But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God,.... As directed, exhorted, and encouraged to, Deuteronomy 28:1, c.
to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day both moral and ceremonial:
that all these curses shall come upon thee; from the hand of God, certainly, suddenly, and unawares:
and overtake thee; pursuing after thee, will come up to thee, and seize upon thee, though they may seem to move slowly; see Zechariah 5:3; namely, the curses which follow. Manasseh Ben Israel f divides them into two parts, the first from hence to Deuteronomy 28:45; which respects the destruction of the first temple, and the things that went before or related to that; and the second from thence to the end of the chapter, which he thinks refers to the destruction of the second temple, and their present case and circumstances; and it must be owned that for the most part the distinction may seem to hold good; what is prophesied of that should befall the Jews for their disobedience being more remarkably and distinctly fulfilled in the one than in the other; yet there are things in the whole which respect both, or that were fulfilled, some under one dispensation, and some under another, and some that were fulfilled in both; but chiefly and more manifestly at and since their dispersion by the Romans.
f De Termino Vitae, l. 3. sect. 3. p. 126.