The Curses to be proclaimed DEUTERONOMY, XXVII. ing. shall stand upon mount Ebal 1to curse; 1 Heb., for a curs- (15) Cursed be the man that maketh b Ezek. 22. 12. c Gal. 3. 10. tribes went up to the top of Gerizim, and six ascended mount Ebal, and the priests and the Levites and the ark remained below, between the hills. The Levites turned their faces towards Mount Gerizim, and began with the blessing, "Blessed is the man," &c., and both sides answered "Amen." They then turned their faces towards Mount Ebal, and began the curse, saying, "Cursed is the man," &c. The "Amen" again resounded; and the process was repeated until the last curse was reached. The question whether all the blessings preceded all the cursings is discussed; but the opinion preferred is, that each blessing had its corresponding curse, and were pronounced alternately. If this account be correct, and it seems both intelli. gible and probable, we see that the tribes were divided equally to "receive" the blessing and the curse, implying that all were equally liable to either, according as they should obey or transgress. If the one side had answered amen to the blessings, and the other to the curses, the tribes would literally have blessed and cursed the people. But the rule is explicit that all the people shall say " Amen;" and therefore we seem to gather this meaning from the Hebrew: These shall stand on Mount Gerizim for the blessing of the people, i.e., to receive the blessing on behalf of the whole, and these on Mount Ebal for the curse (i.e., to receive it on behalf of the rest). It is noticeable that "the law" which inflicts the curse, and the altar which represents in its sacrifices Him who bare the curse, are both on the same hill, Ebal. If the tribes redeemed are on the hill of blessing, the tribes that receive the curse are on the same hill with the Redeemer. (12, 13) Simeon, and Levi . . . and Naphtali. -Strictly speaking, there would be seven tribes on Gerizim to receive the blessing, and six on Ebal for the curse; because, tribally, Joseph must include Ephraim and Manasseh. The general position is that of the audience in an amphitheatre, the speakers being in the centre beneath, and the people on either side above. The more honourable tribes of Judah, Joseph, Benjamin, and Levi are posted on the southern hill, Gerizim. The tribes on Ebal are the four sons of the handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah, with Leah's youngest on Mount Ebal. people shall say, Amen. (20) Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; because he uncovereth his father's skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen. (21) Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen. (22) Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen. (23) Cursed be he that lieth with his mother in law. And all the people shall say, Amen. (24) Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly. And all the people shall say, Amen. (25) Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen. (26) Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen. son Zebulun; and the disinherited firstborn, Reuben, is placed at their head. These last tribes, upon the whole, may be said to have occupied the outer circle of Israel's territory, to the east and to the north. The tribes on Gerizim are the more central tribes. (16) Cursed be he that setteth light.-The first curse points to the first two commandments of the first table, and the second to the first commandment in the second table. If we mark off the first offence specified, secret idolatry-the only one which distinctly recalls the first commandment of the Law, and also the last general curse which embraces all transgression whatever, the intervening offences seem more easily arranged. We have duty to parents enforced (verse 16) and the rights of neighbours (v. 17), the blind (verse 18), and the unprotected (verse 19) come next. The next four precepts are all concerned with purity, first in the nearer, afterwards in the more distant Evi relations (verses 20-23). The last two precepts (18) The blind.-" He that is in the dark upon any matter, when one deceives him with evil counsel" (Rashi). (24) That smiteth his neighbour secretly.— "Spoken of a backbiting tongue" (Rashi). (26) Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them.-" Here he sums up the whole Law, all of it, and they took it upon them with a curse and an oath" (Rashi). From this verse St. Paul also reasons that "as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse." For no man can do all of them. And therefore it is impossible to secure the blessing of Gerizim except through Him who bare the curse of Ebal. