Sunday, December 6, 2009

Deuteronomy 21-28

Deuteronomy 21-28: Additional Rules When They Are in the Land



  • Undetected Homicide: In the event of an undetected homicide in the open country, the elders of the nearest city had to make atonement by breaking the neck of a heifer and then confessing their innocence before the priests above the dead heifer whereupon God would remove the bloodguiltness from upon the people.


    • The heifer is not burned, as in the usual sacrifices. However, its death is a sacrifice to atone for sin committed by an unknown person.

    • Why did they have to do this? These were small towns and its inhabitants should be aware of what's going on in their town. We assume that they would have told the Levites if they had had information about who may have been guilty.

    • This was important based on a principle stated in Numbers 35:33-34. This passage shows that the blood of unsolved, unavenged murder defiles and pollutes the land. Therefore, if there is a murder unavenged, some kind of cleansing is necessary, so the land will not be defiled.

      • Numbers 35:33-34: This will ensure that the land where you live will not be polluted, for murder pollutes the land. And no sacrifice except the execution of the murderer can purify the land from murder. You must not defile the land where you live, for I live there myself. I am the Lord, who lives among the people of Israel.”

        • The reason behind many of these rules is that God lives among them!








  • Marrying a captive woman: A soldier could take a captive woman home where she must shave her head, cut her nails and change from the clothes she had been wearing and must be allowed to mourn for her parents for 1 month. Then he could marry her. But if he decides later he doesn't like her, he has to let her go free - she cannot be held as a slave.

    • Before marriage, she could have been sold as a slave. After marriage, however, she must be given her freedom to go wherever she pleases.

    • This law must apply for conquests of cities far away (20:10–15), otherwise the women would have been destroyed (20:17).

    • This legislation could have two basic results: the men would be restrained from rape, and the women would have time to become adjusted to their new condition.

    • The woman doesn't appear to have a choice.




  • Inheritance problem with two wives: He must give the double portion inheritance to the firstborn son, regardless of which wife bore him, even if it's the wife he doesn't like.

    • Monogamy was God's will (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-6).237 However, God also gave laws that regulated life when His people lived it in disobedience to His will. In other words, God did not approve of polygamy, but He tolerated it in Israel in the sense that He did not execute or punish polygamists through civil procedures.

      • Genesis 2:24: This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

      • Matthew 19:4-6: “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’ And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”





  • Dealing with a rebellious, stubborn son who is a glutton and a drunkard: If he refuses to obey even when he is disciplined, the parents must take him to the town gate to the elders and hold court. All the men of the town must stone him to death.

    • The parents are ultimately responsible. The parents have done their part to correct him, hopefully in love.

    • This probably refers to a son who is old enough to be accountable.

    • The elders, after hearing his case, could have decided to give him probation.

    • Breaking the fifth commandment (5:16) attracted the death penalty. Notice that the parents take the initiative in this penalty.

    • This case presupposes a long history of rebelliousness. The son had become a glutton and a drunkard (v. 20). That is, he had developed a lifestyle of deviant behavior. Before loving parents would take the step available to them in this law, they would doubtless try every other measure to secure their son's correction. This was the last resort for the parents. This law withheld the right of parents to slay their children for rebelliousness while at the same time preserving parental authority fully.





  • Rules for the body of a criminal hung on a tree: The body is not to be left on the tree overnight - it must be buried the same day.

    • Hung on a tree: Or impaled on a pole. Jewish commentators believe that the person was killed then hung up on a tree.

    • Galatians 3:13: But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

    • Genesis 40:19: Three days from now Pharaoh will lift you up and impale your body on a pole. Then birds will come and peck away at your flesh.”

    • Jesus literally became accursed by God as he was upon the cross redeeming the world. The hanging of a body on a tree was most often done, not as the means of death, but rather as a form of public humiliation after death.

    • The method of public execution prescribed in Israel was normally stoning. After criminals had died, sometimes their executioners hung their bodies up for all to see as a deterrent to similar crimes.





  • Return goods (ox, sheep, goat, clothing, etc.) you find that don't belong to you.

    • The opposite of "Finders, keepers; Losers, weepers".

    • Being helpful to others included enemies.

      • Exodus 23:04: “If you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey that has strayed away, take it back to its owner.



    • Helping to protect a neighbor's property fulfills the command to love your neighbor as yourself.

      • Leviticus 19:18: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.





  • Help your neighbor with a collapsed donkey or ox.

    • Who is "your neighbor"?

    • What about a broken water pipe? A broken down car? Or any other problem?




