Deuteronomy 28:39

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.

Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them,.... Plant them and prune them, in expectation of much fruit from them: but shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; so far from drinking of the wine of them, that they should not be able to gather any grapes from them: for the worms shall eat them; a sort of worms pernicious to vines, which the Greeks call "ipes", or "ikes" (o); and the Latins "convolvuli" and "volvoces", as Pliny (p). (o) See Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 27. col. 622, 623. (p) Nat. Hist. l. 17. c. 28.

37. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee, &c.—The annals of almost every nation, for eighteen hundred years, afford abundant proofs that this has been, as it still is, the case—the very name of Jew being a universally recognized term for extreme degradation and wretchedness.

Even in their own land the curse would fall upon every kind of labour and enterprise. Much seed would give little to reap, because the locust would devour the seed; the planting and dressing of the vineyard would furnish no wine to drink, because the worm would devour the vine. תּולעת is probably the ἴψ or ἴξ of the Greeks, the convolvulus of the Romans, our vine-weevil.

17 . abominations ] Rather detestable things , not to ‘ebôth , as in Deuteronomy 7:25 , but shiḳḳuṣîm , frequent in Jer. and Ezek. of idols, nowhere else in Deut., but the vb. from which it comes is found in Deuteronomy 7:26 . idols ] Heb. gillulîm , a scornful term meaning either things gross or coarse , such as some forms of the root in Ar. mean (applied to dung , etc.), or things round or podgy , as from Heb. galal, to roll (cp. the nicknames ‘round-head’ and ‘rolling-pin’). In the Hex. only here and Leviticus 26:30 (H); Jeremiah 50:2 ; Jeremiah 50:39 times in Ezek. The gods of the heathen were mere blocks or boulders! wood and stone ] Deuteronomy 4:28 , Deuteronomy 28:36 ; Deuteronomy 28:64 . Deuteronomy 29:17

This thought is individualized with a retrospective glance at the punishment with which the sinners are threatened in Amos 5:11 , - namely, as building waste cities, and dwelling therein, and as drinking the wine of the vineyards that have been planted; not building houses for others any more, as was threatened in Amos 5:11 , after Deuteronomy 28:30 , Deuteronomy 28:39 ; and lastly, as laying out gardens, and eating the fruit thereof, without its being consumed by strangers ( Deuteronomy 28:33 ). This blessing will endure for ever ( Amos 9:15 ). Their being planted in their land denotes, not the settling of the people in their land once more, but their firm and lasting establishment and fortification therein. The Lord will make Israel, i.e., His rescued people, into a plantation that will never be torn up again, but strikes firm roots, sends forth blossom, and produces fruit. The words point back to 2 Samuel 7:10 , and declare that the firm planting of Israel which was begun by David will be completed with the raising up of the fallen hut of David, inasmuch as no further driving away of the nation into captivity will occur, but the people of the Lord will dwell for ever in the land which their God has given them. Compare Jeremiah 24:6 . This promise is sealed by אמר יי אל.

This thought is individualized with a retrospective glance at the punishment with which the sinners are threatened in Amos 5:11 , - namely, as building waste cities, and dwelling therein, and as drinking the wine of the vineyards that have been planted; not building houses for others any more, as was threatened in Amos 5:11 , after Deuteronomy 28:30 , Deuteronomy 28:39 ; and lastly, as laying out gardens, and eating the fruit thereof, without its being consumed by strangers ( Deuteronomy 28:33 ). This blessing will endure for ever ( Amos 9:15 ). Their being planted in their land denotes, not the settling of the people in their land once more, but their firm and lasting establishment and fortification therein. The Lord will make Israel, i.e., His rescued people, into a plantation that will never be torn up again, but strikes firm roots, sends forth blossom, and produces fruit. The words point back to 2 Samuel 7:10 , and declare that the firm planting of Israel which was begun by David will be completed with the raising up of the fallen hut of David, inasmuch as no further driving away of the nation into captivity will occur, but the people of the Lord will dwell for ever in the land which their God has given them. Compare Jeremiah 24:6 . This promise is sealed by אמר יי אל.