Tafsiran Ulangan 28:1: Ibn Ezra, Or HaChaim, Tur HaArokh & Rav Hirsch

elevated above all the nations of the world This is the blessing in its general form: that there will be no nation in the world like you.

והיה אם שמוע, "It shall be if you surely hearken, etc." We must try and understand exactly what this verse promises. If it is that Gd will make the Jewish people superior to all other nations, the Torah should have written יתנך ה׳ עליון, "G'd will give you to be supreme, etc." instead of writing words such as ונתנך which sound as if they are a continuation of the conditional "if you surely hearken, etc." Perhaps the message of the verse is: "hearken to the voice of the Lord." The meter of the verse would be "if you begin to hearken,-אם שמוע, -then you will indeed listen to the voice of the Lord," תשמע בקול השם. The verse then continues by assuring us that as a further result of listening to the voice of G'd we will not transgress the negative commandments and will carry out the positive commandments, i.e. לשמר לעשות. The reason we will be able to do this is because the Torah saves us from sin, as alluded to in the word שמר. Moreover, the power of Torah study is so great that it will even bring the performance of the positive commandments in its wake, i.e. לעשות. Not only this, but the power of Torah study for the right reason is so great that G'd will make our nation the one that is supreme on earth.

עליון על כל גויי הארץ, “supreme over all the nations of the earth.” This blessing includes that there will be no other nation that even matches you, equally.