Who Is the King in Deuteronomy 28, and How the Curses Reveal Israel’s Journey from Jerusalem to America

The question, “Who is the king in Deuteronomy 28?” has stirred much debate, especially between Israelites and Christian apologists. Some try to claim that the “king” mentioned in Deuteronomy 28:36 went with Israel on the ships of Deuteronomy 28:68, but that claim cannot stand once the text is examined carefully. Deuteronomy 28 is not a random list of punishments, and it is not written in strict chronological order. It is a prophetic overview describing Israel’s fall through progressive stages of judgment reaching its full culmination in the trans-Atlantic scattering.

This expanded explanation lays out every distinction clearly, showing how each part of the chapter fits together and how every curse, from the loss of family to the loss of kingship, led to our final captivity in what Scripture identifies as Babylon, fulfilled through the trans-Atlantic scattering that carried Israel into America, the islands, and the nations across the world.

1. The Structure of Deuteronomy 28

The curses in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 were given as one continuous warning to Israel. They describe not one single event, but an entire history of disobedience, punishment, and scattering. Each group of verses moves deeper into judgment, showing Israel’s downfall from different angles, social, political, spiritual, and generational.

Moses spoke in prophetic layers, or categories of judgment, each one describing a more severe level of Israel’s decline. The term layers captures the way these judgments build upon one another through history, while categories helps identify their distinct themes within the same prophecy. Together they form one unfolding vision that stretches from ancient Israel to our captivity in modern Egypt; aka America and the islands of the Americas.

Deuteronomy 28 Layered Curses

Verses	Theme by Layer	Description
15–24	Agricultural and natural curses	Drought, famine, loss of harvest and resources
25–35	Domestic and personal curses	Loss of family, health, peace, and stability
36–44	Political and national collapse	Fall of monarchy and domination by foreigners
45–57	Internal suffering	Moral decay, disease, fear, and despair
58–68	Worldwide dispersion	Global scattering and slavery by ships

Each layer or category shows another part of Israel’s destruction, deepening in severity until it reaches its final stage, slavery and scattering to the four corners of the earth.

2. The Sequential but Layered Nature of the Curses

Deuteronomy 28 is sequential by stage, not by verse order. The prophecy moves from lighter forms of punishment to heavier ones, but within those stages, the curses overlap and repeat through generations. The prophecy functions like a spiral, returning to the same types of judgment again and again, each time growing worse.

That is why verse 32, which speaks of family separation, appears before verse 36, which speaks of national captivity. Verse 32 belongs to the domestic suffering theme, while verse 36 belongs to political collapse. Both occur within the same overall process, not as isolated events.

3. The Family Separation in Deuteronomy 28:32

Deuteronomy 28:32 says:

“Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long, and there shall be no might in thine hand.”

This verse describes personal grief and the breaking apart of families. Parents would see their children taken by another people and would be powerless to stop it.

That experience does not fit the Assyrian or Babylonian captivities. Historical and archaeological records show that Israelites in Babylon lived together in family settlements, planted gardens, built homes, and raised their children in peace.

Jeremiah even told them:

“Build ye houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them, take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters” (Jeremiah 29:5-6).

Those captives were exiled but not torn apart as families.

This curse began to unfold centuries later during the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions and reached its full measure in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

4. The Beginning of the Family Separation: The Inquisition

The separation of families described in Deuteronomy 28:32 began during the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, when Israelite families in Iberia were torn apart through forced conversions and child removals.

Children were taken from their parents to be raised as Catholics, shipped to colonies, or sold as servants. Parents looked for them in vain, having “no might in their hand.” These events marked the first stage of the curse.

In Portugal, countless children of New Christians or conversos were taken by Catholic authorities and “entrusted” to Christian families to be reeducated. Some were sent to colonies such as São Tomé and Cape Verde, where they lived as servants or slaves. These acts fulfilled the first level of “thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people.”

As the same empires expanded across the oceans, the curse deepened. The descendants of those same families were later taken into bondage and shipped to the Americas. What began with forced conversion ended with full enslavement. The Inquisition served as the bridge between the European captivity of Israel and their enslavement in the western world.

5. The Complete Fulfillment: The Trans-Atlantic Captivity

The prophecy reached its total fulfillment when our ancestors were taken to America and the islands of the Americas. In these lands, the Israelites’ sons and daughters were sold to other nations and could not be recovered. Husbands, wives, and children were separated forever.

Slave markets in Virginia, Charleston, Jamaica, Barbados, Brazil, and Haiti echoed the words of Deuteronomy 28:32 with terrifying precision. Children were sold from their mothers’ arms and sent to “another people.” Parents could only watch as strangers bought them and carried them away. There was truly “no might in their hand.”

This was not a partial fulfillment but the final one. The Inquisition began the process through religious persecution, but the trans-Atlantic slave trade completed it through total enslavement. America, the islands of the Americas, and the Atlantic slave ports became the stage where the curse reached its highest form.

6. The National Collapse in Deuteronomy 28:36

Deuteronomy 28:36 says:

“Yahuah shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.”

This verse describes the loss of national sovereignty, the fall of the monarchy. It happened when Assyria conquered the northern kingdom under King Hoshea (2 Kings 17:6) and again when Babylon conquered Judah under King Zedekiah (2 Kings 25:7). Both the king and the people were taken into foreign lands, ending Israel’s independence.

That loss of kingship began the chain of domination that led to our final scattering. Once the Davidic throne fell, Israel never again ruled itself. From Babylon to Persia, from Greece to Rome, and finally to the European empires that carried us by ships, the same bloodline endured continuous foreign rule.

