Deuteronomy 28

The Lord thy God shall establish thee a holy people unto himself. Confirm them in that noble relation wherein they stood to him. (See vii. 6. xiv; 2.) As he hath sworn unto thee.] See vii. 12. If thou wilt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God.] He had separated them from all peoplo, by peculiar laws and privileges: for this purpose, &at they should be governed by him, and be obedient to him. And tvalk in his ways.] Nobody can seo any reason to make this a special precept (as the Jews do), that we should walk in the ways of the Lord. Which contains all the duty owing to him: whether by his ways we understand those Divine qualities, of mercy, holiness, goodness, and truth, whereby w t o approach to him; or (as the word ways is commonly used in Scripture) his Divine precepts, whereby he come3 (as-it were) unto us, and declares his mind and will towards us, by conformity to which we become like him in those Divine qualities: for that is the entire meaning of walking in his ways; ordering all our actions according to the direction of his holy will, whereby we resemble him. darkened, that in the plainest and clearest things they mistook the way and means of their preservation, (Zcphan. i. 17.) And thou shall not prosper in thy ways.] But, quite contrary, whatsoever course they took, it turned to their undoing. And thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore.] One oppression followed upon another (as tho same Dr. Jackson observes), and such rapines were committed in several places upon than as only made way for new ones, eveu when the supreme powers endeavoured to hinder them. And no man shall save thee.] This was so remarkably fulfilled in these parts of the world, that the magistrates, who had a mind in many places to prcscrvo them from such outrages, as none but Jews can justify, durst not venture to appear for their rescue. And those that did take them into their protection, were the instruments of their further wrongs, by grievous exactions for the maintenance of the war undertaken in their defence. So strangely (as that excellent person forcnamed speaks, cap. 29.) did the wisdom of God bring that to pass, which his servant Moses had foretold in this verso, no man shall save thee: for even succour itself turned into their sorrow; and it is hard to say, whether men’s purposes for their good, or for their evil, brought greater plagues upon them. Thus it was before their first captivity; Pharaoh king of Egypt came to help them, but was not able, (Jer. xxxvii. 7. xlvi. 17,) verned states of Europe, will abundantly confirm the truth of Moses’s words in this place, Thou shall never but suffer wrong and violence alway, as our/old translation hath it. The same is lately observed by an eminently learned person (J. Wagenseil), in his confutation of R. Lipman’s Cafm. Memoriale, p. 241. where he takes notice, that the Jews no sooner have grown rich, and by degrees become considerable in any country, but some great calamity hath befallen them. This the attentive consideration of their history will justify, particularly as he observes in France, Spain, and England; God not Suffering them to be quite destroyed, like the Araalekites, Jebusites, and Philistines, of whom no footsteps remain, but be scattered arid tossed about through all Christian countries (for a testimony to the truth of our religion), and there only oppressed, crushed, arid squeezed, as M6ses here foretold. One instance of which sore oppression I cannot forbear to add out of SehebetJudah, where R. Solomon Virgae confesses what great miseries they have been exposed unto, by persons pretending to be their Messiah, who have drawn the hatred of all nations upon them; particularly in Persia, he saith, they were most lamentably handled upon this score, being not only stripped of all, but forced to go about like dogs, with a great clog of wood bound to their necks, which exposed them to the scorn and laughter of all men: for while some threw it behind their backs, others would come and throw it dowTi before their feet; some dragging them backwards, and others cruelly beating them with it. This one told hira who saw it, Vcr. 98. Tliou shatt carry much seed out into the field, a7id shatt gather but little in.] This was fulfilled before they were carried captive to Babylon, when God frequently sent sore famine upon them, as wo read in tho prophet Isaiah, lii. 10. and Jeremiah, xiv. 1—3, &c. and is often threatened by Ezckicl among other terrible judgments, and by Jeremiah himself, xxix. 17, 18. For the locust shall consume it.] They were a great plague in those countries, falling sometimes in such vast numbers (from whence they had the name of arbe), that they covered the whole face of tho earth, and devoured every green thing: for so another of their names imports, which is chasil, coming from chasal, which signifies to consume and cat up; which they did so entirely, that they were looked upon by all people as a plague sent by God, and are therefore called by Joel his army, ii. 25. So not only the Hebrews, but the Arabians esteemed them; who say, that some of them on a time fell before their prophet, as he sat at meat, with this inscription on their backs; " I am God, and there js none other besides me, the Lord of locusts, who nourish them; and when I please, send them forth, that they may be food for tho people; and, when I please, that they may be their plague, by eating up their food." (See Bochartus, in his Hierozoicon, par. ii. lib. iv. cap. C.) Vcr. 39. Tliou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them.] Take a great deal of care and pains about them, after they are planted, to make them fruitful. But shalt neither drink of the wine, nor eat (lie grapes.] Not enjoy the least benefit by their cost and labour. For tvorms shall eat them.] The Hebrew word tholaath is a general name for all worms whatsoever: but there is a peculiar sort that infest vines, which the Greeks call iirtg and Jkjc, as Bochartus observes, in his Hicrozoicon, par. ii. lib. iv. cap. 27. where he takes notice that the Latins call this worm volvox, and convolvulus; because it wraps and rolls itself up in the buds, and eats the grapes up when they grow towards ripeness, as the Roman authors explain it. » A nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand.’] The Roman tonguo was more strange to them than the Chaldean, especially the language of many nations, of which the Roman army was composed; and being a people whom their ancestors, perhaps, never heard of. Dr. Jackson justly looks upon the destruction and general desolation of their country, made by the Romans and their tributaries in theso western parts of the world, as an everlasting monument of the truth of Moses’s prophecy, in this and in the following verses. Xiphilinus, who describe their slaughter to have been so great, that now wns fulfilled (as the forenamed Dr. Jackson thinks) what Moses foretold in this place, TJte Lord trill make thy plagues wonderful, great plagues, and of long continuance. And, indeed, Eusehius saith in the forenamed place, that Turbo destroyed many thousands of them, iroXAai? /ia\a*c iv ov oklyttf tc \p6vt^, &c. in many battles, and in no small time, the war being protracted a great while to complete their destruction. And the application of this prophecy to this time may bo confirmed by a strange relation which wo meet withal in their own books: for in the Jerusalem Tnlniud, one of their doctors tells us, that, when Trajan camo upon them with his army, they were reading these very words of the law, (ver. 49.) " The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth/’ &c. which he understanding (having asked them what they were doing), he cried but, Here is the man (pointing to himself), who am come five days sooner than I intended. And immediately compassing them about with his legions, slew them all. Then he went to their wives, and offered them mercy if they would submit themselves: but they replied, What thou hast done to the ground, do to the stubble: so he dispatched them also, and shed so much blood, that it ran into tho sea as far as Cyprus. At this time (so he concludes his story) the horn of Israel was cut off from Israel, never to be restored into its place, till the Son of David come. This passage I find alleged by Jjoh. Benedictus Carpzovius, out of Massec. Sanhedr. in explication of another matter in Scbickard’s Mischpat Hammelech, cap, 3. Theor. 10. p. 199. And sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.’] Such as gonorrhoeas, leprosies, and burning fevers, as the author of the old Nitzacon, set forth by J. Wagenseil, explains it, p. 131. Ver. GO. Moreover, he shall bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, tvhich thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.] The same diseases he foretells should infest them in, and after, their destruction by the Romans, which had done formerly under the Chaldeans, and other oppressors, (ver. 27.) What these diseases were, Pet. Cunaeus, lib. ii. de Republ. Jud. cap. ult. hath expressed in these words, " Vitiligines, psorasque et tetra ulcera/’ &c. Leprosies, itches, botches, and foul stinking rdcers, the greatest physicians have anciently ascribed to the Egyptians and Syrians, as plagues proper to those nations; unto which diseases, he observes, the Jews were strangely obnoxious. Ver. Gl. Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.] It had been too long to have set down all the diseases and calamities that mankind are subject to: but he tells them, they should not escape any one of them, though very numerous, and be afllicted with them till their destruction was completed. For they were of such long continuance, as was said before, and pursued them so closely whithersoever they went, that they are no longer a nation, but a scattered, forlorn people, abandoned and forsaken by Him that formerly protected them. Of this they themselves are so sensible, that they have confessed the truth of this part of the prophecy in these later ages: for Solomon ben Virgas having related (in the fiftieth section of his book, called Schehet Judah) how they were transported out of Palestine into Spain, and so miserably handled, that not one of a thousand remained; and then how they were destroyed in Germany and France, where, of innumer ble multitudes (equal to the number which came out of Egypt), scarce five thousand survived that calamity; and what he himself saw in Castile and Portugal (where they suffered such things as cannot be expressed, nor conceived, by famine, by depredations, by transportations, and by being sold for slaves, or drowned in the sea), he thus at last concludes his sad story, that they who fled to avoid that dreadful tempest in Castile found the truth of this oracle, Every sickness and plague, which is not written in the book of this law, shall the Lord bring upon’ thee, till thou be destroyed. they pretend, four hundred synagogues. Here the Romans made such a slaughter of them, when they took it, that the Jews themselves cannot find expressions. tragical enough to represent it Twice as many, they tell us, perished now as came out of Egypt; great rivers ran with the blood of the slain, which (say some of them) carried great rocks along with it in the stream. With these, and many other such-like hyperbolical speeches, they themselves exaggerate their calamities, as many, have observed out of Juchasin and Gittin, particularly Const. L’Empereur, in his annotations on Jacchiades, (Dan. xi. 34.) But though now they were left few in number in Judea, yet, in other countries where they were dispersed, they multiplied again, that God’s plagues might continue to be multiplied upon them, and this prophecy more perfectly fulfilled": for some ages after this, (anno 1009.) they had so incensed Christian people against them, by bringing the Persians upon them, who destroyed the churches dedicated to our Saviour at Jerusalem, that it was resolved, by the common consent of all Christians, that no Jew should live in their territories, but be driven out of them throughout all the world. By which means the greatest part of them died of several kinds of death, or made away themselves, so that " vix pauci residui fierent in orbe Romano," there remained but a very few of them in the Roman world..They are the words of Glauber, who relates this, lib. iii. cap. 7. this present captivity; because of all those evils wherewith the Hebrews have been afflicted in France, and England, and Spain:" for they had been often pressed, cither to renounce their religion, or to be undone; and many times choso rather to comply with the idolatrous worship in the Roman church, than to be banished, and havo their goods confiscated.