  • Proper roles for men and women: “A woman must not put on men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing. Anyone who does this is detestable in the sight of the Lord your God.

    • Men and women are not to reverse their sexual roles. It's not the clothing style that offends God, but using the style to act our a different sex role.

    • It has been appropriately suggested that this rule may have been to protect against homosexual relationships where one partner acts like a person of the opposite sex. God created men and women as different. Proper clothing and behavior help preserve that distinction and maintain a special kind of respect.

    • In Old Testament times, men and women wore clothing that was superficially similar - long robes and wrapping garments were common for both sexes. Yet, the specific types of garments and the way in which they were worn made a clear distinction between the sexes, and this command instructs God’s people to respect those distinctions.

    • Some have taken this command to be the “proof-text” against women wearing pants and some Christian groups command that women wear only dresses. Yet, this is not a command against women wearing a garment that in some ways might be common between men and women; it is a command against dressing in a manner which deliberately blurs the lines between the sexes.

    • The dramatic rise in cross-dressing and “gender-bender” behavior in our culture is a shocking trampling of this command, and will reap a bitter harvest in more perversion and more gender confusion in our culture.

    • This law most likely prohibits transvestitism. The strong word abomination may also suggest transvestite practices associated with pagan temple prostitution.

    • Men appeared in women's clothing and vice versa in some of the worship rituals of Astarte. Perhaps for these reasons God gave the command to wear clothing appropriate to one's own sex as well as because God intended to keep the sexes distinct. Homosexuality was punishable by death in Israel.




  • OSHA Rules:

    • Build a railing around the flat roof of a building. These areas were used for sleeping and resting (and bathing in Bathsheba's case).




  • Purity rather than Mixture: One is to not mix seeds in a vineyard, animals at a plow or materials together in clothing. There is to be natural purity.

    • These laws prohibit mixing various items, reflecting God's ordering of creation “according to its kind” (e.g., Genesis 1:25). They also reminded Israelites that God had separated them from other peoples to be distinct and holy (Deuteronomy 14:2).




  • Tassels on Garments:

    • Israel is to tie tassels on the four corners of their garments to remind them to obey the Law.

      • Numbers 15:38: “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: Throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach them with a blue cord.



    • In Jesus’ day, He had to condemn the Pharisees in Matthew 23:5, saying they enlarge the borders of their garments. In other words, they made the tasseled portion of their garments larger and more prominent to show how spiritual they were.

      • Matthew 23:5: “Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels.



        • Matthew 9:20-21: Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, for she thought, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”

        • Matthew 14:36: They begged him to let the sick touch at least the fringe of his robe, and all who touched him were healed.








  • A man accusing his new bride that she wasn't a virgin:


    • The betrothal was a legally-binding agreement between the father and groom. This usually took place a year or more before marriage. From the time of betrothal, the woman was regarded by everyone as the lawful wife of the man to whom she was betrothed. The marriage itself consisted basically of the consummation of the relationship. Here's the unusual part. Immediately after the first night for the newlyweds, the parents of the bride would strip the bed and hold in storage the bed sheet for future reference. If the new husband ever called into question the virginity of the bride prior to that night, the stained bed sheet served as evidence before the elders of the city. A false accusation by the husband resulted in a stiff fine, and he relinquished his right to ever divorce her. However, if her virginity previous to her wedding night could not be proved, she was stoned to death.

    • According to custom, a Jewish woman would first be intimate with her husband upon a special cloth, which would collect the small drops of blood which were accepted as evidence of the young woman’s virginity. This blood-stained cloth would then become the property of the married woman’s parents, who kept it as the evidence of the young woman’s virginity.

    • If the man's accusation was false, the town elders are to punish him and fine him 100 pieces payable to her father. The woman remains his wife and he can never divorce her.

    • If is accusations were true, the men of the town are to take her to the door of her father and stone her to death there because the father's lack of guidance and discipline and teaching were the cause.

    • In some cultures, there is the custom of showing a bloodstained cloth on the wedding night as “proof” of the bride’s virginity. This custom is still practiced in some Egyptian villages to this day. Relatives of the bride and the groom actually sit outside the newlywed couple’s room on the wedding night waiting for the bloody bed sheet to be exhibited. This is also true in some Greek weddings.

    • Historical evidence suggests that the virginity cloth was the bed sheet from the wedding night. By the first century, what would often happen is after the marriage was consummated, the sheet would be hung in the window of home to show that the woman was in fact a virgin.





