Deuteronomy 29:22

22 The next generation, your children who come after you and the foreigner who comes from a far country, will be appalled when they see the widespread devastation, how God made the whole land sick.

Deuteronomy 29:22 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 29:22

So that the generation to come of your children that shall
rise up after you
Not the next generation, but in future times, in ages to come, at a great distance, even after the destruction of Judea by the Romans; to which ( Deuteronomy 29:23 ) seems to refer:

and the stranger that shall come from a far land;
on trade and business, or for the sake of travelling, his road either lying through it, or his curiosity leading him to see it:

shall say, when they see the plagues of the land;
cities and towns in ruins, fields lie uncultivated, and the whole land depopulated, and all become a barren wilderness, which was once a fruitful country, a land flowing with milk and honey:

and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it;
upon the inhabitants of it, as the pestilence and other diseases, which shall have swept the land of them; see ( Deuteronomy 28:22 Deuteronomy 28:27 Deuteronomy 28:35 ) . This case supposes a general departure from the worship of God to the service of idols; otherwise single individuals are punished in their own persons, as in the ( Deuteronomy 29:21 ) .

Deuteronomy 29:22 In-Context

20 God won't let him off the hook. God's anger and jealousy will erupt like a volcano against that person. The curses written in this book will bury him. God will delete his name from the records.
21 God will separate him out from all the tribes of Israel for special punishment, according to all the curses of the Covenant written in this Book of Revelation.
22 The next generation, your children who come after you and the foreigner who comes from a far country, will be appalled when they see the widespread devastation, how God made the whole land sick.
23 They'll see a fire-blackened wasteland of brimstone and salt flats, nothing planted, nothing growing, not so much as a blade of grass anywhere - like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which God overthrew in fiery rage.
24 All the nations will ask, "Why did God do this to this country? What on earth could have made him this angry?"
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.