Deuteronomy 28:38

Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(38-42) These are the contrary to Deuteronomy 28:11; and Deuteronomy 28:44 is the contrary to Deuteronomy 28:12-13. From the order of the passage it might seem that these particular troubles were to come on Israel after their captivity. And perhaps it is not accidental that something very like a fulfilment of Deuteronomy 28:38-40 is found in Haggai 1:6-11. (Comp. also Isaiah 5:10, “Ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.”)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Third series of judgments, affecting every kind of labor and enterprise until it had accomplished the total ruin of the nation, and its subjection to its enemies.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

37. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee, &c.—The annals of almost every nation, for eighteen hundred years, afford abundant proofs that this has been, as it still is, the case—the very name of Jew being a universally recognized term for extreme degradation and wretchedness.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou shall carry much seed into the field,.... And sow it plentifully; this and what is said in some following verses plainly refer to them while in their own land, before carried captive, and not to their present case and circumstances:

and shall gather but little in at harvest; little springing up, or not coming to perfection, being blighted and blasted, and so yielded but a small crop; see Haggai 1:9; and chiefly for the following reason:

for the locust shall consume it; which is a great destroyer of the fruits of the earth; see Joel 1:4.

Geneva Study Bible

Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

38. Here the Discourse returns to Israel’s misfortunes on their own land, and the connection seems to be with Deuteronomy 28:15-24 (or 25), to which Deuteronomy 28:38-44 are more or less parallel.

38–40. Consumption of corn by locusts and of grapes by worms, and casting of olives. For these products see on Deuteronomy 7:13. Locust, Heb. ’arbeh, properly locust-swarm. Worm, Heb. tola‘ath; the grub which ruins vines, Gk. ἴψ or ἶξ (Strabo, xiii. i. 64), Lat. convolvulus (Pliny, H.N. xvii. 47), is the wine-weevil (Knobel). On cast see on Deuteronomy 7:1.

41 breaks the connection between Deuteronomy 28:40; Deuteronomy 28:42, and is out of place; cp. Deuteronomy 28:32.

Deuteronomy 28:38

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Even in their own land the curse would fall upon every kind of labour and enterprise. Much seed would give little to reap, because the locust would devour the seed; the planting and dressing of the vineyard would furnish no wine to drink, because the worm would devour the vine. תּולעת is probably the ἴψ or ἴξ of the Greeks, the convolvulus of the Romans, our vine-weevil.