Deuteronomy 28

15 these curses. Perhaps there is nowhere to be found an enumeration of Divine punishments so awful as this; yet all of them are strikingly exemplified in the history of the Jews; especially in the repeated sieges and destruction of their cities; the desolation of their country; their captivities; their oppressed condition through many centuries; and their present dispersion over the world.

5. Store. Heb. “kneading-trough.”

18. thou shalt be above. “You shall be always rising, never falling” (Moffatt).

21 the pestilence. The plague, on account of its ravages and its frequency, is the most dreaded scourge of Syria and Egypt.

22 a consumption. Literally, “wasting.”

23 brass. No rain shall fall.

24 dust. The winds raise the hot, fine sand of the desert, and scatter it over the neighbouring regions, so as sometimes altogether to destroy their fertility.

27 botch. Rather, “boil” (R.V.). “Emerods” are “tumours.”

38 (see also 42). locust. Cp. Joel i. 4, etc.

49 a nation. This description applies well to several oppressors of the Jews, but particularly to the Romans.

53 eat the fruit of thine own body. See 2 Kings vi. 28, 29; Jer. xix. 9, and the history of the siege of Jerusalem, as related by Josephus.

63 the Lord will rejoice. This highly figurative representation must be taken as implying that God’s threatenings will be surely and thoroughly fulfilled, as His promises are.

68 ships; the slave-galleys of the Phœnicians. Cp. Joel iii. 6.—and no man shall buy you. Heb., “and no buyer.” As their freedom from Egypt’s slavery was a proof of His favour, so their return to a similar bondage would show His anger. This threatening was literally fulfilled by the Sidonians and the Romans, the latter of whom sold Hebrew captives till no man would buy them.