting, shiddaphon, “blight,” see also 1Ki 8:37; 2Ch 6:28; Amo 4:9; Hag 2:17
(11) Mildew, yeraqon, “greenness, paleness.”
The latter two calamities are blights which attack the grain, both in the field and after the harvest when the grain is stored.
(12) Pursue, radaph, see Lev 26:17; Lev 26:36-37
(13) Devastating drought is predicted (verses 23, 24) upon the land as judgment for the disobedient.
(14) Utter defeat in battle (verses 25, 26), in contrast to victory promised in verse 7. The unburied bodies of their fallen warriors would be left exposed on the battlefield, for the carrion birds and animals.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 28:2024
488.
Jehovah was going to interfere and interrupt the daily life of the people of Israel. Does He have less interest in His people today?
489.
List the influences of God as to: (1) work, (2) sickness, (3) weather, (4) politics.
AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 28:2024
20 The Lord shall send you curses, confusion, and rebuke in every enterprise to which you set your hand, until you are destroyed, perishing quickly, because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me [Moses and God as one].
21 The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from off the land, which you go to possess.
22 The Lord will smite you with consumption, with fever, and inflammation, fiery heat, sword and drought, blasting, and mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.
23 The heavens over your head shall be brass, and the earth under you shall be iron.
24 The Lord shall make the rain of your land powered soil and dust; from the heavens it shall come down upon you until you are destroyed.
COMMENT 28:2024
Now, and increasingly as we proceed in this chapter, the curses take on the form of a concrete prophecy. And although in several cases we can see many instances of fulfillment, in others we can be more concrete and specific.
The Amplified O.T. renders Deu. 28:20 well: The Lord shall send you curses, confusion, and rebuke in every enterprise to which you set your hand, until you are destroyed, perishing quickly, because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me [Moses and God as one].
UNTIL THOU BE DESTROYED (Deu. 28:20. Cf. Deu. 28:48)destroy is the English rendering of a number of different Hebrew wordsin the Old Testament, in this book, and in this chapter! Normally, utter destruction is not meant unless that is the translation(as the Heb. word charam is rendered in Deu. 2:34, Deu. 3:6 [twice], etc.) The Hebrew word used here (shamad) is, indeed, also sometimes rendered utterly destroy, but the idea is not the annihilation or total extinction of the Hebrew peoples from the face of the earth. This truth is well illustrated in Deu. 4:25-31, where utterly destroy is used synonomously with scatter you among the peoples. With reference to Israel, (as is seen below) the term simply has reference to a nation cursed of Godunproductive, unhappy, and ruled by a foreign power. So in Deu. 28:33 we are told they shall be only oppressed and crushed awayNot quite rooted out as the Canaanites and Amalakites were, and of which no traces now remain.
PESTILENCE (Deu. 28:21)Heb. deber, bobopest, plague (Baumgartner).
FIERY HEAT (Deu. 28:22)Is this a reference to the weather conditions of the land, or an individuals state of fever? Gesenius defines the Heb. word (charchur) inflammation, burning, fever. The LXX has erethismos, irritation.
THE SWORD (Deu. 28:22)this is the normal rendering of the Heb. chereb. However, some manuscripts, because of a different pointing of the Hebrew consonants, have choreb, drought, waste. This reading is found in the Samaritan text, and is rendered similarly in the Vulgate, Arabic, and most of the modern versions.
HEAVEN . . . SHALL BE BRASS . . . EARTH THAT IS UNDER THEE SHALL BE IRON (Deu. 28:23)i.e., the heavens would not bring forth rain (Contrast Deu. 28:12) and the earth would be sterile and unproductive. (Remember too that dry ground tends to harden and does not respond readily to cultivation.) See Lev. 26:19-20.
JEHOVAH WILL MAKE . . . DUST (Deu. 28:24)Contrast again with Deu. 28:12. As the rain was formerly given in response to their righteousness, so God also can be the source of powder and dust (or sand)which of course may also move through the sky carried by the winds. The allusion is probably to those clouds of dust and sand which often fill the air in Palestine, when the heat is intense and there has been no rain for a vehement sirocco, and the air is filled with sand and dust, and is like the glowing heat at the mouth of a furnace.[46]
[46] The quote is from Pulpit Commentary. But see also the vivid description of this wind and dust in Thomsons Land and the Book, pp. 295, 536, 537
25 Jehovah will cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies; thou shalt go out one way against them, and shalt flee seven ways before thee: and thou shalt be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 And thy dead body shall be food unto all birds of the heavens, and unto the beasts of the earth; and there shall be none to frighten them away. 27 Jehovah will smite thee with the boil of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scurvy, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. 28 Jehovah will smite thee with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart; 29 and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways; and thou shalt be only oppressed and robbed alway, and there shall be none to save thee. 30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not use the fruit thereof. 31 Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to save thee. 32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people; and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day: and there shall be nought in the power of thy hand. 33 The fruit of thy ground, and all thy labors, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway; 34 so that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see, 35 Jehovah will smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore boil, whereof thou canst not be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the crown of thy head.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(20) Cursing, vexation, and rebuke.Deficiency, and anxiety, and failure in every enterprise, would convey the idea, according to another interpretation. There are two views of the derivation of the first of the three words employed. Probably the Authorised Version is right. The three words have each of them the definite article in the original, just as if they were so many diseases. The curse, and the terror, and the rebuke of the Almighty are terrible obstacles to any human undertaking.
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 Deu. 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 Act. 21:21.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. Vexation Consternation is a more exact rendering of the Hebrew. In 1Sa 5:11, and Deu 7:23, it is translated destruction.
Rebuke The Hebrew word here used is found only in this place. It evidently has a stronger meaning than rebuke condemnation would be better implying God’s curse upon all their undertakings.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The picture of misery is drawn more horrible in these verses, from describing the particular features of the curses, the LORD threatens to send after the sinner. If the Reader will attend to them minutely, he will find, that they extend to almost every possible state to which our poor nature can be exposed. To sickness, to famine, to the destruction of the sword, to captivity in the enemies country, to the loss of children; in short, to every personal evil. In the book of Ezekiel, the LORD speaks of his four sore judgments, but here they are fourfold, Eze 14:21 . But Reader! if we read them spiritually, how do those distresses rise in magnitude to our view. If our miseries are ever so great, yet if they are bounded within the limits of the life of man on earth, in the grave the weary are at rest. But if souls are cursed with an everlasting curse, and when they lie down in the grave, sin is their grave-fellow, and follows them to eternity, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. Oh! the wretched, wretched state of the ungodly! when that wrath of GOD shall light on the sinner, which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Rom 1:18 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deu 28:20 The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
Ver. 20. See Trapp on “ Deu 28:15 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Deu 28:20-24
20The LORD will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me. 21The LORD will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. 22The LORD will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the sword and with blight and with mildew, and they will pursue you until you perish. 23The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. 24The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
Deu 28:20 confusion This is a word (BDB 223) that is used of defeat in battle (cf. Deu 7:23). It is opposite of Deu 28:7; Deu 28:25. The confusion will be upon Israel if she disobeys God’s word.
rebuke This term (BDB 172) is found only here in the OT.
until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly Notice the parallelism:
1. destroyed – BDB 1029, KB 1552, Niphal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT, cf. Deu 4:26; Deu 6:15
2. perish – BDB 1, KB 2, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT, cf. Lev 26:38; Deu 4:26; Deu 8:19-20; Deu 11:17; Deu 30:18-20; Jos 23:13; Jos 23:16 plus the ADVERB quickly (BDB 555 II)
on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me Notice that deviation from the commandments is seen as forsaking YHWH!
Deu 28:21 pestilence This (BDB 184) refers to a plague (cf. Lev 26:25; Num 14:12) like YHWH sent on Egypt (cf. Exo 5:3; Exo 9:15).
cling The VERB (BDB 179, KB 209, Hiphil) is JUSSIVE in form. YHWH’s judgment will stick close to them until it has finished its task (i.e., consumed you, BDB 477, KB 476, Piel INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT).
The term is used for what Israel was to do to YHWH (i.e., cling to Him, cf. Deu 10:20; Deu 11:22; Deu 30:20).
Deu 28:22 sword Note the list of things YHWH will send against a disobedient Israel:
1. consumption (BDB 1006, cf. Lev 26:16), a disease of the lungs
2. fever (BDB 869, cf. Lev 26:16)
3. inflamation (BDB 196)
4. fiery heat (BDB 359, #2,3, and 4 all involve heat; this one seems to imply drought conditions, cf. NRSV)
5. sword (BDB 352)
6. blight (BDB 995, smut on crops, cf. 1Ki 8:37; 2Ch 6:28; Amo 4:9)
7. mildew (BDB 439, cf. 1Ki 8:37; 2Ch 6:28; Amo 4:9; Hag 2:17; the word means green, therefore, a green mildew)
Both humans and agriculture will suffer and die! Notice the symbolic number of afflictions (i.e., seven; there are also seven blessings listed in this chapter). See Special Topic: Symbolic Numbers in Scripture .
Deu 28:23 iron Iron is often a metaphor for difficulties:
1. the land will not produce, because of no rain it turns as hard as metal, Deu 28:23, cf. Lev 26:19
2. the yoke of iron is placed on Israel’s neck, Deu 28:48
3. Egypt as an iron furnace of affliction, cf. Deu 4:20
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the Fearful Results of Disobedience
Deu 28:20-46
If we compare this chapter with Exo 23:20-23 and Lev 26:1-46, we shall see how Moses resumes and amplifies the promises and threatenings already set forth in the earlier editions of the Law. The blessings are declared in fourteen verses, while the curses require four times as much space. This is due to Gods eagerness that men should be warned from courses that injure, and shut up to those that lead to blessedness. Note the language, which rises to the sublimest level, especially in the latter part. The forecasts of the dispersion and the degradation of the Hebrew people are especially remarkable.
It is not only that God goes out of His way to reward the obedient and to punish the ungodly, but these rewards and punishments are part of the nature of things, just as fire stings and burns, when we transgress its laws, but blesses when we obey. If we are at one with God, through Jesus Christ, we are at one with the universe. But if not, the stars in their courses fight against us. See Jdg 5:20; 1Co 3:21.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
send: Psa 7:11, Mal 2:2
vexation: 1Sa 14:20, Psa 80:4-16, Isa 28:19, Isa 30:17, Isa 51:20, Isa 66:15, Zec 14:12, Zec 14:13, Joh 3:36, 1Th 2:16
for to do: Heb. which thou wouldest do
until thou be: Deu 4:26, Lev 26:31-33, Lev 26:38, Jos 23:16
Reciprocal: Jdg 2:14 – the anger Jer 1:16 – who have Jer 19:4 – they have Zec 1:6 – according to our ways
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 28:20. Cursing, vexation, and rebuke The first of these words seems to import that God would blast all their designs; the second relates to disquiet and perplexity of mind, arising from the disappointment of their hopes, and presages of approaching miseries; the third respects such chastisements from God as would give them a severe check and rebuke for their sins and follies.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
In the first view of God’s discipline Moses explained various forms in which Israel would suffer punishment.