Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 28:57
the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses Israel on the plains of Moab, pronouncing covenant curses that will activate if they abandon the law. The passage describes the extreme famine that will unfold during an enemy siege within their own gates.
The words — שִׁלְיָתָהּ (shilyatāh) translates literally to "her afterbirth," and תֵּלֵד (tēlēd) means "she will bear." These terms anchor the description in the biological reality of a mother's lost offspring.
The thread — The imagery of maternal loss and covenantal blessing appears in Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 49:15. These passages contrast human maternal instinct with divine faithfulness, framing the siege famine as a reversal of creation's order.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that covenant disobedience removes divine protection and reduces human relationships to desperate survival. It requires the reader to treat the law as the sole barrier against total social and biological collapse.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
Cross-references
- Genesis 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his.
- Isaiah 49:15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!