Deuteronomy 28:51

 Deuteronomy 28:51

And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.

a. ASV: And shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy ground, until thou be destroyed; that also shall not leave thee grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of thy cattle, or the young of thy flock, until they have caused thee to perish.  [Thomas Nelson & Sons first published the American Standard Version in 1901. This translation of the Bible is in the public domain.]

b. YLT: And it hath eaten the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy ground, till thou art destroyed; which leaveth not to thee corn, new wine, and oil, increase of thine oxen, and wealth of thy flock, till it hath destroyed thee.  [The Young's Literal Translation was translated by Robert Young, who believed in a strictly literal translation of God's word. This version of the Bible is in the public domain.]

c. Classic Amplified: And shall eat the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, who also shall not leave you grain, new wine, oil, the increase of your cattle or the young of your sheep until they have caused you to perish.  [Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation]

d. Stone Edition THE CHUMASH, Rabbinic Commentary: It will devour the fruit of your animals and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed, it will not leave you grain, wine, or oil, offspring of your cattle or flocks of your sheep and goats, until it causes you to perish.  [The Artscroll Series/Stone Edition, THE CHUMASH Copyright 1998, 2000 by MESORAH PUBLICATIONS, Ldt.]

e. NLT: Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you will be destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs, and you will starve to death.  [Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.]

1. “And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed…”

a. [And he shall] eat [Strong: 398 ʼâkal, aw-kal'; a primitive root; to eat (literally or figuratively):—× at all, burn up, consume, devour(-er, up), dine, eat(-er, up), feed (with), food, × freely, × in...wise(-deed, plenty), (lay) meat, × quite.]

b. [the] fruit [Strong: 6529 pᵉrîy, per-ee'; from H6509; fruit (literally or figuratively):—bough, (first-)fruit(-ful), reward.]

c. [of thy] cattle [Strong: 929 bᵉhêmâh, be-hay-maw'; from an unused root (probably meaning to be mute); properly, a dumb beast; especially any large quadruped or animal (often collective):—beast, cattle.]

d. [and the] fruit [Strong: 6529 pᵉrîy, per-ee'; from H6509; fruit (literally or figuratively):—bough, (first-)fruit(-ful), reward.]

e. [of thy] land [Strong: 127 ʼădâmâh, ad-aw-maw'; from H119; soil (from its general redness):—country, earth, ground, husband(-man) (-ry), land.]

f. until [Strong: 5704 ʻad, ad; properly, the same as H5703 (used as a preposition, adverb or conjunction; especially with a preposition); as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with):—against, and, as, at, before, by (that), even (to), for(-asmuch as), (hither-) to, how long, into, as long (much) as, (so) that, till, toward, until, when, while, (+ as) yet.]

g. [thou be] destroyed [Strong: 8045 shâmad, shaw-mad'; a primitive root; to desolate:—destory(-uction), bring to nought, overthrow, perish, pluck down, × utterly.]

2. “...which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.”

a. which [also] [Strong: 834 ʼăsher, ash-er'; a primitive relative pronoun (of every gender and number); who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.:—× after, × alike, as (soon as), because, × every, for, + forasmuch, + from whence, + how(-soever), × if, (so) that ((thing) which, wherein), × though, + until, + whatsoever, when, where (+ -as, -in, -of, -on, -soever, -with), which, whilst, + whither(-soever), who(-m, -soever, -se). As it is indeclinable, it is often accompanied by the personal pronoun expletively, used to show the connection.]

b. [shall] not [Strong: 3808  lôʼ, lo; or לוֹא lôwʼ; or לֹה lôh; (Deuteronomy 3:11), a primitive particle; + not (the simple or abstract negation); by implication, no; often used with other particles:—× before, + or else, ere, + except, ig(-norant), much, less, nay, neither, never, no((-ne), -r, (-thing)), (× as though...,(can-), for) not (out of), of nought, otherwise, out of, + surely, + as truly as, + of a truth, + verily, for want, + whether, without.]

c. leave [thee] [Strong: 7604 shâʼar, shaw-ar'; a primitive root; properly, to swell up, i.e. be (causatively, make) redundant:—leave, (be) left, let, remain, remnant, reserve, the rest.]

d. [either] corn [Strong: 1715 dâgân, daw-gawn'; from H1711; properly, increase, i.e. grain:—corn (floor), wheat.]

e. wine [Strong: 8492 tîyrôwsh, tee-roshe'; or תִּירֹשׁ tîyrôsh; from H3423 in the sense of expulsion; must or fresh grape-juice (as just squeezed out); by implication (rarely) fermented wine:—(new, sweet) wine.]

