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Deuteronomy 28 · a question people ask

How can the chapter say the LORD will "rejoice over you to cause you to perish" (28:63)?

In the text

The chapter doesn't explain it. It sets the two side by side: "as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to cause you to perish and to destroy you" (28:63). The verse before gives the reason: "because you didn’t listen to the LORD your God’s voice" (28:62). Other Scripture has the LORD's own words through Ezekiel: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Ezekiel 33:11). And Deuteronomy doesn't stop at 28:63. If Israel would "return to the LORD your God and obey his voice" (30:2), "the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers" (30:9). Neither chapter says how 28:63 and Ezekiel 33:11 fit together; the verses are set out here side by side.

The verses

“You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude, because you didn’t listen to the LORD your God’s voice. It will happen that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be plucked from the land that you are going in to possess.”
Deuteronomy 28:62-63 · World English Bible
“Tell them, ‘“As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why will you die, house of Israel?”’”
Ezekiel 33:11 · World English Bible
“and return to the LORD your God and obey his voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul,”
Deuteronomy 30:2 · World English Bible
“The LORD your God will make you prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, for good; for the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers,”
Deuteronomy 30:9 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Deuteronomy 28

Deuteronomy 28: Blessings that overtake you

Six times "blessed" (28:3-6) are answered by six times "cursed" (28:16-19); the blessings "overtake" those who listen (28:2); one reason given for the curses is not serving the LORD "with joyfulness" in "the abundance of all things" (28:47); and the last curse is "into Egypt again" (28:68).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions