Deuteronomy 29:24-29

24 And all the nations will say, '{Why} has Yahweh done {such a thing} to this land? What [caused] the fierceness of this great anger?'
25 And they will say, '[It is] because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, which he {made} with them {when he brought them out} from the land of Egypt.
26 And they went and served other gods and bowed down to them, gods whom they did not know them and he had not allotted to them.
27 So {the anger of Yahweh was kindled} against that land to bring upon it all the curses written in this scroll,
28 and Yahweh uprooted them from their land in anger and in wrath and in great fury, and he cast them into another land, {just as it is today}.'
29 "The hidden [things] {belong to Yahweh} our God, but the revealed [things] {belong to us} [to know] and to our children {forever}, [in order] to do all the words of this law."

Deuteronomy 29:24-29 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 29

This chapter begins with an intimation of another covenant the Lord was about to make with the people of Israel, De 29:1; and, to prepare their minds to an attention to it, various things which the Lord had done for them are recited, De 29:2-9; the persons are particularly mentioned with whom the covenant would now be made, the substance of which is, that they should be his people, and he their God, De 29:10-15; and since they had seen the idols in Egypt and other countries, with which they might have been ensnared, they are cautioned against idolatry and idolaters, as being most provoking to the Lord, De 29:16-21; which would bring destruction not only on particular persons, but upon their whole land, to the amazement of posterity; who, inquiring the reason of it, will be told, it was because they forsook the covenant of God, and particularly were guilty of idolatry, which, whether privately or openly committed, would be always punished, De 29:22-29.

Footnotes 12

  • [a]. Literally "On what [basis]"
  • [b]. Literally "so"
  • [c]. Or "answer/respond"
  • [d]. Or "fathers"
  • [e]. Literally "cut"
  • [f]. Literally "at/in his to bring them out from the land of Egypt"
  • [g]. That is, Yahweh
  • [h]. Literally "became hot the nose of Yahweh"
  • [i]. Literally "as the day the this"
  • [j]. Literally "[are] for Yahweh"
  • [k]. Literally "[are] for us"
  • [l]. Literally "until eternity"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.