the Week of Proper 23 / Ordinary 28
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Deuteronomio 28:49
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from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
bring a nation: Though the Chaldeans are frequently described under the figure of an eagle, yet these verses especially predict the desolations brought on the Jews by the Romans; who came from a country far more distant than Chaldea; whose conquests were as rapid as the eagle's flight, and whose standard bore this very figure; who spake a language to which the Jews were then entire strangers, being wholly unlike the Hebrew, of which the Chaldee was merely a dialect; whose appearance and victories were terrible; and whose yoke was a yoke of iron; and the havoc which they made tremendous. Numbers 24:24, Isaiah 5:26-30, Jeremiah 5:15-17, Daniel 6:22, Daniel 6:23, Daniel 9:26, Habakkuk 1:6, Habakkuk 1:7, Luke 19:43, Luke 19:44
as the eagle: Jeremiah 4:13, Jeremiah 48:40, Jeremiah 49:22, Lamentations 4:19, Ezekiel 17:3, Ezekiel 17:12, Hosea 8:1, Matthew 24:28
a nation whose: Jeremiah 5:15, Ezekiel 3:6, 1 Corinthians 14:21
understand: Heb. hear
Reciprocal: Genesis 11:7 - may 2 Samuel 1:23 - swifter 2 Kings 20:14 - a far country 2 Kings 24:2 - the Lord 2 Chronicles 36:17 - he brought Psalms 81:5 - where Isaiah 5:5 - I will take Isaiah 8:7 - the Lord bringeth Isaiah 10:3 - in the desolation Isaiah 28:11 - with Isaiah 30:16 - therefore Isaiah 33:19 - shalt not Isaiah 39:3 - They are Isaiah 42:24 - General Jeremiah 1:15 - and against Jeremiah 4:16 - from Ezekiel 1:10 - the face of an eagle Ezekiel 11:9 - and deliver Ezekiel 28:7 - the terrible Ezekiel 32:12 - the terrible Daniel 1:2 - the Lord Daniel 7:4 - like Micah 5:1 - gather Habakkuk 1:8 - horses Habakkuk 3:16 - he will Zechariah 5:9 - for Zechariah 7:14 - whom Zechariah 11:11 - knew Zechariah 13:8 - two Matthew 22:7 - his Revelation 4:7 - a flying
Gill's Notes on the Bible
The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth,.... Now though Babylon is represented as a country distant from Judea, and said to be a nation "from far", Jeremiah 5:15; yet not "from the end of the earth"; as here; and though the Roman nation, strictly speaking, was not at so great a distance from Jerusalem, yet the Roman emperors, and great part of their armies brought against it, were fetched from our island of Great Britain, which in former times was reckoned the end of the earth, and the uttermost parts of the world s; and so Manasseh Ben Israel t interprets this nation of Rome, and observes, that Vespasian brought for his assistance many nations (or soldiers) out of England, France, Spain, and other parts of the world: and not only Vespasian was sent for from Britain to make war with the Jews, but when they rebelled, in the times of Adrian, Julius Severus, a very eminent general, was sent for from thence to quell them. And it appears to be a very ancient opinion of the Jews, that this passage is to be understood of the Romans, from what is related in one of their Talmuds u: they say, that
"Trajan, being sent for by his wife to subdue the Jews, determined to come in ten days, and came in five; he came and found them (the Jews) busy in the law on that verse, "the Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far", c. he said unto them, what are ye busy in? they answered him, so and so he replied to them, this is the man (meaning himself) who thought to come in ten days, and came in five; and he surrounded them with his legions, and slew them:''
[as swift] as the eagle flieth; which may respect not so much the swiftness of this creature, the words which convey the idea being a supplement of the text, as the force with which it flies when in sight of its prey, and hastes unto it and falls upon it, which is irresistible; and this is the sense of the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, and is what is ascribed to the eagle by other writers w. Now though this figure is used of the Chaldeans and Babylonians, Jeremiah 4:13; it agrees full as well or better with the Romans, because of their swiftness in coming from distant parts, and because of the force and impetus with which they invaded Judea, besieged Jerusalem, and attacked the Jews everywhere; and besides, the eagle was borne on the standard in the Roman army x:
a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; which, though it is also said of the language of the Chaldean nation, Jeremiah 5:15; yet as the Chaldee and Hebrew languages were only dialects of one and the same language, common to the eastern nations, the Chaldee language, though on account of termination of words, pronunciation, and other things, might be difficult, and hard to be understood by the Jews, yet must be much more easy to understand than the Roman language, so widely different from theirs.
s "----In ultimos orbis Britannos", Horat. Carmin. l. 1. Ode 35. t De Termino Vitae, l. 3. sect. 3. p. 129. u T. Hieros. Succah, fol. 55. 2. w Vid. Homer. Iliad. 21. l. 252. x Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 4.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
The curses correspond in form and number Deuteronomy 28:15-19 to the blessings Deuteronomy 28:3-6, and the special modes in which these threats should be executed are described in five groups of denunciations Deuteronomy 28:20-68.
