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The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:9
Established. Probation, in the case of the faithful, ends in establishment. If Israel would keep the commandments, God would "perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle" them as "an holy people" to himself, and so confirm th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:9
The Lord would establish them to be a people holy unto himself, in whose Blessed condition all would see that they were indeed his people, favored by him.
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:10
The world afraid of the godly. I. GOD'S PEOPLE CALLED BY HIS NAME. God calls or names his Name upon them, i.e. distinguishes, owns, chooses, recognizes them as his, by dwelling among them (2 Corinthians 3:16), by causin…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:10
Thou art called by the name of the Lord; rather, the Name of Jehovah called upon thee. The Name of God is God himself as revealed; and this Name is called or named upon men when they are adopted by him, made wholly his,…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:11
The Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods; literally, shall make thee to abound for good; i.e. shall not only give thee abundance, but cause it to redound to thy felicity.
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:12
His good treasure; equivalent to his treasure-house, i.e. heaven, whence blessing should be poured out upon them (cf. Deuteronomy 11:14; Le Deuteronomy 26:4, Deuteronomy 26:5). He would so fructify their ground, and so…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:13
They should be manifestly superior to other nations, heading them and being above them, their leader and not their subject or follower (cf. Isaiah 9:13). Note the contrast in Deuteronomy 28:43, Deuteronomy 28:44.
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:13
Moral gravitation. In studying the histories of the good men of the Bible, we notice how, notwithstanding the numerous causes which act adversely to their fortunes, the constant tendency of their piety is to lift them u…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:14
(Cf. Deuteronomy 5:29; Deuteronomy 11:28.) Moses ends as he began, by reminding them that the condition of enjoying the blessing was obedience to the Divine Law, and steadfast adherence to the course in which they were…
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 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. I…
Threatenings. (b. c. 1451.)
THREATENINGS. (B. C. 1451.) Having viewed the bright side of the cloud, which is towards the obedient, we have now presented to us the dark side, which is towards the disobedient. If we do not keep God's commandments, w…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:15-44
The Nemesis of disloyalty. It is instructive that Moses dilates with far greater fullness on the curses attached to disloyalty than on the rewards of disobedience. In the childhood of the world people were more under th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:15-68
The curse. In case of disobedience and apostasy, not only would the blessing be withheld, but a curse would descend, blighting, destructive, and ruinous. As the blessing was set forth in six announcements (Deuteronomy 2…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:15-68
Love veiled in frown. Probably many may think that this is one of the most awful chapters in the Word of God. Certainly we are not aware of any other in which there is such a long succession of warnings, increasing in t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:15-48
The curse. Like the blessing, the curse is a reality. It cleaves to the sinner, pursues him, hunts him down, ruins and slays him (Deuteronomy 28:45). Does some one say, "An exploded superstition"? If so, it is a superst…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:15-68
A nation becoming a beacon. If Mount Gerizim had the weight cf. the people on the side of the blessing, Mount Ebal had certainly the weight of the deliverance. No wonder the Law was to be written on its rocky tablets, s…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:20-26
First group. The curse should come upon them in various forms of evil, filling them with terror and dismay, and threatening them with utter ruin (cf. Malachi 2:2).
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:20
Vexation; rather, consternation; the deadly confusion with which God confounds his enemies. The same word is used in Deuteronomy 7:23; 1 Samuel 14:20. Rebuke; rather, threatening. Deuteronomy 28:21, Deuteronomy 28:22 Th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:27
Botch of Egypt; the form of leprosy peculiar to Egypt (Exodus 9:9, etc.), elephantiasis, "AEgypti peculiare malum" (Pliny, 'Nat. Hist.,' 26.1-5). Emerods; tumors, probably piles (cf. 1 Samuel 5:1-12.). Scab; probably so…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:27-34
Second group. The Lord should afflict them with various loathsome diseases, vex them with humiliating and mortifying calamities, and give them over to be plundered and oppressed by their enemies.
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:30
And shalt not gather the grapes thereof; margin, "Hebrew, profane." This is the literal rendering of the verb; the meaning is that given in the text. A vineyard was, for the first three years after it was planted, held…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:30-34
The spoliation of them should be utter. All most dear and precious to them should be the prey of their enemies. Wife, house, vineyard, herd, and flock should be ruthlessly taken from them; sons and daughters should be c…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:32
And there shall be no might in thine hand. Keil proposes to render here, "Thy hand shall not be to thee towards God;" and others, "Thy hand shall not be to thee for God," i.e. instead of God. But אֵל here is not "the Mi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:35-46
Third group. Moses reverts to the calamities already threatened (Deuteronomy 28:27), for the purpose of leading on the thought that, as such diseases separated the sufferer from the society of his fellows, so Israel sho…