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, as it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." In all these curses the verb is wanting. 'Cursed is he," would be a more correct translation in modern English. These curses are not imprecations so much as declarations of fact. 66 The Blessings DEUTERONOMY, XXVIII. CHAPTER XXVIII.-(1)And it shall come to pass, "if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD of Obedience. the LORD thy God. (3) Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. (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. (5) Blessed shall be thy thy God, to observe and to do all his a Lev. 26.3. commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: (2) and all these blessings kneading troughs. basket and thy store. (6) Blessed shalt shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of XXVIII. 1 Or, dough, or, SANCTIONS OF THE LAW IN DEUTERONOMY. THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE. Almost every specific portion of the Law in Scripture has a passage of this kind at the end. The code in Exod. xxi.-xxiii. ends with a declaration of rewards and punishments (Exod. xxiii. 20-33). The laws of holiness, ceremonial and moral, in Leviticus, are closed by chapter xxvi. This book of Deuteronomy, more profound and more spiritual in its teaching, and more earnest in its exhortation than all the rest of the Law, closes with this denunication-the most tremendous in all Scripture of the consequences of disobedience in detail. The Sermon on the Mount, the law of the New Testament, closes with a passage that astonished the hearers by its authority (Matt. vii. 21—27). The exhortations of our Lord's ministry, both public and private, have a similar close for Israel in Matt. xxiii., for the disciples in Matt. xxv. And the Epistle to the Hebrews, the last appeal to the Jewish nation in God's word, has a similar passage in chapter xii., before the final exhortations and salutations. Finally, the Apocalypse itself puts the same kind of close to all Scripture in chapter xxii. 10—19. We may divide this chapter into four parts. First, the blessings of obedience to the nation as God's people, verses 1-14. Secondly, the curses of disobedience, verses 15—48. Thirdly, the prophecy of the conquest of Israel by a strange nation, and the miseries of the siege of the capital, verses 49-57. Fourthly, the continued and protracted misery of the rejected nation, verses 58-68. The remarkably prophetic character of this chapter is beyond question. Even were Deuteronomy the work (as some recent critics allege) of some later prophet, it is past all dispute that this chapter is older than the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, and the last dispersion. Eighteen centuries of misery and oppression, with but short intervals, have branded the truth of this Scripture on the mind of Israel. From this argument there is no escape. No thoughtful Jew denies that the present condition of the nation is the fulfilment of this curse. It must be observed, however, as a most significant fact, that this chapter does not form the close of the Pentateuch. Another covenant is made with Israel after this. And Moses departed with words of blessing on his lips. (See on chap. xxix. 1.) Every one who takes note of the proportions of this chapter according to the fourfold division indicated above, will at once see that, verbally, the curse is larger than the blessing. Why is this? Possibly, because the rebellions and disasters of Israel while under the Sinaitic covenant were to cover a larger number of years than their prosperity. But there may be another thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. reason. The curses of God's broken law in this world, however extended and varied in their operation, are describable and finite. But His love is indescribable and infinite, and were all the blessings of His love to be described in detail, the whole Bible would not have sufficed for the first fourteen verses of this chapter of Deuteronomy. Verses 1-14. Blessings of Obedience. 66 (1) Will set thee on high.-Literally, will make thee Most High, using a name of God, as in xxvi. 19. Compare what is said of Jerusalem. She (Jerusalem) shall be called Jehovah-Tzidkenu" (Jer. xxxiii. 16), and the name of the city from that day shall be Jehovah-Shammah” (Ezek. xlviii. 35), and “I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God" (Rev. iii. 12), and His Name shall be in their foreheads" (Rev. xxii. 4). 66 (2) And overtake thee.