ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

A. M. 2553. B. C. 1451.

CHAP. XXVIII.

2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

3d Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy hody, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy & store. 6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest

out.

7 The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.

o Ver. 15. Zech. 1. 6.-d Psa. 123. 1, 4.-e Gen. 39. 5- Ver. 11. Gen. 22. 17. & 49. 25. Ch. 7 13. Psa. 107. 38 & 127. 3. & 128. 3. Prov. 10. 22 1 Tim. 4. 8.-g Or, dough, or kneading trough-h Psa. 121. 8.-i Lev. 26. 7, 8. 2 Sam. 22. 38, 39, 41. Psa. 89. 23. See Ver. 25.

afflicted, for whose distresses we can give no legitimate reason. We find others, who though they rise early, sit up late, work hard, eat the bread of carefulness, and have a full knowledge of their business, yet never get on in life! Who can account for this? Shall we say that some injustice in their ancestors has brought down the displeasure of God upon the earthly possessions that descend in that line; so that the goods ill-gotten shall never be permitted to multiply? I knew an honest man, dead many years since, who by great diligence, punctuality, and integrity in his business, had acquired considerable property. Some time before his death, having by will divided his substance among his sons and his daughters, he expressed himself thus: "Children you need not fear the curse of God on this property; every penny of it was honestly earned." Many years have since elapsed, and the blessing of God has been in the basket and in the store of all his children. Parents! leave nothing behind you that you cannot say before your God with a clear conscience, "This has been honestly earned." If all bequests of a contrary description, were to be deducted from last wills and testaments, the quantum of descending property, would be, in many cases, small indeed.

NOTES ON CHAPTER XXVIII. Verse 2. All these blessings shall come on thee] God shall pour out his blessings from heaven upon thee-and overtake thee. Upright men are represented as going to the kingdom of God, and God's blessings as following and overtaking them in their heavenly journey. There are several things in this verse worthy of the most careful observation.

8 The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thousettest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

9 The LORD shall establish thee a holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.

10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be P afraid of thee.

11 And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee,

k Lev. 25. 21.-1 Or, barns. Prov. 3. 10-m Ch. 15. 10-n Exod. 19. 5, 6. Ch. 7.6. & 26. 18, 19. & 29. 13-0 Numb. 6. 27. 2 Chron. 7. 14. Isai. 63. 19. Dan. 9. 18, 19.p Ch. 11. 25-r Ver. 4. Ch. 30. 9. Prov. 10. 22.-8 Or, for good-t Heb. belly.

general, should, in this case, be so minute as to mention baskets, seems strange: and they that interpret either the first or the second of these words of the repositories of their corn, &c. forget that their barns or storehouses are spoken of presently after this in ver. 8. Might I be permitted to give my opinion here, I should say that the basket Non tana, in this place, means their travelling baskets; and the other word, masharet, (their store,) signifies their leather bags; in both which they were wont to carry things in travelling. The first of these words occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures, but in the account that is given us of the conveyance in which they were to carry their first-fruits to Jerusalem. The other nowhere but in the description of the hurrying journey of Israel out of Egypt, where it means the utensil in which they then carried their dough, which I have shown elsewhere in these papers, means a piece of leather drawn together by rings, and forming a kind of bag. Agreeably to this, Hasselquist informs us that the Eastern people use baskets in travelling; for, speaking of that species of the palm-tree which produces dates, and its great usefulness to the people of those make baskets, or rather a kind of short bags, which are countries, he tells us, that of the leaves of this tree they used in Turkey, on journeys, and in their houses; page 261, 262. Hampers and panniers are English terms, denoting travelling baskets, as tana seems to be an Hebrew word of the same general import, though their forms might very much differ, as it is certain that of the travelling baskets, mentioned by Hasselquist, now does.

"In like manner as they now carry meal, figs, and raisins, in a goat's skin in Barbary, for a viaticum, they might do the same anciently, and consequently might carry mer1. If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy chandise after the same manner, particularly their honey, God. The voice of God must be heard-without a Di-oil, and balm, mentioned Ezek. xvii. 17. They were the vine Revelation, how can the divine will be known? And if not known, it cannot be fulfilled.

2. When God speaks, men must hearken to the words of his mouth. He who does not hearken will not obey. 3. He who hearkens to the words of God, must set out for the kingdom of heaven. The curse must fall on him who stands in the way of sinners, and will overtake them who loiter in the way of righteousness.

