Bible Commentaries

Deuteronomy 28:1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe [and] to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:

Ver. 1. If thou shalt hearken diligently.] Heb., If hearkening thou shalt hearken; if when God speaks once, thou shalt hear it twice; as David did, [Psalms 62:11] by a blessed rebound of meditation and practice.

Will set thee on high.] "Thou shalt ride upon the high places of the earth." [Isaiah 58:14] There thou shalt have thy commoration, but in heaven thy conversation ^(a) [Philippians 3:20] being a high and holy people, [Deuteronomy 26:19] high in worth, and humble in heart, as one saith of Athanasius.

Deuteronomy 28:2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

Ver. 2. And overtake thee.] Unexpectedly befall thee. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow thee," [Psalms 23:6] as the evening sunbeams follow the passenger, as the rock water followed the Israelites in the wilderness, and overtook them at their stations. [1 Corinthians 10:4] "O continue," or draw out to the length, "thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee." [Psalms 36:10] There will be a continued series, a connection between them, to all such.

Deuteronomy 28:3 Blessed [shalt] thou [be] in the city, and blessed [shalt] thou [be] in the field.

Ver. 3. Blessed shalt thou be.] What blessedness is, {See Trapp on "Matthew 5:3"}

Deuteronomy 28:4 Blessed [shall be] the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

Ver. 4. The fruit of thy body.] Which is thy chief possession; but without my blessing will be bitter sweets, ^(a) "Blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of such as are the arrows of a strong man," [Psalms 128:3-4] the knottiness of whose nature is refined and reformed, and made smooth by grace. Arrows be not arrows by growth, but by art: what can better preserve Jacob from confusion, or his face from waxing pale, than when he shall see his children, the work of God’s hands, framed and fitted by the word in regeneration, and the duties of new obedience? This will make him to sanctify God, even to sanctify the Holy One, and with singular encouragement from the God of Israel. [Isaiah 29:22-23]

Deuteronomy 28:5 Blessed [shall be] thy basket and thy store.

Ver. 5. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.] Or, Thy dough trough. The Greek hath it, Thy barns and thy remainders. The meaning is, Thou shalt know no want. Cicero ^(a) saith, One friend should wish to another three things only, to enjoy health, to possess honour, and not suffer necessity. He that observeth God’s commands to do them, as Deuteronomy 28:1, shall have all these and more.

Deuteronomy 28:6 Blessed [shalt] thou [be] when thou comest in, and blessed [shalt] thou [be] when thou goest out.

Ver. 6. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in.] "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow thee all the days of thy life"; [Psalms 23:6] thou shalt have a confluence of all, both inward and outward, comforts and contentments.

Deuteronomy 28:7 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.

Ver. 7. The Lord shall cause thine enemies.] Mr Fox observes, ^(a) that in King Edward VI’s time, the English put to flight their enemies in Musselburgh field, the selfsame day and hour wherein the reformation enjoined by parliament was put in execution at London, by burning of idolatrous images. Such a dependence hath our success upon our obedience.

And flee before thee seven ways.] In the forementioned fight many so strained themselves in their race that they fell down breathless and dead, whereby they seemed in running from their deaths to run to it: two thousand, lying all day as dead, got away in the night. The Irish were so galled or scared with the English ordinance, that they had neither good hearts to go forward, nor good liking to stand still, nor good assurance to run away, saith the historian. ^(b)

Deuteronomy 28:8 The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Ver. 8. The Lord shall command the blessing.] Now if he send his Mandamus, who shall withstand it?

Deuteronomy 28:9 The LORD shall establish thee an 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.

Ver. 9. The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto himself.] This is more and better than all the former: he shall "bless thee with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly things, in Christ Jesus." [Ephesians 1:3] He is rich, not that hath the world, but that can contemn it.

Deuteronomy 28:10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD and they shall be afraid of thee.

