Deuteronomy 29:23

"The generation to come—your children who will rise up after you, and the foreigner who will come from a far land—will say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which the LORD has made it sick,"

Key Reflection

In Deuteronomy 29:23, Moses is warning future generations about the severe consequences of disobeying God’s commands. The original audience, consisting primarily of Israelites, would have understood that these predictions were meant to serve as a deterrent against apostasy and idolatry. If they strayed from following the covenant, subsequent generations or even foreign visitors might witness the land's desolation, symbolized through its physical and moral sickness, as God’s judgment for breaking the agreement.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

The description is borrowed from the local features of the Dead Sea and its vicinity. The towns of the vale of Siddim were fertile and well watered (compareGenesis 13:10) until devastated by the wrath of GodGenesis 19:24-25. The ruin of Israel and its land should be of the like sort (compareLeviticus 26:31-32;Psalms 107:34;Zephaniah 2:9). The desolate state of Palestine at present, and the traces of former fertility and prosperity, are attested by every traveler.

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