Deuteronomy 29:22-29

22 Your children who will come after you, as well as foreigners from faraway lands, will see the disasters that come to this land and the diseases the Lord will send on it. They will say,

23 "The land is nothing but burning cinders and salt. Nothing is planted, nothing grows, and nothing blooms. It is like Sodom and Gomorrah, and Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed because he was very angry."

24 All the other nations will ask, "Why has the Lord done this to the land? Why is he so angry?"

25 And the answer will be, "It is because the people broke the Agreement of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.

26 They went and served other gods and bowed down to gods they did not even know. The Lord did not allow that,

27 so he became very angry at the land and brought all the curses on it that are written in this book.

28 Since the Lord became angry and furious with them, he took them out of their land and put them in another land where they are today."

29 There are some things the Lord our God has kept secret, but there are some things he has let us know. These things belong to us and our children forever so that we will do everything in these teachings.

Deuteronomy 29:22-29 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.