Deuteronomy 28:1

J±ND it shall come to pass. In this chapter he repeats, with many enlargements, the reward and penalties which he had promised and threatened in the book of Leviticus, unto the observance or breach of the covenant they had made with God: and here in this verse he promises in general the blessings which are more particularly enumerated in the following verses. If thou wilt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and do all his commandments, &c] See rii. 12. where the same thing is said; only here he adds the word diligently, to make them attend with the greater seriousness to what he delivered. (See chap. xi. 13. 22.) That the Lord thy God will set’ thee on high above all nations of the earth."] By bestowing on them the following blessings. (See vii. 14.) • They, were already endued with singular privileges above other nations, (Exod. xix. 5, 6.) which by their obedience would be confirmed, continued, and augmented, in greater plenty of all things. -

Deuteronomy 28:2

And all these blessings shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. Blessings that come unexpectedly, and when we are not in pursuit of them, arc most welcome, and highly delight us.. And such God here promises to bestow on them by his gracious providence, without their laborious and anxious seeking after them. By which very thing he.set them above all nations: for what tbey followed after eagerly, and many times in vain, he undertakes should come to thorn and prevent their desires. If thou skalt hearken unto. the voice of the Lord thy God.] So as to observe and do all his commandments; as it is explained in the foregoing verse.

Deuteronomy 28:3

Blessed sfialt thou be in the city, and blessed shall thou be in the field. That is, in all their affairs, within doors or without. Or whether they lived by employments in the city, or by husbandry in tilling the ground. It isnot a natural interpretation of these words, which one of the Hebrew doctors gives of them in Bava Metzia, where he cxpounds, blessed shalt thou be in the city, Thy house shall be so nigh unto the synagogue, that thou needest not be troubled by going a long way to it; and blessed in the field, Thy ground shall lie so near to the city, that thou mayest quickly bring the fruit it produces to be sold in the market. But if he could have gone on in this manner, it had been something tolerable; but he expounds what follows in a most indecent manner. (See Wagenseil upon the Gemara of Spta, cap. 3. sect. 9* annot. 5.)

Deuteronomy 28:4

Messed shall be the fruit of thy body. This seems. to be a promise of preventing miscarriages, when they were with child: for a numerous progeny is promised, afterward, (ver. 11.) And the fruit of thy ground.] This signifies they should have seasonable harvest and vintages. For fruit of the ground comprehends not only all sorts of corn, but grapes, figs, pomegranates, and such-like fruits which grow on trees., And the fruit of thy cattle.] By the word behema is, sometimes meant all sorts of brute creatures, in opposition -’to men; sometimes tame creatures, in opposition to wild, beasts: but here all sorts of domestic creatures (except; kine, sheep, and goats), viz. asses and camels. Which Jacob brought with him, as well as oxen and sheep, when he came from Laban into Canaan. (Gen. xxxii. 5. 7.) And the increase of thy kine.] The breed, of these was. very profitable, being a considerable part of the riches notonly of that, but of other countries; as appears by what Pausanias saith of, them. (See Bochartus, par. i.IIierozoicon, lib. ii. cap. 40. in the beginning.) And the flocks of thy sheep.] Under the name ofsheej)* in the Hebrew, are comprehended goats also. All which God promises to lucreasc, that is, to make them very wealthy. And here it may be observed, that the Israelites were generally husbandmen or shepherds, and did not commonly follow any other trades: and therefore no mention is made of them here, unless it be.in ver. 6. where he seems to speak of all sorts, of business.

Deuteronomy 28:5

Blessed shall be thy basket. The Jerusalem Tar* Microsoft® B [CHAP. XXVIII. gum refers to the basket wherein they carried up their firstfruits, (xxvi. 2.) But the Vulgar Latin translates it thy barns: and so do tho LXX. at avoSTiKat <rou, the place where thoy laid up their com and other fruits of the earth. Which God promises both to fill, and to preserve from the fire, or thieves, or other disasters. And thy store.] The LXX. and the Vulgar translate it, all that teas remaining; of which they had not present use, ^but kept till they had occasion for it. So it is a promise that they should never want; but still have something lying by them in store (as we translate it) above what they needed. Ver. C. Blessed shalt thou be tvhen thou contest in, and blessed shalt thou be tvhen thou goest out J] This tho Jerusalem Targum interprets, of their entering into their schools, and going homo again. But it rather signifies, they should have good journeys when they had occasion to travel, and find all safe when they returned home: or be prosperous both in time of peace and in time of war; when they aro said, in the Hebrew phrase, to go out against their enemies. Or it may signify, in general, good success in all their affairs; which is expressed by the phrase of coming in and going out, (xxxi. 2. 2 Sam. iii. 25.) But I see no ground to think that it relates to traffic or manufactures: for they were of little use among & people, whose plain way of living made few things necessary, but what every man could make himself. And therefore we find by Ezekicl, who describes (chap.xxvii.) the great variety of merchant disc which w r as brought to the mart of Tyre, that the Israelites carried nothing thither but wheat, and honoy, and oil, and balm, (ver. 17.) which arc the commodities the earth itself produccth.:

Deuteronomy 28:7

The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face. God had promised before, that, when they went up to serve him at their solemn festivals, their enemies should not so much as desire their land, (Exod. xxxiv. 24.) and now he assures them, that, when they did invado their co.untry, they should not prevail, but be overthrown by them. Tliey shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.] He not only promises them victory, but a complete victory. For fleeing seven ways (i. e. many ways), imports a total overthrow; which made every man shift for himself, as soldiers do when they arc entirely routed.

Deuteronomy 28:8

And the Lord shall command the blessing upon thee,. Protect them in their enjoyments by his sovereign power and providence; when otherwiso they would havo been in danger. In thy storehouses.] The LXX. translate it ra/xtta, and the Vulgar cellaria; which signify places wherein other goods were laid up within doors, as corn was in barns without, (ver. 5.) And in all that thou settest thine hand unto.] In all manner of undertakings and employments. And he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.] Make them live long therein.

Deuteronomy 28:10

And all the people of the earth. Who were round about them, or should have any knowledge of them. Sliall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord.] Bo convinced that you arc, after a peculiar manner, the Lord’s peoplo, (xiv.l. xxvi. 18.) For wheresoever we read that a person or thing hath the name of God called upon it, or is called by his name, the meaning is, that it is his* As tho city called by God f s name, Jer. xxv. 29. is the city of God, where he dwelt, viz. Jerusalem. And thus the ark is said to have tho namo of God called on it, 1 Chron. xii. 6. t. e. was the Lord’s ark, or the ark of tho covenant. And as here the children of.Israel are said to be the people called by his name, so it is said of the Christian church, Acts xv. 17. For the very same phrase (as Mr. Mede ob- ■ serves) is used of the like relation that men have unto that which is theirs. Thus Jacob saith, Gen. xlviii. 16. that his namo should be called on the two sons of Joseph, that is, they should be his, as Reuben and Simeon were: which shews these axe words of adoption. (See Disc. i. p. 7.) And shall be afraid of thee.] Not dare to do thee any hurt, or fear to have thee their enemy.

Deuteronomy 28:11

The Lord thy God shall make thee plenteotis in goods. Bestow on them abundance of all good things, that their hearts could desire. In the fruit of thy body.] By giving them a numerous and healthy issue; whereby they should be multiplied like the stars of heaven, or the sand on the sea-shore; according to the promise made to Abraham, Gen. xv. 5. xxii. 17. And in the fruit of thy cattle.] Which he promised likewise to increase exceedingly. And in the fruit of thy ground.] Which, should afford large crops of corn, and great store of all other fruits every year. In the land which the Lord swareunto thy fathers to give thee.] So that they should not need to send unto other countries to procure food (as they did in the days of their father Jacob), but have enough in their own land to support them all, though never so numerous.

Deuteronomy 28:12

The Lord shall open his good treasure unto thee, the heaven to give thee rain unto thy land. The heaven, or the air, is called the good treasure of God, because there he gathers together great heaps of clouds, from whcnce~he enriches tho earth with fattening showers of rain: which when he withholds, he is said to shut up this treasure, (xi. 17.) and w r hcn he bestows it, to open it; that his people might be sensible of their dependance upon his bounty for fvffwf vwvf I x-x CHAP. XXVIII.] UPON DEUTERONOMY. that blessing, as well as others, which he dispenses as he pleascth. In its season] The former and the latter rain, as the Scripture calls it. The former fell in autumn, after the seed was sown, to make it take root and spring up; the latter fell in the spring-time, to bring the seed which was come up to maturity. (Seexi.14.) See the learned Dr. Prideanx, upon Maimonides’s treatise De Donis Pauperum, cap. 1. not. 25. And to bless all the work of thine hand.] By these seasonable showers he blessed their ploughing and sowing, and produced a plentiful harvest: which seems to be meant here by the work of their hand; viz. their husbandry; which included all sorts of plantations, as well as tillage, (Gen. ix. 20.) And thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow] A token of great riches, (see xv. 6.) which all nations looked upon as a blessing: as indeed they are with piety. And therefore Callimachus, in his hymn to Jove, prays him to bestow both virtue and riches upon them, (ver. 97.) ■- ■. ■ Aldov S* a pcr/jv re kol 3Aj3ov. Which puts me in mind of a pertinent observation of Maimonides, in his preface to Pereck Chclek, in which he treats of the foundations of the Jewish religion. “This is the meaning (saith he) of the promises and thrcatenings of the law, that, if they were obedient to his precepts, he would furnish them with all good things that should further them therein, and remove from them all that hinder them i for no man can serve God as he ought when he is sick, or oppressed with famine, or vexed with wars; therefore God promises to remove all these things, and to give them health and tranquillity, that they might perfect their obedience, and be worthy of the life of the world to come.‘Fortius is not the end of the law, to make the earth bring forth plentifully, and to prolong men’s life upon the earth, and give them healthful bodies; but that by all those things they maybe helped and encouraged to perform obedience toit,’"&c.

