37 You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.
37 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.
37 And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away.
37 Among all the peoples where God will take you, you'll be treated as a lesson or a proverb - a horror!
37 And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.
37 You will become an object of horror, ridicule, and mockery among all the nations to which the Lord sends you.
4 We are objects of contempt to our neighbors, of scorn and derision to those around us.
4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us.
4 We're nothing but a joke to our neighbors, graffiti scrawled on the city walls.
4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, A scorn and derision to those who are around us.
4 We are mocked by our neighbors, an object of scorn and derision to those around us.
(Read Psalm 79:1-5)
God is complained to: whither should children go but to a Father able and willing to help them? See what a change sin made in the holy city, when the heathen were suffered to pour in upon them. God's own people defiled it by their sins, therefore he suffered their enemies to defile it by their insolence. They desired that God would be reconciled. Those who desire God's favour as better than life, cannot but dread his wrath as worse than death. In every affliction we should first beseech the Lord to cleanse away the guilt of our sins; then he will visit us with his tender mercies.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:37
Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:15-44
(Read Deuteronomy 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.