(22) Consumption.--Only here and in Leviticus 26:16. "With which the flesh is consumed and puffed out" (Rashi).

Fever.--Only here and in Leviticus 26:16, where it is rendered "burning ague." ( Comp. Deuteronomy 32:22 : "A fire is kindled in mine anger.")

Inflammation.--Here only. The word is derived from a verb signifying to burn, or pursue hotly, like a fire that hastens on its way. "A heat greater than the fever" (Rashi).

Extreme burning.--Here only. "A disease which heats the body inwardly" (Rashi).

Blasting and mildew.--"I have smitten you with blasting and with mildew" (Amos 4:9, same words). (See also 1Kings 8:37, where "pestilence, blasting, and mildew" are contemplated as possibilities, very probably in view of this curse. Also Haggai 2:17.)

28:15-44 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 includes all misery, as the blessing all happiness. Observe the justice of this curse. It is not a curse causeless, or for some light cause. The extent and power of this curse. Wherever the sinner goes, the curse of God follows; wherever he is, it rests upon him. Whatever he has is under a curse. All his enjoyments are made bitter; he cannot take any true comfort in them, for the wrath of God mixes itself with them. Many judgments are here stated, which would be the fruits of the curse, and with which God would punish the people of the Jews, for their apostacy and disobedience. We may observe the fulfilling of these threatenings in their present state. To complete their misery, it is threatened that by these troubles they should be bereaved of all comfort and hope, and left to utter despair. Those who walk by sight, and not by faith, are in danger of losing reason itself, when every thing about them looks frightful.The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption,.... An emaciation of their bodies, either through famine or wasting diseases, whereby the fluids are washed off, and men are reduced to skin and bones:

and with a fever; a hot burning disease, which dries up the radical moisture, consumes it, and so threatens with death; of which there are various sorts, and some very pestilential and mortal Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret it of a fire in the face, by which they seem to mean what is called St. Anthony's fire:

and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning; either in the inward parts, as an inflammation of the lungs; or in the outward parts, as carbuncles, burning ulcers, and the like:

and with the sword; in the margin it is, "with drought"; so Aben Ezra interprets the word, which seems better to suit with what it is in company with; and designs either drought in human bodies, occasioned by fevers, inflammations, and extreme burnings; or in the earth, through the force of the sun, and want of rain, which render the earth barren and unfruitful, and so cause a famine:

and with blasting and with mildew; whereby the corn that is sown, and springs up, comes to nothing, being blasted by east winds, or turns pale and yellow by the mildew, and so withers away; the consequence of which is want of food, and so destruction and ruin; see Amos 4:9,

and they shall pursue thee until thou perish; follow hard after them, and come so close one after another upon them, until they are utterly destroyed.