Deuteronomy 28:13

And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail. This is a proverbial speech, which is explained in the words following: And thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath. For the head being the first and chief part of all animals, and the tail the last and lowest, those persons are said to be the head who command over others, and those the tail who arc subject And therefore this is a promise that they should rule over other nations, as their lords (as they did in the days of David and Solomon); but other nations should not lord it over them. If that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which. I command thee this day, to observe and to do them.’] This was the condition upon which all their happiness depended; as he had told them in the beginning of this discourse, ver. 1.

Deuteronomy 28:14

And thou shalt not go astray from any of the words xvhich I command thee this day, to the right hand or to the left. See chap. y. 32. To go after other gods to serve them] This was the principal commandment of the law, to serve no other gods but the Lord alone. Which, while they observed, he was pleased to bless them, and to bear with many other sins which they committed. Upon which account, this commandment is so often repeated, as we find it, in this very book, vi. 14. vii.4. 16. viii. 19. ix. 16. 28. xi. 3,4.30, &c.

Deuteronomy 28:15

But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and statutes, which I command ■ thee this day. Especially that great commandment, Not to go after other gods to serve them. ».» - Tliat all these curses shall come upon thee, and over* take thee] Pursue them so, that they should not possibly escape them. The same phrase is used of the blessings, ver. 2.

Deuteronomy 28:16

Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. As miserable, that is, everywhere, as he intended to have made them happy, (ver. 3.)

Deuteronomy 28:17

Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. The blessing of the barn was to have it full, (ver. 5.) and therefore the curse upon it was to niake it empty..

Deuteronomy 28:18

Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body,, and the fruit of thy land, &c. He threatens to consume their children, their corn, and other fruits, with their herds and flocks.

Deuteronomy 28:19

Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. Have no comfort in any undertaking, either at home or abroad, in peace or in war.

Deuteronomy 28:20

The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke. It is very hard to know what these three words particularly import; the twofirst of thembeing very variously translated. The first of them, meera, seems to signify, in general, that God would blast them in all they designed and went about; for although the LXX. and Vulgar here render it famine and want, yet elsewhere the LXX. render it as we do, Karapa, cursing: and the next word, mehuma, they translate hunger; but in other places the LXX. render it by six or seven words, which import the same with our English vexation, viz* Tapaxnv, trouble or disturbance; 06pv(3ov, tumult; ^vyyvaiv, confusion; “Ekotchhv, horror or affrightment, &c. which relate to great disorder, disquiet, and perplexity in their mind. And the last word, mighe-’ reth, the Vulgar translates as we do, rebuke; but the LXX.‘AvaXw(r(v, consumption; which are the same in effect. For when God rebukes a man for his iniquity, he makes his beauty to consume away like a moth, (Psal. xxxix. 11.) For God’s rebukes consist not in words, but in sore afflictions, (2 Kings xix. 3. Psal. xviii. 15, &c.) particularly in disappointments and ill success in their undertakings, and continual fear of worse for the future. In all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do] In all their affairs (ver. 8.) they should meet with trouble, perplexity, and defeats. Until that thou be destroyed] He threatens that this curse, trouble, and rebuke from God should pursue them, till they had completed their ruin. And until thou perish quickly] When God began to punish them, after long patience with them, he was quick in his executions, and many times brought upon them sudden destruction. So he threatens in Zephaniah i. 18. that he would make a speedy riddance of all that dwell in the land. And though the whole nation was not rooted out speedily,. but by degrees, yet they enjoyed it but a short time, in comparison of what God designed, if they had been obedient;

Deuteronomy 28:25

And the Lord shall cause thee to be smitten hefore thine enemies. He saith the same in effect, Lev. xxvi. 17. For to smite in Scripture (as I have before observed) signifies to slay or kill. Thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven waijs before them.] Though they marched out in a great body against their enemies, he threatens that they should soon be dispersed; the hand of the Lord, as well as of their enemies, being against them. For that expression is remarkable, the Lord shall cause thee to be smitten, (see ver. 7.) And shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.] This is something more than is threatened, Lev. xxvi. 33. signifying, not only their dispersion into the remotest parts of the world, but their being tossed up and down like vagabonds, from one country to another, without any certain settlement; which hath been notoriously verified since their last dispersion by the Romans, of which they themselves have given us large accounts in several books, viz. Juchasin, Schalscheleth Hakkabala, Schebet Judah, and Zemuch David, wherein they have abundantly confirmed what Tertullian saith of them in his time, " Dispcrsi, palabundi, et coeli, et soli sui extorres vagantur per orbem;” That being scattered, straggling up and down uncertainly, banished from their own country, they wander about the world, without any king, &c. But this belongs to the time of the first captivity, when Nehcmiah (chap. i. 8.) confesses these words were fulfilled. (See Jerem. ix. 16. Ezek. vi. 8. “xii. Ver. 2G. And thy carcass shall be meat unto all the fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth.] Nothing was accounted a greater calamity among the Jews, than to have their dead bodies lie exposed, to be buried only in the bowels of birds and beasts; and therefore Jeremiah threatens this as the utmost punishment of the king of Judah, xxii. 19. xxxvi. 30. and the Psalmist bewails it as one of the sorest judgments that was befallen them, Psal. lxxix. And no man shall fray them away.] That is, no man took so much compassion upon them as to chase them away, and to inter the remainders, which the birds and beasts had not devoured.

Deuteronomy 28:27

And the Lord shall smite thee. Why the Jerusalem Targum should here, in a particular manner, say, the Word of the Lord shall smite thee, I cannot imagine; unless it was to suggest, that he, being their conductor out of Egypt, was the person more especially concerned to punish them for their shameful ingratitude to their Deliverer. (See ver. G8.) With the botch of Egypt.] Some take this to signify the leprosy, unto which they in that country were, subject. Others, that bile breaking out with Mains, wherewith God smote the Egyptians, (Exod.ix.9, &c.) For that is called schechin, as this is.’. And ivith the emerods.] The Hebrew word apholim, is no where to be met with but here and 1 Sam. v. 6. 9. 11. and in the rest of that history; which most interpreters (and not without reason) think signifies those painful tumours in the fundament, which sometimes turn into ulcers. (See Bochartus in his Hicrozoicon, par. i. lib. ii. cap. 36.) And ivith the scab.] The LXX. here translate the Hebrew garab, (as they do also Lev. xxi. 20.) $u>pa aypia, a vol. u. fierce or malignant scab. And the Vulgar adds the word jitgis, to signify that this was no small punishment. ■ Arid the itch.] The Hebrew word cheres signifies, as is generally thought, a dry itch; which is the most troublesome of all other. Whereof thou canst not be healed.] This may refer both to the scab and to the itch beforeraentioncd \ which proceeded from such a corruption of the blood, that they were as incurable as the leprosy. Ver.*28. And the Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.] All these three relate to the mind: the first of them importing such a distraction in their thoughts, that they should not know what course to take, when they consulted for their safety: the second, such a stupidity, that they should not discern the true way, but always take the wrong: the third, that amazement and horror which followed thereupon, when they saw themselves ruined by their own foolish counsels and mad contrivances. A famous instance of which was in the time of Trajan, when they committed such outrageous massacres, both upon the Greeks and Romans (as Dion, a very sober author, relates), in Cyrene and Cyprus (where great numbers of Jews dwelt, after they were driven out of their own country), that the Lord, no doubt, (to use the word of Dr. Jackson on the Creed, book i. chap. 27.) had smote them with the madness and blindness of heart here threatened, that they might hereby provoke that puissant emperor’s indignation, which otherwise would have slept, but now pursued them throughout his dominions, not only as enemies, or rebels, but as noxious creatures to human society, with a revenge suitable to their former outrages. And, indeed, this prediction was verified in their blind credulity, which made them follow every one that pretended to be their Messiah; which always brought great calamities upon them,“as R. Gedaliah himself confesses in Schalscheleth Hakkabala;’ where he mentions no small number of these deceivers, and shews how many Jews perished who followed them. Yet they are but a few, in comparison of a long catalogue, that might be made of those pretended Messiahs. (See the learned Wagenseil’s confutation of R. Lipman’s Carmen Mcmoriale, p. 233, &c.) Unto which I shall add only one observation more out of Solomon ben Virgse, who saith, in some places of Germany, they were possessed with such a rabies, that they cut one another’s throats, to avoid the oppression of their enemies; and burnt themselves and their neighbours in their houses, setting whole cities on fire, and perishing in the flames. Such was their extreme rage and furious revenge, and those Christians who pressed them to change their religion. Many stories of the like nature that author tells in his book entitled Schebet Judah; where he hath sixty-four relations of the calamities which befel them in that and in other countries. But these words, I doubt not, were fulfilled before in the first desolation of Jerusalem, to which they belong. For though we have not such particular relations as those now mentioned to illustrate them, yet the prophets speak of their being mad, by drinking of the cup of the Lord’s fury, (Jer. xxv. 1(5. 18.) and blind, (Zephan. i. 17. Lament, iv. 14.) and astonished, (Jer. iv. 9. Ezek. iv. 17.)

Deuteronomy 28:29

And thou shalt grope at noon-day, as the blind gropeth in darkness. This shews the blindness spoken of in the foregoing verse relates to their mind; which was so

Deuteronomy 28:30

Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. Take her away from thee before thou canst consummate the marriage. This was a sore affliction, for all nations accounted it a singular blessing to complete a marriage; and, on the contrary, a enrse to be defeated of such delightful hopes. “Whence Callimachus, in his hymn to Apollo, promising many blessings to the youths who sung and danced before his altar, mentions this in the first place, (ver. 14.) El Ttkhiv fxlXkovat yafxov tliat he would be with them, and prosper them, iftJiey were to be married. Thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein,] But another take possession of it, (Zephan. i. 13.) • Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shall not gather the grapes thereof.] So we rightly translate the Hebrew word, which (as the margin notes) is, thou shalt not profane or make common the grapes thereof; which was not to be done till the fifth year after the plantation. Before which time God threatens another should enter into it, and enjoy the fruits thereof. Ver. 31; Tliine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thoa shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee, &c] All these are but particular instances of their grievous oppressions in all countries, where their goods have been confiscated, the bills of debts owing to them all cancelled. Of which the same pious and learned person, Dr. Jackson, gives several instances in the forcnamed chapter.

Deuteronomy 28:32

Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people. This was literally fulfilled when the Jews were banished out of Portugal, in the time of king Emanuel; who ordered their children under nineteen years of age to be taken from them, and brought up in the Christian religion. When infants also were torn from their mothers’ breasts, with far more grief and sorrow than they had at their coming out of their womb; und many hundred years before that, when the Goths were lords of Spain, and suffered no parents to have any commerce with their children after the seventh year of their age, but by public decree they were committed to Christians to be educated by them, who mfirricd them to their own sons and daughters. (Sea the same Dr. Jackson, chap. 28. parag.1,2.) And thine eyes shall look, and failwith longing for them all tlte day long.] Their women filling the heavens with more hideous shrieks than the Egyptians did, when all their first-born were slain in the night. For these were bereft at once of all their dear children in the open sun, in vain begging to have them restored to them. And to increase their calamity, (as that excellent person observes, chap. 29. parag. 15.) many Moors professing Mahometism were transported out of Portugal at the same time, without such violence offered to them. What was the reason? (saith he) God would have a manifest distinction made between the Jews and. other people, that this prophecy might be fulfilled. And there shall be no might in thy hand.] Either to protect or to rescue them from violence. Where T cannot but take notice, with the same doctor, that the Moors then had some power in their hand, which moved the Portugals, perhaps, to abstain from such usage of them, lest the report of it coming to the African Mahometans, they might attempt to avenge their wrongs. But these wretched Jews had no power any where, none to avenge their injuries, which God had ordained they should suffer at all times, and in all places wheresoever they came, without redress.

Deuteronomy 28:33

The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall anation which thou knowest not eat up. This was remarkably fulfilled, when Salnmneser came and dispossessed the ten tribes; and when Nebuchadnezzar carried the other.two tribes away, and placed other people in their room. TheVe were many strange people also among the- Ro-’ mans, who devoured their labours, before their last destruction by Titus. And ever since they have been subject to depredations of various sorts; having scraped up riches, with great care, which have often fallen into the hands of strangers. Particularly in the time of the famous crusadoes, when divers nations marched in great numbers to recover the holy land from infidels, their business was in their way to rob and spoil the Jews, and to make great slaughter of them, as both Jewish and Christian writers witness; particularly the author of Schalschelcth Hakkabala, and our Matthew Paris. And thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway.] That they should not only sometimes, or in some ages, or in some one or few kingdoms, but always, in every kingdom whither they removed, (as he speaks, ver. 25.) suffer such violence and wrong, as no other people hath done, mustneeds be thought to proceed rather from Divine justice than men’s inclination to injustice. Which could not but have varied with the diversity of times and places, and the several dispositions of parties, among whom they have been dispersed. And yet the brief enumeration of their particular spoils and hard usage, which Dr. Jackson makes in the forcnamed chapter (whose words these are, in the beginning of it), throughout the most civil and best ga-

Deuteronomy 28:34

So that thou shalt be mad, for the sight of thine eyes ivhich thou shalt see. So they were, (as the forenamed doctor observes, chap. 29. par. 6. 15.) when their children were taken from them in Portugal. For some, being not able to rescue or dispatch them, killed themselves; others, who had better opportunity, drowned their children in wells or ditches. And here in England, one of their learned rabbins persuaded four hundred of his company, besieged with him in a strong tower by the furious multitude, to cut their own throats, rather than fall into their enemies’ hands; himself confirming his doctrine, by cutting his wife’s throat first, then his children’s, and lastly killing himself. Arid thus, in the time of the forementioned crusadoes, the soldiers made such dreadful havoc of the Jews as thfey went along to the holy land, that many of them made themselves away out of despair; as their own authors, R. Gedaliah and David Ganz, tell us, ad an. 1096.

Deuteronomy 28:35

And the Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, &c. This is the same word in the Hebrew [schechin] which is used ver. 27. called the botch of Egypt, and here an evil botch, that is, a very grievous breaking out; which began in those lower parts, and so spread (being incurable, and by no means to be stopped) from the sole of the feet, unto the crown of the head. >• Ver. 3G. And the Lord shall bring thee, and the king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation ivhich neither thou nor thy fathers have known.] This may seem to have been fulfilled literally, only when Jehoiachim was carried away captive to Babylon, (2 Kings xxiv. 15.) and afterward Zedekiah, (xxv. 7. Jcr. xxxix. 7. lii. 11.) For when they returned, they had no more any kings. But the latter part of these words [a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known] may incline us to extend this threatening, as. far as. to their last dispersion by the, Romans. Since which they have been driven into several countries, far less known to them than Babylon was, (with which they had correspondence before their captivity thither, 2 Kings xx. 12, &c.) and. though they have had no king, yet they have set over themselves rulers and governors, who may be comprehended under, that name; And there thou shalt serve other gods, wood and stone.] Either sottishly following the example’ of the country to which they were carried, (Jer. xliv. 17, 18.) or being compelled thereunto by their cruel tyranny, (Dan. iii. 6.) The author of Schebet Judah observes, that this was the just punishment of their folly in running after idols, that they were sent into other countries to worship those gods which they were so fond of in their own. And he refers it particularly to the time of the captivity of Babylon; in which they continued seventy years, according to the number of years wherein those planets, whom they had worshipped, finished their course: for Saturn, as he computes, finishes his in one-and-twenty, Jupiter in as many; and so he proceeds with the rest, which make up that number. But this is too curious an observation, and the Jews have little skill in astronorny; therefore I pass it by, and only observe, that Manasseh ben Israel also understands.this of the Babylonian captivity; for all the punishments mentioned from ver. 15. to ver. 49. were, fulfilled under the first temple, and after the ruin of it, till the building of the second; which, though it be not exactly true (some of these predictions having been more completely fulfilled, as I have shewn, in aftertimes), yet is it reasonable to think, that this threatening particularly belongs to what they suffered in Babylon; the very same calamity being again threatened in the sixty-fourth verse, where I shall shew it belongs to their present condition,

Deuteronomy 28:37

And thou shalt become an astonishment. Their neighbours, he means, who saw or heard of the greatness and strangeness of their various plagues, should be dismayed at the sight, or report of them; wondering that a people, who had been.so, flourishing, should be made so exceeding desolate. (See 1 Kings ix. 8. Jer. xviii. 16. xix.8.) A proverb, and a by-word, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.] So that when men would express one extremely vile, they should say he was a Jew. The same is threatened by God.when he appeared to Solomon,.,! Kings ix. 7. and by Jeremiah, xxiv. 9. which, it is likely, was fulfilled at their first captivity into Babylon; (see Lament, ii. 15, 16.) but hath been notoriously fulfilled in their last captivity (as they call it), since the destruction of Jerusalem and their temple by the Romans: for here in England (from whence they have been banished above three hundred years) their name serves as a perfect measure (to use the words of Dr. Jackson, book i. on the Creed, chap. 30.) to express the height of impiety in any agent, or the depth of an abject, worthless, forlorn condition in any patient. Better we cannot express the most cut-throat dealing than thus, You use me like a Jew; or, none but a Jew would have done this. And when in common speech we exaggerate wrongs done to the most odious or despised people among us, we say, I would not have done so to a Jew.

Deuteronomy 28:40

Thou shalt have olive-trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil. Though tho country abounded with these trees in all parts of it, they produced nothing but leaves, and a show of fruit, which came to no perfection. For thy olive shall cast her fruit.’] Being blasted, as the Jerusalem Targum explains it, in the very blossom; or the buds dropping oft” for want of rain; or the fruit being eaten with worms. Maimonides observes, that the idolaters in those countries pretended, by certain magical arts, to preserve all manner of fruit, so that the worms should not gnaw the vines, nor either buds or fruit fall from the trees (as he reports their words out of one of their own books, which he names); therefore, to deter the Israelites from all idolatrous practices, Moses here pronounces, that they should draw upon themselves those very punishments whicli they studied by such means to avoid, (More Nevochim, par. iii. cap. 37.) Vcr. 41. Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.] Which is threatened in many places of the prophets, and fulfilled in several invasions of their neighbours; for the Syrians, no doubt, carried captive more than one little maid, who waited on Xaaman’s wife, (2 Kings v. 2.) And in other inroads upon them, till the captivity of the whole lrfnd. This we may be confident was a frequent calamity, (2 Kings xiv. 2G. xv. 37, Sec.) But it was never more remarkably fulfilled, than sinco they crucified our Saviour; their children having been taken from them, (as I have observed before, ver. 32. 34.) and transported sometimes into other places. And who knows whether many of their stock, detained by king Emanuel of Portugal, beforcmentioncd, have not been transported into America? and whether many of the Spanish colonies have not a mixture of the Jewish progeny in them? as Dr. Jackson observes. Manasseh ben Israel, I am sure, endeavours to prove (in his book called Spes Israelis), that some of the ten tribes are in America; though how they came there, he can givo no account.

