“A blessing on you in the city, and a blessing on you in the countryside.”-Deuteronomy 28:3
In Deuteronomy Chapter 28, there are actually 6 blessings that focus on BOTH prosperity and fertility.
Why the focus on prosperity and fertility?
Because in general these two things are at the very heart of what the good life is all about.
One can have prosperity but without loved ones to share that prosperity with, what good is all that wealth?
Or one can produce a large family but without the money to properly feed and clothe them, that also can be a most miserable existence indeed.
So verse 3 makes it clear that if Israel will be faithful to the covenant, Israel will be BARUCH (blessed) in both the city and countryside.
The phrase “in the city and the countryside” is a literary device scholars call “merism”.
That’s just a 10 cent word referring to a Hebrew idiomatic structure whose purpose is to show that everything in between the two extremes mentioned is included.
The notion being communicated here is…
…it doesn’t matter whether a Hebrew family is living in the biggest and most populated cities or…
…in the smallest and least populated of the villages, in either case the abundant blessings of the Lord will overtake them.
But again, this will only happen IF Israel obeys the Lord’s Torah.
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