4. Those who run in the way of God's testimonies shall have an abundance of blessing. Blessings shall come upon them, and blessings shall overtake them-in every part of their march through life, they shall continue to receive the fulfilment of the various promises of God which relate to all circumstances, vicissitudes, trials, stages of life, &c. &c. each overtaking them in the time and place where most needed.

Verse 3. In the city] In all civil employments; in the field; in all agricultural pursuits.

Verse 4. Fruit of thy body] All thy children; increase of thy kine, &c. every animal employed in domestic and agricultural purposes shall be under the especial protection of divine Providence.

Verse 5. Thy basket] Thy olive-gathering and vintage, as the basket was employed to collect those fruits.

Store] No misharoth, kneading-troughs, or remainders: all that is laid up for future use, as well as what is prepared for present consumption. Some think that by basket, all their property abroad may be meant; and by store all that they have at home, i. e. all that is in the fields, and all that is in the houses. The following note of Mr. Harmer is important.

Commentators seem to be at a great loss how to explain the basket and the store, mentioned Deut. xxiii. 5, 17. Why Moses, who in the other verses mentions things in

was so long in the East, and observed their customs with proper vessels for such things. So Sir J. Chardin, who so much care, supposed in a manuscript note on Gen. xliii. 11. that the balm and the honey sent by Jacob into Egypt for a present were carried in a goat or kid's skin, in which all sorts of things, both dry and liquid, are wont to be carried in the East,

"Understood after this manner, the passage promises Israel success in their commerce, as the next verse (the 6th) promises them personal safety in their going out, and in distinctness and a noble extent." Observations, vol. ii.p. 181. their return. In this view the passage appears with due

Verse 6. When thou comest in] From thy employment, thou shalt find that no evil has happened to the family or dwelling in thy absence.

When thou goest out] Thy way shall be made prosin all thy labours. perous before thee, and thou shalt have the divine blessing

Verse 7. The Lord shall cause thine enemies, &c.] This is a promise of security from foreign invasion, or total discomfiture of the invaders, should they enter the land. They shall come against thee one way-in the firmest and And flee seven ways-shall be utmost united manner. terly broken, confounded, and finally routed.

Verse 8. The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee] Every thing that thou hast shall come by divine appointment-thou shalt have nothing casually, but every thing, both spiritual and temporal, shall come by the immediate command of God.

Verse 9. The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto himself] This is the sum of all blessings, to be made holy, and be preserved in holiness.

If thou shalt keep, &c.] Here is a solemn condition; if they did not keep God's testimonies, taking them for

493

12 The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven " to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

13 And the LORD shall make thee the head and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:

14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

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 his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee; and overtake thee:

16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. 20 The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, d vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest

u Lev. 26. 4. Ch. 11. 14.-v Ch. 14. 29-w Ch. 15. 6-x Isai. 9. 14, 15-y Ch. 5. 32 & 11. 16-z Lev. 26. 14. Lam. 2. 17. Dan. 9. 11, 13. Mal. 2 2. Bar 1. 20-a Ver. 2-b Ver 3, &c.-e Mal. 2. 2-d 1 Sam. 14. 20. Zech. 14. 13-e Psa. 80. 16. Isai. 30. 17. & 51. 20. & 66. 15.- Heb. which thou wouldest do.

the regulators of their lives, and according to their direction, walking in his ways, under the influence and aids of his grace, then the curses, and not the blessings must be their portion. See ver. 15, &c.

Verse 12. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure] The clouds, so that a sufficiency of fructifying showers should descend at all requisite times, and the vegetative principle in the earth should unfold and exert itself, so that their crops should be abundant.

[ocr errors]

Verse 14. Thou shalt not go aside-to the right hand, or to the left] The way of obedience is a straight way-it goes right forward-he who declines either to right or left from this path, goes astray, and misses heaven." Verse 20. Cursing] This shall be thy state. Veration -grief, trouble, and anguish of heart. Rebuke-continual judgments, and marks of God's displeasure. Verse 21. The pestilence cleave unto thee]

mimi_pan yedabek Yehovah beca et haddaber, the Lord shall CEMENT the pestilence, or plague, to thee-nporkoλAndai Kupios eis GE TOV Oavarov, the Lord will glue (inseparably attach) the death unto thee. Septuagint. How dreadful a plague must it be, that ravages without intermission, any person may conceive, who has ever heard

of the name.