Deuteronomy 28:42

All the trees, and the fruit of thy land, shall the locust consttme. So Onkclos and the Hebrew writers generally translate the word tzelatzal; which signifies a peculiar sort of locusts which falls upon trees, as others upon the fields. And it seems to have this name, because these locusts come in such thick clouds, that they darken the sun; the Hebrew word tzalal signifying to overshadow. Tho Jerusalem Targum translates it, all your trees, and the fruits of your land, shall spoilers possess. I suppose these several judgments fell in the order wherein they are here mentioned in ver. 38 — 42. there being first a great dearth, of which we read 2 Kings viii. 1, &c. and Joel i. 10 — 12, &c. then many invasions of their country, wherein several were carried captive by the bands of Moab upon the Israelites, (2 Kings xiii. 20.) and of the Chaldeans, Syrians, and Ammonites, who came upon Judah, (xxiv. 2.) And we read expressly, that before this, in the days of Ahaz, a great multitude were carried captive by the Syrians, (2 Chron. xxviii. 5.) After which more spoilers came upon them in the days of Jeremiah, xii. 12. and a new famine, xiv. 1, &c. in which this forty-first verse nlay be thought to be fulfilled. Vcr. 43. Tlie stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low.] There is no sorer punishment to a proud people, than to see those who are not only their inferiors, but much beholden to them (as all strangers w f ere to the Jews, among whom they lived merely by permission), get up above them, and become their superiors. But so it was, that the Jews, by their foolish endeavours to advance themselves, raised a mere stranger to the highest dignity, who humbled them into the lowest condition. For this (as that excellent person I have often mentioned observes) may be applied to Vespasian, who was appointed to command in the w r ars’ against the Jews, and, being a person of mean birth and obscure family, bad no thoughts of aspiring to the imperial seat; but by the unseasonable desire of the Jews to exalt themselves above all nations, they hoisted him up to the most sublime pitch of greatness,.who was ordained by God to pluck them down from their seat, and bring them beneath all people. (See Dr. Jackson, book i. on the Creed, chap. 23. par. 3, 4, &c.) For he quite extinguished their glory, which was their temple at Jerusalem; and likewise shut up and profaned the temple which the Egyptian Jews had built in the country of Hcliopolis, after it had stood above three hundred years: but if any one think good thus to apply the words of this verse unto flrffwf wwvf I CHAP. XXVIII.] UPON DEUTERONOMY. Vespasian, they must not take this for the literal meaning of them; because it is evident, that by the stranger is to be understood. those of other nations who lived among them; particularly, those gentiles who were brought into the country by the Assyrians, instead of the ten tribes, as some of the best of the Jewish writers expound it. What the doctor also saith, concerning their advancing Vespasian to the imperial dignity, cannot be maintained.

Deuteronomy 28:44

He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to Mm; he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail) Thus the covenant of God, to exalt this people and humble their foes, was quite inverted, as he also observes, (see ver. 12, 13.JT all the plagues threatened to those who bare ill-will to Sion, lighting on them and their friends; and all the blessings promised to such as prayed for her peace, being heaped on those that wrought her ruin.

Deuteronomy 28:45

Moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake tltee, till thou be destroyed. These punishments, he means, should not cease, but follow one upon another till they had brought them to utter ruin. Which is so evidently fulfilled, that, would but the atheists consider it, and lay it to heart, it would wring from them a confession of the truth of what these Divine oracles have uttered, that this was a people who had been appointed to destruction. For, though there be a great many of them remaining, in several parts of the world, yet they have never been suffered to grow into a nation, but in that sense are utterly destroyed, as Moses here prophesied. Because thou hearkenedst not unto tlie voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which I commanded thee this day.’] It hath manifestly appeared the hand of God is very heavy upon them for their disobedience to him, there being no other reason why they, who were once so favoured by him, should be so long as they have been more miserable than any other people. Ver. 4G. And they shall be upon thee.] That is, the curses beforementioned should remain fixed upon them, and continue unremoved from age to age. For a sign, and for a wonder.] That all men may take notice of them, and look upon them as extraordinary tokens of God’s high displeasure, and take warning thereby to beware of their infidelity and disobedience: for, as that great man often saith, No sign can be given equivalent to the desolation of the Jewish nation, and their continuing still banished from their own land, and miserably treated in all other countries. And upon thy seed for ever.] All the world may clearly see (to use his words again) that the God of their fathers hath cast them off, they having no signs or badges of his ancient wonted favours, whilst innumerable marks and scars of his fearful indignation against their fathers remain unhealed in their children, after more generations than their ancestors had of prosperity in the promised land.

Deuteronomy 28:47

Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfnlness, and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things. Or, in the abundance of all things; for this is opposed to the hunger and thirst in which (he saith in the next verse) they should serve their enemies, as a punishment for their wanton abuse of God’s mercies. Which being so exceeding great, justly required not only their obedience, but cheerfulness and delight therein.

Deuteronomy 28:48

Therefore shall thou serve thine enemies, which he shall send against thee. He doth not call the Lord their God, as he did before, now they were abandoned by him for their sins. In hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things.] This shews what he meant before by abundance of all things, plentiful provision of food and raiment, and all other things’belonging to the comfort of life. And he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy.neck.] The loss of liberty was as great a misery as any other, which ended also in hard servitude. And it was but just that they should be slaves in the land of their enemies to cruel masters, who would not, in their own country, serve: so gracious and loving a father as the Lord their God. -. A yoke of iron] Signifies an unsupportable yoke, which could not be broken. (See Jer. xxviii. 13, 14.)

Deuteronomy 28:49

And the Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far. This evidently belongs to the Romans, as Manasseh ben Israel acknowledges;, who thinks, that at this verse begins his prophecy of their calamities under the second temple, as in the foregoing he describes their calamities under the first. And in this, I think, he saith right, that there is scarce any thing mentioned in the following partof this chapter, but what relates to what they suffered under the second temple (as he speaks) and since its destruction; though I cannot say, as he doth, of the foregoing part of it, that it was fulfilled in the calamities which befel them under the first temple; for many things were never so completely fulfilled, as since they crucified our Saviour. From the end of the earth.] This shews he speaks of the Romans, rather than of the Chaldeans, who did not come from far, much less/ro»i the end of the earth; but out of the north country, which was not very far distant from Judea: whereas the Romans, by whom they were last destroyed, came literally from far, and from the* end of the earth; particularly Julius Severus was called by the emperor Adrian to their destruction out of this island of Britain; wherein Vespasian also had given great proof of his conduct. And Adrian himself, and Trajan, by whom they were still more crushed, after Vespasian had destroyed their city and temple, were both Spaniards by birth. And, therefore, Manassch ben Israel says peremptorily, in his book, de Termino Vitse, (lib. iii. sect. 3.) this is to be understood of the soldiers in Vespasian’s army, which he brought out of England, France, and Spain, and other remote parts of the world. As swift as the eagles.] Which every one knows the Romans carried in their ensigns. And these birds are observed to fly upon their prey with great force and violence; to whom, therefore, fierce soldiers (such as the Romans were) are compared, when they set upon their enemies. So Homer describes Achilles falling upon the Trojans,’ AUtov otfxaT i%o)V * In Iliad , where olfxara signifies opfiiifxara, furious assaults, as the scholiast interprets it. And so he speaks concerning Hector, Iliad X. As David also speaks of Saul and Jonathan, 2 Sam. i. 23. and the Chaldeans are so described, coming against Jerusalem, Jer. iv. 13. xlviii. 40. xlix. 22. Lament, i. 10. Ezek. xvii. 3. and see Dan. vii. 4. and Bochartus, in his Hierozoicon, par. i. lib. ii. cap.!). par. ii. lib. ii. cap. 2.

Deuteronomy 28:50

A nation. This word nation being used thrice in this and the foregoing verse, Manasseh ben Israel (in the place forenamed) is so critical, as to observe, that this repetition shews Jerusalem was to suffer thrice by the Roman power: first, in the time ofPompey; and, secondly, when Sosiuscame to tho assistance of Herod against Antigonus; and, thirdly, when it was besieged and overturned by Vespasian and his son Titus. Of a fierce countenance.] So wo translate this phrase, Dan. viii. 23. which, in the Hebrew, is a strong or hard face. Accordingly we translate it impudent (or, in our language, brazen-faced), Prov. vii. 13. and hard, Prov. xxi. 29. and bold of face, Ecclcs. viii. 1. All which set forth a people stern, fierce, undaunted, cruel, and hard-hearted; that had neither mercy nor modesty, but inflexibly pursued their designs; which is the true character of the old Romans. Winch shall not regard the person of the old y nor shew favour to the young.] Theso are woat to be pitied, being unable to hurt others; but in their wars with the Jews, the Romans spared nobody, their rage and fury extinguishing all reverence to grey hairs, and all tenderness to young babes.

Deuteronomy 28:51

And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed. For they brought such vast armies, as devoured all the provisions in the country. Jfliich also shall not leave thee corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.] He repeats it again, in more particular words, to set forth the desolation to be so great, that nothing should remain for their support.

Deuteronomy 28:52

And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates. The country being wasted, the Jews fled into their fenced cities, where they had laid up some provisions, to enable thctn to hold out a siege. Until thy high and fenced walls come down,wherein thou trustest, throughout thy land.] This was literally fulfilled by the Romans, to whom the best fortified places were forced to yield, as may be seen in Josephus’s History of the • Jewish War, which is the best commentary on this part of the prophecy. Tho walls of Jerusalem particularly were razed by Pompey; and Sosius took it again by force in the time of Augustus. But Tacitus tells, that the Jews took such advaatage of the covetousness of Claudius, that they purchased of him the liberty to fortify their city again; which they did so well, that they trusted, as Moses here speaks, to its strength; which was so great, that Titus could not take itbut by along siege, which concluded in its utter ruin. He shall besiege thee in all thy gates, throughout all the land which the Lord thy God hath given thee.] He repeats it again, that they might not think to find security in any place whatsoever, though never so strongly fortified, and well provided with all things necossaryforits defence.

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, whercivith thine enemies shall distress thee.] This was fulfilled to a tittle by Vespasian and his son Titus; who, after they had vanquished them in the field, begirt them so close in Jerusalem, that they could not stir out, and rather than surrender, perished by a lamentable famine. For there were vast multitudes of people shut up in the city, which run thither from all parts for safety; who brought the famine sooner upon them, and made it more severe when it came. If we may believe R. David Ganz, it was furthered also by a fire, which the seditious people kindled, whereby fourteen hundred magazines were consumed, stored with provisions to serve two hundred thousand people for twenty years. For this he quotes Josephus; though no such thing is to be found in him.

