And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail,.... Give them dominion over others, and not make them subject to them; the head signifies rulers and governors, and the tail the common people that are subjects; or the one such that are honourable and in high esteem, and the other such that are mean and base; see Isaiah 9:14; the Targum of Jonathan is,
"the Word of the Lord shall make thee, c.''
and thou shalt be above only, and thou shall not be beneath which explains what is meant by head and tail, being uppermost and lowermost, as the head is the upper part, and the tail the lower part of a creature; the one is more honourable, the other vile: the sense is, that they should be superior to other people in honour and dignity, and not below them, or vassals to them:
if that thou hearken to the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and to do [them]; which is the condition on which all this happiness depended.