Commentary - Deuteronomy 29:22-28

Bird's-eye view

In this sobering passage, Moses is concluding the renewal of the covenant with the second generation of Israelites, poised to enter the Promised Land. He is not just giving them laws; he is laying out the entire covenantal framework, which includes both blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. This section is a prophetic look into the distant future, a scenario painted in stark colors for maximum effect. Moses describes a time when the covenant has been so thoroughly broken that the land itself lies in ruins, a testimony to God's fiery judgment. The scene is one of utter desolation, so complete that future generations and foreign travelers will be stopped in their tracks, compelled to ask what could have possibly happened. The answer provided is a crisp, clear, and damning indictment: covenant apostasy. This passage serves as a permanent, high-decibel warning against the fatal sin of forsaking the covenant Lord for the worship of false gods. It establishes the principle that the well-being of a nation is inextricably tied to its faithfulness to the one true God.

The structure is a question-and-answer session set in the future. The question is born from astonishment at the severity of the judgment, and the answer is a straightforward legal explanation. The land's ruin is not a natural disaster or a geopolitical accident; it is the direct result of God's judicial wrath. The comparison to Sodom and Gomorrah is deliberate and potent, linking Israel's potential apostasy to the most infamous example of divine judgment in their history. This is not just about Israel's national fate; it is a lesson for all nations, a public demonstration of the consequences of breaking a solemn, blood-ratified covenant with the Creator of heaven and earth.

Outline

Context In Deuteronomy

This passage comes at the very end of the main body of Moses' farewell addresses. Deuteronomy is structured as a covenant renewal document, and chapters 27-30 contain the sanctions of that covenant. Chapter 27 details the formal ceremony of cursing and blessing to be performed at Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Chapter 28 provides a lengthy and detailed list of the blessings for obedience and the far lengthier, more terrifying curses for disobedience. Our text in chapter 29 follows directly from this, serving as a prophetic illustration of what those curses will look like when they are fully realized in history. Moses is making the stakes as clear as possible. He has set before them life and death, blessing and cursing (Deut 30:19). This section is the "death and cursing" side of the equation, shown not as an abstract list but as a future historical reality. It is the logical and judicial consequence of the covenantal rebellion described throughout the book.

Key Issues

The Land as a Witness

In the biblical worldview, the physical creation is not a neutral stage on which human history unfolds. The land itself is an active participant in the covenant. God gives the land to His people as a gift, a place of blessing, a foretaste of the new heavens and the new earth. But the land is given conditionally. It is holy ground, and it will not tolerate idolatry and covenant-breaking indefinitely. The land can "vomit out" its inhabitants if they defile it (Lev. 18:28). This is what Moses is describing here. The "brimstone and salt" are not just descriptive terms for a barren wasteland; they are the very elements of God's judgment. The land becomes a witness against the people. Its barrenness testifies to their spiritual barrenness. Its affliction testifies to their affliction of God's holy name. When the people break the covenant, the land breaks under their feet. This is a profound theological point. Our relationship with God has direct consequences for the created order around us. When we are in right relationship with Him, creation flourishes. When we rebel, creation groans.

Verse by Verse Commentary

22 “And the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, shall see the plagues of the land and the diseases with which Yahweh has afflicted it, and they will say,

Moses projects his listeners into the far future. He wants them to see their actions through the eyes of their own descendants and through the eyes of the watching world. The witnesses are twofold: their own children, who will inherit the consequences of their fathers' sins, and the foreigner from a distant land, representing the Gentile nations. This is not a private, internal matter for Israel. God's dealings with His people are always a public spectacle, intended to teach the whole world about His character. The sight that confronts these future observers is one of devastation, described in terms of "plagues" and "diseases," language that deliberately echoes the judgments on Egypt. The irony is thick; the very kind of judgments God used to redeem His people will be used to punish them when they become like the Egyptians in their idolatry.

23 ‘All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and nothing sprouting, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.’

The description of the land is absolute desolation. Brimstone and salt are sterilizing agents; they make the land permanently unproductive. It is a "burning waste," a land scorched by the fire of divine judgment. The agricultural blessings of the covenant, fruitfulness and abundance, are completely reversed. The land is "unsown," "nothing sprouting," "no grass grows." It is a dead land. To make the point unmistakably clear, Moses invokes the most extreme example of divine judgment known to them: the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, along with the lesser-known cities of Admah and Zeboiim. This was not just a military defeat; this was a de-creation. It was God un-making a piece of the earth, returning it to a state of chaos and death. To say that the Promised Land would become like Sodom was the most shocking and terrifying prospect imaginable. It meant that covenant-breaking was a sin of the same magnitude as the notorious sins of the cities of the plain.