Deuteronomy 28:54

So that the man that is tender and very delicate among yon. The two Hebrew words for tender and delicate signify a man that had lived in pleasure, and fared daintily, like the rich man in the gospel. His eye shall be evil towards his brother, and towards the wife of his bosom, &c] Grudge every bit which he sees his nearest relations eat, being ready to snatch it out of the mouth of his dear consort and children, and put it into his own: for this is the effect of a ravenous hunger. And towards the remnant of his children which he shall have.] This imports that they should see many of them die in the siege: for famine forced them to feed on bad food, and that bred pestilential diseases, which swept away many; and increased still more by the carcasses of those that were famished. If any credit may be given to one of their own authors (David Ganz), there were above a hundred and sixteen -thousand dead bodies of the rich and honourable men of Jerusalem carried out at one gate of the city, which was that of the Brook Kidron, besides those which were carried out at other gates, and thrown over the walls: and this he pretends to have out of Minchas, the son of Seruk, who was a faithful register in that city. Josephus mentions almost the same number, lib. vii. de Bello Judaico, cap. ult.

Deuteronomy 28:55

So that he shall not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat. This is a description of the sorest famine, which forced them, after they had eaten up their horses, dogs, cats, and such-like creatures, and their very belts and shoes, to eat even their own children; which fathers, who used to live deliciously, Moses prophesies, should cat up themselves privately, and let none share with them. Because he hath nothing left in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.] They were so sorely pinched with famine in a long siege, that they had nothing else remaining but their own offspring, and one another, wherewith to satisfy their hunger. Josephus observes, (lib. vii. de Bello Judaico, cap. 18.) that Jerusalem had been taken five times before this; but never suffered so dreadfully as by Titus; whom the Talmudists therefore call by the name of impious: which epithet belonged rather to themselves, who having, with wicked hands (as St. Peter speaks), crucified and slain their’II v-y CHAP. XXVIII.] UPON DEUTERONOMY. Redeemer, were, by the just judgment of God uponthera for their infidelity, hardened in an obstinate belief and expectation of a deliverer from the Romans, till they were reduced to those extremities.

Deuteronomy 28:56

The tender and delicatewoman among you, that would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness.) A description of the greatest softness and delicacy; which both the Chaldees express by a word that signifies the nicest motion, and going so slow a pace, as if they were loath to touch the ground. (See Bochartus, in his Phaleg. lib. iv. cap. 19.) Her eye shall be evil towards the husband of her bosom, and towards her son, and towards her daughter.] This is only a higher instance of the cruel effects of their distress by famine: for women, especially of the better sort, are naturally more tender and pitiful than men, and have the most passionate love to their children; which Moses here prophesies should be quite extinguished by hunger. And it was literally fulfilled, both in the siege of Samaria, wherein a woman boiled her son, (2 Kings v. 28, 29.) as a man did in the first siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, (Baruch ii. 3. and see Lament, ii. 20. iv. 10.) But never so exactly fulfilled as in the last siege by the Romans, when a noble woman (which fully answers to this prophecy, such persons being very delicate) did the very same, as Josephus relates in his book of the Jewish Wars, lib. vii. cap. 8. A most unnatural fact, as he observes, which was never committed, either by Greek or barbarian; and which he would not have related, because it might seem incredible, if there had not been many witnesses of it besides himself.

Deuteronomy 28:57

And towards her young one that cometh out from between her feet. Towards her new-born babe, which is wont to be welcomed into the world with great joy; but in this siege dispatched out of it, to assuage the rage of their hunger. In the Hebrew (as we take notice in the margin) the word we translate young one, properly signifies the after-birth: and so the LXX. translate it, to x°9^* Which makes this passage most plain; that their hunger should make them so unnatural, as, first, to cat the afterbirth which came from them, and then the child which was wrapped in it. And towards her children which she shall bear.] The rest of their children, whose cries for food they had no way to stop, but by killing them, and making them their own fopd. So it follows in the next words. For she shall eat them for want of all things.] Having nothing else left to eat: for they had devoured, not only the leather of their girdles, and their shoes, and which covered their shields, but the very stale dung of oxen, and such things as the most sordid of all living creatures would not eat. (Sec Josephus, lib. iii. aXuxntjg, cap. 1C. lib. vii. cap. 7.) Secretly.] It was not done secretly for any other reason, but lest any body should have a share with them, and so make their hunger return the sooner: and yet it was a hard matter to conceal what they had done of this kind; for the seditious people presently smelling there had been soraeihing boiled, got into, the house, when she had eaten one half of her child, and found the other half, which she had left till another time; of which she invited them to cat. In the siege and straitness.] These two words, which are used here, and ver. 53. and 55. may both relate to the grievous miseries they should endure, when they were besieged, (ver. 52.) and may be translated, in the pressure and straits wherewith thine enemies, &c. Wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in thy gates.] We have not such an account of their distress in other cities, as we have of what they suffered in Jerusalem; where cnriipov i&rjQos, an innumerable multitude perished by famine, (as Josephus tells us, lib. vii. aXuxnwg, cap. 7.) and ineffable calamities thereupon happened: for in every house, where the least shadow of food appeared, a war immediately began; and the dearest relations fell to blows, snatching away from eiach other the miserable supports of life. Nor would they let those that were dying expire quietly, not believing what they afBrmed> when they told them they had no food in their houses; but the cut-throats came and searched their very bosoms, as they lay drawing their last breath, whether they had hot there hid some food.

Deuteronomy 28:58

If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law, which are written in this book. Among which those words are most remarkable, (xviii. 15. 18, 19.) u A Prophet shall the Lord thy God raise up unto thee, like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken, &c. Whosoever will not hearken unto the words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.” That thou mayestfear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God.] That is, fear the great Lord of heaven and earth, and their special benefactor, who is most glorious in himself, and to be most humbly reverenced by us: for the name of God is God himself; from whence it is that he is sometimes called Haschem, the Name, Lev. xxiv. 11. This shews the reason why Moses repeats this name the Lord thy God so often as he doth in the preface to this book, chap. vi. — ix. &£ In some of which there is scarce a verse wherein we do not meet with these words, and it is sometimes repeated no less than three times in one and the same verse, (xii. 18. xvi. 15.) that God might be in all their thoughts, and the fear of him might possess their hearts.

Deuteronomy 28:59

Then the Lord. If they still persisted in their infidelity and disobedience,, after Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, and such unheard-of calamities as they had suffered during the siege of that place, he threatens to bring upon them more astonishing judgments. Will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance.] Though their great plagues, under Vespasian, by famine, sword, and pestilence, had lessened their numbers exceedingly, yet, by the time of Trajan and Adrian, they had, like traitors taken for awhile from the rack (to use Dr. Jackson’s words), recovered strength enough to be put to greater torture; for then they were made a spectacle to the world of the Divine vengeance again, which they brought upon themselves by their rebellion; and shewed therein their natural strength, by their grievous lingering pains in dying: for not only in Mesopotamia, and in Cyprus, but especially in Cyrene, and throughout all Egypt, they broke out into such outrages, wawtp V7rb nvzifiaTog Savou rivog teal <rra<Jiw$ovc, as if they had been possessed with some fierce and seditious spirit; (as Euscbius speaks, lib. iv. Eccles. Hist. cap. 2.) whereupon Marcius Turbo was sent against them, and setting upon them, both by sea and land, with horse and foot, made a vast destruction of them. See Dion, lib. lxviii. and

Deuteronomy 28:62

And ye shall be left few in number, tvhereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude. The multitude of the Jews killed in the wars, was equal to the number of living men in Israel in the time of king David: for Josephus saith, that in the siege of Jerusalem there were destroyed, by pestilence, famine, and other ways, eleven hundred thousand, besides above ninety thousand carried captive. For they being come from all countries to keep the Passover, the whole nation (as his words are, lib. vii. f AXc5<r£wc, cap. 17.) were shut up here by a fate, Sjarrip uc upKTrjv, as in a close prison, or rather driven thither (as Dr. Jackson speaks) into a slaughter-house, after they had been - foiled, by the Romans in the field. And yet after this they recovered strength (as I observed before), merely to be more tormented, and miserably destroyed: for in the reign of Adrian (who succeeded the emperor Trajan) they shook the Roman empire by their rebellious commotions, as Dion, who lived not long after, relates in bis History, lib. lxix. which moved Adrian to exercise the greater severity upon them in their punishment, there being slain of them in battles and skirmishes five hundred and eighty thousand, besides a vast number consumed by famine, and sicknesses, and fire, during the time of this lingering war; which Julius Severus, a famous commander, sent for on purpose out of Britain, designedly protracted to a great length, not being willing to try it out in the field in one battle with a desperate multitude. And now, as Moses foretold, they were left few in number: for Dion, as if he had intended to expound these words, saith, that Severus so beset and attacked them separately, in several parties, that very few of them escaped; fifty of their strongest fortresses being utterly razed, and nine hundred and eighty and five of their most noble and populous towns sacked and consumed by fire, with the slaughter of the forementioned number; insomuch, that, as his words are, all Judea was in a manner laid waste, and left as a desert. This w r e may truly call the last conflict of this nation with death and destruction in their own land; out of which they were now almost totally expelled, i Because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Jjord thy God.] Who had spoken to them by that great Prophet, his eternal Word, promised in the eighteenth chapter of this book, ver. 15, &c. but they would not hearken to him: for which cause he gave them up to listen unto false Christs, whom they followed to their destruction; particularly Barchocheba, who, in the time of Adrian, took upon him the title of their king, and set up his throne at Bitter, in the tribe of Benjamin, which the Jews had made their chief seat, after the destruction of Jerusalem; and had in it, as