Verse 22. CONSUMPTION] AD Shachepheth, atrophy through lack of food: from shachaph, to be in want. FEVER] D Kaddachath, from p kadach, to be kindled, burn, sparkle; a burning inflammatory fever. INFLAMMATION] p Dalleketh, from p dalak, to pursue eagerly, to burn after; probably a rapidly consuming cancer.

EXTREME BURNING] Charchur, burning upon burning; scald upon scald, from char, to be heated, enraged, &c. This probably refers not only to excruciating inflammations on the body, but also to the irritations and agony of a mind, utterly abandoned by God, and lost to hope. What an accumulation of misery! how formidable! and especially in a land where great heat was prevalent and dreadful.

SWORD] War in general, enemies without, and civil broils within. This was remarkably the case in the last siege of Jerusalem.

BLASTING] Shiddaphon, probably either the blighting east wind, that ruined vegetation, or those awful pestilential winds, which suffocate both man and beast wherever they come. These often prevailed in different parts of the east, and several examples have already been given. See Gen. xli. 6.

MILDEW] P Yerakon, an exudation of the vegetative juice from different parts of the stock, by which the maturity and perfection of the plant are utterly prevented. It comes from p yarak, to throw out moisture.

Of these seven plagues, the five former were to fall on

thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.

21 The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.

22h The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew: and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. 23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

24 The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

25 m The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and " shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 And Pthy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.

27 The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

g Lev. 26. 25. Jer. 24. 10.-b Lev. 26. 16-i Or, drought.-k Amos 4. 9.-1 Lev. 26. 19-m Ver. 7. Lev. 36. 17, 37. Ch. 32. 30. Isai. 30. 17-n Jer. 15. 4. & 24 9. Ezek. 23. 46-0 Heb. for a removing -p 1 Sam. 17. 44, 46. Psa. 79. 2. Jer. 9. 33. & 16. 4. & 34 20-r Ver. 35. Exod. 9. 9. & 15 26.-8 | Sam. 5. 6. Paa. 78. 66.

their bodies, the two latter upon their substance. What a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the Living God!

Verse 23. Thy heaven-shall be brass, and the earthiron.] The atmosphere should not be replenished with aqueous vapours, in consequence of which, they should have neither the early nor the latter rain-hence the earth, the ground, must be wholly intractable, and through its hardness incapable of cultivation. God shows them by this that he is Lord of nature; and that drought and sterility are not casualties, but proceed from the immediate appointment of the Lord.

Verse 24. The rain of thy land powder and dust] As their heavens, atmosphere, clouds, &c. were to be as brass, yielding no rain; so the surface of the earth must be reduced to powder; and this being frequently taken up by the strong winds, would fall down in showers instead of rain. Whole caravans have been buried under showers of sand; and Thevenot, a French traveller, who had observed these showers of dust, &c. says, "They grievously annoy all they fall on, filling their eyes, ears, nostrils, &c." Travels in the East, part I. book ii. chap. 80. The ophthalmia in Egypt appears to be chiefly owing to a very fine sand, the particles of which are like broken glass, which are carried about by the wind, and entering into the ciliary glands, produce grievous and continual infiammations.

Verse 27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch] ne Shechin, a violent inflammatory swelling. In Job i one of the Hexapla versions render it expart, the Elephantiasis, a disease the most horrid that can possibly afflict human nature. In this disorder, the whole body is covered with a most loathsome scurf-the joints are all preternaturally enlarged, and the skin swells up, and grows into folds like that of an elephant, whence the disease has its name. The skin, through its rigidity, breaks across at all the joints, and a most abominable ichor flows from all the chinks, &c. See an account of it in Aretaus, whose language is sufficient to chill the blood of a maniac, could he attend to the description, given by this great master, of this most loathsome and abominable of all the natural productions of death and sin. This was called the botch of Egypt, as being peculiar to that country, and particularly in the vicinity of the Nile. Hence those words of Lucretius,

Est Elephas morbus, qui circum flumina Nili Nascitur, Egypto in media; nec præterea usquam. Lib. vi. ver. 1112 EMERODS] oy Epelim, from boy aphal, to be elevated, raised up, swellings, protuberances; probably the bleeding piles.

