28:1-68

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Obedience and disobedience

(Deut 28:1-68)

Further blessings and curses are now listed. These were connected more with the life of the people as a whole and were directly dependent on the people’s obedience or disobedience. The blessings mainly concerned agricultural prosperity, family happiness, victory over enemies and honour in the eyes of other nations (Deut 28:1-10).

God’s assurance that he would supply their needs was linked to a warning. They were not to look for family increase or agricultural productivity by worshipping the Canaanite nature gods (Deut 28:11-14).

Corresponding to the blessings for obedience were the curses for disobedience. In general these would take the form of diseases and plagues upon their families, flocks, herds and crops (Deut 28:15-24) and repeated defeat in war (Deut 28:25-35).

Finally, the nation that God had chosen to be the leader of all nations would go into humiliating captivity (Deut 28:36-46).

The cruelty of foreign invaders and the horrors of siege warfare are vividly described. People would be so desperate for food that they would eat even their own children (Deut 28:47-57; cf. 2 Kings 6:25-29; Lam 2:19-22; 4:4-10).

Eventually, the nation would be destroyed and the people taken captive into foreign countries. There they would be treated worse than animals and meet horrible deaths. Many would be shipped as slaves to Egypt, where they would so flood the slave market that no one would want to buy them (Deut 28:58-68).