60He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt(CE) that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 56The [m]tender and [n]delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, [o]will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, 57her [p]placenta which comes out (AP)from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. Web28 If you fully obey the Lordyour God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lordyour God will set you high above all the nations on earth.2 All these blessings (:64) Scattered and Subjected to Foreign Bondage, Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known., And among those nations you shall find no rest, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. Michael Grisanti: vv. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven. All seven terms can be associated with heat. 1. This was clearly a judgment on covenant violation as the repetition of the conditional protasis clause (because you did not obey the LORD your God) puts beyond doubt. Michael Grisanti: Moses clearly defines the people on whom the curses will fall, namely, those who do not obey the stipulations of the covenant. 53(AM)You shall eat the [j]fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. Duane Christensen: The structure of 28:4568 may be outlined in a similar five-part concentric structure, a wheel within a wheel: A These curses will pursue you until you are destroyed 28:45, B Israels utter privationin lack of everything 28:4648, X Military siege and the undoing of Gods blessings 28:4952, B Israel reduced to cannibalismin lack of everything 28:5357, A Complete reversal of Israels history until you are destroyed 28:5868. Deuteronomy marries curses from the East Semitic world with native Northwest Semitic traditions, opposing the traditions against each other in a playful exchange (Quick 2017). 2012. Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring on you until you are destroyed.. The traditional formulation of the Deuteronomy // Esarhaddon Treaties hypothesis is concerned with Deuteronomy 28:26-35 in comparison with EST 39-42 (for the text, see Parpola and Watanabe 1987; vocalization and translation is my own). New Translation Selector Drag & Drop Order. 5:1-11:32), then the particular rules (Deut. All these curses will come But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, What are the curses God promised Israel for disobedience? 1988. This may well account for the problem of Akkadian literacy in Judah. 36:121; Jer. (:37) Psychological Opposition Humiliating Disgrace, And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the LORD will drive you., 3. I also want to stress the importance of these Northwest Semitic inscriptions for understanding the production of biblical literature in general. WebThe Curse of Covenant Reversal: Deuteronomy 28:58-68 and Israel's Exile become clear that this passage relates both backwards to the promises given to Abraham and forwards to the renewal of those promises in the renewed hope of the prophets of Israel. 51They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. What did it mean to be devoted to destruction? (L) 22The Lord will strike you with wasting disease,(M) with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought,(N) with blight(O) and mildew, which will plague(P) you until you perish. J.E. (AE) 31Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Cuneiform Literacy and Deuteronomic Composition,Bibliotheca Orientalis62: 204-213. 54The [k]sensitive and very refined man among you (AN)will[l] be hostile toward his brother, toward (AO)the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, 55so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. How did these parallels come into existence? For less than $5/mo. Get our Question of the Week delivered right to your inbox! WebA retired old guy who loves people and is happy to share my (FREE) advice, mistakes, valuable career and life lessons, wisdom - and plenty of funny stuff, too. If the ritual aspect of these treaty texts is emphasized, then the need for a formal written translation of the Esarhaddon Treaties may very well be negated. 68And the Lord (BF)will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, (BG)You shall never see it again. And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.. (:49-52) Relentless Tactics of the Lords Agents of Destruction, 1. Both Deut. Michael Grisanti: The pair signs and wonders commonly signifies anything that testifies to Yahwehs presence and power (Dt 4:34; 7:19; 26:8; 29:3 [2]; Jer 32:21). 8:7), could this practice of Targum have also played a role in any aural ceremony? 11:11; Hos. WebDeuteronomy 29:20-28New International Version. 91-106 inCovenant as Context: Essays in Honour of E.W. Word Order. Those normally exempted from military service would be forced to fight and be killed. your donkey shall be torn away from you. This rules out negotiations and contributes to horror. All rights reserved. Note the if in Deuteronomy 28:1. If we are to understand anything about the composition of the Hebrew Bible, especially in comparison with texts from the ancient Near East, we must first nuance our attempts with detailed consideration of the writing culture of the ancient Levant incorporating oral and written modes of literary transmission, the Northwest Semitic literary remains, scribal practice, and bilingualism. NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. And it shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you shall be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it., 2. Like an eagle swooping down on his prey, he will attack his targets suddenly and without warning. Nicholson, ed. Deuteronomy, Holman Old Testament Commentary by Doug McIntosh. 45Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you [i]did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. Deuteronomy 28 cannot be understood apart from the Northwest Semitic tradition of the futility curse. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.. 9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he (BX) 56The most gentle and sensitive(BY) woman among youso sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her footwill begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter(BZ) 57the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. 26:1439; Josh. b. 12:13; Mic. On the other hand, a number of scholars have been wary to posit a direct literary relationship between the Succession Treaties and the book of Deuteronomy, usually due to their reticence to attribute the kind of Akkadian literacy that this would necessitate to the Hebrew scribes who wrote the biblical text (e.g., Morrow 2005; Crouch 2014). At critical junctures Moses inserts reminders of the causes of these disasters. Whereas verse 20 has Yahweh dispatching the agents of Israels doom, verse 45 compares the curses to an animal pursuing and overtaking its prey. In the case of traditions of cursing and treaties, ritual performance could provide a useful perspective with which to think through the connections between these traditions. Start for FREE. 35The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. Daniel Block: The Israelites children will be seized and delivered over to merchants to be sold in the international slave trade. Two things about the blessing and cursing sections of this chapter merit comment: (1) Israels God comes first to bless His people. (AC) You will build a house, but you will not live in it. The Book of Deuteronomy. 43The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. WebThe Curses The opening Deuteronomy 28:15, correspond to the blessings in Deuteronomy 28:1, except that there are no antitheses to Deuteronomy 28:1 _b_and Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. See also Deuteronomy 28:2 in other biblical comments: Adam Clarke Bible Commentary. Parpola Simo and Kazuko Watanabe. Sign up now for the latest news and deals from Bible Gateway! license, Tempe | 90 views, 3 likes, 0 loves, 10 comments, 1 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from First Baptist Church - Tempe: First Baptist Church of Tempe April 30, 2023 Live Stream License # 145555 Deut 1:10; 10:22). These 12 offences are sins that could be committed secretly and therefore escape the notice of the authorities. 1:13; Deuteronomy 28:30: Deut. . Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths. WebDeuteronomy 28:18-24New International Version. This was fulfilled first by Assyria (Is 5:26; 7:18-20; 28:11; 37:18; Hos 8:1) and second, by Babylon (Jer 5:15; La 4:19; Eze 17:3; Hab 1:6-8). Andrew D.H. Mayes and R.B. 2. 39You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine(AV) or gather the grapes, because worms will eat(AW) them. Blight apparently refers to premature drying of grain growing in the fields, perhaps because of the desiccating effect of scorching east wind. The basest human (or animal?) Cant avoid a pang of depression when it appears that my religion and that of so many others rests on a sacred book which gives an important places to, of all things, futility curses. . 28 and the Assyrian texts indicate that they have drawn on these resources, but in both texts they have been adapted to their immediate context. Morrow, William S. 2005. WebAnd the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee. instincts would prevail when choice had to be made between ones own life and anothers. 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: Deuteronomy 28:2 - And all Grid & List Views. SAA, II; Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. 32Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation,(AF) and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. 16:13; Amos 9:9, NKJV, The American Patriot's Bible: The Word of God and the Shaping of America, NKJV, Chronological Study Bible, Comfort Print: Holy Bible, New King James Version, NKJV, Woman's Study Bible, Red Letter, Full-Color: Receiving God's Truth for Balance, Hope, and Transformation, NKJV, Chronological Study Bible: Holy Bible, New King James Version, NKJV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Red Letter Edition: Bringing to Life the Ancient World of Scripture, NKJV, Spirit-Filled Life Bible, Third Edition, Red Letter Edition, Comfort Print: Kingdom Equipping Through the Power of the Word. Thus decrease in population and eviction from the land answer point by point (and in the same order) the matching blessings of number and land in the original promise passages (Gen 15:5-7; 17:4-8). Crypto Peter Craigie: It is more likely that there was a body of common conceptions in the Near East associated with curses, whether in treaties, law codes, or other types of texts. Copyright 2019 by Zondervan. 19:9; Lam. The last three describe climatic or agricultural conditions. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven,(U) and you will become a thing of horror(V) to all the kingdoms on earth. WebThe curses of Deuteronomy 28 are suppose to be on Israel "FOREVER" (until YAH returns to redeem them) therefore unless forever ended in 1948 when Israel became a nation Whatever it is, it will be chronic, as the verb form indicates (hidbq, cause to cling to). Rather, Deuteronomy 28 mediates between the traditions of the East and West, featuring characteristic examples of the Northwest Semitic futility curse type, as well as curses more common to Akkadian, East Semitic texts like the Esarhaddon Treaties. The second is grotesque: The mother secretly eats her children, and like an animal she also devours the afterbirth. Princeton University WebIf they disobey the law, they will receive all the curses. WebDeuteronomy 28 Leviticus 26 (More Curses) Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: Leviticus Chapter 26 Verses 14 - 46 speak of the CURSES / PUNISHMENTS that would come upon Israel if they chose to disobey the laws of Yah. 6:15; Deuteronomy By means of a seemingly endless catalogue of secondary agents of doom, Moses warns that Yahweh will marshal every conceivable agent of destruction against his people. Curses in the Book of Deuteronomy and in Old Aramaic Inscriptions, Media, Video and Lectures From The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies of the University of Arizona, Teaching the Bible in Public Schools and Higher Ed, Scholars, Frauds, the Media and the Public, Essays on Minimalism from Bible and Interpretation, Final Reports on the Yehoash Inscription and James Ossuary from the Israeli Antiquities Authority, Essays on the James Ossuary and the Temple Tablet from Bible and Interpretation, University of Arizona, Center for Judaic Studies, Department of Archaeology and Art History, University of Evansville. Hebrew Root. The curses come close to the end of the ceremony of covenant renewal; they provide the speaker with an excellent opportunity for one final warning to the people of the dangers of disobeying the law of God. This no doubt refers to physical disease that would ravage the land from time to time (cf. 2002. (AY) 41You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. 4, 11, 18) Harvest of crops Fruit of thy cattle ( vv. Kanaanische und aramische Inschriften 1(Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz). 25The Lord will cause you to be defeated(T) before your enemies. It is likely that there existed a common collection of covenantal curse statements that appear with slight variations throughout ancient Near Eastern treaties. MacArthur: v. 30 These 3 curses were in contrast to the exemptions from military service granted in 20:5-7. WebThese gentle blessings are followed by the tocheichah, a long list of curses (Deuteronomy 28:15-68), whose number (traditionally the rabbis count ninety-eight of them! Gerald Gerbrandt: In this larger block of curses, the focus is narrowed to portray the catastrophe resulting from siege and defeat at the hand of the enemy. The nature of the sickness is unclear since the generic term deber is used (v. 21). (AD) You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. Levinson, Bernard M. and Jeffrey Stackert. No. 1:28 (x2). 41You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for (AC)they shall go into captivity. Bible Outlines is dedicated to helping others understand scriptures through the Big Idea concept. 23:15; Dan. Then the text returns in v. 32 to more faithfully reflect the Akkadian, abandoning the syntax of the futility curse and stressing along with the Esarhaddon Treaties that the root cause of the curse which in both seems to envision deportation will be at the hand of an enemy nation, so in Hebrew another people and in the Akkadian a strange enemy.. WebDeuteronomy 28 1 If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations Parents will look on helplessly and spend the rest of their lives crying their eyes out for them. 61Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants. 56-57a). Now go back to Deuteronomy 28, lets pick just three verses to illustrate. 68 And the LORD will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, You will never see it again! And there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.. Instead, the heavens would rain down dust, which would only exacerbate an already hopeless situation on the earth (v. 24; cf. View Options English. In fact, they would keep for themselves their newborn infants and even the afterbirth even if it meant that their husbands and other children had to do without and starve. (CU) 68The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. The judgments are given in greater detail than are the blessings and are just the opposite of the blessings. Eugene Merrill: The intensity of the distress is emphasized by the fact that parents would eat their children, their only hope of earthly remembrance and posterity (v. 53). 38(Z)You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for (AA)the locust shall [g]consume it. (:59-61) Severe Plagues and Sicknesses. Sign up now for the latest news and deals from Bible Gateway! 11 Birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. This verse is a near replica of 28:1, except for the last clause. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.. 9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he WebLeviticus chapter 26 verses 14-46 speaks of the curses/punishments that would come upon Israel if they chose to disobey the laws of Yah. The rains would not leak through the skies, nor would the earth be able to be broken up to receive the farmers seed. 64Then the Lord (AY)will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and (AZ)there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have knownwood and stone. WebThe first of these 12 curses is upon those who would treat their father or mother with contempt. The lists of curses in other ancient Near Eastern treaty texts typically were longer than the lists of blessings. 