Ver. 10. And they shall be afraid of thee.] Natural conscience cannot but do homage to the image of God stamped upon the natures and works of the godly. When they see in them that which is above the ordinary nature of men, or their expectation, they are afraid of the name of God, whereby they are called; their very hearts ache and quake within them; as is to be seen in Nebuchadnezzar, Darius, Herod, Dioclesian, who was so amazed at the singular piety and invincible patience of the primitive Christians, that he laid down the empire in a humour, Quod Christi nomen se deleturum, uti cupiverat, desperasset, ^(a) because that when he sought to root out religion, he saw he could do no good on it.

Deuteronomy 28:12 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.

Ver. 12. And thou shalt lend.] This was our condition in the happy days of that incomparable Elizabeth, not to be passed over slightly without one sigh breathed forth, now after forty years, in her sacred memory. What a deal both of men and moneys did she lend the French, the Hollanders, &c.

Deuteronomy 28:13 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]:

Ver. 13. And the Lord shall make thee.] See a parallel place. [Hosea 13:1] "When Ephraim spake, there was trembling; he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died." Before, none durst budge against the name of Ephraim; but after he offended in Baal, every paltry adversary trampled upon him as a dead man.

Deuteronomy 28:14 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.

Ver. 14. And thou shalt not go aside.] But keep my commandments curiously, even "as the apple of thine eye," [Proverbs 7:2] with all chariness and circumspection, since the least deviation is dangerous, yea, destructive.

Deuteronomy 28:15 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:

Ver. 15. All these curses shall come.] Far more curses are mentioned than blessings. Such is the baseness of our natures, that we are sooner terrified with menaces than moved with mercies. See we may here how the curse of God haunts the wicked, as it were a fury, in all his ways. In the city it attends him, in the country it hovers over him; coming in it accompanies him, going forth it follows him, and in travel it is his comrade: if it distaste not his dough, or empty his basket, yet will it fill his store with strife, or mingle the wrath of God with his sweetest morsels. It is a moth in his wardrobe, murrain among his cattle, mildew in his field, rot among his sheep, and ofttimes makes the fruit of his loins his greatest heartbreak, so that he is ready to wish with Augustus, Utinam aut caelebs vivissem, aut orbus periissem; Oh that I had either never married, or died childless!

Deuteronomy 28:16 Cursed [shalt] thou [be] in the city, and cursed [shalt] thou [be] in the field.

Ver. 16. {See Trapp on "Deuteronomy 28:15"}

Deuteronomy 28:17 Cursed [shall be] thy basket and thy store.

Ver. 17. {See Trapp on "Deuteronomy 28:15"}

Deuteronomy 28:18 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.

Ver. 18. {See Trapp on "Deuteronomy 28:15"}

Deuteronomy 28:19 Cursed [shalt] thou [be] when thou comest in, and cursed [shalt] thou [be] when thou goest out.

Ver. 19. {See Trapp on "Deuteronomy 28:15"}

Deuteronomy 28:20 The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest 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.

Ver. 20. {See Trapp on "Deuteronomy 28:15"}

Deuteronomy 28:21 The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.

Ver. 21. The Lord shall make the pestilence.] Which Hippocrates calls Tο θειον, as the falling sickness is called Morbus sacer, as more immediately sent of God.

Deuteronomy 28:22 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.

Ver. 22. The Lord shall smite thee, &c.] {See Trapp on "Leviticus 26:16"}

Deuteronomy 28:23 And thy heaven that [is] over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee [shall be] iron.

Ver. 23. See on Leviticus 26:19.

Deuteronomy 28:24 The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

Ver. 24. Powder and dust.] Which the wind and other things raise in times of drought.

Deuteronomy 28:25 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.

Ver. 25. The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten.] David well understood the heaviness of this stroke, and therefore chose rather to fall into God’s hands another way, [2 Samuel 24:14] since "the tender mercies of the wicked are cruelties": -

“ Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem. ”

Deuteronomy 28:26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray [them] away.