  • Sexual Sin & Rape:

    • Punishment for adultery: Both must die!

    • Premarital sex with a virgin who is engaged: They are both to be taken to the gates of the town and be stoned to death.

    • Rape in the country of an engaged virgin: The man must die at the gates of the town, because it is assumed that she screamed for help but no one was there to rescue her.

    • Rape in the city of an engaged virgin: They are both to be stoned to death at the gates of the town because she evidently didn't scream for help.

    • Premarital sex with a virgin who is not engaged: The man must pay her father 50 pieces of silver, must marry the girl, and can never divorce her.

    • A man must not marry his mother-in-law.




  • Whom to Allow in the Assembly:

    • The assembly of the Lord may not be entered by anyone who: is emasculated, of illegitimate birth to the tenth generation, Ammorite, or Moabite to the tenth generation because of their hostility toward the nation in the wilderness when Israel came from Egypt.

    • However the assembly of the Lord may be entered by Edomites who are Israel’s brothers and by Egyptians because Israel was an alien in their land.





    • This probably refers to men made eunuchs in the context of pagan worship. cut off. In Galatians 5:12 (“emasculate themselves”) Paul uses the same verb as appears in the Greek translation of Deuteronomy, perhaps to imply that his opponents are acting like pagans; by this action the ancient Israelites would disqualify themselves from entry into the assembly.



      • Galatians 5:12 (Contemporary English Version): I wish that everyone who is upsetting you would not only get circumcised, but would cut off much more!






  • Bodily Functions: All bodily functions (nocturnal emissions, excrement) are to be cared for outside of the camp so that the camp will be clean for the presence of the Lord.

    • The idea of the divine presence in their midst was all-important. This fact was to govern their most private habits, and give character to all their ways.

    • If He was in their midst to secure victory over their enemies, He was also there to demand holiness of life.

    • It is our privilege to have God the Spirit dwelling in us, individually and collectively. Thus we read, in 1 Corinthians 6: 19, "Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself," This is individual.




  • Runaway slaves:

    • Runaway slaves shall not be handed over to their (foreign) masters, but shall be allowed to live in one of Israel’s towns without being mistreated.

    • Most students of the Old Testament agree that this regulation concerns a slave who has escaped from his master in some foreign land and sought refuge in Israel.

    • In addition to slaves captured in battle, debt slavery and voluntary slavery existed in Israel and was protected by law.




  • Temple prostitutes: None of the children of Israel may be cult prostitutes and Israel may not hire any harlot to seek fertility from pagan gods since this is an abomination to the Lord.

    • Cultic prostitution was practiced by Canaanite religion as a fertility rite. It was strictly prohibited for ancient Israel.

    • See Genesis 38 about Tamar acting as a temple prostitute with Judah.




  • Prostitution earnings: Not to be brought as an offering to the house of the Lord. Prostitution is detestable to the Lord.

    • Prostitution is strictly forbidden.





  • Charging interest:


    • No interest to be charged to a fellow Israelite.

    • Okay to charge interest to a foreigner.





  • Voluntary vows: Fulfill the vow promptly and in full.

    • Acts 18:18: Paul stayed in Corinth for some time after that, then said good-bye to the brothers and sisters and went to nearby Cenchrea. There he shaved his head according to Jewish custom, marking the end of a vow. Then he set sail for Syria, taking Priscilla and Aquila with him.




  • Eating fruit or grain in someone else's field: Okay to eat your fill, but you can't harvest or carry away in a basket.

    • Incidentally, the Pharisees accused the disciples of Jesus of breaking the law when they gathered corn on the Sabbath day for personal consumption (Matthew 12:1-8; Mark 2:23-28; Luke 6:1-5). They accused them of reaping corn on the Sabbath. We see from this passage of scripture that doing so in the field itself was simply feeding oneself, not reaping.




  • Divorce:
    The man can write a letter of divorce and send her away. She can then marry another, but she cannot go back to the first husband.

    • This is not endorsing divorce. What did Jesus say?

      • Matthew 19:3-10: Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for just any reason?” “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’ And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.” “Then why did Moses say in the law that a man could give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away?” they asked. Jesus replied, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended. And I tell you this, whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery—unless his wife has been unfaithful.” Jesus’ disciples then said to him, “If this is the case, it is better not to marry!”








  • The draft: Newly married man must be allowed to spend one year at home, "bringing happiness to the wife he has married."

    • There are two reasons for this:

      1. To allow time for the marriage to strengthen and

      2. To ensure that the woman would get pregnant and have a child before he goes off to war so that if he died in battle, he would have an heir.