36The Lord will (V)bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and (W)there you shall serve other godswood and stone. WebDeuteronomy Images and Notes. Deut. (z) Jacchiades in Dan. Who we are:Calvary Chapel Fergus Falls is a Christian fellowship of believers in Jesus Christ located in Fergus Falls, MN. Finish. Whereas verse 20 identifies the targets of doom as the work of the Israelites hands, verse 45 identifies the Israelites themselves as the targets. Placing the biblical curses within the larger context of this ancient Near Eastern material provides new insights into the background and function of the curses in the book of Deuteronomy, and in the Hebrew Bible more generally. In this way, it could be said that the curses of Deuteronomy 28 parallel those of the Aramaic epigraphs and the Neo-Assyrian treaty texts due to the reality of the ritual world of the scribes, rather than because of any particular written tradition at their disposal. As with the list of blessings, after a short general set in the passive voice, stating that Israel will be cursed everywhere and all the time, the text continues with further curses in which God is the active agent against Israel. The Book of Deuteronomy. Matthew 15:1-20 Defilement Is a Heart Issue, Matthew 14:22-36 Walking on Water Growing Insight into the Identity of Jesus, Matthew 14:13-21 Miraculous Feeding of the 5,000 Messianic Provision, Matthew 14:1-12 The Beheading of John the Baptist Speaking Truth to Depraved Power Can Cost You Dearly, Matthew 13:53-58 No Home Court Advantage for Prophets Just Rejection. Why is the list of curses almost 4 times as long as the blessings? 1:13 (x2); Hag. Your WebDeuteronomy 28 Fruit of thy body ( vv. 39 You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall devour them. Blessings and curses are directly associated with the covenant God made with the people of Israel, so they should be interpreted within that context. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes. Skip Next. (W) 26Your carcasses will be food for all the birds(X) and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 64Then the Lord will scatter(CN) you among all nations,(CO) from one end of the earth to the other. 27a, 28a, cf. Eugene Merrill: The inevitable calamities that befall the disobedient nation would be indelibly engraved in their memories and forever after would witness to the truth that the Lord and his covenant will cannot be flaunted. 67In the morning you will say, If only it were evening! and in the evening, If only it were morning!because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. As the Israelites and Judaeans increasingly interacted with and were subjugated by the Neo-Assyrians, the ritual world of their treaty formulation opened up to include East Semitic practices and idioms and these idioms, translated into Aramaic or Hebrew and shared orally in ritual performance, found their way into the written text of Deuteronomy 28. The rainbow in the Noaic covenant in Genesis 6, or the tablets of stone in the Mosaic covenant in Exodus 24, can be understood in this way. (Q) 23The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. (CT) 66You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. i. Try it FREE. WebThe most important lists of covenant blessings and curses are found in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. Assistant Professor of Religion and Judaic Studies . Start your free trial today! 40You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. Compositions in Old Aramaic, Phoenician, Moabite, Ammonite or Edomite, as well as in Epigraphic Hebrew, while much narrower in scope than the possibilities presented by the Mesopotamian material due to the limited nature of the documentary finds, nevertheless should be our first point of departure when discussing the writing culture of the ancient Levant. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.. Deuteronomy 28:1 Deuteronomy 28:5. 17:4, 6; 24:12, 14; 25:7, 11; 2 Chr. In particular, note the Abrahamic covenant of Genesis 15: 7 Then he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Kaldeans to assign this land to you as a possession. 8 And he said, O Lord God, how shall I know that I am to possess it? 9 He answered, Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young bird. 9 He answered, Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young bird. 10 He brought Him all these and cut them in two, placing each half opposite the other; but he did not cut up the bird. WebRather, Deuteronomy 28 mediates between the traditions of the East and West, featuring characteristic examples of the Northwest Semitic futility curse type, as well as curses Lev. Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. 1:6 (x4); Zech. New Translation Selector Drag & Drop Order. The catalogue of seven afflictions expresses Yahwehs sovereignty over all agents of death and destruction. 26 And your carcasses shall be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away., The LORD will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed.. 1. WebThe Curses of Mount Ebal. God wanted His people to know that when these calamities struck, they would recognize the hand of the Lord and not think it was a series of coincidences. Indeed, ritual has a theoretical capacity to account for the transmission of these curse traditions cross-culturally. Day, John. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. Here Deuteronomy develops the idea world of the parallel curse in the Esarhaddon Treaties so unfaithful wives and houses in which the owner cannot reside but couches these motifs in the characteristic syntactic form of the futility curse, significantly expanding upon the Akkadian original by adding further clauses that develop traditional Northwest Semitic motifs concerning frustrated vineyards and livestock (see Smoak 2008). 4:27, 28; Neh. 20The Lord will send on you (C)cursing, (D)confusion, and (E)rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.