SCAB Garab, does not occur as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, but gharb, in Arabic, signifies a distemper in the corner of the eye, Castel. and may amount to the Egyptian ophthalmia, which is so epidemic and distressing in that country; some suppose the scurry to be intended.

28 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, | thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with and blindness, and astonishment of heart: the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.

29 Thou shalt "grope at noon-day, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee,

[ocr errors]

30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

31 Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof; thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.

32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.

33 The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up: and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:

34 So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes, which thou shalt see.

35 The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.

36 The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.

37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.

38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.

39 Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them; but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. 40 Thou shalt have olive-trees throughout all

t Jer. 4. 9.-a Job 5. 14. Isaj. 59. 10.- Job 31. 10. Jer. 8. 10.-w Job 31. 8. Jer. 12 13 Amos 5. 11. Mic. 6. 15. Zeph. 1. 13-x Ch. 20. 6-y Heb. profane, or, use it as common meat; as Ch 20. 6.-7 Heb. shall not return to thee-a Psa. 119. 82 b Ver. 51. Lev. 25. 16. Jer. 5. 17.- Ver. 67.-d Ver. 27.-e 2 Kings 17. 4, 6. & 14. 12, 14. & 25. 7, 11. 2 Chron. 33. 11. & 36. 6, 20.- Ch. 4. 28. & Ver. 64. Jer. 16. 13. g 1 Kings 9. 7, 8. Jer. 24. 9. & 25. 9. Zech 8. 13.

ITCH] On Chares, a burning itch, probably something of the erisipelatous kind, or what is commonly called St. Anthony's fire.

Whereof thou canst not be healed.] For as they were inflicted by God's justice, they could not of course be cured by human art.

Verse 28. The Lord shall smite thee with madness] Shiggaon, distraction, so that thou shalt not know what to do.

And blindness] y Ivaron, blindness, both physical and mental; the au garab, ver. 27. destroying their eyes; and the judgments of God confounding their understandings.

Astonishment] pon Timehon, stupidity and amazement. By the just judgments of God they were so completely confounded, as not to discern the means by which they might prevent or remove their calamities; and to adopt those which led directly to their ruin. How true is the ancient saying, Quos Deus vull perdere, prius dementat. "Those whom God is determined to destroy, he first infatuates." But this applies not exclusively to the poor Jews: how miserably infatuated have the powers of the continent of Europe been, in all their councils and measures, for several years past? And what is the result? They have fallen! most deplorably fallen!

Verse 29. Thou shalt be only oppressed, &c.] Perhaps no people under the sun have been more oppressed and spoiled than the rebellious Jews. Indeed this has been their portion with but little intermission for nearly 1800 years. And still they grope at noon-day, as the blind gropeth in darkness-they do not yet discover, notwithstanding the effulgence of the light by which they are encompassed, that the rejection of their own Messiah is the cause of all their calamities.

41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; form they shall go into captivity.

42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust" consume.

43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.

44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: Phe shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

r

45 Moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:

46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. 47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, "for the abundance of all things;

48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;

[ocr errors]

50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young.

51 And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.

52 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.

h Psa. 44. 14-1 Mic. 6. 15. Hag. 1. 6.-k Joel 1. 4.-1 Heb. they shall not be thine, m Lam. 1. 5-n Or, possess.-o Ver. 12-p Ver. 13. Lam. 1. 5.-r Ver. 15.- Isai. 8. 18. Ezek. 14. 3- Neh. 9. 35, 36, 37.-u Ch. 32. 15.-v Jer. 28. 14.-w Jer. 5. 15. & 6. 22, 23. Luke 19. 43-x Jer. 48. 40. & 49. 22. Lam. 4. 19. Ezek. 17. 3, 12. Hos. 8. L. y Heb. hear - Heb. strong of face. Prov. 7. 13. Eccles. 8. 1. Dan. 8. 23-a 2 Chron. 36. 16. Isai 47. 6.b Ver. 33. Isai. 1. 7. & 62. 8.--c 2 Kings 25. 1, 2, 4.