Deuteronomy 28:63

And it shall come to pass, as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought. The state of the Jews, from the time of Adrian till the expiration of the Roman empire, cannot be gathered t from the Roman writers; but the fathers of the church often mention their miseries. And so do their own authors; particularly the author of Schebet Judah, who saith, " It is not in the power of man to tell all the kingdoms and cities where they were scattered; in which they suffered things • so horrid, that it is fitter to pass them over in silence, than to relate them: but therein was verified the Divine prediction, Lev. xxvi. 38. Ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up,” (sect. 49.) And Dr. Jackson, to explain this, hath more particularly observed, that as God raised up Cyrus in testimony of his rejoicing to do them good, who released them from their captivity in Babylon; so, to give the world a proof of his rejoicing to destroy them, and bring them to nought, he advanced Philip Augustus to the crown of France, (about anno 1179.) to defeat all the hopes which some kindness shewn unto them had put into their hearts: for he spoiled their synagogues of all their donatives and ornaments, confiscated all their lands and immoveable goods, and granted a release of all debts due unto them from Christians. (See book i. upon the Creed, chap. 28. parag. 13.) And ye shall be plucked from off the land whither them goest to jwssess it.] This was wonderfully fulfilled by ^ Adrian; who, after a strange desolation, beforementioned, prohibited, by a public decree ratified with the senate’s consent, any Jew to come within sight of Judea. This he did out of a politic respect, lest the sight of their native soil might inspire them with some fresh desperate resolutions to endeavour their settlement there again; but herein he.was unwittingly the angel of God (as the same excellent vol. ii. person speaks), to keep this wicked race out of that paradise, the good land, out of which he had driven them. yer. 64. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people.] That was the effect of Adrian’s severe decree, of not coming within view of their own country, which made them disperse all the world over, where they could find any ad- 4 mittance. From the one end of the earth even unto the other.] Such as were carried captive in Adrian’s war were transported by his OTdcr into Spain, his own native country, which was then accounted the end of the world westward. And many of them, it is evident by their own books, fled to Babylon, and the countries thereabout, which was as far as they knew eastward. In Spain they continued many years in great, abundance, as it were, expecting a wind for their passage to some place more distant from their ancient seat. And who knows whether many of them have not, since the discovery of America, been transported thither, as I before observed? Certain it is, that the Jews themselves are sensible this prophecy was not fulfilled, till this their last dispersion, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans: for thus R. Isaac, who had occasion to mention these words, (in his Muni men Fidei, lately brought to light by Wagenseil, Pcrek. vi.) glosses upon them; " In the Roman captivity, the Jews were dispersed and dissipated through all the regions of the east, and of the west: for every nation of which the Roman army consisted, when they returned to their own countries, carried some of them along with them, into Greece, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and all other countries, which cither Christians or Mahometans now possess.” And there thoti shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have knoivn, even wood and stone.] Here that excellent person I have so often mentioned (Dr. Jackson) commends it to the reader’s consideration, whether this part of* Moses’s prophecy may not be understood of the convert Jews throughout the pope’s dominions, who arc.often urged to commit idolatry with stocks and stones, upon more tyrannical terms (if they gainsay) than their forefathers were, either by the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Romans, or any whatsoever, that led them captive out of their land. If it be said, there is a great difference between the heathen idolatry, and the present image-worship in the Roman church, it is granted the idolatry is of a diverse kind; and so it seems Moses meant, when he threatens the Jews, after their final transportation into these western countries, should seme such gods as their fathers had not known: for their forefathers, before Moses’s time and after, had known the heathen gods too well; but were perfect strangers to this imageworship now in use. And to strengthen this interpretation, it ought to be observed, that these words [which neither thou nor thy fathers have known] are omitted in the thirtysixth verse of this chapter; where he speaks of their serving of other gods of wood and stone, as he doth here. But that part of the prophecy belongs to what they did in the first captivity into Babylon, as Manassch ben Israel observes, who understands these words to be a prophecy of what they have suffered in this last dispersion: for, reciting these words (lib. iii. de Termino Vita), sect. 3. p. 131.) as containing the greatest calamity that hath befallen them, he saith, “This we see fulfilled, after a singular manner, in

