Deuteronomy 28:15-46

The Curses

The opening Deuteronomy 28:15, correspond to the blessings in Deuteronomy 28:1, except that there are no antitheses to Deuteronomy 28:1 band Deuteronomy 28:2 b, and that the curse on basket and kneading-bowl precedes that on fruit of thy body, etc. Then the Discourse leaves the limits it had observed in the remainder of the blessings, Deuteronomy 28:8, and while here and there it gives the exact contrast of these blessings (cp. Deuteronomy 28:23 f. with Deuteronomy 28:12 a, Deuteronomy 28:25 with Deuteronomy 28:7 b, Deuteronomy 28:37 and Deuteronomy 28:46 with Deuteronomy 28:10; Deuteronomy 28:43 f. with Deuteronomy 28:12 b, Deuteronomy 28:13 a), the rest is a detailed antithesis to the summary blessing in 11; and diseases, calamities to man and beast, failures of seed and harvest, losses of children and property, and even exile, are set forth in detail.

The opinion that Deuteronomy 28:26 and Deuteronomy 28:41 are later additions is plausible, not because they contain predictions of exile but because they elaborate the rest; and this rest, Deuteronomy 28:21-25 (or 26), Deuteronomy 28:38-40 and Deuteronomy 28:42-46, more nearly corresponds to Deuteronomy 28:8. In view of the repeating style of D it is impossible to say whether some even of those vv. are original or expansions; there are no sufficient grounds for the detailed analysis by Steuernagel.