“And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.”
My Notes
What Does Deuteronomy 28:63 Mean?
This verse makes one of the most troubling statements in the Old Testament: just as God rejoiced over Israel to bless and multiply them, he will rejoice over them to destroy and bring them to nothing. The same emotional intensity God brought to blessing will be brought to judgment. God doesn't judge reluctantly; he judges with the same energy he used to bless.
The parallel structure is deliberate and devastating: "rejoiced to do you good" mirrors "rejoice to destroy you." The verb is the same (sus — to take pleasure, to exult). This isn't passionless administration of consequences; it's a God whose joy in blessing, when spurned, becomes comparable intensity in judgment.
The final phrase — "ye shall be plucked from off the land" — describes exile, the ultimate covenant punishment. The land that was given as inheritance becomes the land from which they're torn. This was fulfilled in the Babylonian exile of 586 BC and again in the Roman destruction and dispersion of 70 AD.
Reflection Questions
- 1.How do you reconcile God's joy in judgment with his love for his people?
- 2.Does this verse make God feel more or less personal to you — and why?
- 3.What does it mean that God's emotional intensity is the same in blessing and in judgment?
- 4.How does appropriate 'fear of the LORD' differ from being afraid of God?
Devotional
This might be the hardest verse in Deuteronomy. God will rejoice to destroy Israel the same way he rejoiced to bless them. The same God, the same intensity, the same emotional investment — aimed in the opposite direction.
Our instinct is to soften this. Surely God doesn't take pleasure in judgment. Surely he judges reluctantly, sorrowfully, with a heavy heart. And other Scriptures do affirm God's grief over judgment (Ezekiel 33:11). But this verse won't let you make judgment entirely reluctant. There is something in God's character that is satisfied — even joyful — when justice is done, even when justice is terrible.
The key is the parallel: the joy in judgment mirrors the joy in blessing. God's emotional engagement with his people isn't asymmetric — he's all in, whether he's building them up or tearing them down. A passionless God would be easier to handle. But the God of the Bible is anything but passionless. His love is fierce, and so is his justice.
This should produce appropriate fear — not the cowering kind, but the reverent kind. The God who rejoiced over you to bless you is the God who takes covenant faithfulness seriously enough to rejoice when justice is done. His joy is always aligned with righteousness, even when righteousness requires destruction.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
In the morning thou shalt say, would God it were even,.... Wishing they might get through the day well, fearing their…
The curses correspond in form and number Deu 28:15-19 to the blessings Deu 28:3-6, and the special modes in which these…
One would have thought that enough had been said to possess them with a dread of that wrath of God which is revealed…
rejoiced over you, etc.] Cp. Deu 8:16; Deu 30:9. Rejoiceor exult, found only in exilic or post-exilic passages.
to…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture