This passage sets out vividly what the Israelites understand as blessings and curses. They are described within the setting of the whole community.

There are very few passages in the Old Testament which give any hope of a meaningful life after death. Life, in Israelite understanding, meant human experience in the years given to man on earth. Death did not bring annihilation but extreme reduction of the soul or essential selfto a shadowy spirit which has believed to continue to exist in Sheol, the underground abode of spirits (Deuteronomy 32: 22). Against this understanding of life and death, we can appreciate the emphasis on material blessings, on plentiful food, crops, herds, and on all kinds of prosperity, in the years of earthly life, which we find in this passage and the others in Deuteronomy which describe God's blessings. We can also understand the horror with which the Israelites regarded drought, disease, poverty, and loss of all the things which made their lives meaningful. The Israelite who died at the end of a long life, leaving behind him many children and grand-children to carryon the life of the family and who left them with all their needs met, died in peace, assured that God had blessed him. But the man whose children died before he did, whose land and property was destroyed and whose own health broke down was seen to be cursed.

In Deuteronomy, suffering is understood to be the inevitable result of sin. Later in the Old Testament this view is questioned.