Synopsis of the Chapter
God promises many good things to the Hebrews if they keep His law. Then, from verse 15, He threatens them with very many evils if they violate it.
Verse 1: Higher Than All Nations ¶
1. "THE LORD WILL MAKE YOU HIGHER THAN ALL NATIONS" — so that you surpass all others in happiness, in wealth, in honor, in strength, and in dominion.
Verses 3-4: Blessed in City and Field
3. "BLESSED SHALL YOU BE IN THE CITY, AND BLESSED IN THE FIELD" — as if to say: You will abound in all necessary things, both in urban and rural affairs; for "to bless" here means to do good. For God's blessing is real, not merely verbal or courtly; and it signifies every kind of prosperity, in body, in soul, and in fortune.
4. "BLESSED SHALL BE THE FRUIT OF YOUR WOMB, AND THE FRUIT OF YOUR LAND" — that is, you will abound in children and in the fruits of your land, and likewise in cattle.
Verse 5: Blessed Barns and Stores ¶
5. "BLESSED SHALL BE YOUR BARNS." — The Hebrew word tene signifies a repository, whether it be a basket, a storehouse, or a barn. The meaning therefore is: You will abound in grain and bread, so that there will be many leftovers, which you may distribute to the poor; for this is what he adds, saying: "And blessed shall be your stores"; for blessing signifies plenty and abundance, as I said on 2 Corinthians 9:6.
Verse 6: Blessed Coming In and Going Out ¶
6. "BLESSED SHALL YOU BE COMING IN AND GOING OUT." — Your entering any place, as well as your leaving, will be happy and fortunate, because God will direct you in all things. So we see holy men directed by God in all things, and all their actions have happy outcomes, in which that verse of Psalm 1 is fulfilled: "And all things whatsoever he does shall prosper."
Verses 9-10: A Holy People
9. "THE LORD WILL RAISE YOU UP AS A HOLY PEOPLE TO HIMSELF" — as if to say: God will cause you to be and be called a holy people, God's people, and one specially devoted to Him, who in turn will defend you as His people, advance you, and make you glorious.
10. "AND ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH SHALL SEE THAT THE NAME OF THE LORD IS INVOKED UPON YOU" — as if to say: All shall see that you are called by God's name, or that you are called, and truly are, God's people, and that God shows Himself to be your God by protecting you and increasing your goods — whence all "SHALL FEAR YOU"; for this is what is signified in Scripture by "the name of someone being invoked upon another," as is clear from Sirach 36:14; Jeremiah 7:11; Baruch 2:15; Daniel 9:18, and elsewhere.
Verse 12: Heaven as God's Treasury ¶
12. "THE LORD WILL OPEN HIS BEST TREASURY, HEAVEN, TO GIVE RAIN." — "Heaven," that is, the air, is here called the treasury of God: because in it, as in a storehouse inscrutable to us, God has stored rain, through which all the goods of the earth come forth. So the air is called the treasury of winds, Psalm 134:8: "Who brings forth winds from His treasuries."
"YOU WILL LEND TO MANY NATIONS, AND YOU YOURSELF WILL BORROW FROM NO ONE" — because you will be pressed by no necessity, since you will abound in all things at home. God does not therefore here permit or command usury, as the Jews understand. For the Hebrew word lava signifies not usury, but a loan.
Verse 13: The Head, Not the Tail ¶
13. "THE LORD WILL MAKE YOU THE HEAD, AND NOT THE TAIL, AND YOU WILL ALWAYS BE ABOVE, AND NOT BENEATH" — as if to say: God will make you everywhere and always the first, not the last; ruling others, not subject to them. So Theodoret, Question 34.
Verses 15-16: Curses for Disobedience
15 and 16. "IF YOU WILL NOT HEAR THE VOICE OF THE LORD YOUR GOD, etc., CURSED SHALL YOU BE IN THE CITY, CURSED IN THE FIELD" — as if to say: You will be wretched and unhappy, and your resources, both urban and rural, will fail you. So far Moses has enumerated the good things to be given to those who keep God's law: here by antithesis he enumerates the very many evils that will befall those who violate God's law. Let preachers impress these upon sinners: for these evils bear the type and forerunner of the evils and punishments of hell.
Verse 20: Famine and Rebuke ¶
20. "THE LORD WILL SEND UPON YOU FAMINE AND HUNGER." — In Hebrew: "He will send upon you a curse and confusion, or a terrible tumult, in which all things are full of turmoil." But by these words both our Translator and the Septuagint understood famine and hunger: for to carnal men, such as the Jews were, this seems the supreme curse and turmoil.
"AND REBUKE" — that is, destruction, and, as the Septuagint translates, consumption, which is the effect of God's rebuke: namely that all your works be destroyed, ruined, and consumed; it is a metonymy.
Verses 22-24: Drought, Blight, and Bronze Skies
22. "MAY THE LORD STRIKE YOU, etc., WITH COLD" — so also the Septuagint; therefore the Hebrew word dalac is of contrary signification, for it commonly signifies elsewhere burning and persecution. "AND WITH SCORCHING HEAT" — the Chaldean and more recent translators translate "and with the sword." "AND WITH BLIGHT" — Blight is a disease of crops, which arises from the east wind entering the stalks, so that they cannot ripen, but are consumed, weakened, and wither.
