Deuteronomy 28:27

Deu 28:27 The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

Ver. 27. With the botch of Egypt,] i.e., With the leprosy called Elephantiasis, when the skin grows hard as the elephant’s skin. This, saith one, was bred only about Nile, the river of Egypt.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 28:27-29. The botch of Egypt — Such boils or blains as the Egyptians were plagued with, spreading from head to foot. The emerods — Those painful swellings of the hemorrhoidal vessels, called piles. Blindness — Of mind, so that they should not know what to do. Astonishment — They should be filled with wonder and horror because of the strangeness and soreness of their calamities. Grope at noon-day — In the most clear and evident matters thou shalt grossly mistake. Thy ways — Thy counsels and enterprises shall be frustrated and turn to thy destruction. Compare Jer 25:16; Jer 25:18; Zep 1:17; Lam 4:14; Jer 4:9; Eze 4:17.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

28:27 the boils of Egypt: See Exod 9:8-12. • tumors: Cp. 1 Sam 5:6, 9, 12. • scurvy: Perhaps dermatitis. • The itch is also symptomatic of dermatitis.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

the botch of Egypt--a troublesome eruption, marked by red pimples, to which, at the rising of the Nile, the Egyptians are subject.

emerods--fistulæ or piles.

scab--scurvy.

itch--the disease commonly known by that name; but it is far more malignant in the East than is ever witnessed in our part of the world.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch] שחין shechin, a violent inflammatory swelling. In Job 2:7, one of the Hexapla versions renders it ελεφας, the elephantiasis, a disease the most horrid that can possibly afflict human nature. In this disorder, the whole body is covered with a most loathsome scurf; the joints are all preternaturally enlarged, and the skin swells up and grows into folds like that of an elephant, whence the disease has its name. The skin, through its rigidity, breaks across at all the joints, and a most abominable ichor flows from all the chinks, c. See an account of it in Aretaeus, whose language is sufficient to chill the blood of a maniac, could he attend to the description given by this great master, of this most loathsome and abominable of all the natural productions of death and sin. This was called the botch of Egypt, as being peculiar to that country, and particularly in the vicinity of the Nile. Hence those words of Lucretius: -

Est Elephas morbus, qui circum flumina Nili

Nascitur, AEgypto in media nec praeterea usquam.

Lib. vi., ver. 1112.

Emerods] עפלים ophalim, from עפל aphal, to be elevated, raised up; swellings, protuberances; probably the bleeding piles.

Scab] גרב garab does not occur as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, but [Arabic] gharb, in Arabic, signifies a distemper in the corner of the eye, (Castel.,) and may amount to the Egyptian ophthalmia, which is so epidemic and distressing in that country: some suppose the scurvy to be intended.

Itch] חרס cheres, a burning itch, probably something of the erysipelatous kind, or what is commonly called St. Anthony's fire.

Whereof thou canst not be healed.] For as they were inflicted by GOD'S justice, they could not of course be cured by human art.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(27) The botch of Egypt.—The “boil,” with which the Egyptians were plagued (Exo_9:9, &c.) is the same word. (See also 2Ki_20:7; Job_2:7.) Rashi says of this boil, “It was very bad, being moist on the inside, and dry outside.” A learned Dalmatian Jew, with whom I have read this passage, tells me that he has seen many cases of this kind among the Hungarian and Polish Jews, and that it prevails among them, being traceable partly to their uncleanliness.

Emerods—i.e., hœmorrhoids (as in 1Sa_5:6).

The scab.—In Lev_21:20; Lev_22:22 “scurvy.” It would make both a priest and a victim unclean, and unfit for the service of Jehovah.

The itch.—Here only. “A dry ulcer like a sherd” (Rashi).

Whereof thou canst not be healed.—Not that these things are in themselves incurable, but that they should have them incurably.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27. the boil of Egypt] Cp. P, Exo_9:9 with Driver’s note. One of the skin-diseases common in Egypt. Boil, Heb. sheḥîn; Eg. sḥn, ‘an abscess.’ Some think of small-pox, others of elephantiasis. But it may be the bubonic plague; see next note.

emerods] LXX ἕλκος Αἰγ. εἰς τὴν ἕδραν. Rather, as R.V. marg., tumours; Heb. ‘ophalim, swellings. Probably the buboes of the bubonic plague (so Macalister). On this see HGHL, 157 ff.

scurvy] Heb. garab (Ar. garab = mange), Lev_21:20; Lev_22:22; LXX ψώρα ἀγρία, Vulg. scabies. ‘Favus’ (Macalister).

itch] Heb. ḥeres, Lev_21:20, LXX κνήφη, Vulg. prurigo.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her,.... Espouse a woman in order to make her his wife, and before he can take her home, and consummate the marriage, through some calamity or another coming upon them, they should be set at a distance from each other, and she should fall into the hands of another man, who either should ravish her, or gain her consent to lie with her, or become his wife; which, when the marriage was so near being consummated, must be a grievous disappointment, and a great vexation:

thou shall build an house, and thou shall not dwell therein; being, before it is quite finished, or however before he is got into it, carried captive, or obliged to flee to a distant place:

thou shall plant a vineyard, and shall not gather the grapes thereof; or make it common, on the fourth year to eat the fruits of it, as Jarchi; which might not be done until sanctified and redeemed according to the law in Lev 19:23; See Gill on Deu 20:6.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Egypt. See chap. vi. 15., xxviii. 60., Exodus ix. 9, and xv. 25., or with such diseases as those with which he afflicted Egypt. (Calmet) --- Out. Hebrew, "with the emerods, scab, and itch," (Haydock) 1 Kings v. 6, 12.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

27. The botch of Egypt — Probably the disease called elephantiasis. Comp. Exo_9:9, where the Hebrew word is translated boil. This section (27-34) announces some further disasters that will follow upon disobedience. Physical and mental calamities will come — desolation of the home and destruction of property.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 27-34. Second group. The Lord should afflict them with various loathsome diseases, vex them with humiliating and mortifying calamities, and give them over to be plundered and oppressed by their enemies.

Botch of Egypt; the form of leprosy peculiar to Egypt, (Exo_9:9, etc.) elephantiasis, AEgypti peculiare malum" (Pliny, "Nat. Hist.," 26:1-5). Emerods; tumors, probably piles. (cf. 1Sa 5) Scab; probably some kind of malignant scurvy. Itch of this there are various kinds common in Egypt and Syria.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The botch of Egypt - Such boils and blains as the Egyptians were plagued with, spreading from head to foot: The emerodes - Or piles.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

General Information:

Moses speaks to the Israelites as if they were one man, so the words "you" and "your" here are singular. (See: Forms of You)

the boils of Egypt

"the same skin disease with which I cursed the Egyptians"

boils ... ulcers, scurvy, and itch

These are different types of skin diseases.

from which you cannot be healed

This can be stated in active form. AT: "from which no one will be able to heal you" (See: Active or Passive)

You will grope about at noonday like the blind grope in the darkness

"You will be like blind people who grope in darkness even at noonday." The Israelites will have a difficult life even when everyone else is enjoying life. (See: Simile)

you will be always oppressed and robbed

"stronger people will always oppress and rob you"

translationWords

Egypt

cure

darkness

oppress

save

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

בשחין מצרים [THE LORD WILL SMITH THEE] WITH THE BOILS OF EGYPT — This was very bad, being wet inside and dry on the surface, as is stated in Treatise Bechorot 41a.

גרב is a wet boil,

חרס is a boil dry as a potsherd (חרס identical with חרש, a potsherd cf. Rashi on Leviticus 21:20).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.