Deuteronomy 28:20-26
First series of judgments. The curse of God should rest on all they did, and should issue in manifold forms of disease, in famine, and in defeat in war.
Deuteronomy 28:20
Vexation - Rather, confusion: the word in the original is used Deuteronomy 7:23; 1 Samuel 14:20 for the panic and disorder with which the curse of God smites His foes.
Deuteronomy 28:22
“Blasting” denotes (compare Genesis 41:23) the result of the scorching east wind; “mildew” that of an untimely blight falling on the green ear, withering it and marring its produce.
Deuteronomy 28:24
When the heat is very great the atmosphere in Palestine is often filled with dust and sand; the wind is a burning sirocco, and the air comparable to the glowing heat at the mouth of a furnace.
Deuteronomy 28:25
Shalt be removed - See the margin. The threat differs from that in Leviticus 26:33, which refers to a dispersion of the people among the pagan. Here it is meant that they should be tossed to and fro at the will of others, driven from one country to another without any certain settlement.
Deuteronomy 28:27-37
Second series of judgments on the body, mind, and outward circumstances of the sinners.
Deuteronomy 28:27
The “botch” (rather “boil;” see Exodus 9:9), the “emerods” or tumors 1Sa 5:6, 1 Samuel 5:9, the “scab” and “itch” represent the various forms of the loathsome skin diseases which are common in Syria and Egypt.
Deuteronomy 28:28
Mental maladies shah be added to those sore bodily plagues, and should Deuteronomy 28:29-34 reduce the sufferers to powerlessness before their enemies and oppressors.
Blindness - Most probably mental blindness; compare Lamentations 4:14; Zep 1:17; 2 Corinthians 3:14 ff.
Deuteronomy 28:30-33
See the marginal references for the fulfillment of these judgments.
Deuteronomy 28:38-48
Third series of judgments, affecting every kind of labor and enterprise until it had accomplished the total ruin of the nation, and its subjection to its enemies.
Deuteronomy 28:39
Worms - i. e. the vine-weevil. Naturalists prescribed elaborate precautions against its ravages.
Deuteronomy 28:40
Cast ... - Some prefer “shall be spoiled” or “plundered.”
Deuteronomy 28:43, Deuteronomy 28:44
Contrast Deuteronomy 28:12 and Deuteronomy 28:13.
Deuteronomy 28:46
Forever - Yet “the remnant” Romans 9:27; Romans 11:5 would by faith and obedience become a holy seed.
Deuteronomy 28:49-58
Fourth series of judgments, descriptive of the calamities and horrors which should ensue when Israel should be subjugated by its foreign foes.
Deuteronomy 28:49
The description (compare the marginal references) applies undoubtedly to the Chaldeans, and in a degree to other nations also whom God raised up as ministers of vengeance upon apostate Israel (e. g. the Medes). But it only needs to read this part of the denunciation, and to compare it with the narrative of Josephus, to see that its full and exact accomplishment took place in the wars of Vespasian and Titus against the Jews, as indeed the Jews themselves generally admit.
The eagle - The Roman ensign; compare Matthew 24:28; and consult throughout this passage the marginal references.
Deuteronomy 28:54
Evil - i. e. grudging; compare Deuteronomy 15:9.
Deuteronomy 28:57
Young one - The “afterbirth” (see the margin). The Hebrew text in fact suggests an extremity of horror which the King James Version fails to exhibit. Compare 2 Kings 6:29.
Deuteronomy 28:58-68
Fifth series of judgments. The uprooting of Israel from the promised land, and its dispersion among other nations. Examine the marginal references.
Deuteronomy 28:58
In this book - i. e. in the book of the Law, or the Pentateuch in so far as it contains commands of God to Israel. Deuteronomy is included, but not exclusively intended. So Deuteronomy 28:61; compare Deuteronomy 27:3 and note, Deuteronomy 31:9.
Deuteronomy 28:66
Thy life shall hang in doubt before thee - i. e. shall be hanging as it were on a thread, and that before thine own eyes. The fathers regard this passage as suggesting in a secondary or mystical sense Christ hanging on the cross, as the life of the Jews who would not believe in Him.
Deuteronomy 28:68
This is the climax. As the Exodus from Egypt was as it were the birth of the nation into its covenant relationship with God, so the return to the house of bondage is in like manner the death of it. The mode of conveyance, “in ships,” is added to heighten the contrast. They crossed the sea from Egypt with a high hand. the waves being parted before them. They should go back again cooped up in slaveships.
There ye shall be sold - Rather, “there shall ye offer yourselves, or be offered for sale.” This denunciation was literally fulfilled on more than one occasion: most signally when many thousand Jews were sold into slavery and sent into Egypt by Titus; but also under Hadrian, when numbers were sold at Rachel’s grave Genesis 35:19.
No man shall buy you - i. e. no one shall venture even to employ you as slaves, regarding you as accursed of God, and to be shunned in everything.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Deuteronomy 28:49. 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.