24 And all the nations will say, ‘Why has Yahweh done thus to this land? Why this great burning anger?’

The sight of this judgment-wracked land provokes a universal question from the Gentile nations. The question is not, "What happened here?" but rather, "Why did Yahweh do this?" Even the pagans recognize that this is a supernatural event, an act of the God of Israel. The scale of the disaster is so immense that it can only be attributed to divine wrath, a "great burning anger." This is precisely the point. God's judgments are meant to be seen and interpreted. They are object lessons for the world. God is teaching the nations about His holiness, His justice, and the seriousness with which He takes His covenant.

25 Then men will say, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which He cut with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.

The answer to the question is provided, and it is a simple, clear, legal verdict. The cause of the catastrophe was covenant abandonment. Notice the precision of the language. They forsook the covenant of "Yahweh," the personal, covenant-keeping God. He is the "God of their fathers," which highlights the generational and historical nature of their rebellion. This was not a new relationship they were discarding; it was an ancient one, rooted in God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant was "cut with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt," which underscores the basis of their obligation. God's redemption of them from slavery was the foundation of His claim on them. Their apostasy was therefore not just a religious mistake; it was an act of profound ingratitude and treachery.

26 And they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not apportioned to them.

This verse specifies the primary way in which they forsook the covenant: idolatry. They "went and served other gods." This is the language of spiritual adultery. The covenant was a marriage bond, and they cheated on their divine husband. These were gods "whom they have not known," meaning they had no history with them, no experience of their power or goodness. They were trading the known, living God who had redeemed them for unknown, dead idols. Furthermore, these were gods whom Yahweh "had not apportioned to them." This is a crucial point. In His sovereignty, God had assigned the nations to the oversight of lesser spiritual beings (Deut. 32:8-9), but He had reserved Israel for Himself. For Israel to worship these other gods was to reject their unique, privileged status as Yahweh's personal inheritance. It was to trade the king's table for the slop bucket.

27 Therefore, the anger of Yahweh was kindled against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book;

The connection is causal and explicit. "Therefore." Because of their covenant-breaking idolatry, God's anger was "kindled." This is not the arbitrary rage of a pagan deity, but the righteous, judicial wrath of a holy God. And what did this anger do? It brought upon the land "every curse which is written in this book." The desolation described earlier was not an accident. It was the systematic application of the covenant sanctions that Moses had just spent chapters detailing. God does what He says He will do. His warnings are not empty threats. The book of the law was the instrument of their judgment.

28 and Yahweh uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and He cast them into another land, as it is this day.’

The final curse, the culmination of all the others, is exile. Yahweh, the one who planted them in the land, is the one who "uprooted them." The language is that of a gardener ripping a weed out of the soil. The tripling of the emotional terms, "anger and in fury and in great wrath," emphasizes the intensity of God's judicial response. He "cast them into another land," a scattering among the nations. The phrase "as it is this day" is remarkable. Moses, speaking prophetically, adopts the vantage point of the future observers who are looking back on the fulfilled judgment. He is speaking of the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles as if they have already happened, which demonstrates the certainty of the prophecy. Disobedience to the covenant will inevitably lead to removal from the covenant land.

Application

It is a common error to read a passage like this and relegate it to ancient history, as though it has nothing to say to us who live under the new covenant. But the New Testament itself warns us that the curses of the new covenant are far more severe than the curses of the old (Heb. 10:28-29). To whom much is given, much is required. If God dealt this severely with the people who had the shadows, how much more severely will He deal with those who trample underfoot the Son of God and profane the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified?

The fundamental principle remains unchanged: God blesses covenant faithfulness and He curses covenant unfaithfulness. The specific forms of the blessings and curses may change, but the principle is bedrock. When a nation, a church, or a family is blessed with the knowledge of the true God and then turns away to worship the idols of the age, whether they be materialism, sexual autonomy, political power, or self-worship, that entity is positioning itself directly under the waterfall of God's judgment.

This passage is a call for us to look around at the state of our own land. When we see cultural decay, institutional corruption, and widespread apostasy in the church, we should not be surprised. We should be asking the question the nations asked: "Why has Yahweh done thus to this land?" And we must be prepared to give the biblical answer: "Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh." The solution is not first and foremost political or social. The solution is repentance. It is a turning away from our idols and a return to the covenant Lord. The land is a witness, and our current cultural landscape is testifying loudly. The only question is whether we have ears to hear what it is saying.