The Head and the Tail Reversed
36 Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone. 37 You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away. 38 You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in, for the locust will consume it. 39 You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won’t anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off. 41 You will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity. 42 Locusts will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground. 43 The foreigner who is among you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower. 44 He will lend to you, and you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail. 45 All these curses will come on you, and will pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you didn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you. 46 They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your offspring forever.
Every promise of the blessing is turned over one at a time, and the resident foreigner ends up on top.
The reversal continues, and it works through the blessings item by item.
Seed is carried out and little comes in, because the locust takes it. Vineyards are planted and dressed, and there is no wine, because of worms. Olive trees stand in every border and there is no oil, because the fruit drops Deuteronomy 28:38–40.
Each clause has the same construction: full effort, and no result. This is not a famine in which nothing grows. It is worse for being nearly successful — the vines are tended, the trees are there, the work is done, and the yield fails at the last stage.
Then the children: you will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours Deuteronomy 28:41.
And then the social reversal, and it is aimed precisely at the earlier promise. The foreigner will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower. He will lend to you, and you won't lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail Deuteronomy 28:43–44.
The blessing had said Israel would lend to many nations and not borrow, and would be the head, and not the tail Deuteronomy 28:12–13. Both phrases come back with the parties exchanged. The resident foreigner — the man this book repeatedly commands them to love, feed and include — is the one who rises.
That is a pointed choice. The people who neglect the foreigner in the good years find him lending to them in the bad ones.
The summary uses the same verb the blessings used: the curses will pursue you and overtake you Deuteronomy 28:45. What was promised as good chasing a man down is now the opposite thing doing exactly the same.
And the reason given at both ends of the section is not idolatry, or injustice, or any specific crime. It is failure to listen: because you didn't listen to Yahweh your God's voice Deuteronomy 28:45.
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