Deuteronomy 28:17

28:15-44 If we do not keep God's commandments, we not only come short of the blessing promised, but we lay ourselves under the curse, which includes all misery, as the blessing all happiness. Observe the justice of this curse. It is not a curse causeless, or for some light cause. The extent and power of this curse. Wherever the sinner goes, the curse of God follows; wherever he is, it rests upon him. Whatever he has is under a curse. All his enjoyments are made bitter; he cannot take any true comfort in them, for the wrath of God mixes itself with them. Many judgments are here stated, which would be the fruits of the curse, and with which God would punish the people of the Jews, for their apostacy and disobedience. We may observe the fulfilling of these threatenings in their present state. To complete their misery, it is threatened that by these troubles they should be bereaved of all comfort and hope, and left to utter despair. Those who walk by sight, and not by faith, are in danger of losing reason itself, when every thing about them looks frightful.

15-20. But … if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord—Curses that were to follow them in the event of disobedience are now enumerated, and they are almost exact counterparts of the blessings which were described in the preceding context as the reward of a faithful adherence to the covenant.

34 . Cp. Deuteronomy 28:28 ; mad , rather driven mad . 35 breaks the connection between Deuteronomy 28:34; Deuteronomy 28:36 , and is more in place after 27, q.v. on boil . Here sore boil on knees and legs points to the ‘joint-leprosy,’ a species of elephantiasis; cp. Job 2:7 f., Deuteronomy 7:3-6 , Deuteronomy 17:7 , Deuteronomy 19:17 ; Deuteronomy 19:20 , Deuteronomy 30:17 . Deuteronomy 28:34