Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shall not enjoy them,.... Or, "they shall not be thine" (q); being taken from them, and given to others, see Deuteronomy 28:32; and for the following reason:

for they shall go into captivity; as when the ten tribes were carried captive by Shalmaneser, and the two tribes by Nebuchadnezzar, and all the people of the Jews by the Romans.

(q) "et non erunt tibi", Pagninus, Montanus.

Sons and daughters would they beget, but not keep, because they would have to go into captivity.

Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.

thou shalt not...: Heb. they shall not be thine

28:15-44 If we do not keep God's commandments, we not only come short of the blessing promised, but we lay ourselves under the curse, which includes all misery, as the blessing all happiness. Observe the justice of this curse. It is not a curse causeless, or for some light cause. The extent and power of this curse. Wherever the sinner goes, the curse of God follows; wherever he is, it rests upon him. Whatever he has is under a curse. All his enjoyments are made bitter; he cannot take any true comfort in them, for the wrath of God mixes itself with them. Many judgments are here stated, which would be the fruits of the curse, and with which God would punish the people of the Jews, for their apostacy and disobedience. We may observe the fulfilling of these threatenings in their present state. To complete their misery, it is threatened that by these troubles they should be bereaved of all comfort and hope, and left to utter despair. Those who walk by sight, and not by faith, are in danger of losing reason itself, when every thing about them looks frightful.