John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 28:53

"And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, whom Jehovah thy God hath given thee, in the siege and in the distress wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee." — Deuteronomy 28:53 (ASV)

And you shall eat the fruit of your own body. This is one of those omens which was mentioned previously; for it is an act of ferocity, detestable and more than tragic, that fathers and mothers should eat their own offspring, for whom such great love is naturally implanted in every heart that parents often forget themselves in their concern for their children, and many have not hesitated to die to ensure their safety.

Indeed, when animals so carefully cherish their young, what can be more disgusting or abominable than that men should cease to care for their own blood? But this is the most monstrous of all atrocities, when fathers and mothers devour the offspring they have procreated; and yet this threat certainly was fulfilled, as we have seen elsewhere.

Therefore, we ought to be all the more alarmed when we see that God so terribly punished the sins of those whom He had deigned to choose as His own. Still, it was not without very just cause that this wrath was so greatly kindled against the Jews, who had committed every kind of iniquity, so that their wickedness was completely intolerable.

It must never be forgotten, then, that those in the household of the Church to whom God’s truth is revealed are on that account less excusable, because they knowingly and willfully provoke His wrath, while their continued perseverance in sin is completely unworthy of pardon.

The monstrous brutality of the act is heightened when He says that men, otherwise tender and accustomed to delicacies, would be so savage from hunger that they will refuse to give a share of this horrible food to their wives and surviving children; as Jeremiah also expressly says, the pitiful women shall be so maddened by hunger as to cook their own children (Lamentations 4:10).

What follows regarding the afterbirth is even more horrible, for this is what they call the membrane by which the fetus is covered in the womb, with all its excrements. That they would prepare a filthy skin for food, the very sight of which is disgusting, plainly demonstrates the awfulness of God’s vengeance.