  • Security for a loan:

    • You can't take the man's means of a living as security (a millstone is one example).

    • You can't enter the person's house to get the security item.

    • You can't keep overnight his cloak if used as security.





  • Kidnapping: The death penalty!


  • Skin diseases: Follow the instructions of the Levitical priests. "Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam as you were coming from Egypt."


  • Labor laws: You must pay fair wages every day before sunset.


  • Sins of children: Parents must not be put to death for their children's sins.


  • Sins of parents: Children must not be put to death for their parent's sins.


  • Justice: True justice is not just for the Israelites, but also for the foreigners and orphans.


  • Feeding the foreigners, orphans and widows: Don't go back for missed bundles of grain or olives or grapes.


  • Flogging: Limited to 40 lashes.

    • Rabbis in the first century decreed 39 stripes instead of 40; they wanted to be certain there was a margin for error so as to not exceed the letter of the law in case of a miscount.

    • 2 Corinthians 11:24: Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. In the case of these Law-prescribed beatings, the judge was to oversee the beating as the beatee was to lie, face down, on the ground for the punishment.




  • “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.

    • Paul makes reference to this verse when talking about preachers getting paid in I Timothy 5:18




  • Levirate marriage: If a man marries and then dies without children, the wife is not to marry outside of the family but to allow her husband’s brother to marry her and raise up seed to the name of his dead brother to prevent his name from being blotted out; but if the brother will not fulfill his duty he is to be disgraced before the whole community.

    • See the story of Ruth.

    • In fact, providing an heir was the issue here. The widow needed an heir for her dead husband, and the remaining brother was obligated to provide that heir in his brother's name - without regard to the one or more wives he might already have.

    • In Matthew 22:23–33 the Sadducees use this law in an effort to disprove the idea of resurrection, and Jesus reveals their faulty reasoning.

    • It is possible that Paul's advice in 1 Corinthians, allowing a widow to marry “whom she wishes,” was addressed to Christians who thought this law was still applicable.

      • 1 Corinthians 7:39: A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but only if he loves the Lord.





  • Honesty in business: Use accurate scales. God hates cheaters.


  • Amalekites: Destroy them from the land! Exodus 17:8-16
    discusses the battle of the Israelites with the Amalekites.

    • According to the Jewish Study Bible, "These verses are read liturgically on the Sabbath before Purim, since according to Jewish tradition, Haman, the evil protagonist of Esther, is an Amalekite (see 1 Samuel 15:8 and Esther 8:3)."

    • The Amalekites remained a thorn in Israel's side. Notably, Saul failed to destroy them (1 Samuel 15:1–9), though David later defeated them (1 Samuel 30:1–20).




  • Offering of First Fruit when Entering the Land: When Israel enters the land they are to offer the first fruits to the Lord at the place where He chooses to dwell declaring the Lord’s faithfulness to him and on the third year he is to give it to the Levite, stranger, orphan, and stranger in his city asking for the Lord’s blessing in obedience.


  • Special tithe: “Every third year you must offer a special tithe of your crops. In this year of the special tithe you must give your tithes to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows, so that they will have enough to eat in your towns. Then you must declare in the presence of the Lord your God, ‘I have taken the sacred gift from my house and have given it to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows, just as you commanded me. I have not violated or forgotten any of your commands. I have not eaten any of it while in mourning; I have not handled it while I was ceremonially unclean; and I have not offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God and have done everything you commanded me. Now look down from your holy dwelling place in heaven and bless your people Israel and the land you swore to our ancestors to give us—a land flowing with milk and honey.’


  • Setting up an altar after crossing the Jordan: Then Moses and the leaders of Israel gave this charge to the people: “Obey all these commands that I am giving you today. When you cross the Jordan River and enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster. Write this whole body of instruction on them when you cross the river to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you—a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. When you cross the Jordan, set up these stones at Mount Ebal and coat them with plaster, as I am commanding you today. “Then build an altar there to the Lord your God, using natural, uncut stones. You must not shape the stones with an iron tool. Build the altar of uncut stones, and use it to offer burnt offerings to the Lord your God. Also sacrifice peace offerings on it, and celebrate by feasting there before the Lord your God. You must clearly write all these instructions on the stones coated with plaster.”

    • Altars were to be made of fieldstones and not cut - unlike those of the pagans.

    • The temple was built without iron tools.

    • Notice that the writing is temporary - it would be eventually washed and weathered off - unlike carving of the stones - showing that the law itself was temporary.

