Deuteronomy 28 · Verse 49

Deuteronomy 28:49

The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
Deuteronomy 28:49, King James Version

Deuteronomy 28:49 in other translations

BSBThe LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand,
WEBThe LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies: a nation whose language you will not understand,
ASVJehovah will bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
YLT‘Jehovah doth lift up against thee a nation, from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle it flieth; a nation whose tongue thou hast not heard,
DARBYJehovah will bring a nation against thee from afar, from the end of the earth, like as the eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue thou understandest not;
BBEThe Lord will send a nation against you from the farthest ends of the earth, coming with the flight of an eagle; a nation whose language is strange to you;
WebsterThe LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth, a nation whose language thou shalt not understand:

What does Deuteronomy 28:49 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
49. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far--the invasion of the Romans--"they came from far." The soldiers of the invading army were taken from France, Spain, and Britain--then considered "the end of the earth." Julius Severus, the commander, afterwards Vespasian and Hadrian, left Britain for the scene of contest. Moreover, the ensign on the standards of the Roman army was "an eagle"; and the dialects spoken by the soldiers of the different nations that composed that army were altogether unintelligible to the Jews.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 49 A nation - from far - Probably the Romans. As the eagle flieth - The very animal on all the Roman standards. The Roman eagle is proverbial. Whose tongue thou shalt not understand - The Latin language, than which none was more foreign to the structure and idiom of the Hebrew.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Deuteronomy 28:45-68

If God inflicts vengeance, what miseries his curse can bring upon mankind, even in this present world! Yet these are but the beginning of sorrows to those under the curse of God. What then will be the misery of that world where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched! Observe what is here said of the wrath of God, which should come and remain upon the Israelites for their sins. It is amazing to think…

Read the full comment on Deuteronomy 28:45-68 →

Deuteronomy 28:49 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

יִשָּׂ֣אyi.Sa'he will raise upH5375
יְהוָה֩Yah.wehYahwehH3068
עָלֶ֨יךָ'a.Lei.khaon youH5921
גּ֤וֹיGoya nationH1471
מֵרָחוֹק֙me.ra.chOkfrom a distanceH7350
מִקְצֵ֣הmik.Tzehfrom [the] end ofH7097
הָאָ֔רֶץha.'A.retzthe earthH776
כַּאֲשֶׁ֥רka.'a.Sherjust asH834
יִדְאֶ֖הyid.'Ehit swoops downH1675
הַנָּ֑שֶׁרha.Na.sher<the> eagleH5404
גּ֕וֹיGoya nationH1471
אֲשֶׁ֥ר'a.SherwhichH834
לֹא\־lo'-notH3808
תִשְׁמַ֖עtish.Ma'you will understandH8085
לְשֹׁנֽוֹ\׃le.sho.Nolanguage itsH3956

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Deuteronomy 28:49

  • Lamentations 4:19

    Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

  • Jeremiah 48:40

    For thus saith the Lord; Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab.

  • Jeremiah 49:22

    Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

  • Hosea 8:1

    Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.

  • Jeremiah 5:15-17

    Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.

  • Ezekiel 17:12

    Say now to the rebellious house, Know ye not what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and hath taken the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and led them with him to Babylon;

  • Ezekiel 17:3

    And say, Thus saith the Lord God; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:

  • Jeremiah 6:22-23

    Thus saith the Lord, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth. They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.

  • Isaiah 5:26-30

    And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken: Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind: Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. …

  • Habakkuk 1:6-7

    For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.

  • Luke 19:43-44

    For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

  • Matthew 24:28

    For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
bring a nation.Though the Chaldeans are frequently described under the figure of an eagle, yet these verses especially predict the desolations brought on the Jews by the Romans; who came from a country far more distant than Chaldea; whose conquests were as rapid as the eagle's flight, and whose standard bore this very figure; who spake a language to which the Jews were then entire strangers, being wholly unlike the Hebrew, of which the Chaldee was merely a dialect; whose appearance and victories were terrible; and whose yoke was a yoke of iron; and the havoc which they made tremendous.
Nu 24:24; Isa 5:26-30; Jer 5:15-17; Da 6:22,23; 9:26; Hab 1:6,7
Lu 19:43,44
as the eagle.
Jer 4:13; 48:40; 49:22; La 4:19; Eze 17:3,12; Ho 8:1; Mt 24:28
a nation whose.
Jer 5:15; Eze 3:6; 1Co 14:21
understand. Heb. hear.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Deuteronomy 28:48

    Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

  • Deuteronomy 28:49

    The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;

  • Deuteronomy 28:50

    A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:

Read all of Deuteronomy 28

Deuteronomy 28:49 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Jehová traerá sobre ti gente de lejos, del cabo de la tierra, que vuele como águila, gente cuya lengua no entiendas;
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		L’ Éternel amènera contre toi, de loin, du bout de la terre, une nation semblable à l’aigle qui vole, une nation dont tu n’entends pas la langue,
German
Elberfelder 1871		Jehova wird von ferne, vom Ende der Erde her, eine Nation gegen dich herbeiführen, gleichwie der Adler fliegt, eine Nation, deren Sprache du nicht verstehst;
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Adducet Dominus super te gentem de longinquo, et de extremis terræ finibus in similitudinem aquilæ volantis cum impetu, cujus linguam intelligere non possis: