Deuteronomy 4:26

26 I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you today: You will definitely disappear—and quickly—from the land that you are crossing over the Jordan River to possess. You won't extend your time there but will instead be totally destroyed.

Deuteronomy 4:26 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 4:26

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day
Should they be guilty of such a sin, since they were so strongly and publicly cautioned against it; and even the heaven and the earth were called upon as witnesses of the law being set before them, which so expressly forbids it, ( Deuteronomy 30:19 )

that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go
over Jordan to possess it;
though they were now about to go over Jordan and inherit the land of Canaan, yet they would not enjoy it long, but be taken and carried captive out of it; as the ten tribes were by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, and the two tribes by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and both for their idolatry and other crimes.

Deuteronomy 4:26 In-Context

24 because the LORD your God is an all-consuming fire. He is a passionate God.

25 Once you have had children and grandchildren and have grown old on the land, if you ruin things by making an idol, in any form whatsoever, and do what is evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and anger him,

26 I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you today: You will definitely disappear—and quickly—from the land that you are crossing over the Jordan River to possess. You won't extend your time there but will instead be totally destroyed.

27 The LORD will scatter you among the nations. Only a very few of you will survive in the countries where the LORD will drag you.

28 There you will worship other gods, made of wood and stone by human hands—gods that cannot see, listen, eat, or smell.