    • Joshua 8:30–31 clearly states that Joshua built "an altar of uncut stones" on Mount Ebal in accordance with divine instruction to Moses (Deuteronomy 27:2–8).

    • Excavations at Mount Ebal have uncovered a worship site with a large altar (30 x 23 feet) constructed of unhewn stones, accessed by a gently sloping ramp. The pottery dates to the Israelite settlement. This perhaps is the altar that Joshua built or is built on top of Joshua's altar.






  • Blessings and cursings:

  • This is about the big service planned atop Mount Gerizim/Ebal when they get to Canaan. It actually takes place in Joshua 8:29-35. As Israel is encamped on the east side of the Jordan preparing to go into their promised land, Canaan, God's making a very big impression on Israel regarding the rewards of exclusively serving him. This chapter is a repeat of what was proclaimed to Israel in Leviticus 26. Obey God and everything will be perpetually great.

  • That same day Moses also gave this charge to the people: “When you cross the Jordan River, the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin must stand on Mount Gerizim to proclaim a blessing over the people. And the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali must stand on Mount Ebal to proclaim a curse.




  • Curses: “But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey ALL the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you: “Then the Levites will shout to all the people of Israel:

    • ‘Cursed is anyone who carves or casts an idol and secretly sets it up. These idols, the work of craftsmen, are detestable to the Lord.’

      And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

    • ‘Cursed is anyone who dishonors father or mother.’

      And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

    • ‘Cursed is anyone who steals property from a neighbor by moving a boundary marker.’

      And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

    • ‘Cursed is anyone who leads a blind person astray on the road.’

      And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

    • ‘Cursed is anyone who denies justice to foreigners, orphans, or widows.’

      And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

    • ‘Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with one of his father’s wives, for he has violated his father.’

      And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

    • ‘Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with an animal.’

      And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

    • ‘Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with his sister, whether she is the daughter of his father or his mother.’

      And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

    • ‘Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with his mother-in-law.’

      And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

    • ‘Cursed is anyone who attacks a neighbor in secret.’

      And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

    • ‘Cursed is anyone who accepts payment to kill an innocent person.’

      And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’

    • ‘Cursed is anyone who does not affirm and obey the terms of these instructions.’

      And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’




  • Reward for the nation's obedience: “IF you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep ALL his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience ALL these blessings if you obey the Lord your God:



      • Your towns and your fields will be blessed.

      • Your children and your crops will be blessed.

      • The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed.

      • Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed.

      • Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed.

      • The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven!

      • The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain.

      • The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

      • If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, the Lord will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do. Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord, and they will stand in awe of you.

      • The Lord will give you prosperity in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops.

      • The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do.

      • You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them.

      • If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.

      • You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them.



    • Curses for Disobedience: “But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you:


      • Your towns and your fields will be cursed.

      • Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be cursed.

      • Your children and your crops will be cursed.

      • The offspring of your herds and flocks will be cursed.

      • Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be cursed.

      • The Lord himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me.

      • The Lord will afflict you with diseases until none of you are left in the land you are about to enter and occupy.

      • The Lord will strike you with wasting diseases, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew.

      • These disasters will pursue you until you die.

      • The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron.

      • The Lord will change the rain that falls on your land into powder, and dust will pour down from the sky until you are destroyed.

      • The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will attack your enemies from one direction, but you will scatter from them in seven! You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your corpses will be food for all the scavenging birds and wild animals, and no one will be there to chase them away.

      • The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured.

      • The Lord will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic. You will grope around in broad daylight like a blind person groping in the darkness, but you will not find your way.

      • You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you.

      • You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her.

      • You will build a house, but someone else will live in it.

      • You will plant a vineyard, but you will never enjoy its fruit.

      • Your ox will be butchered before your eyes, but you will not eat a single bite of the meat.

      • Your donkey will be taken from you, never to be returned.

      • Your sheep and goats will be given to your enemies, and no one will be there to help you.

      • You will watch as your sons and daughters are taken away as slaves. Your heart will break for them, but you won’t be able to help them.

      • A foreign nation you have never heard about will eat the crops you worked so hard to grow.

      • You will suffer under constant oppression and harsh treatment.

      • You will go mad because of all the tragedy you see around you.

      • The Lord will cover your knees and legs with incurable boils. In fact, you will be covered from head to foot.

      • The Lord will exile you and your king to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors. There in exile you will worship gods of wood and stone! You will become an object of horror, ridicule, and mockery among all the nations to which the Lord sends you.

