The progression of divine rebuke reaches a critical point of no return. After enduring a series of heavy national disasters, the people face a final, absolute condition. This stage initiates the fifth and most severe wave of punishments, directly contrasting with the fifth blessing promised earlier [ביאור יש״ר]. This ultimate threat carries the total loss of the nation's independence, the destruction of the Temple, and the scattering of the people into exile [פירושי רד צ הופמן].
The condition presented hinges on the people's reaction to the preceding devastation. Some view this condition as a reference to the immediate plagues that just occurred [אבן עזרא]. Others connect it to the extreme crises already described, whether military defeats under foreign rule [רש ר הירש] or the worsening of a severe famine [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The emphasis on this specific moment stems from the exceptionally destructive nature of the previous blow. Such a profound shock should have naturally awakened the nation. If even a disaster of this magnitude fails to make them recognize God's guiding hand, the subsequent punishment will be far more severe [אברבנאל].
The core of the people's failure lies in their complete denial of divine providence. Instead of recognizing wars, plagues, and famine as deliberate consequences of their actions, they dismiss them as blind chance, bad luck, or the natural order of the world [אברבנאל, שפתי כהן]. Even when God alters the very laws of nature to send a clear message—such as bread losing its ability to satisfy hunger—the people stubbornly dismiss the event as a routine historical coincidence [שפתי כהן]. Rather than realizing how helpless they are against other nations without God's protection, they dig in their heels and refuse to return to the path of the Torah [רש ר הירש].
God's response to this stubborn blindness operates exactly measure for measure. Because the people attribute their suffering to random chance, God will strike them with a fury sparked directly by this denial. His anger will manifest through the complete removal of His protective providence, abandoning the nation to the ruthless and unrestrained wrath of a cruel conqueror [רש ר הירש]. Furthermore, they will suffer a supernatural, unbearable famine that will drive them out of their minds, ultimately leading to horrific acts such as eating the flesh of their own children [אברבנאל, שפתי כהן].