Verse 30. Thou shalt betroth a wife, &c.] Can any heart imagine any thing more grievous than the evils threatened in this and the following verses? To be on the brink of all social and domestic happiness, and then to be suddenly deprived of all, and see an enemy possess and enjoy every thing that was dear to them, must excite them to the uttermost pitch of distraction and madness. They have, it is true, grievously sinned: but, O ye Christians, have they not grievously suffered for it! Is not the stroke of God heavy enough upon them? Do not then by unkind treatment or cruel oppression, increase their miseries. They are, above all others, the men who have seen affliction by the stroke of his rod. Lam. iii. 1.

Verse 32. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people] In several countries, particularly in Spain and Portugal, the children of the Jews have been taken from them by order of government, and educated in the Popish faith. There have been some instances of Jewish children being taken from their parents, even in Protestant countries.

Verse 35. With a sore botch] Shechin, an inflammatory swelling, a burning boil.-See ver. 27. Verse 36-45. Can any thing be conceived more dreadful than the calamities threatened in these verses! Verse 48. Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies] Because they would not serve God, therefore they became slaves to men.

Verse 49. A nation-from far] Probably the Romans. As the eagle flieth] The very animal on all the Roman standards.-The Roman eagle is proverbial.

Whose tongue thou shalt not understand] The Latin language, than which none was more foreign to the structure and idiom of the Hebrew.

Verse 52. He-Nebuchadnezzar first, 2 Kings xviii. 9,

[blocks in formation]

f

51 So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward & the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:

55 So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.

56 The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eyes shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,

i

57 And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.

58 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD:

59 Then the LORD will make thy plagues m wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.

60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.

61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this faw,

62 And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the LORD thy God.

[ocr errors]

63 And it shall come to pass, that 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; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.

64 And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other: and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. 65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and forrow of mind:

W

66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:

67 In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and a for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

68 And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bond women, and no man shall buy you. CHAPTER XXIX.

A recapitulation of God's gracious dealings with Israel, 1-8. An exhortation to she dience, and to enter into covenant with their God, that they and their posterity may be established in the good land, 9-15. They are to remember the abominations of Egypt, and to avoid them, 16, 17. He who harlens his heart, when he hears theme curses, shall be utterly cousued, 18-21. Their posterity shall be astonsbed at the desolations that shall fall upon them, 22, 23. Shall inquire the reason, and shall be informed that the Lord has done thus to them, because of their disobedience and ubi atry, 21-28. A camion against prying too euriously into the secrets of the Demoe Providence, and to be contented with what God has revealed, 29.

them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou mant, which the LORD commanded be destroyed.

HESE are the words of the cove- An Exol Isr.

d Lev. 26. 29. 2 Kings 6. 23, 29. Jer. 19. 9. Lam. 2. 20. & 4. 10. Bar. 2 3-e Heb. belly-f Ch. 15. 9-g Ch. 13 6-h Ver 51-i Heb, after-birth-k Gen. 49. 10. 1 Exod. 6. 3.-m Dan. 9. 12-n Ch. 7. 15.-0 Heb. cause to ascend.-p Ch. 4. 27.

&c. and Titus next-shall besiege thee in all thy gates] Beset thee round on every side, and cast a trench around thee, viz. lines of circumvallation; as our Lord predicted, see Matt. xxiv. 1, &c. and Luke xxi. 5, &c.—all thy gates throughout all thy land; that is, all thy fenced cities, which points out that their subjugation should be complete, as both Jerusalem, and all their fortified places, should be taken. This was done literally by Nebuchadnezzar and the Romans.

Verse 56. The tender and delicate woman] This was literally fulfilled when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans; a woman named Mary, of a noble family, driven to distraction by famine, boiled and ate her own child!See on Lev. xxvi. 29. See a similar case 2 Kings vi. 29. Verse 57. Toward her young one-and toward her children which she shall bear] There seems to be a species of tautology in the two clauses of this verse, which may be prevented by translating the last word, now shileyatha, literally her secondines, which is the meaning of the Arabic 3 sala, not badly understood by the Septuagint, xoptov avrns, the chorion, or exterior membrane, which invests the foetus in the womb; and still better translated by Luther, die after geburth, the after-birth-which saying of Moses strongly marks the deepest distress, where the mother is represented as feeling the most poignant regret, that her child was brought forth into such a state of suffering and death and 2dly, that it was likely from the favourable circumstances after the birth, that she herself should survive her inlying. No words can more forcibly depict the miseries of those dreadful times. On this ground I see no absolute need for Kennicott's criticism, who, instead of an ubesheleyatah, against her secondines, reads aubeshelah, and she shall boil, and translates the 56th and 57th verses as follows: "The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground, for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter. 57. And she shall boil that which cometh out from between her feet, even her children, which she shall bear, for she shall eat them, for want of all things, secretly." These

