John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 28:49

"Jehovah will bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;" — Deuteronomy 28:49 (ASV)

The Lord shall bring a nation against them from far. He reinforces the same threats in different words, namely, that unknown and barbarous enemies would come, who would attack them with great impetuosity and violence. And to further aggravate their cruelty, He says that their language would be a strange one; for when there is no oral communication, there is no room for entreaties, which sometimes awaken even the most savage to mercy. But Jeremiah shows that this was fulfilled in the case of the Chaldeans;

“Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel; it is a mighty nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor understand what they say.” (Jeremiah 5:15).

On the other hand, when Isaiah promises them deliverance, he mentions this among the chief of their blessings, that the Jews would “not see a fierce people,” that they would not hear

“a people of deeper speech than they could perceive, of a stammering tongue ²⁴⁸ that they could not understand.” (Isaiah 33:19).

For, as I have elsewhere said, the Prophets were careful to take their form of expression from Moses, lest the Jews should, according to their custom, proudly despise the threats which God had interwoven with His Law.

Lest the distance of their countries should lull them into security, He says that they would be like eagles in swiftness, so as to overwhelm them suddenly, just as God often compares the ministers of His wrath to the whirlwind and the storm. Jeremiah has also imitated this comparison, where he declares that the slaughter, which the Jews in their false imagination had supposed to be far away from them, would come suddenly upon them. (Jeremiah 4:13).

Moses adds, that this nation would be “strong of face, ²⁴⁹ which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favor to the young,” by which he signifies their extreme ferocity. I have already expounded what follows concerning their looting and plunder.

²⁴⁸ “Cui lingua stridet absque intelligentia.” — Lat. “Lesquels grondent sans intelligence.” — . “Lesquels grondent sans intelligence.” — Fr..

²⁴⁹ See margin, A..V..