Deuteronomy 29:23-29

23 The fields will be a barren waste, covered with sulfur and salt; nothing will be planted, and not even weeds will grow there. Your land will be like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed when he was furiously angry. 1
24 Then the whole world will ask, "Why did the Lord do this to their land? What was the reason for his fierce anger?'
25 And the answer will be, "It is because the Lord's people broke the covenant they had made with him, the God of their ancestors, when he brought them out of Egypt.
26 They served other gods that they had never worshiped before, gods that the Lord had forbidden them to worship.
27 And so the Lord became angry with his people and brought on their land all the disasters written in this book.
28 The Lord became furiously angry, and in his great anger he uprooted them from their land and threw them into a foreign land, and there they are today.'
29 "There are some things that the Lord our God has kept secret; but he has revealed his Law, and we and our descendants are to obey it forever.

Deuteronomy 29:23-29 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.

Cross References 1

  • 1. 29.23Genesis 19.24, 25.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.