-A beautiful expression, i.e., shall come home to thee, and impress the heart with the thought of God's love and of His promises, even when it is least expected. Comp. Zech. i. 6. My words and my statutes, did they not take hold of (i.e., overtake) your fathers ? and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us so hath he dealt with us." The opposite is true also of the curses (verse 15). (5) Thy basket-(Only here and in verse 17, and chap. xxvi. 2, 4)-i.e., the portion which is brought out for the present occasion. Thy store, that which is left, and put away for future use. But this view rests upon the LXX. translation of the word for "store." All the Targums, and all the Jewish commentators I have been able to consult, and the lexicons also, take a different view. The word is identical in form with that used for "kneading troughs" in Exod. viii. 3, xii. 34. And so the contrast is taken to be, either (1) between firstfruits in their natural condition (chap. xxvi. 2) and the dough offered when already prepared for food, as in the wave-loaves (Lev. xxiii. 17); or (2) between the basket in which the corn is carried and the receptacle for the meal or dough, or (as Rashi takes it) between the vessel for things moist and the vessel for things dry. But the view taken by the LXX. is as old as any, and the contrast indicated by basket" and "store" is simpler and more comprehensive than that which is drawn from a reference to the details of the law. The Authorised Version is, therefore, distinctly to be preferred, in my opinion. There are other technical reasons, which cannot be given here. (6) When thou comest in ... and when thou goest out. These words may apply to the details of life, or they may have a further meaning, as the eisodus of Christ was His entrance into this world's labour, and His exodus His departure (Acts xiii. 24; Luke ix. 31). Blessings of Obedience. DEUTERONOMY, XXVIII. (7) The LORD shall cause thine enemies |1 Or, barns. thee seven ways. command the blessing upon thee in thy a ch. 30. 9, &c. 3 e Lev. 26.14: Lam. Bar. 1. 20. Rashi says, "So that thy departure from the world shall be like thine entrance into it, sinless." (The Jews, as a whole, do not believe in original sin.) (7) And flee before thee seven ways.-" So is the custom of them that are terrified, to flee, scattering in every direction" (Rashi). See the story of the flight of the Midianites (Judges vii. 21, 22), and of the Syrians (2 Kings vii. 7). (8) Thy storehouses.-The word is only found here and in Prov. iii. 9, 10, " Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." There is the same kind of contrast here which has been already pointed out in verse 5. The "gathering in" to the barn, and the "putting forth" of the hand-the income and the expenditure are alike blessed. This contrast is clear in the Hebrew words employed. And he shall bless thee in the land.Fixity of tenure in the Divine inheritance is promised here. (9) The Lord shall establish thee an holy people-i.e., shall "maintain" thee in that position or shall "raise thee up" into it, and exalt thee to it, in its fullest sense. The word here employed has branched out into two lines of thought. In Jewish literature it has taken the sense of permanence and perpetuity. Through the LXX. translation it has given birth to the New Testament word for "resurrection." (See Note on chap. xviii. 18, and comp. Acts iii. 26; 2 Sam. vii. 12; 1 Chron. xvii. 11.) (10) That thou art called.-Literally, that the name of Jehovah has been called upon thee. And they shall be afraid of thee.-Comp. Jer. xxxiii. 9: "And they shall fear and tremble for b Curse of Disobedience. 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. all the goodness and for all the prosperity, that I procure unto it" (Jerusalem). (11) In goods. Rather, in good or goodness, i.e., in prosperity. Goodness" in Jer. xxxiii. 9. (12) The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain.—The Jews have a saying that, "There are three keys in the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He! which He hath not intrusted to the hand of a messenger, and they are these, the key of the rains, the key of birth, and the key of the resurrection of the dead." The key of the rain, as it is written (Deut. xxviii. 12)," Jehovah shall open to thee His good treasure," &c. (from the Talmudic treatise, Ta'anith, p. 20, b). (14) And thou shalt not go aside.-It is possible, of course, to connect this sentence with the "if" in verse 13, "If that thou hearken and do not go aside." But the LXX., and apparently the Targums also, begin a fresh sentence with this verse. The idea that obedience begets obedience is by no means foreign to the Jewish mind. There are many passages in their literature which contain the thought expressed so forcibly in Rev. xxii. 11, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Verses 15-48. THE CURSE OF DISOBEDIENCE. (15) But it shall come to pass.