Deuteronomy 29:23

_AND 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:_ The whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein. The total want of verdure, with the appearance of utter desolation in many parts of Palestine, is one of the most striking features in its present state (see the notes at Leviticus 26:32). LIKE THE OVERTHROW OF SODOM, AND GOMORRAH, ADMAH, AND ZEBOIM. х_ KªMAHPEEKAT_ (H4114), overthrow, and _ HAAPAK_ (H2015), overthrew, are expressions used only in reference to the destruction of the ci

22-28 Idolatry would be the ruin of their nation. It is no new thing for God to bring desolating judgments on a people near to him in profession. He never does this without good reason. It concerns us to seek for the reason, that we may give glory to God, and take warning to ourselves. Thus the law of Moses leaves sinners under the curse, and rooted out of the Lord's land; but the grace of Christ toward penitent, believing sinners, plants them again in their land; and they shall no more be pulled up, being kept by the power of God....

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 (compare Genesis 13:10) until devastated by the wrath of God Genesis 19:24. The ruin of Israel and its land should be of the like sort (compare Leviticus 26:31; 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....

EXPOSITION RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT IN THE PLAINS OF MOAB. (Deuteronomy 29-30.) The first verse of this chapter is placed in the Hebrew text at the end of Deuteronomy 28:1; but in the LXX. and Vulgate the arrangement is as in the Authorized Version, where it appears as the title of the section that follows. In that section is contained an address to the people by Moses, in which he appeals to them to enter anew into the covenant with the Lord, which had been before concluded at Horeb; denounces apostasy as what would lead certainly to their being rejected of God; assures them at the same time of God's readiness to restore them should they sincerely repent and return to him; and once more sets bef

[AND THAT] THE WHOLE LAND THEREOF [IS] BRIMSTONE AND SALT, [AND] BURNING,.... That is, is become exceeding barren, as all such land is where there are sulphureous mines, or salt pits, or burning mountains; not that this would be, or has been the case of the land of Judea in a strict literal sense; only these are expressions made use of to show the barrenness of it, which is its case at this day, not through the nature of its soil being changed, but through the slothfulness of the inhabitants of it; to which time it better agrees than to the time of its falling into the hands of the Chaldeans, who left men in it for husbandmen and vinedressers. Aben Ezra understands this as a prayer to God, that the land might be burnt up; that is, for the sins of the people: [THAT] IT IS NOT SOWN, NOR BEARETH, NOR ANY GRASS GROWETH THEREIN; not being sown, it would bear and produce no corn for men; and...

25. THE REPETITION OF THE COVENANT AND THE REPETITION OF THE CURSE CHAPTER 29 _ 1. The repetition of the covenant (Deuteronomy 29:1)_ 2. The repetition of the curse (Deuteronomy 29:16) The words of the covenant are once more brought to their remembrance. Once more all the goodness of the Lord towards them is unfolded by Moses, how the Lord had dealt with Egypt and how their eyes had seen the signs and great miracles. (Verses 5 and 6 are the direct words of Jehovah, ending with the declaration, “I am the LORD, your God.”) Again the forty years are mentioned, during which their clothes and their shoes did not get old. God took care of them and provided for their needs in the wilderness. Bread from heaven was their portion and therefore they had no need of sti

DEUTERONOMY 29:1 belongs, as in the Heb. Bible, to the preceding chapter. It is the formal ending of the great discourse (Deuteronomy 4:44, Deuteronomy 12-26, Deuteronomy 28). Deuteronomy 29 (except Deuteronomy 29:1) and Deuteronomy 30 form ostensibly Moses-' third address, in the course of which Israel is urged to obey Yahweh and to enter into covenant relations with Him (Deuteronomy 29:2), words of warning (Deuteronomy 29:16) being followed by words of promise ...

_brimstone_, etc.] The prediction is in terms of the surroundings of the Dead Sea. _Beareth_, lit. _causeth to sprout; grass_better _herbage_. _Sodom … Zeboiim_ Amos 4:11; Hosea 11:8; Genesis 14:2; Genesis 19:24 f....

_VER._ 23. _THE WHOLE LAND THEREOF IS BRIMSTONE, AND SALT, AND BURNING_— Utterly desolate and laid waste: the allusion is to the destruction of _Sodom and Gomorrah_ by fire and brimstone, and to the bitumen and salt wherewith the barren plains of those once fertile cities afterwards abounded. See Hosea 11:8....

2. ISRAEL'S COMING WICKEDNESS: THE JUDGMENT OF FUTURE GENERATIONS AND FOREIGNERS (Deuteronomy 29:22-29) 22 And the generation to come, your children that shall rise up after you, and the foreigner that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sickness wherewith Jehovah hath made it sick; 23 _and that_ the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, _and_ a burning, _that_ it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Jehovah overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath: 24 even all the nations shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? 25 Then men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them fo