Deuteronomy 28:25

25 Jehovah will cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies; thou shalt go out one way against them, and shalt flee seven ways before them: and thou shalt be tossed to and from among all the kingdoms of the earth.

Deuteronomy 28:25 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 28:25

The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten fore thine enemies,
&c.] And by them, as they sometimes were by the Philistines and others, before their utter destruction, when they sinned against the Lord; and by the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans:

thou shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before
them;
march out against them in a body, promising themselves victory, but be utterly routed; so that they shall flee every way they can for their safety; see ( Deuteronomy 28:7 ) ;

and shall be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth;
this shows that Manasseh's case ( 2 Kings 21:1-18 ) , observed ( Deuteronomy 28:15 ) ; will not strictly and entirely hold good, nor is there any necessity to adhere closely to it; it is enough that the things threatened and prophesied of were at one time or another fulfilled in these people; for neither the ten tribes, when taken captive by Shalmaneser, were carried into all the kingdoms of the earth, only to some particular places mentioned in ( 2 Kings 17:6 ) ; nor the two tribes by Nebuchadnezzar, who were carried by him to Babylon, and returned from thence again at the end of seventy years; but this was exactly fulfilled at their last destruction by the Romans, when they were sent by them into various countries, and have been ever since scattered about in each of the nations of the world. And yet it must be owned that Strabo ^F7, who wrote before the last destruction of them, affirms, that it was not easy to find any place in the world which had not received them, and was not occupied by them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Apud Joseph. Antiqu. l. 14. c. 7. sect. 2.

Deuteronomy 28:25 In-Context

23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

24 Jehovah will make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

25 Jehovah will cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies; thou shalt go out one way against them, and shalt flee seven ways before them: and thou shalt be tossed to and from among all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 And thy dead body shall be food unto all birds of the heavens, and unto the beasts of the earth; and there shall be none to frighten them away.

27 Jehovah will smite thee with the boil of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scurvy, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.