Deuteronomy 28:55 Meaning and Explanation
“So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Scarcity exposes character with unusual speed. The portrait here begins in verse 54 with the most cultivated man in the community and follows him to the end of his generosity. The passage answers a hard question about human nature: what does prolonged deprivation do to affection, and how quickly can a person who once shared everything begin to guard everything?
Reduced by siege starvation, even a gentle and refined man will refuse to share the terrible food he has, guarding it from his own brother, wife, and remaining children because nothing else is left.
The Context of Deuteronomy 28:55
This verse completes the sentence begun in verse 54, where the man described as tender and very delicate turns a grudging eye toward his brother, the wife of his bosom, and the children still left to him. Verse 55 explains what that grudging look produces. The unit sits inside the siege section running from verse 52 through verse 57, and verses 56 and 57 will give the matching portrait of a woman. Moses is speaking on the plains of Moab, long before Israel possesses a single walled city of its own.
What Does Deuteronomy 28:55 Mean?
Three details carry the weight. First, the man refuses to give 'to any of them,' which sweeps in every person he loves without exception. Second, the reason given is that 'he hath nothing left him,' a statement of fact about supplies that has become a statement about his soul. Third, the phrase 'in all thy gates' returns from verse 52, reminding us that no neighboring town can send help. The sentence traces a straight line from an empty storeroom to a closed hand. Refinement and gentleness, real as they were in him, prove to have been conditions of comfort instead of settled virtues.
Set within the chapter, this portrait shows the curse reaching past bodies into relationships. Earlier verses take crops, herds, walls, and health. This one takes the willingness to share, which is the tissue holding a household together. Israel's law had built generosity into ordinary life through gleaning provisions, the release of debts, and open-handedness toward a poor brother. A siege that produces this man has unraveled the social fabric the covenant was designed to weave. Scripture consistently ties love of God and love of neighbor together, and this verse shows what the collapse of the first eventually does to the second.
Isaiah later pictures a people so consumed that each man devours the flesh of his own arm, with Manasseh against Ephraim and both together against Judah. The prophets keep returning to this image because self-devouring is what a community does when it forgets its God. Against that stands a very different meal, where the Lord gives His own body for others and asks His followers to serve one another in the same spirit. Generosity under pressure is the shape of His kingdom. Reading this verse alongside that table makes the contrast impossible to miss and the invitation more urgent.
Bible Verses Related to Deuteronomy 28:55
“And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:”
- Deuteronomy 28:53
“And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:”
- Isaiah 9:20
“The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
- Lamentations 4:10
“So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.”
- 2 Kings 6:29
Where Deuteronomy 28:55 Echoes in Scripture
Jeremiah 19:9 delivers this warning to Judah at the gate of the potsherds, announcing that people would eat the flesh of their sons and daughters and that each would eat the flesh of his friend during the siege. Jeremiah was preaching to a city that still had time to listen. His use of Deuteronomy's language shows how the older warning stayed alive as living address to a real generation.
How to Apply Deuteronomy 28:55 Today
Lean seasons arrive in smaller forms for most of us: a tight month, a health scare, a stretch of exhaustion. Those are the moments when generosity either holds or quietly closes. We can decide in advance how we will respond, setting aside our giving before the budget tightens and practicing hospitality when energy is low. It also helps to name the fear underneath the impulse to hoard and bring it to God honestly. Open hands are trained in ordinary weeks, and a habit built in plenty tends to survive when supplies run short.
Reflection & Prayer
When resources get thin, who is the first person I stop thinking about? Father, my kindness comes easier when I feel safe, and You know it. Meet the fear that makes me close my hands, and provide enough that I can share. Make me someone whose generosity does not depend on a comfortable margin.