Deuteronomy 28:54

54 Even the most tender and sensitive man among you will become stingy toward his brother, the wife he loves, and the children he still has left.

Deuteronomy 28:54 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 28:54

[So that] the man [that is] tender among you, and very
delicate
Not only the rustic that has been brought up meanly, and used to hard living; but one that has been bred very tenderly, and lived in a delicate manner, like the rich man in ( Luke 16:19 ) ; that fared sumptuously every day:

his eye shall be evil towards his brother, and towards the wife of his
bosom, and towards the remnant of his children which he shall leave;
that is, he shall begrudge his brother, who is so nearly related to him, the least bit of food; yea, his wife, he dearly loved, and is one flesh with him, his other self, and even his children, which are parts of himself, such of them as were left not eaten by him; or his eye should be evil upon then, he should look with an evil eye on them, determining within himself to kill and eat them next. Though the particular instance in which his eye would be evil to them follows, yet no doubt there are other instances in which his eye would be evil towards them, as there were at the siege of Jerusalem, and have been since. Josephus

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 says,

``that in every house where there was any appearance of food (or anything that looked like it, that had the shadow of it) there was a battle; and the dearest friends fought with one another, snatching away from each other, the miserable supports of life;''

as the husband from his wife and children, and the wife from her husband and children; see more in ( Deuteronomy 28:56 ) ; and, in later times, we told by the Jewish historian ^F3, that wrote an account of their sufferings and distresses since their dispersion, that at Fez the Jews sold their children for slaves for bread.

F2 De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 3. sect. 3.
F3 Shebet Judah, sive Hist. Jud. p. 326.

Deuteronomy 28:54 In-Context

52 They will blockade all your cities until the high, fortified walls in which you trust come down everywhere in your land. They'll blockade all the cities everywhere in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

53 Because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade, you will eat the flesh of your own children, the sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you.

54 Even the most tender and sensitive man among you will become stingy toward his brother, the wife he loves, and the children he still has left.

55 He will give none of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all that he has left, because of the hardships your enemies will make you suffer during the blockade of all your cities.

56 The most tender and sensitive woman among you--so sensitive and tender that she wouldn't even step on an ant--will become stingy toward the husband she loves or toward her own son or daughter.