Deuteronomy 29:24

24 And all folks shall say, Why did the Lord so to this land? What is the great wrath of his strong vengeance? (And all the nations shall say, Why hath the Lord done so to this land? What is the reason for his great anger and strong vengeance?)

Deuteronomy 29:24 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 29:24

Even all nations shall say
For the destruction of this land, and the people of it, would be, as it has been, so very great and awful, and so very remarkable and surprising, that the fame of it would be heard among all the nations of the world, as it has been; who, upon hearing the sad report of it, would ask the following questions:

wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land?
so distinguished from all others for the fruitfulness and pleasantness of it; the people, the inhabitants of which, he chose, above all others, to be a special and peculiar people; and where he had a temple built for him, and where he had his residence, and worship used to be given unto him:

what [meaneth] the heat of this great anger?
what is the reason of his stirring up his fierce wrath, and causing it to burn in so furious a manner? surely it must be something very horrible and provoking indeed!

Deuteronomy 29:24 In-Context

22 And the generation following shall see, and the sons that shall be born afterward, and pilgrims that shall come from [a]far, seeing the vengeances of that land, and the sicknesses by which the Lord tormented that land, (And the generation following, and the descendants who shall be born afterward, and the foreigners who shall come from afar, shall all see the plagues that be in the land, and the sicknesses with which the Lord hath tormented it,)

23 burning that land with brimstone, and heat of the sun, so that it be no more sown, neither bring forth any green thing, into ensample of [the] destroying of Sodom, and Gomorrah, of Admah, and of Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his wrath, and strong vengeance. (burning up that land with brimstone, and the heat of the sun, so that it can no more be sown, nor bring forth any green thing, following the examples of the destruction of Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboiim, all of which the Lord destroyed in his anger, and his strong vengeance.)

24 And all folks shall say, Why did the Lord so to this land? What is the great wrath of his strong vengeance? (And all the nations shall say, Why hath the Lord done so to this land? What is the reason for his great anger and strong vengeance?)

25 and they shall answer, For they forsook the covenant of the Lord, which he covenanted with their fathers, when he led them out of the land of Egypt,

26 and they served alien gods, and worshipped them, which they knew not, and to which they were not given; (and they served foreign, or other, gods, and worshipped them, which they knew not, and which he had not given them;)