Deuteronomy 28:57
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.
Deuteronomy 28:57 describes a siege so severe that want of all things drives even a tender mother to turn against her own family and secretly eat her newborn and the children she bears.
It stands among the covenant curses that set out plainly the blessings of obedience and the fearful adversity that follows transgression.
The words were spoken by Christ from the enfolding pillar of cloud to make the principles of God's law specific for present and future good.
Moses pictured in them long beforehand the siege and destruction of Jerusalem and Israel's final overthrow as a nation by the Roman armies under Titus.
The warning was fulfilled when famine and suffering of every kind came upon the Jews, driving women to eat their own children, a ruin Christ foresaw as the consequence of Jerusalem rejecting its visitation and its Redeemer.
Meaning and Covenant Setting
The verse portrays utter famine and distress under an enemy siege and straitness in the gates, where want of all things leaves a mother deprived of everything and drives her to eat in secret the newborn coming out from between her feet and the other children she bears. The extremity is specified in that even a tender and delicate woman turns against her husband and children and eats in secret the child she bore because she lacks all food. It stands among the covenant curses of the chapter, which set out plainly the blessings of obedience and the fearful consequences and adversity that follow transgression and disobedience, all conditional upon obedience or transgression.
The curse was read aloud to all the people of Israel assembled before Moses from the book he had written, together with the events of their past history and the promises of God to them if they would be obedient. The words of the chapter were spoken by Christ from the enfolding pillar of cloud, expressing the principles of the law of the kingdom of God made specific so that minds are not left in ignorance and uncertainty about duty. They were given for present and future good, presenting a never-ceasing obligation upon all blessed with life and health and temporal and spiritual advantages, just as binding and fresh now as God's gifts are fresh and continual.
The chapter shows that the Lord's promises are upon condition of obedience, and shows why the adult generation that left Egypt was refused entrance into the promised land. The want, siege, and distress fall upon Israel when they transgress God's law and break down the barriers He in His providence erected to preserve them from disease, that they might live in health and holiness and learn obedience in their journey. It is to be read with Exodus 15:26 as the lesson of Marah, that disease of every stripe and type comes because human beings transgress God's law, while diligently hearkening to the voice of the Lord, doing right in His sight, giving ear to His commandments and keeping all His statutes brings His covenant of mercy that He will put none of the Egyptian diseases upon His people, for He is the Lord who heals them.
Prophecy Fulfilled at Jerusalem
Moses pictured long beforehand the extreme famine and suffering of a siege, in which a mother deprived of everything would secretly eat her newborn and her other children for lack of food, as a vivid prophecy of the suffering of Jerusalem's siege under Titus and its destruction by the Roman armies as part of Israel's final overthrow as a nation. The warning was that even a tender and delicate woman would turn against her husband and children and secretly eat the child she bore because she lacked all food in siege and extreme shortage. That warning was fulfilled during the Roman siege of Jerusalem under Titus, when famine and starvation drove women to eat their own children. Starvation and suffering of every kind then came upon the Jews in the city's destruction.
Christ foresaw this famine and desperation, with the city's destruction and the temple's ruin, as the consequence of Jerusalem rejecting its visitation and the world's Redeemer. The people brought this suffering upon themselves by proud resistance of the Redeemer. In that fulfillment at the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews were caused to remember the words of Christ in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and to understand the parable.