Judgment · The nations ask why the land lies waste

Deuteronomy 29:22-28

Moses · ~1406 BC · Status: Fulfilled · Confidence: 65%
“So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;”
King James Version · the opening — all 7 verses are below

The nations asking why the land lies desolate — Israel rooted out for forsaking the covenant.

Read the whole passage — all 7 verses (KJV)

29:22So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;

29:23And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

29:24Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?

29:25Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:

29:26For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:

29:27And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:

29:28And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.

Fulfillment References

1 Kings 9:8-9 Jeremiah 22:8-9 Deuteronomy 28:15-68 Daniel 9:7

How Traditions Read This Prophecy

Apostolic (Oneness) PentecostalThe one God's judgment is a witness before the nations; yet His covenant purpose moves toward restoration in Christ.
JewishThe exile interpreted to the nations as the consequence of covenant abandonment — a recurring prophetic explanation of Israel's suffering.
CatholicThe desolation as covenant judgment, a witness to God's holiness before the nations.
ProtestantThe land's desolation and the nations' question, fulfilled in the exiles — a witness to covenant faithfulness.
OrthodoxGod's righteous judgment displayed before the nations.
DispensationalThe literal desolation, preceding the promised restoration.
AcademicA 'nations will ask' motif paralleled in ANE texts and 1 Kings 9; part of the Deuteronomistic theology of exile.
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