40.-Sect

r Ch. 10. 22. Neh. 9. 23-8 Ch. 30. 9. Jer. 32. 41.-t Prov. 1. 26. Isai. 1. 24.—a Lev. 16. 33. Ch. 4. 27, 23, Neh. 1.8. Jer. 16. 13-v Ver. 36. -w Attes 9. 4. -x Lev. B. H y Lev. 26. 16.- Job 7. 4.-a Ver. 31.- Jer. 4. 7. Hos. 8. 13. & 9. 3—e Ch. 17. 16.

words, says he, being prophetical, are fulfilled in 2 Kings vi. 29. for we read there, that two women of Samaria having agreed to eat their own children, one was actually boiled, where the very same word bashal, is used.— See Kennicott's Dissertations on 1 Chron. xi. &c. p. 421.

Verse 64. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people] How literally has this been fulfilled! the people of the Jews are scattered over every nation under heaven.

Verse 65. No case-a trembling heart, and failing of eyes] The trembling of heart may refer to their state of continual insecurity, being under every kind of government, proscribed, and under the most mild, even uncertain of toleration and protection: and the failing of eyes, to their vain and ever-disappointed expectation of the Messiah.

Verse 68. And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again] That is, into another state of slavery and bondage, similar to that of Egypt, out of which they had been lately brought. And there ye shall be sold, that is, be exposed to sale, or expose yourselves to sale, as the word Bonn hithmacartem, may be rendered-they were va grants, and wished to become slaves that they might he provided with the necessaries of life: and no man shall buy you: even the Romans thought it a reproach to have a Jer for a slave, they had become so despicable to all mankind. When Jerusalem was taken by Titus, many of the captives which were above seventeen years of age, were sent into the works in Egypt.-See Josephus, Antiq. b. xii. c. 1, 2. War, b. vi. c. 9. s. 2; and above all, see Bishop Newton's Dissertations on the Prophecies.

The first verse of the next chapter, in some of the most correct Hebrew Bibles, makes the 69th of this, and very properly, as the second verse of the following chapter be gins a new subject.

This is an astonishing chapter: in it, are prophecies delivered more than 3,000 years ago, and now fulfilling! O God! how immense is this wisdom! and how profound thy counsels! To thee alone are known all thy works from the beginning to the end. What an irrefragable proof does this chapter, compared with the past and present state of the Jewish people, afford, of the truth and Divine origin of the Pentateuch!

[blocks in formation]

3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: 4 Yet the LORD hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:

16 (For ye know how ye have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by ;

17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)

18 Lest there should be among you man, or 6 Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye woman, or family, or tribe, y whose heart turndrunk wine or strong drink: that ye might knoweth away this day from the LORD our God, to go that I am the LORD your God.

7 And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:

and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth a gall and wormwood;

19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his 8 And we took their land, and m gave it for an heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gad-in the imagination of mine heart, to add f drunkenness to thirst:

ites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh.

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

r

12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day:

d Ch. 5. 2, 3-e Exod. 19. 4.-f Ch. 4. 31. & 7. 19. 1 Pet. 1. 6. 2 Pet. 2. 9-g See I. 6 9, 10 & 63. 17. John 8. 43. Acta 23. 26, 27. Ephes 4 18. 2 Thess. 2. 1, 12 h Ch. 1.3. & S. 2–4 Ch. 8. 4-k See Exod. 16. 12. Ch. 8. 3. Psa. 73. 24, 25.-1 Numb. 21.23.24, 33. Ch. 2 32 & 3. 1.-m Numb. 32. 33. Ch. 3. 12, 13-n Ch. 4. 6. Josh. 1. 7. 1 Kings 2 3-o Josh. 1. 7.-p See Josh. 9. 21, 23, 27.-q Heb. pass.-r Neh. 10. 29.

NOTES ON CHAPTER XXIX. Verse 1. These are the words of the covenant] This verse seems properly to belong to the preceding chapter, as a widely different subject is taken up at verse 2 of this; and it is distinguised as the 69th verse in some of the most correct copies of the Hebrew Bible.

