Deuteronomy 28: The Curses for Disobedience

The King James Version (KJV) is mostly used in these lessons. Click here to access the KJV online.

In Deuteronomy 28 the curses for disobedience are being described and what we're going to read here is awful. It speaks of a curse coming upon the nation of Israel so badly that a man is starving to the point that he wants to eat his own flesh and blood children. We may think that a curse could never get that bad but it happens in the historical account in the book of Josephus. In the siege against Jerusalem in 70 A.D, a Roman soldier went into the house of an Israelite woman and she was cooking her child because she was starving – awful! That's a curse that Yahuwah puts upon the Israelites for disobedience.

You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom Yahuwah your mighty one has given you. In the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you, the man who is tender among you – [tender means dignified it means statesman, the man who is refined the man who you would never think that this would happen to] It says his eye will be evil toward his brother, toward the wife whom he loves and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining, so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he will eat because he has nothing left to him. In the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates. (Deut. 28:53-55, World English Bible [WEB])

The HCSB instead of literally putting ‘your eye will be evil’ it says you will look grudgingly against your brother.

The New Living Translation [NLT] says you will have no compassion against your neighbor. The God's Word [GW] translation says you will become stingy against your neighbor.

All of these are correct but the World English Bible [WEB] retains the idiom word for word from the Hebrew.

In Proverbs 28:22, an evil eye is tied with hoarding the wealth.. [a] [WEB] A stingy man hurries after riches and doesn't know that poverty waits for him.

[b] King James Version [KJV] He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.

Proverbs 23: 6-7 The Good News Bible [GNB] Don't eat at the table of a stingy person or the greedy for the fine food he serves. Come on and have some more he says but he doesn't mean it. What he thinks is what he really is.

A more literal word for word translation - the Darby Bible[DB] says - Eat thou not the food of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainties, for as he thinketh in his soul so is he. Eat and drink he will say unto thee but his heart is not with thee.

So this man that has this evil eye the stingy man, he doesn't really want you to eat his food. He might say, oh come on in, eat whatever you want to and the whole time you're eating he's saying oh boy he's eating me out of house and home. I wish he wouldn't have come over. The man has an evil eye, he's stingy, he's not generous.

Proverbs 22:9 is the flipside, it speaks about ‘the good eye’. The good eye is linked with being generous.

The Literal Standard Version [LSV}. The man with ‘the good eye’ - he is blessed for he has given his bread to the poor.

The ESV says - whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed for he shares his bread with the poor.

The Good News Bible [GNB] paraphrases this by saying - be generous and share your food with the poor, you will be blessed for it.

So the meaning behind this idiom, this ‘evil eye’ versus the ‘good eye’ is used time and time again in the Old Testament. and it's also used in Hebrew commentary and Hebrew history. It stems from how a person might look upon his neighbor before he gives or when he refrains from giving.

Matthew 6 22-23 makes perfect sense when we understand the Hebrew idiom. Yahushua speaks of storing up treasures in heaven. In19-21 He says you can't serve Yahuwah and money. In verse 24 and right in between he says, if your eye is good your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad/evil your whole body will be full of darkness. He's speaking of a generous and giving person, one who gives to others of his wealth, that's the good eye versus a stingy holding back person, one who hoards his wealth and does not give to the poor. So if you're a generous giver it shows that you're not mastered or controlled by your wealth. A generous person realizes that all that he or she owns is temporary and fleeting. A generous person realizes I brought no material wealth into this world and I will take none out with me when I die. So you help other people with your wealth because you know that the true treasure comes later in the kingdom of heaven when Yahushua establishes it on earth. The treasures that the believer is going to get in the kingdom of heaven are so much greater than any treasure we could have now in this life. So let's have a good eye, not an evil eye.