Ver. 26. And thy carcass shall be meat.] Thou shalt want the honour of honest burial; which the Jews accounted worse than death, [Ecclesiastes 6:3] and the Gentiles extreme misery.

Deuteronomy 28:27 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.

Ver. 27. With the botch of Egypt,] i.e., With the leprosy called Elephantiasis, when the skin grows hard as the elephant’s skin. This, saith one, was bred only about Nile, the river of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 28:28 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:

Ver. 28. With madness and blindness.] Spiritual, especially; such as befell the Jews of old, [Romans 11:18 2 Corinthians 3:14] the chief priests and scribes especially, who, being questioned by Herod about the King of the Jews, [Matthew 2:4-5] could answer directly out of the Scriptures, and give such signs of the Messiah as did evidently agree to Jesus Christ. And yet because they discerned not their day of grace, but winked hard with their eyes, and shut the windows, lest the light should come in, they were by a special judgment so besotted and infatuated, that when God shows them the man, to whom their own signs agree, they cannot allow of him, nor will yield to be saved by him upon any terms. How shamefully they were deluded by Barchocab, is notoriously known. And after this, when they saw Mohammed arising in such power, they were straight ready to cry him up for their Messiah. But when they saw him eat of a camel, they were as blank as when they saw the hoped issue of their late Jewish virgin turned to a daughter. They are generally light, aerial, and fanatical brains, apt to work themselves into the fool’s paradise of a sublime dotage. Howbeit God, we trust, will at length cure them of this spiritual ophthalmy {disordered mental vision} and frenzy. Their dispersion for this one thousand six hundred years is such, as that one of their own Rabbins concludes from thence that their Messiah must needs be come, and they must needs suffer so much for killing him. "Oh that the salvation of Israel were once come out of Zion! When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, then shall Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad." [Psalms 14:7]

Deuteronomy 28:29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, 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].

Ver. 29. And thou shalt be only oppressed.] As the Thebans, ever till then victorious, were, after the death of Epaminondas, famous only for their overthrows: as Rome, since Antichristian, was never besieged by an enemy, but it was taken and plundered: as the Jews since Christ’s death never attempted anything but miscarried. An evil, an only evil, &c. [Ezekiel 7:5]

Deuteronomy 28:30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

Ver. 30. Thou shalt built a house, &c.] A great aggravation of a man’s misery it is, to fall from high hopes, to fail of large expectations, as Haman did, and Absalom, and Alexander the Great, and Tamerlane, who preparing to perfect his conquest of the Greek Empire, and having given a good beginning thereunto, in the midst of his high hopes and greatest power, died of an ague, Jan. 27, 1462. ^(a) Many men spend their strength and waste their wits in getting these outward things, and in learning how to put them to their delightfullest use: and then, when to possess them might seem a happiness, either they die or are otherwise deprived of all the sweet they have laboured for.

Deuteronomy 28:31 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].

Ver. 31. Thine ox shall be slain, &c.] Thou shalt be plundered of all, that is, deplumed, thy feathers plucked from thee to the very bare skin; - as plundering signifies in Dutch; and from the Dutch wars we first had the word plunder.

Deuteronomy 28:32 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.

Ver. 32. And thine eyes shall look.] A sad sight to see our children butchered before our eyes, as Mauricius the Emperor did; or otherwise misused by a merciless enemy. Doves sometimes sit in their dove-cotes and see their nests destroyed, their young ones taken away and killed before their eyes, neither do they ever offer to rescue or revenge, as all other creatures either do or desire to do.

And fail with looking.] As Sisera’s mother’s did. [ 5:28]

Deuteronomy 28:33 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:

Ver. 33. The fruit of thy land, &c.] So Ezekiel 25:4. They shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk. See Jeremiah 5:17; Jeremiah 1:7.

