Deuteronomy 28:13

13 And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou shalt hearken to the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do [them]:

Deuteronomy 28:13 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 28:13

And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail
Give them dominion over others, and not make them subject to them; the head signifies rulers and governors, and the tail the common people that are subjects; or the one such that are honourable and in high esteem, and the other such that are mean and base; see ( Isaiah 9:14 Isaiah 9:15 ) ; the Targum of Jonathan is,

``the Word of the Lord shall make thee''

and thou shalt be above only, and thou shall not be beneath;
which explains what is meant by head and tail, being uppermost and lowermost, as the head is the upper part, and the tail the lower part of a creature; the one is more honourable, the other vile: the sense is, that they should be superior to other people in honour and dignity, and not below them, or vassals to them: if that thou hearken to the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I
command thee this day to observe and to do [them];
which is the condition on which all this happiness depended.

Deuteronomy 28:13 In-Context

11 And the LORD shall make thee to abound in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD swore to thy fathers to give thee.

12 The LORD shall open to thee his good treasure, the heaven to give rain to thy land in its season, and to bless all the work of thy hand: and thou shalt lend to many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

13 And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou shalt hearken to the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do [them]:

14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, [to] the right hand or [to] the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: