(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.
Verses 15-68. - Thecurse. In case of disobedience and apostasy, not only would the blessing be withheld, but a curse would descend, blighting, destructive, and ruinous. As the blessing was set forth in six announcements (vers. 3-6), the curse is proclaimed in form and number corresponding (vers. 16-19). The curse thus appears as the exact counterpart of the blessing. The different forms in which the threatened curse should break forth are then detailed in five groups.
28:15-44 If we do not keep God's commandments, we not only come short of the blessing promised, but we lay ourselves under the curse, which includes all misery, as the blessing all happiness. Observe the justice of this curse. It is not a curse causeless, or for some light cause. The extent and power of this curse. Wherever the sinner goes, the curse of God follows; wherever he is, it rests upon him. Whatever he has is under a curse. All his enjoyments are made bitter; he cannot take any true comfort in them, for the wrath of God mixes itself with them. Many judgments are here stated, which would be the fruits of the curse, and with which God would punish the people of the Jews, for their apostacy and disobedience. We may observe the fulfilling of these threatenings in their present state. To complete their misery, it is threatened that by these troubles they should be bereaved of all comfort and hope, and left to utter despair. Those who walk by sight, and not by faith, are in danger of losing reason itself, when every thing about them looks frightful.
But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God,.... As directed, exhorted, and encouraged to, Deuteronomy 28:1, &c.
to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day; both moral and ceremonial:
that all these curses shall come upon thee; from the hand of God, certainly, suddenly, and unawares:
and overtake thee; pursuing after thee, will come up to thee, and seize upon thee, though they may seem to move slowly; see Zechariah 5:3; namely, the curses which follow. Manasseh Ben Israel (f) divides them into two parts, the first from hence to Deuteronomy 28:45; which respects the destruction of the first temple, and the things that went before or related to that; and the second from thence to the end of the chapter, which he thinks refers to the destruction of the second temple, and their present case and circumstances; and it must be owned that for the most part the distinction may seem to hold good; what is prophesied of that should befall the Jews for their disobedience being more remarkably and distinctly fulfilled in the one than in the other; yet there are things in the whole which respect both, or that were fulfilled, some under one dispensation, and some under another, and some that were fulfilled in both; but chiefly and more manifestly at and since their dispersion by the Romans.
(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.
to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day; both moral and ceremonial:
that all these curses shall come upon thee; from the hand of God, certainly, suddenly, and unawares:
and overtake thee; pursuing after thee, will come up to thee, and seize upon thee, though they may seem to move slowly; see Zechariah 5:3; namely, the curses which follow. Manasseh Ben Israel (f) divides them into two parts, the first from hence to Deuteronomy 28:45; which respects the destruction of the first temple, and the things that went before or related to that; and the second from thence to the end of the chapter, which he thinks refers to the destruction of the second temple, and their present case and circumstances; and it must be owned that for the most part the distinction may seem to hold good; what is prophesied of that should befall the Jews for their disobedience being more remarkably and distinctly fulfilled in the one than in the other; yet there are things in the whole which respect both, or that were fulfilled, some under one dispensation, and some under another, and some that were fulfilled in both; but chiefly and more manifestly at and since their dispersion by the Romans.
(f) De Termino Vitae, l. 3. sect. 3. p. 126.