Verse 36 marks the fall of the nation. Verse 68 marks the fall of the people themselves. They are two parts of one long prophecy.

7. “A Nation Which Neither Thou nor Thy Fathers Have Known”

When Moses said Israel would be taken to “a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known,” he was pointing forward to powers that did not yet exist. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew Egypt and Canaan, but they never knew Assyria or Babylon. These were new empires that rose centuries later, fulfilling the first level of the prophecy.

The same pattern later extended to the western powers that scattered Israel across the oceans. The phrase still applies, because the lands of Europe and America were utterly foreign to the ancestors of Israel. Moses’ words reached their complete fulfillment when Israel’s descendants were taken to the nations their fathers never knew.

8. “There Shalt Thou Serve Other Gods, Wood and Stone”

The phrase “wood and stone” appears throughout the Torah and prophets. It never refers directly to Christianity or Islam. It describes literal idols carved or built by human hands.

Examples:

• Deuteronomy 4:28 -“And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone.”

• Jeremiah 3:9 -“She committed adultery with stones and with stocks (wood).”

• Habakkuk 2:19 -“Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake, to the dumb stone, Arise.”

  
  

When Israel went into Assyria and Babylon, the land was filled with wooden poles and stone statues representing their gods. Israelites who lived among those nations were surrounded by visible idol worship and often joined in it. Daniel and his companions faced the threat of death for refusing to bow to a golden image. Ezekiel saw Israel’s elders worshiping creatures carved on walls and women weeping for Tammuz. These are the very “wood and stone” gods Moses warned about.

Later, as Israel scattered among all nations, the idol worship of Babylon took on new forms, turning into organized religions that replaced Yahuah’s commandments with human traditions. In that sense, the old “wood and stone” became new systems of false worship, including the religious powers that dominated the world through the name of the Messiah or the crescent of Islam. The phrase begins with literal idols but extends to every man-made faith built on them.

9. The Sequence of Judgment

Once the curses are understood by theme instead of verse order, the pattern of Israel’s decline becomes clear.

1. Domestic affliction in verses 30-35: family separation and personal loss.

2. Political collapse in verse 36: the loss of monarchy and national independence.

3. Foreign domination in verses 37-44: subjection to strangers and economic ruin.

4. Moral and physical decay in verses 45-57: despair, fear, and self-destruction.

5. Worldwide scattering in verses 64-68: bondage by ships and dispersion to every nation.

   
   

The process deepens with each level. The trans-Atlantic slave trade is the final and complete stage, the point where all earlier forms of judgment combined into one.

10. How the Prophecy Unfolded in History

The same lineage of Israel experienced all of these stages.

Stage	Description	Historical Fulfillment
Fall of the Kingdom	Israel and her king taken captive	Assyria and Babylon
Long foreign rule	Israel under other empires	Persia, Greece, Rome
Forced conversion and early family separation	Inquisition	Families divided, children taken, exile to colonies
Final scattering	Israel enslaved and scattered by ships	Trans-Atlantic slave trade to America and the islands

The ancient captivities began the process. The Inquisition connected it to the next stage. The western captivity completed it. One people, one covenant, one unbroken chain of punishment.

11. Why Tribal Kings Do Not Cancel the Prophecy

Some apologists argue that because the Igbo and other Israelite-descended groups have local kings, Hosea 3:4 (“the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king”) cannot apply. That argument misunderstands the prophecy.

Hosea referred to the Davidic throne, not to tribal chiefs or community rulers. The kingship of Israel was not an earthly custom; it was a divine covenant. Tribal leaders may exist, but no king from David’s line rules the nation today. The throne of Israel remains empty until Yahusha, the Son of David, returns to reign.

So Israel indeed lives “many days without a king.” Local rulers or cultural kings do not fulfill or cancel this prophecy.

12. The Family and the Nation, Both Judged and Both to Be Restored

Deuteronomy 28 shows that Yahuah’s judgment struck every level of Israel’s life:

• The home through family separation and sorrow (verse 32).

• The nation through captivity with its king (verse 36).

• The soul through idolatry and confusion (verse 64).

  
  

But Yahuah also promised restoration.

Ezekiel 37:22-24 says:

“And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all, and David my servant shall be king over them, and they all shall have one shepherd.”

Yahuah will reverse every curse. Families will be reunited, the nation will be restored, and Yahusha will sit upon the throne as Israel’s true King.

13. Summary of the Distinctions

• Deuteronomy 28 is written in prophetic layers, or categories of judgment, not strict chronological order.

• The same people experience all the curses, which unfold in progressive stages from national fall to global slavery.

• Verse 32 began its fulfillment during the Inquisition, when children were taken from their parents, and reached its complete fulfillment in the trans-Atlantic slave trade in America and the islands.

• Verse 36 marks the beginning of Israel’s national collapse under foreign empires.

• “Wood and stone” means literal idols of Assyria and Babylon, later reflected in the man-made religions that arose from them.

• Local kings among scattered Israelites do not replace the Davidic monarchy.

• The trans-Atlantic captivity in America and the islands represents the final and complete stage of all of these curses.

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14. Final Clarity

All the curses of Deuteronomy 28 describe one people, Israel, under one continuous judgment that began with the fall of the kingdom, passed through the Inquisition, and reached its height in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The fall of the king in verse 36 and the ships of verse 68 are not separate prophecies but linked moments in a single story. The first marks the end of sovereignty. The second marks the end of freedom.

This prophecy traces our path from Jerusalem to America and the islands, from kingship to captivity, from the throne of David to the slave fields of Babylon. Yet it also points forward to hope. The same Yahuah who scattered His people will gather them again, cleanse them of idolatry, and restore the true King, Yahusha, to rule over a united Israel forever.