Deuteronomy 28:34 So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

Ver. 34. So that thou shalt be mad, &c.] As Bajazet was in his iron cage; as Pope Boniface VIII was the time when shut up in St. Angelo by Sara Columnus, his mortal enemy, renting himself with his teeth, and devouring his own fingers. ^(a) Philip, the Spanish king, is said to have borne patiently the defeat given to his invincible armada in the year 1588, but ten years after he died of a very loathsome and incurable disease, a sore botch that seized upon him from the sole of his foot unto the top of his head; as is to be seen set down by Carol. Scribanius, "Instit. Princip.," cap. 20. ^(b)

Deuteronomy 28:35 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.

Ver 35. {See Trapp on "Deuteronomy 28:34"}

Deuteronomy 28:36 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.

Ver. 36. Thee and thy king.] As he did Joachim, Manasseh, Zedekiah, &c. Our Edward III had the king of Scots and the French king both prisoners together here in England.

Deuteronomy 28:37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.

Ver. 37. And thou shalt become.] See on Psalms 44:14.

Deuteronomy 28:38 Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather [but] little in; for the locust shall consume it.

Ver. 38. For the locust shall consume it.] See this fulfilled in Joel 1:4, Amos 4:9; Amos 7:1-2, Haggai 1:6; Haggai 1:11.

Deuteronomy 28:41 Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.

Ver. 41. Thou shalt not enjoy them.] Heb., They shall not be thine; thou shalt be least master of them.

Deuteronomy 28:42 All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.

Ver. 42. The locusts.] All sorts of vermin.

Deuteronomy 28:43 The stranger that [is] within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.

Ver. 43. The stranger.] The Lurdaines, as once here the Lord Danes.

Deuteronomy 28:45 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:

Ver. 45. Pursue thee and overtake thee.] Though thou shuffle, as Balaam’s ass once did before the angel, from side to side, and strive to shift them; though thou wriggle and writhe, after the manner of wrestlers, to avoid the foil; I will wry with thee, as in Psalms 18:26, and my hand shall meet thee at every turn.

Deuteronomy 28:46 And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

Ver. 46. For a sign.] Of God’s heavy displeasure.

Deuteronomy 28:47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all [things];

Ver. 47. For the abundance all things.] Aristotle was wont to tax his Athenians, Quod cum duas res invenissent, frumenta ac leges, frumentis ut erentur, legibus nequaquam; imo moribus suis quam legibus uti mallent, as Valerius Maximus addeth, ^(a) Sure it is, that as these Jews of old, so we to this day are much to be blamed, for that we live in God’s good land, but not by God’s good laws.

Deuteronomy 28:48 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.

Ver. 48. In want of all things.] The want whereof shall teach thee the worth of them. Blessings are fairest on the back side. ^(a)

Deuteronomy 28:49 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;

Ver. 49. As the eagle fleeth.] Swiftly, strongly, greedily, the Vulturine eagle especially.

Deuteronomy 28:50 A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:

Ver. 50. A nation of fierce countenance.] Heb., Strong of face, i.e., bold, fierce, cruel, impudent; as was Antiochus Epiphanes. [Daniel 8:23] See there.

Deuteronomy 28:51 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.

Ver. 51. Fruit of thy cattle.] See on Deuteronomy 28:31.

Deuteronomy 28:52 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.

Ver. 52. In all thy gates.] See this fulfilled in 2 Kings 17:5; 2 Kings 25:1-2.

Deuteronomy 28:53 And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:

Ver. 53. And thou shalt eat.] {See Trapp on "Leviticus 26:29"}

Deuteronomy 28:54 [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:

Ver. 54. His eye shall be evil,] i.e., Envious and grutchful.

Deuteronomy 28:56 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 eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,

Ver. 56. The tender and delicate.] These threatenings were tanquam in speculo conspicuae, literally and punctually fulfilled upon the Jews at the last destruction of Jerusalem, at which time wrath came upon them to the utmost. [2 Thessalonians 2:6-13]

Deuteronomy 28:57 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.

Ver. 57. And toward her young one.] Heb., Her after birth, which she shall devour, and the child together with it.

Deuteronomy 28:58 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

Ver. 58. This glorious and fearful name.] That Nomen maiestativum, as Bernard calleth it. The wiser sort of heathens acknowledged, Augustius esse de Deo sentiendum, quam ut nomen et imaginem eius passim ac temere usurpemus, that higher thoughts must be taken of God, than lightly and profanely to make use of his name, which no man may presume in a sudden unmannerliness to blurt out. ^(a) When they would swear by their Jupiter, they would break off their oath with a Mα τον, as those that only durst to owe the rest to their thoughts. The Greeks and Romans both worshipped the same Jupiter, but the Romans are therefore better thought of, because they ever thought and spake more reverently of him than the Greeks; as may be seen in Homer and Virgil. The Egyptians so honoured their Mercurius Trismegistus, that they held it not lawful to pronounce his name commonly and rashly. Tat, the son of this Trismegist, flourished in Egypt about the time that Moses wrote his Deuteronomy, as saith Eusebius.

Deuteronomy 28:59 Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, [even] great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.

Ver. 59. And of long continuance.] So that thy living shall be no better than to lie a-dying.

Deuteronomy 28:60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.

Ver. 60. All the diseases of Egypt.] Which what they were, see Exodus 8:2; Exodus 8:16; Exodus 8:21; Exodus 9:3; Exodus 9:9; Exodus 9:15; Exodus 9:18; Exodus 10:4; Exodus 10:21; Exodus 11:5

Deuteronomy 28:61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which [is] not written in the book of this law, them will the LORD bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

Ver. 61. Which is not written.] God hath treasuries of plagues, such as were never yet read of. Few years but bring forth new diseases, such as puzzle the best physicians.

Deuteronomy 28:62 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.

Ver. 62. And ye shall be left few in number.] And so "shall know my breach of covenant," because ye broke first.

Deuteronomy 28:63 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.

Ver. 63. So the Lord will rejoice over you.] See here the venomous nature of sin, so far forth offensive to Almighty God, as to cause him, who otherwise afflicts not willingly, [Lamentations 3:33] but delights in mercy, [Micah 7:18] to rejoice in the ruin of his creatures, as here, to laugh at their destruction, and mock when their fear cometh, [Proverbs 1:26] to take as much pleasure therein as a man would do in a cup of generous wine, [Revelation 16:19] and to be as much eased thereby, as one over-gorged would be in ridding his stomach of that which oppressed it. [Revelation 3:16]

Deuteronomy 28:64 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.

Ver. 64. And the Lord shall scatter thee.] The Jews are to this day a miserable, dejected, and dispersed people, abhorred of God and men, and exiled out of the world, as it were, by a common consent of nations.

Deuteronomy 28:65 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 sorrow of mind:

Ver. 65. A trembling heart.] Juvenal by a jeer calls them Iudaeos trementes, trembling Jews (Sat. vi.). It seems they had Cain’s curse upon them.

Deuteronomy 28:66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:

Ver. 66. And thy life shall hang in doubt.] Semper et indesinenter desperabis de vita; thou shalt live in continual expectation of death: as Tiberius caused such to do as he most hated, for a singular punishment.

Deuteronomy 28:67 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 for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

Ver. 67. Would God it were even.] A graphical description of misery. Compare Job 7:3-4.

Deuteronomy 28:68 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 bondwomen, and no man shall buy [you].

Ver. 68. And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt.] This is the last and greatest curse here threatened. Oh pray, pray, said that Dutch divine upon his deathbed, Pontifex enim Romanus, et Concilium Tridentinum mira moliuntur, for the Pope and his council are seeking to bring us all back into spiritual Egypt.

“ Ah ne diem illum posteri

Vivant meiquo pristinum

Vertantur in lutum aurea

Quae non bearunt saecula! ”

What long hath been the opinion and fear of some, not unconsiderable divines, that Antichrist, before his abolition, shall once again overflow the whole face of the west, and suppress the whole Protestant churches, I pray God to avert. {a}