      • You will plant much but harvest little, for locusts will eat your crops.

      • You will plant vineyards and care for them, but you will not drink the wine or eat the grapes, for worms will destroy the vines.

      • You will grow olive trees throughout your land, but you will never use the olive oil, for the fruit will drop before it ripens.

      • You will have sons and daughters, but you will lose them, for they will be led away into captivity.

      • Swarms of insects will destroy your trees and crops.

      • The foreigners living among you will become stronger and stronger, while you become weaker and weaker. They will lend money to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail!

      • If you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and to obey the commands and decrees he has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed.

      • These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever.

      • If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received, you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you.

      • You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything.

      • The Lord will put an iron yoke on your neck, oppressing you harshly until he has destroyed you.

      • The Lord will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the earth, and it will swoop down on you like a vulture. It is a nation whose language you do not understand, a fierce and heartless nation that shows no respect for the old and no pity for the young. Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you will be destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs, and you will starve to death. They will attack your cities until all the fortified walls in your land—the walls you trusted to protect you—are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the Lord your God has given you.

      • The siege and terrible distress of the enemy’s attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you. The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving children. He will refuse to share with them the flesh he is devouring—the flesh of one of his own children—because he has nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns. The most tender and delicate woman among you—so delicate she would not so much as touch the ground with her foot—will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or daughter. She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.

        • 2 Kings 6:28-29: But then the king asked, “What is the matter?” She replied, “This woman said to me: ‘Come on, let’s eat your son today, then we will eat my son tomorrow.’ So we cooked my son and ate him. Then the next day I said to her, ‘Kill your son so we can eat him,’ but she has hidden her son.”

        • Lamentations 2:20 : “O Lord, think about this! Should you treat your own people this way? Should mothers eat their own children, those they once bounced on their knees? Should priests and prophets be killed within the Lord’s Temple?

        • Lamentations 4:10: Tenderhearted women have cooked their own children. They have eaten them to survive the siege.

        • Jeremiah 19:9: I will see to it that your enemies lay siege to the city until all the food is gone. Then those trapped inside will eat their own sons and daughters and friends. They will be driven to utter despair.’



      • If you refuse to obey all the words of instruction that are written in this book, and if you do not fear the glorious and awesome name of the Lord your God, then the Lord will overwhelm you and your children with indescribable plagues. These plagues will be intense and without relief, making you miserable and unbearably sick. He will afflict you with all the diseases of Egypt that you feared so much, and you will have no relief. The Lord will afflict you with every sickness and plague there is, even those not mentioned in this Book of Instruction, until you are destroyed. Though you become as numerous as the stars in the sky, few of you will be left because you would not listen to the Lord your God.

      • Just as the Lord has found great pleasure in causing you to prosper and multiply, the Lord will find pleasure in destroying you. You will be torn from the land you are about to enter and occupy. For the Lord will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship foreign gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods made of wood and stone! There among those nations you will find no peace or place to rest. And the Lord will cause your heart to tremble, your eyesight to fail, and your soul to despair. Your life will constantly hang in the balance. You will live night and day in fear, unsure if you will survive. In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were night!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ For you will be terrified by the awful horrors you see around you. Then the Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships, to a destination I promised you would never see again. There you will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will buy you.

        • This came true when Israel was defeated and carried away into captivity by Assyria (722 BC) and Judah to Babylonia (586 BC). Later, in AD 70, after Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome, the people were scattered throughout the various nations.

        • The curse of exile eventually comes for the northern kingdom under Assyria (2 Kings 17) and for the southern kingdom of Judah under Babylon (2 Kings 25).






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    About Me

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    Bible studies are held in Oakbay subdivision in Noblesville, Indiana. In-person Sunday studies have been eliminated because of COVID-19 concerns. Wednesday studies at 7:00 pm led by Don Terry via Zoom - presently studying the Book of Acts from a dispensationalist viewpoint. Bi-monthly Wednesday’s women’s studies at 7:00 pm led by Carolyn Terry via Zoom - presently studying Paul’s second letter to Timothy - and his last writing. You can see several of our present and past studies but we covered many other subjects before starting this blog. The goal of these studies is to bring each of us to know Christ better (epignosis) and then to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” as mentioned by Paul in Philippians 3:14 and to hear Jesus’ “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”. Dedicated to the memory of Don & Carolyn Terry’s daughter, DJ (Dorothy Jean) Terry, who went to be with the Lord Jesus Christ in 1999 at 20 years old.