Deuteronomy 29:22

22 And the generation to come, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the LORD has made it 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 The LORD would not pardon him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy would smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book would settle upon him, and the LORD would blot out his name from under heaven.

21 And the LORD would single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.

22 And the generation to come, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the LORD has made it sick--

23 the whole land brimstone and salt, and a burnt-out waste, unsown, and growing nothing, where no grass can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomor'rah, Admah and Zeboi'im, which the LORD overthrew in his anger and wrath--

24 yea, all the nations would say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land? What means the heat of this great anger?'