Deuteronomy 28

Deuteronomy 28 concludes the sermon on the law that Moses delivered in the land of Moab. The preceding chapter, Deuteronomy 27, contains the command to set up stones inscribed with the law on Mount Ebal and to proclaim the curses. Following that command, this chapter sets out an extended contrast between the consequences of obedience and those of disobedience.

Outline

• Verses 1–14 describe the blessings that will follow obedience. The city and the field, the fruit of the body, and the basket and the store are blessed. Enemies flee "seven ways," and Israel will lend but not borrow, and will be the head and not the tail.
• Verses 15–19 describe the curses that will follow disobedience. They are cast as an exact reversal of the blessings in verses 1–6.
• Verses 20–26 continue with pestilence and fever, drought depicted as a heaven of brass and an earth of iron, and defeat before enemies.
• Verses 27–37 foretell the botch of Egypt and blindness, and the loss of one's betrothed, house, vineyard, and children. The people, together with their king, will be carried off to a foreign nation and will serve gods of wood and stone.
• Verses 38–48 tell of locusts and worms devouring the produce, while the foreigner becomes the head and Israel the tail. These calamities are explained as the result of failing to serve the Lord with joy in times of abundance, and in the end Israel will bear a yoke of iron.
• Verses 49–57 describe a nation from afar, swift as the eagle flies, that besieges the cities. The passage depicts the horror of the besieged, who in their hunger eat their own children.
• Verses 58–68 describe the diseases of Egypt coming upon the people, who, once as numerous as the stars of heaven, are left few in number. Israel is scattered among all peoples and is finally carried back to Egypt in ships, where the people will offer themselves for sale as slaves, but no one will buy them.

Key Verses

• Deuteronomy 28:2: "And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee." The verse shows that the blessings depend on the condition of obedience.
• Deuteronomy 28:13: "And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail." This expression, which summarizes the section on blessings, is widely quoted (Deuteronomy 28:13–15).
• Deuteronomy 28:47 locates the cause of the curses not merely in outward disobedience but in failing to serve the Lord "with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart."

People and Places

• The LORD: The covenant party who sends both blessing and curse.
• Moses: Although not named in the text, he is the speaker who says, "which I command thee this day."
• Egypt: Mentioned as a symbol of disease and as the land of bondage to which the people are finally carried back.

Points for Reflection

• A widely known scholarly view holds that the practice of placing blessings and curses side by side resembles the blessing and curse clauses of ancient Near Eastern treaties.
• Many interpreters read the predictions of siege and dispersion in connection with the history of the Assyrian conquest and the Babylonian exile. The account of eating children during a siege is read together with 2 Kings 6 and Lamentations 4.
• In the New Testament, Galatians 3:10–14, where Paul speaks of the curse of the law and redemption in Christ, connects with the covenant curses of this chapter.
• Opinions differ on how the blessings of this chapter should be applied to believers today. Some read them as promises of individual material prosperity, a reading discussed in connection with prosperity theology. Others hold that they should be read strictly within the context of the covenant made with the nation of Israel in Moab. The list of curses is also cited as a basis for generational curse theology, though this interpretation has drawn considerable criticism.

In the Korean Church

Verses such as "the head, and not the tail" and "blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out" (28:6) are frequently quoted in prayers of blessing, New Year's sermons, and prayers offered during pastoral home visits.