f. [or] oil [Strong: 3323 yitshâr, yits-hawr'; from H6671; oil (as producing light); figuratively, anointing:— anointed oil.]

g. [or the] increase [Strong: 7698 sheger, sheh'-ger; from an unused root probably meaning to eject; the fœtus (as finally expelled):—that cometh of, increase.]

h. [of thy] kine [Strong: 504 ʼeleph, eh'-lef; from H502; a family; also (from the sense of yoking or taming) an ox or cow:—family, kine, oxen.]

i. [or] flocks [Strong: 6251 ʻashtᵉrâh, ash-ter-aw'; probably from H6238; increase:—flock.]

j. [of thy] sheep [Strong: 6629 tsôʼn, tsone; or צאוֹן tsʼôwn; (Psalm 144:13), from an unused root meaning to migrate; a collective name for a flock (of sheep or goats); also figuratively (of men):—(small) cattle, flock (+ -s), lamb (+ -s), sheep(-cote, -fold, -shearer, -herds).]

k. until [Strong: 5704 ʻad, ad; properly, the same as H5703 (used as a preposition, adverb or conjunction; especially with a preposition); as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with):—against, and, as, at, before, by (that), even (to), for(-asmuch as), (hither-) to, how long, into, as long (much) as, (so) that, till, toward, until, when, while, (+ as) yet.]

l. [he have] destroyed [Strong: 6 ʼâbad, aw-bad'; a primitive root; properly, to wander away, i.e. lose oneself; by implication to perish (causative, destroy):—break, destroy(-uction), not escape, fail, lose, (cause to, make) perish, spend, × and surely, take, be undone, × utterly, be void of, have no way to flee.]

m. thee [Strong: 853 ʼêth, ayth; apparent contracted from H226 in the demonstrative sense of entity; properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely):—[as such unrepresented in English].]

1). Troy Edwards, The Permissive Sense: Most people have read this list (Deuteronomy 28:16-68) with the erroneous idea that God will use His divine creative power to bring about these curses. Nevertheless, when we use the principle of interpreting the Bible with the Bible, we learn that these curses will come because God is  forsaking His people and withdrawing His protection. 

a). Deuteronomy 31:16-18 And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

31:17 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?

31:18 And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.

2). Edward Williams, Predestination and Election Considered: explaining to his listeners how the Hebrew idiom of permission will keep us away from an erroneous interpretation of Scripture that would otherwise cast aspersions on God’s character. After all, it may be objected, that the Scriptures ascribe to God the causation of moral evil; as hardening the heart of Pharaoh, hardening whom he will, making the wicked for the day of evil, appointing to destruction, determining the death of Christ, delivering him by determinate counsel, doing all evil in a city, making, making vessels to dishonor, fitting them for destruction, &c. In reply to this objection it must be considered, that whatever the import of such representations may be, no interpretation which is unworthy of God can be the true meaning, at the idioms of the sacred languages ascribing cause or operation to God must be understood according to the nature of the subject, and, what is particularly to our purpose, that active verbs which denote making, bring, causing, and the like, often denote a declaration of the thing done, or that shall take place; or a permission of it. (Taken from Troy J. Edwards, The Hebrew Idiom of Permission.)

3). Thomas Jackson: “It is then so common in Holy Scripture to speak of God as actually doing that which He simply permits, and does not absolutely hinder man from doing, that this may be justly regarded as an idiom of eastern speech.” (The Hebrew Idiom of Permission.]

4). Robert Balmer, Academical Lectures: But does not the Scripture, it may be said, go much farther than this, when it declares that God hardens the hearts of men? Thus ascribing to him a direct and positive agency in the production of sinful actions. To this it may be replied, that to interpret such expressions in the literal and unqualified sense, as importing that God infuses moral depravity into the human heart, is not only to contradict other declarations of scripture, but to subvert entirely the foundations of religion, by divesting the Almighty of moral perfections without which it would be impossible for his intelligent creatures to regard him with sentiments of veneration, confidence and love. It would be to ascribe to him attributes which would transform him into a legitimate object of suspicion and terror, and hatred. It may be remarked next, that according to the idiom of scripture language, God is often said to do those things which he permits, and which he is determined to render conductive to his own holy and benevolent purposes. Lastly, it is evidently fair and reasonable to interpret those expressions of scripture, as of other writings, which are dubious or dark, by those which are clear and unequivocal. Now, “times almost without number,” and in terms the most explicit and unambiguous, the scripture guards us against the ascription of any thing evil to God, and teaches us to ascribe to him whatever is good, or excellent, or holy. “I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. Far be it from Go, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.  Troy Edwards