23. "LET THE SKY ABOVE YOU BE BRONZE" (so that it does not rain down showers to water the crops, but is hard and dry, like bronze), "AND THE EARTH YOU TREAD UPON, IRON" — so that it cannot be plowed, and consequently bears no fruit, as if it were iron.
24. "MAY THE LORD GIVE YOU DUST FOR RAIN UPON YOUR LAND" — that is, instead of rain let dust fall, or sulfurous ash: Let the heat be so great that instead of rain, burning dust descends from the sky, stirred up and lifted high by the force of the winds.
Verses 27-29: Plagues and Blindness
27. "MAY THE LORD STRIKE YOU WITH THE ULCER OF EGYPT" (such as He inflicted on the Egyptians through Moses, Exodus 9:10). In Hebrew: "may He strike you with diseases of the anus, that is, hemorrhoids and similar diseases."
29. "SO THAT YOU GROPE AT MIDDAY" — so that you are blind in a matter as clear as the light of noon; he speaks of blindness of mind, as is clear from what follows. For blindness of mind is the punishment of sin, and an enormous one, as St. Augustine teaches on Psalm 57: "Is it a small punishment," he says, "the darkening of the heart and the blinding of the mind?" The Jews and the impious grope at midday, both formerly and now. Is not the law of Christ the noonday light, and the doctrine illuminating the Christian world? In this light the blind grope, they do not see eternal things, and they cling to fleeting and perishable things. "Even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil is placed upon their hearts," says St. Paul, 2 Corinthians 3.
"YOU SHALL NOT DIRECT YOUR WAYS." — In Hebrew: "you shall not succeed in your ways," as if to say: Your actions will be unfortunate; everything will turn out badly for you.
Verse 49: The Nation Like an Eagle ¶
49. "THE LORD WILL BRING UPON YOU A NATION FROM AFAR, etc., LIKE AN EAGLE" — which, like an eagle, will fly most swiftly, most quickly, and most violently to plunder you. Here is signified the domination of the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar, who in Ezekiel 17:3 is compared to a great eagle; for he overthrew the Jews.
Note: Kings and tyrants, and especially Nebuchadnezzar, are called "eagle," by Jeremiah 48:40, by Ezekiel 17:3, by Daniel 7:4, and by Hosea 8:1. For the eagle is a symbol, first, of kingship and empire, for it is itself the king of birds; second, of strong, swift, and impetuous invasion and battle; third, of rapacity and ferocity; fourth, of victory, for it conquers and prostrates all birds, and even serpents and deer, by throwing dust collected with its wings into their eyes. Hence the Romans and Gentiles often received the omen of victory from eagles, and observed them with superstitious attention.
Verse 50: A Most Insolent Nation ¶
50. "A MOST INSOLENT NATION." — In Hebrew: "a nation strong of face," that is, of brazen front, barbarous, bold, and inhuman.
Verse 53: Eating the Fruit of Their Womb ¶
53. "AND YOU SHALL EAT THE FRUIT OF YOUR WOMB" — this came to pass in the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus. The remaining disasters and calamities which God here threatens upon the Jews were sent upon them by Him, partly in the same destruction by Titus, partly in the siege by the Assyrians — namely Shalmaneser, Tiglath-Pileser, Sennacherib, etc.; partly through Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, partly through Alexander and the Macedonians. So Theodoret, Question 34.
Verses 65-66: A Trembling Heart and Life Hanging in Doubt
65. "THE LORD WILL GIVE YOU THERE A TREMBLING HEART." — This curse the Jews now have, says Abulensis, both because God inflicted it on them as punishment, and because from a tender age they learn to fear Christians, since Christians begin to persecute them while still young, to plunder and beat them.
"AND FAILING EYES" — that is, so that your eyes may grow dim and fail from tears.
66. "AND YOUR LIFE SHALL BE AS IT WERE HANGING BEFORE YOU" (that is, your life shall be placed in danger, and as it were suspended in doubt, indeed) "YOU SHALL NOT BELIEVE IN YOUR LIFE" — that is, you shall not trust your life, or that you can live, but shall despair of life. St. Augustine, in book 16 Against Faustus, chapter 22, Procopius, and St. Leo, sermon 8 On the Passion, understand these words differently, as though he says: Christ is your life, O Jew, whom you have seen hanging on the cross, and yet you did not believe in Him. But this is a symbolic meaning. So also Tertullian, who reads: "Your life shall be hanging on the wood, before your eyes, and you shall not believe in your life."
Verse 68: Return to Egypt by Ships ¶
68. "THE LORD WILL BRING YOU BACK BY SHIPS TO EGYPT." — That this happened under Titus, Josephus teaches, book 7 of the War, chapter 16, where he teaches that Jews captured by the Romans, who were younger than seventeen years, were led to Egypt and sold there for burdens and labor, and in such great numbers that buyers could hardly be found.
Note the word "ships": for hence it is clear that in the time of Moses there were fleets and ships. For Moses here proposes and names these to the Hebrews as things familiar; whence it is clear how much more ancient the history of Moses is than the history of the Gentiles and Poets: for these consider the first ships to have been those of Jason and the Argonauts, who lived shortly before the Trojan War, in the time of Jephthah, judge of the Hebrews.