Deuteronomy 28:4

28:1-14 This chapter is a very large exposition of two words, the blessing and the curse. They are real things and have real effects. The blessings are here put before the curses. God is slow to anger, but swift to show mercy. It is his delight to bless. It is better that we should be drawn to what is good by a child-like hope of God's favour, than that we be frightened to it by a slavish fear of his wrath. The blessing is promised, upon condition that they diligently hearken to the voice of God. Let them keep up religion, the form and power of it, in their families and nation, then the providence of God would prosper all their outward concerns.

Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body,.... Their children, of which they should have many, and these live; be healthful, thrive, and arrive to manhood, and increase and perpetuate their families. Grotius thinks this was eminently fulfilled in Mary, the mother of our Lord; see Luke 1:42 , and the fruit of thy ground; of their gardens, orchards, and fields; grass for the cattle, and the wheat, barley, vines, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates for the use of men: and the fruit of thy cattle; which being distinguished from oxen and sheep in the following clause, must be understood of camels and asses, which were used for the carriage both of persons and burdens, and were very serviceable, and were a considerable part of their substance in those countries; see Job 1:3, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep; of their cows and oxen, and of their sheep and goats, which were very increasing creatures, and in the increase of which much of their outward happiness lay; see Psalm 144:13.

When there shall be no poor: so the words are an exception to the foregoing clause, which they restrain to the poor, and imply that if his brother was rich, he might exact his debt of him in that year. And indeed this law seems to be chiefly, if not wholly, designed and given in favour to the poor and to the borrower, as is manifest from Deu 15:6-11 . But the words are and may be rendered thus, as in the margin of our Bibles, To the end that there be no poor among you . And so they contain a reason of this law, to wit, that none be impoverished and ruined by a rigid and unseasonable exaction of debts. They may also be translated thus, Nevertheless of a truth , or assuredly , (as the particle chi is oft used,) there shall be no poor along you ; and the sense may be this, Though I impose this law upon you, which may seem hard and grievous, yet the truth is, supposing your performance of the conditions of God’s covenant, you shall not have any great occasion to exercise your charity and kindness in this matter, for God will greatly bless you, &c., so as you shall be in a capacity of lending, and few or none of you will have need to borrow, and thereby to expose his brethren to the inconvenience and burden of this law. Thus the connexion is plain and easy, both with the foregoing and following words. Object. It is said, the poor should never cease , Deu 15:11 . Answ.

A comparison of this chapter with Exodus 23:20-23 and Leviticus 26 will show how Moses here resumes and amplifies the promises and threats already set forth in the earlier records of the Law. The language rises in this chapter to the sublimest strains, especially in the latter part of it; and the prophecies respecting the dispersion and degradation of the Jewish nation in its later days are among the most remarkable in scripture. They are plain, precise, and circumstantial; and the fulfillment of them has been literal, complete, and undeniable. The Blessing. The six repetitions of the word "blessed" introduce the particular forms which the blessing would take in the various relations of life.

The Blessing. - Deuteronomy 28:1 . If Israel would hearken to the voice of the Lord its God, the Lord would make it the highest of all the nations of the earth. This thought, with which the discourse on the law in Deuteronomy 26:19 terminated, forms the theme, and in a certain sense the heading, of the following description of the blessing, through which the Lord, according to the more distinct declaration in Deuteronomy 28:2 , would glorify His people above all the nations of the earth. The indispensable condition for obtaining this blessing, was obedience to the word of the Lord, or keeping His commandments. To impress this condition sine qua non thoroughly upon the people, Moses not only repeats it at the commencement ( Deuteronomy 28:2 ), and in the middle ( Deuteronomy 28:9 ), but also at the close ( Deuteronomy 28:13 , Deuteronomy 28:14 ), in both a positive and a negative form. In Deuteronomy 28:2 , "the way in which Israel was to be exalted is pointed out" (Schultz); and thus the theme is more precisely indicated, and the elaboration of it is introduced. "All these blessings (those mentioned singly in what follows) will come upon thee and reach thee." The blessings are represented as actual powers, which follow the footsteps of the nation, and overtake it.

In Deuteronomy 28:3-6 , the fulness of the blessing of God in all the relations of life is depicted in a sixfold repetition of the word "blessed." Israel will be blessed in the town and in the field, the two spheres in which its life moves ( Deuteronomy 28:3 ); blessed will be the fruit of the body, of the earth, and of the cattle, i.e., in all its productions ( Deuteronomy 28:4 ; for each one, see Deuteronomy 7:13-14 ); blessed will be the basket ( Deuteronomy 26:2 ) in which the fruits are kept, and the kneading - trough ( Exodus 12:34 ) in which the daily bread is prepared ( Deuteronomy 28:5 ); blessed will the nation be in all its undertakings ("coming in and going out;" vid., Numbers 27:17 ).