Deuteronomy 28

Deuteronomy 28:5

Basil of Caesarea: The prosperity of a city is dependent upon the supply of goods for sale in the market. We say that a country is prosperous which produces much fruit. So also there is a certain prosperity of the soul when it has been filled with works of every kind. It is necessary first for it to be laboriously cultivated and then to be enriched by the plentiful streams of heavenly waters, so as to bear fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold and to obtain the blessing which says, “Blessed shall be your barns and blessed your stores.” — EXEGETIC HOMILIES 14.5

Deuteronomy 28:12

Ambrose of Milan: The knowledge hereof the good God opens to His saints, and grants it out of His good treasury, even as the sacred Law testifies, saying, The Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee and open unto thee His good treasure. From this heavenly treasure He gives rain to His lands, to bless all the works of thy hands. By this rain is signified the utterance of the Law, which moistens the soul fruitful and fertile in good works, that it may receive the dew of Grace. — Letters 21-30

Deuteronomy 28:14

Augustine of Hippo: You will not turn away from any commandment that I command you today going to the right or to the left behind other gods to serve them. It may be asked how it could be interpreted that it goes to the right who goes after other gods to serve them, when the right is praised, and, on the other hand, the worship of the gods could never be considered worthy of it? Although those who lean to the right are also reprimanded in the path of life, however, in this text they do not criticize the things that are on the right, but those who lean to the right, that is, the one who arrogate what is of God. That is why it is said in the Proverbs: Do not deviate to the right or to the left, because the paths to the right are known by the Lord; however, those on the left are perverse. Therefore, the right that the Lord knows is good, for the Lord knows the ways of the just, (Ps. 1,6) as the psalm reads. The reason why it is said do not deviate to the right, it is explained with what is added next: For he will make your ways straight. God forbid I deny that the right hand known by the Lord is not right, but, as I said, to turn towards it is not to bow to the grace of God, but to want to attribute to oneself what is right. Finally, as I said, he adds and says: He himself will make your paths straight and all your travels will carry them forward in peace (Pv 4,27). Therefore, what is said in this place of Deuteronomy that we are dealing with: You will not turn away from any commandment that I give you today to go to the right or to the left after other gods to serve them, it has not been said because the gods others can also be taken as the right; but they have meant earthly places, because the Gentiles who worshiped other gods had them on the right and on the left; or this must be read separately from the other gods, so that the phrase has two senses, one of which would be this: You will not depart from any commandment that I give you today to the right or to the left, understood naturally according to what I explained above. Another meaning would be: Going after other gods to serve them, so that you also understand here: You will not turn away from any commandment that I give you today. If we wanted to express all this sense, we should repeat the previous terms, which are common to both directions, so that, as it is said: You will not turn away from any commandment that I give you today to the right or to the left, as well also repeat here: You will not turn away from any commandment that I give you today by going after other gods to serve them. Leaving aside, then, the commandments that God has given, this is also done: to go after other gods. Because he did not send only this, or God does not want to be overlooked only that which he ordered: that no one go after other gods, but wants everything that he commanded to be fulfilled. But this he did so prominently that, after the universality of the precept, in which it was noticed that no one should depart from any word of his commandments, he also wanted to send this separately. The following words: To the right or to the left, can be understood as well: that has not been commanded to go after other gods or because of what is desired, because of happiness, or because of what it shies away, to cause of unhappiness, that is, neither for what is loved nor against what is abhorred, you can ask for the help of other gods, nor in a way that either they are reconciled to lend their help or that they are placated so that they do not cause harm, for on some the following was also written in the psalm: The mouth of these said lying and their right is right of iniquity, precisely because it is believed that they make the man happy these things, which can have not only the good, if not bad, and that’s why the right is proper to iniquity, because those who consider this is the right are wicked, when it is not the true right, but is the right of those whose mouth tells lies; they called happy the people who possess these things, when in reality, as soon as it is added and said: The people whose God is the Lord is blessed (Sal 143,8.15). This is the true right of justice, not of iniquity. One should not go, then, behind other gods or to the right, so that man believes that he receives happiness from them, nor to the left, so that, believing that if they are contrary to him, he will be an unhappy man, adore them for turn away misery. Or at least, if we think that the right is the eternal goods and the left the temporary goods, it must not be believed that the Sacred Scripture allows in this place to worship other gods or for those goods or for these. — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 48 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Deuteronomy 28:23

Ambrose of Milan: By the heaven then being brass is signified its being shut up, and refusing its use to the earth. The earth also is iron, for it witholds its produce, and with hostile rigour excludes from its fructifying soil the seeds thrown upon it, which its wont is to cherish as in the bosom of a tender mother. For when does iron bring forth fruit, when does brass melt into showers? — Letters 61-70

Basil of Caesarea: What is meant by “a heaven of brass”? Absolute dryness and lack of aerial waters through which the earth produces its fruits. — EXEGETIC HOMILIES 3.8

Deuteronomy 28:29

Ephrem the Syrian: At times when we were in error, mired in the pride of our mind as if with our feet in the mud, we did not perceive our error because our soul was unable to see itself. Although we would look [into the mirror] each day, we would “grope around” in the dark “like blind men.” Our inner mind did not possess that which is necessary for discernment. — LETTER TO PUBLIUS 11

Deuteronomy 28:66

Athanasius of Alexandria: Perhaps you have heard of the prophecy of Christ’s death. You ask to learn [from Moses] what is set forth concerning the cross. Not even this is passed over. It is displayed by the holy men with great plainness. For first Moses predicts it, and that even with a loud voice, when he says, “You shall see your Life hanging before your eyes and shall not believe.” — On the Incarnation of the Word 35

Tertullian: Now the mystery of this “sign” was in various ways predicted; (a “sign”) in which the foundation of life was forelaid for mankind; (a “sign”) in which the Jews were not to believe: just as Moses beforetime kept on announcing in Exodus, saying, “Ye shall be ejected from the land into which ye shall enter; and in those nations ye shall not be able to rest: and there shall be instabilityof the print of thy foot: and God shall give thee a wearying heart, and a pining soul, and failing eyes, that they see not: and thy life shall hang on the tree before thine eyes; and thou shalt not trust thy life. — An Answer to the Jews