Commanded Moses to make] na licaroth, to cut, alluding to the covenant sacrifice which was offered on the occasion, and divided, as is explained Gen. xv. 18.

Besides the covenant which he made-in Horeb] What is mentioned here is an additional institution to the ten words, given on Horeb; and the curses denounced here, are different from those denounced against the transgressors of the decalogue.

i

e

20 The LORD will not spare him, but then h the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

21 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law.

22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall

8 Ch. 23. 9.-1 Exol. 6 7.-u Gen 17. 7.-v Jer. 31. 31-33. Heb. 8. 7, 8.-w See Acta 2. 39. 1 Cor. 7. 14-x Heb. dungy gods.-y Ch. 11. 16.-7. Acts 8. 23. Heb. 12 15-a Or, a poinful herb.-b Heb roshe Numb. 15. 39. Eccles. 11. 9-d Or, stubbornness. Jer. 3. 17. & 7. 21.-e Is. 30. 1.- Heb. the drunken to the thirsty. g Ezek. 14. 7, 8-h Psa. 74. 1.-i l'a 79. 5. Ezek. 23. 25.-k Ch 9. 14.-1 Matt. A. 51-m Heb. is written.

might know that I am the Lord.-Thus we find, that God had furnished them with all the means of this knowledge; and that the means were ineffectual, not because they were not properly calculated to answer God's gracious purpose, but because the people were not workers with God: consequently they received the grace of God in vain.-See 2 Cor. vi. 1.

Verse 10. Ye stand-all of you before the Lord] They were about to enter into a covenant with God; and as a covenant implies two parties contracting, God is represented as being present; and they and all their families, old and young, come before him.

Verse 12. That thou shouldest enter] y leûber, to pass through, that is, between the separated parts of the covenant sacrifice.-See Gen. xv. 18.

Verse 4. The Lord hath not given you a heart, &c.] Some critics read this verse interrogatively.-And hath not And into his oath] Thus we find, that in a covenant God given you a heart, &c? Because they suppose that were these seven particulars. 1. The parties about to conGod could not reprehend them for the non-performance of tract, were considered as being hitherto separated. 2. a duty, of which he neither gave them a mind to conceive They now agree to enter into a state of close and permathe obligation, nor strength to fulfill it, had the obligationnent amity. 3. They meet together in a solemn manner been known. Though this is strictly just, yet there is no for this purpose. 4. A sacrifice is offered to God on the need for the interrogation, as the words only imply that occasion, for the whole is a religious act. 5. The victim they had not such a heart, &c. not because God had not is separated exactly into two equal parts, the separation given them all the means of knowledge, and helps of his being in the direction of the spine, and these parts are laid grace and Spirit, which were necessary; but they had not opposite to each other, sufficient room being allowed for made a faithful use of their advantages, and therefore they the contracting parties to pass between them. 6. The conhad not that wise, loving, and obedient heart, which they tracting parties meet in the victim, and the conditions of otherwise might have had. If they had had such a heart, the covenant by which they are to be mutually bound, are it would have been God's gift, for he is the author of all recited. 7. An oath is taken by these parties, that they good: and that they had not such a heart was a proof that shall punctually and faithfully perform their respective they had grieved his Spirit, and abused the grace which conditions, and thus the covenant is made and ratified.he had offered them to produce that gracious change, the See Jer. xxxiv. 18, 19. and see the notes on Gen. vi. 18. want of which is here deplored. Hence God himself is xv. 19. Exod. xxix. 45. Lev. xxvi. represented as grieved, because they were unchanged and disobedient: O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children for ever!-See chap. v. 29. and the note there. Ver. 5. Your clothes are not waxen old] See on chap. viii. 4. Verse 6. Yo have not eaten bread, &c.] That is, ye have not been supported in an ordinary providential way; I have been continually working miracles for you—that ye

Verse 15. Him that standeth here] The present generation. Him that is not here, all future generations of this people.

Verse 18. A root that beareth gall and wormwood] That is, as the apostle expresses it, Heb. iii. 12. An evil heart of unbelief, departing from the living God; for to this place he evidently refers. It may also signify false doctrines, or idolatrous persons among themselves.

Verse 19. To add drunkenness to thirst] A proverbial

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »