Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 28:53
And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own 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:
53. And thou shalt eat, etc.] Cp. Lev 26:29, Eze 5:10, and for instances of this horror 2Ki 6:28 f., Lam 2:20; Lam 4:10.
in the siege and in the straitness ] A Refrain as in Deu 28:55 ; Deu 28:57. Similarly Jer 19:9, along with the eating of children as here.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
53-57. And thou shalt eat the fruitof thine own body(See 2Ki 6:29;Lam 4:10). Such were the dreadfulextremities to which the inhabitants during the siege were reducedthat many women sustained a wretched existence by eating the flesh oftheir own children. Parental affection was extinguished, and thenearest relatives were jealously, avoided, lest they should discoverand demand a share of the revolting viands.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And thou shall eat the fruit of thine body,…. Than which nothing can be more shocking and unnatural, which is explained as follows:
the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee; which is an aggravation of the cruel and inhuman fact:
in the siege, and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee; this shows the cause of it, a famine by reason of the closeness of the siege, so that no provisions could be brought in for their relief; and all within being eaten up, and everything that was eatable, even the most nauseous and disagreeable, they would be led on to this strange, unheard of, and barbarous action, eating their own children. This was fulfilled in the siege of Samaria, 2Ki 6:25; and in the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, La 2:10 and again in the Apocrypha:
“Moreover he hath delivered them to be in subjection to all the kingdoms that are round about us, to be as a reproach and desolation among all the people round about, where the Lord hath scattered them.” (Baruch 2:4)
and in the siege of the same city by the Romans; of which an instance will be hereafter given.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
53. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body. This is one of those portents which was mentioned a little while ago; for it is an act of ferocity detestable and more than tragical, that fathers and mothers should eat their own offspring, so great love of which is naturally implanted in every heart, that parents often forget themselves in their anxiety for their children; and many have not hesitated to die to insure their safety. Nay, when the brute animals so carefully cherish their young, what can be more disgusting or abominable than that men should cease to care for their own blood? But this is the most monstrous of all atrocities, when fathers and mothers devour the offspring which they have procreated, and yet this threat by no means failed of its fulfillment, as we have elsewhere seen. We ought then to be the more alarmed when we see that God thus terribly punished the sins of those whom He had deigned to choose for His own. Still, it was not without very just cause that this wrath was so greatly kindled against the Jews who had left no kind of iniquity undone, so that their wickedness was altogether intolerable. Never, then, must it be forgotten that those of the household of the Church to whom God’s truth is revealed, are on that account the less excusable, because they knowingly and willfully provoke His wrath, whilst their continued perseverance in sin is altogether unworthy of pardon. The monstrous brutality of the act is heightened, when He says that men, in other respects tender and accustomed to delicacies, should be so savage through hunger that they shall refuse to give a share of this horrible food to their wives and surviving children; as also Jeremiah expressly says, the pitiful women shall be so maddened by hunger as to cook their own children. (Lam 4:10.) What follows as to the after-birth is still more horrible, for thus they call the membrane by which the foetus is covered in the womb, with all its excrements. That they should dress for food a filthy skin, the very look of which is disgusting, plainly demonstrates the awfulness of God’s vengeance.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(53) Thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body.Specially confirmed in the siege of Samaria by the Syrians (2Ki. 6:26-29; but see on Deu. 28:56), and also in Jerusalem when besieged by Nebuchadnezzar. (See Lam. 2:20; Lam. 4:10.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
53. Eat the fruit of thine own body The terrible straits to which the nation will be reduced are here described with graphic distinctness, as if an historian rather than a prophet held the pen. With greater minuteness is the horrible distress portrayed in the verses that follow. The man accustomed to luxurious living, the woman so delicate that the sole of her foot had not touched the ground, in the extremity of famine caused by the siege will forget all natural affection. See 2Ki 6:28; also Josephus, Jewish War, book 7, chap. 2.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 53-56. In the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee In the sieges before mentioned, they were to suffer much especially from famine. Accordingly we find, that when the king of Syria came against Samaria, there was a great famine there; and behold they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, &c. 2Ki 6:25.
When Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. 2Ki 25:3. And in the last siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, there was a most terrible famine in the city. Josephus’s account of it is so melancholy, that we cannot read it without shuddering: “Women snatched the food out of the very mouths of their husbands, and sons from their fathers; and what is most miserable, mothers from their infants.””In every house, if there appeared any semblance of food, a battle ensued, and the dearest friends and relations fought with each other, snatching away the miserable provisions of life.” See Bell. Jud. lib. 5: cap. 10 sect. 3 lib. 6. cap. 3 sect. 3. Nay, it was not only foretold, that they should be extremely distressed through want of common food, but even that both men and women should eat their own children. Moses had foretold the same thing before, Lev 26:29. It was fulfilled about six hundred years after, among the Israelites, during the siege of Samaria by the king of Syria, when two women agreed, the one to give up her son one day, and the other to deliver up her son on the morrow; and one of them was eaten accordingly. 2Ki 6:28-29. It was fulfilled again about nine hundred years after the time of Moses, among the Jews, in the siege of Jerusalem, before the Babylonish captivity; Bar 2:1, &c. comp. with Lam 4:10. And it was again fulfilled above fifteen hundred years after the time of Moses, in the last siege of Jerusalem by Titus. In Josephus, we read particularly of a noble-woman’s killing and eating her own sucking child. Moses saith, 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; a description, than which nothing can be more natural and lively, of a woman, who, according to the historian, “was illustrious for her family and riches.” Moses saith, she shall eat her children, for want of all things: and Josephus, “she had been plundered of all substance and provisions, by the tyrants and soldiers.” Moses saith she shall eat themsecretly: and Josephus, “when she had boiled and eaten half, she covered up the rest, and kept it for another time.” Bell. Jud. lib. 6: cap. 3 sect. 4. So many different times, and at such distant periods, hath this prophesy been fulfilled. One would have thought that such distress and horror had almost transcended imagination; much less that any person could certainly have foreseen and foretold it. Bishop Newton.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Deu 28:53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own 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:
Ver. 53. And thou shalt eat. ] See Trapp on “ Lev 26:29 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
eat. Compare Jer 19:9.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the fruit: Deu 28:18, Deu 28:55, Deu 28:57, Lev 26:29, 2Ki 6:28, 2Ki 6:29, Jer 19:9, Lam 2:20, Lam 4:10, Eze 5:10, Mat 24:19
body: Heb. belly
Reciprocal: Deu 32:24 – burnt 2Ki 18:27 – eat 2Ki 25:3 – the famine Psa 59:15 – for meat Isa 8:21 – hardly bestead Isa 36:12 – that they may Jer 15:7 – bereave Jer 52:6 – the famine Zec 11:9 – and let Mal 2:2 – and I Luk 23:29 – Blessed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 28:53. Thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body The stoutest and most obstinate resistance will avail you nothing; all the advantage you will gain by it will be to suffer such long and pressing straits by the siege as will force you, after thousands have perished with hunger, to feed upon the flesh of one another. This prediction was repeatedly fulfilled, especially when Vespasian and his son Titus begirt Jerusalem so closely that the besieged were reduced to a most grievous famine, which forced them, after they had eaten up their horses and other creatures, to eat even their own children, whom parents, who had used to live delicately, Moses here foretels, should themselves eat up privately, and let none share with them.