Deuteronomy 28:65

And among these nations shalt thou find no rest. This was wonderfully fulfilled in the ages which followed that in which Adrian lived; when they both disturbed others, and could find no rest themselves: for in the third century, they raised sedition in the reign of Severus, by whom they suffered very much about the year 202. after our Saviour’s birth: and in the next century we are informed by St. Chrysostom, in his second oration against the Jews, (torn, vi. edit. Savil. p. 333.) “That they rebelled again in the time of Constantine; who, causing their ears to be cropped off, dispersed them, KaSawep Tivae SpaTrlrag koI /xatr- Vry/ac, as vile fugitives and vagabonds, into various countries, ichere they carried tliis mark of infamy along with them, that all might be instructed to make no more such attempts.” But in the fifth century they made new commotions, and were driven out of Alexandria for their seditious practices, where they had been settled ever since the time of Alexander the Great, and dispersed into several countries, as Socrates observes in his Ecclesiastical History, lib. vii. cap. 1G. And in the next chapter relates how miserably they were deluded in Crede, by one who pretended to be Moses come down from heaven to lead them “to their own land through the sea; into which many threw themselves, and perished. That expulsion out of Alexandria is mentioned by David Ganz also, one of their own authors. In the sixth century, as Elmacinus tells us, they again rebelled in Palestine against the Romans, who slew a great number of them. And in the seventh, they were expelled from Antioch by Phocas, and out of Jerusalem by Hcraclius, and out of Spain (anno 604.) by Sisebutus,- or, as some call him, Siscbodus, king of the Goths; and they flying in great numbers into France, were shortly after put to this hard choice, either to renounce their religion, or lose all they had; which -persecution, Dr. Jackson observes, in the book often mentioned, (chap. 28. parag. 1.) is recorded by those who wrote the life of Dagobert, as one of -the chief mcmorables of his reign. What their state was in the next three centuries/ he saith, he had observed nothing remarkable: nor can I find any thing notable in the eighth, but the appearance of a false Messiah, by whom they were deluded, and brought into trouble. As for the ninth, there were no learned men among them in that age, nor in the Christian world. And in the tenth they were in the same condition; insomuch, that they were fain to make a weaver the head of one of their universities. Neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest.] They being not able to obtain a long settlement any where; but were tossed up and down, and forced from one country to another: for so it was, that, in the beginning of the eleventh century, about the year of our Lord one thousand, they were so vexed throughout the most part of Europe, that " quid agerent, ant quo se vcrterentnesciebant/ 5 they faieiv not what they should do, or which way they should turn themselves, as the forenamed doctor observes, (par. 4.) out Of Papirius Massonus, who hath it out of Glauber. To which I will add this testimony out of David Ganz, in his book called Tzemach David, that, in the latter end of this century (anno 1096.) when there wai a famous expedition for the recovery of the holy land, the Jews felt it a most calamitous time (as he speaks), being robbed, and pillaged; and killed, by the soldiers as they went along. And, indeed, so much cruelty was exercised upon them, that it moved St; Bernard’s compassion, to write to the bishop, clergy, and people of Spire, not to persecute them, much less kill them, or drive them out of their country: €i For they are dispersed (saith he) into all lands, that, while they sutTer the just punishment of their horrid wickedness, they may be witnesses of our redemption,” Epist. 322. And the author of SchcbetJudah,mentioning their banishment out of Savoy> Piedmont, Lombardy, Sicily, and other countries, quotes these very words of Moses [among those nations thou shalt find no rest, &<x] as a prophecy of that exile; which was accompanied with many other mischiefs: for, as they fled to other countries, an immense multitude of people fell upon them, and pillaged them of all the gold arid silver they were carrying away with them, as he relates there, sect. 11. And the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart.~] They being always in dread of some new misery, their condition still growing more dismal in the twelfth century; for as there is a progress in Moses’s prophecy of the increase of their calamities; so it proved in the event, that their sufferings grew greater and greater. They themselves (in Tzemach David, and other books) relate, that, in the year 1142. a hundred and twenty of their congregations were utterly subverted and dispersed. And in the year 1170. they were expelled again out of France, and spoiled of their treasure; which was renewed in the year 1198. How they were used here in England; our own chronicles tell us; and the like ill-usage they met withal in Germany and Spain: so that R. Zacut complains of no less than ten grievous persecutions in this one age, to abolish the name of Jews out of the world. This could not but give them a very trembling heart. And failing of thine eyes.] Which looked for some relief; instead whereof they were still more hardly used in the thirteenth century, being/in the year 1253. again expelled out of France, whither theyhad returned; and again in 1295. when they expected some rest/there was a fresh expulsion, mentioned by R. Levi ben’Gersom, who saith they wero spoiled of all their goods, and sent away only with their clothes upon their backs. Which he affirms with the more confidence, because it was done in his time, when, he saith, there was such a number of them, that they exceeded those that came out of Egypt. So he writes in his exposition of those words, Numb, xxiii. 10. Who can count ihe dust of Jacob? rwill forbear to mention how they were treated here in England (1290.) and in Germany; into which they flying out of France, were most cruelly used. And sorrow of mind.] Which must needs seize upon them heavily to find their miseries so far from abating, that they still increased in the fourteenth century: when they were banished again out of France, and spoiled of their goods, 1306. and once more 1395. which the Jews call their fourth and last banishment. Aboutthe same time they were banished out of Germany; anno 1392. In Castile, indeed, they redeemed their lives” with money (which they could not part withal, without much sorroiv of mind), but in Catalonia, Arragoryand in other parts of Spain, such a terri- • ffffwf V^^7^^l CHAP. XXVIII.] UPON DEUTERONOMY. blc storm fell upon them,.that the]r themselves, in Juchasin, Say, there were no less than two hundred thousand turned Christians, with heavy hearts. It would be.:too tedious to mention all that they suffered in the fifteenth century in Germany, Hungary, Pol onia, and. in Italy, Spain,- und Portugal. I mil only observe what befel them inthe country last named, in the next century, anno 1506. when nil that is said in this verse is fulfilled, by that dreadful massacre which was made of. them at Lisbon for three days together j. where men wereliot Suffered to die of their deadly wounds, but weie dragged by their mangled limbs into the market-place, where the bodies of the living and the slain, with others half alive, half dead, were burnt together in heaps. The spectacle \vas so horrible, that it quite astonished the rest of this wretched people; two thousand of which perished in. this barbarous manner. Parents durst not mourn for their children, nor children sigh for their parents, when they saw them haled to the place of torment; so that their hearts, no doubt, were ready to break with grief and sorrow. In short, " Sic eos metus exanimaverat; ut vivi non multum amortuorum similitudine distarent:" fear had so dispirited them,- that the living in their aspect did’not much differ from the dead; which words of Osorius (in his fourth book de Rebus Emanuelis) our Dr. Jackson, who relatesthis sad story out of him, looks upon.as a paraphrase upon these words of Moses (though Osorius did not think of them), J will give tliee a trembling heart, and failing of the eyes, and sorrow of mind. There are those who, by a trembling heart, understand the terrors of an evil conscience: so D. Chytrceus, p. 131, And by failing of the eyes may be understood, the constant disappointment of their hopes, wherewith they were sometimes fed by false Messiahs in several ages; which disappointment bred great sorrow of mind, when after earnest expectation of some good, the quite contrary came upon them. Vcr. 66. And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee.] That is, it should be doubtful whether they should live or die the next moment. As it manifestly happened in the aforenamed massacre, when they durst not fetch a sigh, and yet could hardly avoid it, at the sight of their parents’ or children’s tortures, for fear they should suffer the same before the breath was out of their tortured bodies. And thou shall fear day and night, and shall have no assurance of life.’] So it was then: none of them knowing who would be next seized, in those three days’ butchery. And so it was in some of their banishments, which, they were told, should be the best remedy for the evils impending over them, as the author of Schebet Judah speaks, who •tells m, (sect. 23.) that the reason which some princes gave for their expulsion out of their territories was, to prevent their being torn in pieces by the people, who were most furiously set against them. Vcr. 07. And in the morning, thou shalt say, Would God it were even!] That they might not see those miserable spectacles, which they hoped would end in the night, when men went to rest.,:. And at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning!] Being afraid of unseen dangers, to which the night might give an opportunity; or, that they might not see their way, when they fled by sea and, land, from one country to another, as they were forced to do very often: for Abarbjnel, in his Commentary upon Isaiah xl..11. reckons up, four universal banishments, out of the countries where they lived, The fir$t out; of England; the next put of France; the third out. of Asia, Germany, Tuscany^ Loinbardy, and Savoy; and the last out of Spain; when he himself was one of those who were constrained to leave that country, and knew not whither to go. He hath given us a lively description of that calamity (like to. which; he saith, none had ever befallen them, since they were banished their own country) in his preface to his Commentary upon the Book of the Kings, which he wrote the very neXt’year after their expulsion, (1403.) and the author of Schebet Judah hath transcribed in his own words: “A decree was made and proclaimed publicly, that all the Jews should change their religion, or quit the country’in three months’ time. Abarbinel had then a place in.the court, where he petitioned the king, and besought his tninisters and counsellors to revoke the edict, and be content with their estates, which they offered to him; but all in vain: for three hundred thousand, old and young, men and women, and he among the rest, went away on foot upon one day, not knowing whither to go. Some went into Portugal, others into Navarre; where they conflicted with many calamities: for some became a prey, or perished by famine and pestilence. And therefore others committed themselves to the sea, hoping to find a quiet seat in some other countries. But on the sea they met with new disasters; for many were sold as slaves when they came on any coast, many were drowned, many burnt in the ships which were set on fire: r in short, all suffered the just punishment of God the avenger (as he speaks): for after all this, a plague camo and swept away the rest of the miserable wretches, who were hated by all mankind; so that all that vast number perished by. one calamity or other, except a very few.” He that would see more of the woful miseries of this people, may look into Schebet Judah; sect. 53. where ho shews what befel those who went to seek new habitations in the kingdom of. Fcss, where they lived a long time upon grass, and ate its very roots, and then died, and their bodies lay exposed, none being so charitable asto bury them. For the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.] The one of these seems to refer to their dreadful apprehensions in the night; and the other to the lamentable spectacles they beheld in the day. And the simple meaning of the former part of the verse may be, that they should be weary of life, having no comfort either day or night. Vcr. 68. And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again.] The Jerusalem Targum translates it, Tlie JVbrd of the Lord shall bring thee back again. He, that is, who conducted them out of Egypt in a glorious cloud, would punish them for their foul offences against him, by bringing them again into bondage there. This was first fulfilled r after the desolation made by Titus; when there was, as I observed before, (ver. 62.) above ninety thousand carried captive, and many of them transported into Egypt, as Josephus relates, in the conclusion of the sixteenth chapter of the seventh book, concerning the Wars of the Jews. And here Manasseh ben Israel hath a very pertinent observation, that Vespasian transported them into many and various regions: but Egypt is only here named, the more Microsoft® [chap. XXVIII. to reproach the Jews: as if ho had said, " Ye shall be carried into that land as captives, out of which ye camo in a triumphant manner," lib. iii. do Tcrmino Vitac, sect. 3. which may incline one to think, that ho was of the same mind with our Dr. Jackson, who, observing how cruelly they were used here in England, and many other countries^ concludes, that this island, and every place of Europe, wherein their condition of life hath been more hard and burdensome than their forefathers’ was in Egypt, may be said to be that Egypt, into which God threatens here to bring them in ships. And, indeed, we do not read of their being carried into Egypt after Vespasian’s time; though it is set down here as a punishment to come upon them after a long train of other miseries; and must relate to their rigorous usage, which 1 have observed in many countries, in several ages, down to these latter times. The Jerusalem Talmud, it must be observed, mentions another bringing into Egypt (literally understood), in the Massechta beforenamed upon ver. 59. where they say, that, as God forbade them three times to return into Egypt (which they there set down), so they were forced thither three times for their transgressions against God; first, in the days of Sennacherib, king of Assyria; (Isa. xxxi. 1. 3.) secondly, in the time of Johanan, the son of Kareah; (Jer. xlii. 16.) and lastly, in the time of the emperor Trajan: but this I look upon as a mistake; for Trajan rather killed all those whom he found there, than carried them thither, as I noted before.: With ship$J] Which seems to put them in mind how different their condition was now become, from what it was when they came out of Egypt without any ships; for the sea gave them a passage through it, by being made dry land. Their being carried also thither by ships, made their condition the more deplorable, because there were no " means of escaping out of them, as there might have been if they had gone by land. By the rvay whereof I spake unto thee.] Or, to the way, (so the particle beth often signifies, Gen. xi. 4. xvi. 22.) that is, to the place, whereof I said, Ye shall see it no more again: for it seems to be a manifest allusion to what Ave read in the seventeenth chapter of this book, ver. 16. And there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bond-men and bond-women.] Exposed to sale like beasts in the open market; and that at so vile a price, that thirty of thein (as both profane and ecclesiastical historians relate) were sold for one small piece of money. Josephus, giving a particular account how the captives were disposed of by Titus, saith, that the most goodly young men he reserved to at- “tend his’triumph;- of the rest, he ordered those above seventeen years old to be sent bound into Egypt, to labour in the works there; many he distributed in the provinces to perish in the theatre by the sword and wild beasts: and all under seventeen years old he commanded to be sold. But while they were making this distribution, twelve thousand of them died of famine; partly by the hatred of their guards, who gave them no food; and partly by the weakness of others, whoso stomachs could not receive it, (lib. vii. cap. 16.) By which a* judgment may be made how little worth these vilo wretches were, as it here follows. In aftertimes, I have observed, in the course of this Commentary, how they were sold for slaves in somo places, and in all used as no better. Benjamin Tudclcnsis, who went a pilgrimage to visit his countrymen, represents their condition as most miserable throughout the eastern empire. And particularly complains of their hard usage among the Greeks at Constantinople: within the walls of which city they were not suffered to live, nor to come thither, but on occasion of traffic and business; and that only by boat (for they had their habitation in a kind of an island), not a man being permitted on horseback, except only one, Solyman, the emperor s physician. Whose advancement was their sole comfort in that miserable servitude, under which the rest groaned, without any difference of good or bad (as he acknowledges), who were daily beaten and abused in the open streets. Thus he confesses, though his principal design was to set forth the power they retained in the world. (Itinerarium, p. 27, 28. edit. L’Empereur.) And no man shall buy you.] Though some, as I said before, were sold at a very vile rate, next to nothing; yet others hung upon the seller’s hancls (as we speak), the market being either so overstocked with their numbers, that none would cheapen the greatest part of them, or they were so contemptible that nobody would give what was asked for such useless slaves: for, as no money could purchase their peace and security from calamities, so neither could the calamities, though continually most grievous (they are the words of Dr. Jackson), redeem their estimation in the world; nor all the blood of their slain (though their massacres were numberless) extinguish that hateful and loathr some conceit which most men had entertained of them. For in the fifteenth century they were become so abominable, that several doctors began to hold it unlawful for Christians to let thein live among them. Particularly the famous Thomas Terrecremata, inquisitor-general, forbade all men to have any dealings with “them, or to afford them meat or drink, or anything else. Whence proceed the direful proscriptions which we read of in that age, whereby they were forced out of Spain, Poland, Hungary, and divers other countries; where they were not* suffered to live, •though with a note and character upon them to distinguish them from all other men. I conclude my observations on this chapter, with the remark which the same great man (Dr. Jackson) makes, chap. 22. paragr. 6.” That the extraordinary blessings and plagues which were to overtake this people, being here set down by Moses; although their blessings might have been more and more admirable than the curses that have befallen theih, yet he, cither foreseeing or fearing what would be, rather than hoping the best that might be, is almost four times as long in enumerating their plagues as he is in thoir blessings. And so have the miseries of the latter Jews been four times as long; as the prosperity of their worthy ancestors. And since our Saviour’s death, all the plagues, which were in part fulfilled before, have been more than seven times multiplied upon them. For in their former overthrows or captivities, though they suffered the violence of war, yet, after that storm was past, so they did but submit to their conquerors, they lived well enough, nay, usually found more than ordinary favour at their hands; but since our Saviour’s death, they have through all ages been more and more miserable; u the memory of the foregoing plagues having been but an invitation to the like, orM r orse; and their continual bad usage prescribing the lawfulness of their abuse/’ ■ ri f vi XS^JXS * t CHAP. XXIX.] UPON DEUTERONOMY.