John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 28:64

"And Jehovah will scatter thee among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers, even wood and stone." — Deuteronomy 28:64 (ASV)

And the Lord shall scatter you among all people. At the end of the preceding verse, He had threatened them with banishment, which was far more painful to the people of Israel than to other nations.

Since affection for our country is natural to all, it is disagreeable to be away from it. However, the condition of the Israelite people was peculiar, for the inheritance of Canaan was promised to them by God, and they could not be expelled from it without being renounced by their heavenly Father.

But He now proceeds a second and third step further, for He adds to banishment a miserable scattering, and to scattering, trembling and wanderings full of disquietude. For, if they had been expelled all together into any one corner of the world, their banishment would have been more tolerable from their very association with each other. Their calamity is, therefore, augmented when the storm of God’s wrath scatters them here and there like chaff, so that they would be dispersed and dwell in widely different countries.

Another kind of servitude, which I have elsewhere noticed, is incidentally added; that is, that He would enslave them not only to men, but to idols also. The third step is their lack of rest, for there was to be no fixed abode for them in their captivity. This is by far the most wretched state of all: to serve tyrannical conquerors as captives and yet to have no certain master.

Still, it was a most just reward for the people’s ingratitude that they should nowhere find a fixed resting-place, because they had rejected the rest offered them by God, as we read in Isaiah 28:12. He, however, extends the evil, bitter as it was in itself, still further. For they were not only to be compelled to wander in confusion and immediately to move onwards, but, wherever they should go, inward perturbation of mind was to follow them as their inseparable companion.

Now, it is sadder to be agitated within by secret fear than to be oppressed by external violence. For believers, although they too may be unsettled and tossed by many troublesome waves, still repose with tranquil minds on God. In contrast, the wicked, however they may desire to lull themselves into security, are nevertheless always without true peace; and if, for a while, they sink into lethargy, they are still soon compelled by God to arouse themselves, whether they want to or not.

Surely, just as the repose of a well-regulated mind is a signal mark of God’s favor, so a constant and irremediable fear, such as is referred to here, is one of His terrible punishments.

Since the fear of spiritual punishments only lightly affects ungodly men, Moses magnifies in many words what the Israelites would otherwise have carelessly overlooked. Especially, he points out what dreadful torments of anxiety would affect the wicked, when he says that their life should hang in suspense, as it were, before their eyes, so that they should fear day and night.

An illustrative story is told of Dionysius,²⁵³ who commanded an exquisite supper, supplied with every delicacy, to be prepared for a courtly flatterer by whom his happiness had been praised. He placed him in his own seat, so²⁵⁴ that he might feast pleasantly, but ordered a sword to be suspended by a thread to overhang his head. Consequently, the one who had pronounced the tyrant to be happy, upon seeing death so near him every moment, did not dare to taste either food or drink.

Dionysius, therefore, confessed, not without shame to himself, that he and all other tyrants, while they are formidable to others, are tormented by perpetual fear. Now, this same disquietude is common to all who despise God; for the more wantonly they rage in forgetfulness of His fear, the more deservedly they dread their own shadow.

Besides, when we look around us and see by how many forms of death our lives are beset, it is inevitable that innumerable anxieties should naturally possess us. How, then, can the wicked help being harassed by miserable and perplexing doubts when they perceive themselves to be shut out from the protection of God and exposed to so many evils? Tranquility of mind, therefore, can only arise from having God as our Keeper and from resting under His protection.

By the words, the sight of your eyes, I have no doubt that Moses designates those specters²⁵⁵ and imaginary terrors by which death is set before the eyes of the reprobate.

²⁵³ This well-known story of Dionysius of Syracuse and his courtier Damocles, is beautifully told by Cicero. — Tusc. . Quoest. 5. 21.. 5. 21.

²⁵⁴ “Pour reciter ceste felicite, qu’il avoit tant preschee;” to make a rehearsal of this felicity, which he had so greatly praised. — Fr..

²⁵⁵ “Toutes illusions, fantasmes, et espouvantails, qui nous menacent de la mort;” all illusions, phantoms, and horrors, which threaten us with death. — Fr..