דברים, פרק כ״ח, פסוק כ״ב

A devastating sequence of seven severe curses falls upon the nation as a sharp expression of strict divine justice. The explicit name of God appears here specifically to emphasize this punishing attribute of justice [רבנו בחיי]. Such a massive concentration of deadly afflictions serves primarily as a deterrent threat, as the human body is simply incapable of surviving all of them at once [שפתי כהן].

The initial wave of these afflictions focuses on severe bodily illnesses, primarily consisting of various types of fevers, dehydration, and infections [רשב״ם, רלב״ג]. The suffering begins with a wasting disease where the flesh deteriorates and swells, reducing a person to a state of complete exhaustion [רש״י, רש ר הירש, ביאור יש״ר]. This is followed by a daily, burning fever [רש״י, אבן עזרא]. Worse still is a sharper inflammation, characterized by a high temperature that either flares up and subsides like a flickering fire or manifests as localized infections in the organs [רש״י, ביאור יש״ר, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The fourth affliction is an extreme internal heat that burns the body from within, leaving the sick person in a state of constant thirst [רש״י, ביאור יש״ר].

The nature of the fifth affliction is a matter of debate. One perspective understands it as the arrival of enemy armies to strike the nation from the outside [רש״י, מזרחי, גור אריה]. However, many commentators find it difficult to place a weapon of war within a list of physical illnesses. Instead, they explain that the concept implies extreme dryness. According to this view, the affliction is either a disease that completely drains the body of its moisture, a severe environmental drought, or a fever so sharp and deadly that it kills within a few days, much like a sword [אבן עזרא, חזקוני, שד״ל, תולדות יצחק, בכור שור].

A similar disagreement exists regarding the final two plagues. The primary approach among commentators is that these are agricultural disasters targeting the fields. One is a destructive east wind that dries out the harvest, while the other is a plant disease that causes the crops to turn pale and yellow from a severe lack of moisture [רש״י, מזרחי, שד״ל, שפתי חכמים]. Conversely, another approach maintains that these are bodily diseases, continuing the previous sequence. In this view, the first is a severe wasting condition that thins the human body, and the second is a liver disease, similar to jaundice, that turns the patient's skin and face a sickly green-yellow [אבן עזרא, רלב״ג, בכור שור, ביאור יש״ר].

The culmination of these curses points to a process of slow, agonizing death. The afflictions and suffering will relentlessly pursue the people until they waste away on their own from internal physical breakdown, rather than being wiped out by a sudden, external force [רש״י, שפתי חכמים, גור אריה, ביאור יש״ר]. While this slow deterioration brings about the ruin of individual families and homes, it stops short of the total annihilation of the entire nation that would occur in a sudden, widespread plague [העמק דבר].