The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
25. The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies. What He had briefly threatened in His mention of “the sword,” He now more fully pursues, that they should be given up to the will of their enemies, so as to be indiscriminately slaughtered.
Having viewed the bright side of the cloud, which is towards the obedient, we have now presented to us the dark side, which is towards the disobedient. 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 is as comprehensive of all misery as the blessing is of all happiness. Observe, I.
Commenting on Deuteronomy 28:15-44
The Lord shall smite thee with madness,.... At the calamities befallen them, and through the force of diseases on them: and blindness; not of body, but of mind; with judicial blindness and hardness of heart: and astonishment of heart; at the miserable condition they and their families should be in.