Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Deuteronomy 28:38-44
The Fifth Sixfold Curse (Deuteronomy 28:38).
This is now followed by a further sixfold pattern. Here the curses more reflect conditions in the land. The whole of their agriculture, on which they all depended, would fail and fall into total chaos. It was not only outside enemies that they had to face.
‘ You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in, for the locust shall consume it.'
Though they would sow plentiful seed in great hopes, they would harvest little, for the locust would descend and eat it, and all their hopes would be dashed before their eyes as they watched helplessly while it was consumed. The swarm of locusts, sometimes 8 kilometres (5 miles) wide, would on descending eat every bit of vegetation in the area over a wide distance. The land would be stripped bare. It was regularly a picture of God's judgment (Exodus 10:4; 1 Kings 8:37; Psalms 105:34; Joel 1:4).
‘ You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes, for the worm will eat them.'
Their vineyards which they had dressed so carefully would be attacked by worms or vine weevils so that they produced no fruitfulness. One morning they would come down and perceive the destruction of their vines, about which they could do nothing.
‘ You will have olive-trees throughout all your borders, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olive will cast its fruit.'
Even though they might have many olive trees throughout the land, there would be a dearth of oil because they would not produce, but would prematurely cast their fruit because of olive disease. These three examples were a reminder of the fact that all their harvests in the end depend on Yahweh. Contrast Deuteronomy 7:13 for what might have been.
‘ You will beget sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity.'
Even though they begot sons and daughters, the delight of their eyes, they would lose them. They would no longer be available to help the family on the land. They would be carried off as slaves to work for others.
‘ All your trees and the fruit of your ground will the locust possess.'
Not only the grain would be eaten by locusts, but locusts would descend on the whole land and eat everything so that nothing would be left. The arrival of a swarm of locusts was one of the things most dreaded by farmers in the Ancient Near East.
‘ The resident alien who is in the midst of you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower. He will lend to you, and you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.'
On top of all this, the resident aliens whom they had always seen as needy and requiring assistance, and whom they had always called on for extra labour when needed, would become more and more wealthy (they would not be affected by the curse), while they themselves would sink deeper and deeper into poverty. Instead of lending to resident aliens they would be driven to borrow from them. The resident aliens would have become the head, Israel would be the tail (contrast Deuteronomy 28:12).