28:15-44 If we do not keep God's commandments, we not only come short of the blessing promised, but we lay ourselves under the curse, which includes all misery, as the blessing all happiness. Observe the justice of this curse. It is not a curse causeless, or for some light cause. The extent and power of this curse. Wherever the sinner goes, the curse of God follows; wherever he is, it rests upon him. Whatever he has is under a curse. All his enjoyments are made bitter; he cannot take any true comfort in them, for the wrath of God mixes itself with them. Many judgments are here stated, which would be the fruits of the curse, and with which God would punish the people of the Jews, for their apostacy and disobedience. We may observe the fulfilling of these threatenings in their present state. To complete their misery, it is threatened that by these troubles they should be bereaved of all comfort and hope, and left to utter despair. Those who walk by sight, and not by faith, are in danger of losing reason itself, when every thing about them looks frightful.Cast ... - Some prefer "shall be spoiled" or "plundered."37. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee, &c.—The annals of almost every nation, for eighteen hundred years, afford abundant proofs that this has been, as it still is, the case—the very name of Jew being a universally recognized term for extreme degradation and wretchedness. No text from Poole on this verse.

Thou shalt have olive trees throughout thy coasts,.... In the several parts of the land of Canaan, which is therefore called a land of olive oil, Deuteronomy 8:8,

but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; nor any other relations, friends, guests, as was usual at entertainments; see Psalm 23:5; for the phrase "thyself" is not in the text. The reason why they should not anoint is, because they would have no oil to anoint with:

for thine olive shall cast his fruit; before it is ripe, by one means or another, as by winds, or blasting and mildew; see Amos 4:9.

Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.