-The following verses to the end of 48 are the contrast to the first fourteen, which declare the blessings of obedience. (16-19) Cursed .-Here we have the coun terpart of verses 3-6, inclusive. The only difference is in the position of "the basket and the store" which come one place earlier in the curses than in the blessings, The Curse DEUTERONOMY, XXVIII. of Disobedience. (20) The LORD shall send upon thee 1 Heb., which thou that is under thee shall be iron. (24) The wouldest do. LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. (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. (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. (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. (28) The Lord 3 Heb., for a re-shall smite thee with madness, and cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all 2 Or, drought. moving. (20) Cursing, vexation, and rebuke. - Deficiency, and anxiety, and failure in every enterprise, would convey the idea, according to another interpretation. There are two views of the derivation of the first of the three words employed. Probably the Authorised Version is right. The three words have each of them the definite article in the original, just as if they were so many diseases. "The curse, and the terror, and the rebuke" of the Almighty are terrible obstacles to any human undertaking. In all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do.-Literally, in every putting forth of thine hand which thou makest, i.e., in every undertaking. This is the opposite of verse 8. Thou hast forsaken me.-Moses and Jehovah are here identified. This is characteristic. The prophets say, "Thus saith the Lord." Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, sometimes exhorts Israel in His name without any such introduction. (Comp. the phrase "to forsake Moses (literally, apostasy from Moses) in Acts xxi. 21.) (21) The pestilence.-One of God's four sore judgments to be sent upon Jerusalem (Ezek. xiv. 19-21). Until he have consumed thee from off the land. From verses 21-35, inclusive, we seem to be reading of the gradual consumption of Israel "in the land of promise" before any actual captivity. (22) Consumption.-Only here and in Lev. xxvi. 16. "With which the flesh is consumed and puffed out" (Rashi). 66 Fever.-Only here and in Lev. xxvi. 16, where it is rendered" burning ague." (Comp. chap. xxxii. 22: “A fire is kindled in mine anger.") Inflammation.-Here only. The word is derived from a verb signifying to burn, or pursue hotly, like a fire that hastens on its way. "A heat greater than the fever" (Rashi). Extreme burning. Here only. which heats the body inwardly" (Rashi). "A disease Blasting and mildew.-"I have smitten you with blasting and with mildew" (Amos iv. 9, same words). (See also 1 Kings viii. 37, where "pestilence, blasting, and mildew" are contemplated as possibilities, very probably in view of this curse. Also Hag. ii. 17.) (23) Thy heaven . . . shall be brass, and the earth. iron. Not only in respect of the 66 drought, but of God's refusal to remove it. See Jer. xiv., xv. for a most pathetic intercession for Israel under this misery, answered by the order, Pray not for this people for their good" (Jer. xiv. 11). Only grief is permitted (verse 17). Relief is not given (chap. xv. 1). (24) Powder and dust.-The great desert, which lies on the eastern frontier of Palestine, makes this only too possible. (25) The contrary to verse 7. Removed.-Literally, a removing. The LXX. in this place has diaoropá, or dispersion, the word used for the dispersed Israelites in the New Testament. (See Revised Version, John vii. 35; 1 Pet. i. 1.) The threat is repeated in Jer. xv. 4 for the sins of king Manasseh. (26) And thy carcase shall be meat.- Repeated in Jer. vii. 33, and to be fulfilled in Tophet, when they had buried until there was no more room. (Comp. also Jer. xv. 3.) No man shall fray (i.e., frighten) them away. -Not even a woman like Rizpah, who at the foot of the gallows watched her children's bodies for half the year, and "suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night" (2 Sam. xxi. 10). There shall be no one to do it. (27) The botch of Egypt.- The "boil," with which the Egyptians were plagued (Exod. ix. 9, &c.) is the same word. (See also 2 Kings xx. 7; Job ii. 7.) Rashi says of this boil, "It was very bad, being moist on the inside, and dry outside." A learned Dalmatian Jew, with whom I have read this passage, tells me that he has seen many cases of this kind among the Hungarian and Polish Jews, and that it prevails among them, being traceable partly to their uncleanliness. Emerods-i.e., hæmorrhoids (as in 1 Sam. v. 6). The scab.-In Lev. xxi. 20, xxii. 22 "scurvy." It would make both a priest and a victim unclean, and unfit for the service of Jehovah. The itch.-Here only. "A dry ulcer like a sherd" (Rashi). Whereof thou canst not be healed.-Not that these things are in themselves incurable, but that' they should have them incurably. (28) Madness, and blindness, and astonishment.-The three words are all found in Zech. xii. 4. The Curse DEUTERONOMY, XXVIII. blindness, and astonishment of heart: ja ch. 20 6. (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 of Disobedience. land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway: (3) so that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou evermore, and no man shall save thee. Heb., profane, or. shalt see. (35) The LORD shall smite use it as common 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 (31) Thine ox shall be slain before thine en tot over thee, unto a nation which neither 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 return to thee. 24. 9 & 25.9. b 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 61 Kin. 9. 7; Jer. byword, 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 Mic. 6. 15; Hag. neither drink of the wine, nor gather 1. 6. But in that place the threat seems directed against the enemies of Jerusalem (see chap. xxx. 7). (29) Thou shalt not prosper in thy ways.-The exact opposite is promised to Joshua (chap. i. 8) if he follows the Book of the Law. (Comp. Isa. xxix. 1014.) When men find it no longer possible to follow the word of God, it is written that "the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid." دو Oppressed. The children of Israel and of Judah were oppressed together (Jer. 1. 33). But it is added, "Their Redeemer is strong" (verse 34). Spoiled. The word occurs again in verse 31: "Violently taken away." (31) Thou shalt have none to rescue.-Here and in verse 29 the Hebrew literally is, "Thou shalt have no Saviour." The times of oppression before the several judges were raised up, who are called saviours, must often have temporarily fulfilled these anticipations. (32) Thy sons and thy daughters.-The language of this verse is perhaps the most pathetic piece of description in the whole chapter. Many of the nations bordering on Israel were accustomed when they made inroads to take away, not only the cattle, but the children for slaves. Another equally pathetic passage in Jeremiah touches on the very same thing. "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not." And it would not always be said, as it was then, "they shall come again from the land of the enemy" (Jer. xxxi. 15-17). Thine eyes shall. fail-i.e., shall consume. "All longing after that which comes not is called consumption of the eyes " (Rashi). And there shall be no might in thine hand.—The Hebrew phrase here is very remarkable. It occurs also in Gen. xxxi. 29. "It is in the power of mine hand to do you hurt." But it means, literally, thou shalt have no hand toward God, i.e., "thou shalt not be able to lift a hand to Him." We may compare Jacob wrestling with the angel, and Moses in the fight with Amalek: "When he held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed." Some would perhaps explain the phrase in another way; but this explanation is thoroughly in accordance with the genius of the Hebrew language, and I have good authority for it. Hezekiah said, "Mine eyes fail with looking upward." Here the eyes fail with looking, but cannot look up. (33) A nation which thou knowest not.Comp. Jer. v. 15—17, “ A nation whose language thou knowest not shall eat up thy harvest and thy bread," &c. (35) A sore botch.-A boil, as in verse 27. In the knees.-Comp. Ezek. vii. 17, xxi. 7, “ All knees shall be weak as water." (36) Thee, and thy king that thou shalt set over thee.-Comp. chap. xvii. 14. The former passage is not the only one in which Moses shows his foreknowledge that Israel would have a king. But could any later writer have concealed his knowledge that there were two kingdoms, or have avoided all allusion to the throne of David in passages like these? Several kings went into captivity. Jehoahaz was taken to Egypt; Jeconiah and Zedekiah to Babylon. Hoshea's fate is not recorded in Scripture; but he was taken (apparently) with Samaria by the Assyrians. Shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. See Note on chap. iv. 28. (37) And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword. This verse is the contrary to verse 10. It was verified in the first captivity, and did not wait for the last dispersion. (See Kings ix. 7-9, where the threat is repeated; Jer. xlii. 18; Ezek. xxxvi. 20-22.) (38-42) These are the contrary to verse 11; and verse 44 is the contrary to verses 12, 13. From the order of the passage it might seem that these particular troubles were to come on Israel after their captivity. And per |