Deuteronomy 29:23-25

29:23 The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ¹  29:24 Then all the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger ²  all about?” 29:25 Then people will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 29:1

Narrative Interlude

29:1 (28:69) ³  These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 9:8-9

9:8 At Horeb you provoked him and he was angry enough with you to destroy you. 9:9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained there ⁵  forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing.

Deuteronomy 9:2

9:2 They include the Anakites, ⁶  a numerous ⁷  and tall people whom you know about and of whom it is said, “Who is able to resist the Anakites?”

Deuteronomy 7:20-22

7:20 Furthermore, the Lord your God will release hornets ⁸  among them until the very last ones who hide from you ⁹  perish. 7:21 You must not tremble in their presence, for the Lord your God, who is present among you, is a great and awesome God. 7:22 He, ¹⁰  the God who leads you, will expel the nations little by little. You will not be allowed to destroy them all at once lest the wild animals overrun you.

Lamentations 2:15-17

ס (Samek)

2:15 All who passed by on the road

clapped their hands to mock you. ¹¹ 

They sneered and shook their heads

at Daughter Jerusalem.

“Ha! Is this the city they called ¹² 

‘The perfection of beauty, ¹³ 

the source of joy of the whole earth!’?” ¹⁴ 

פ (Pe)

2:16 All your enemies

gloated over you. ¹⁵ 

They sneered and gnashed their teeth;

they said, “We have destroyed ¹⁶  her!

Ha! We have waited a long time for this day.

We have lived to see it!” ¹⁷ 

ע (Ayin)

2:17 The Lord has done what he planned;

he has fulfilled ¹⁸  his promise ¹⁹ 

that he threatened ²⁰  long ago: ²¹ 

He has overthrown you without mercy ²² 

and has enabled the enemy to gloat over you;

he has exalted your adversaries’ power. ²³ 

Lamentations 4:12

ל (Lamed)

4:12 Neither the kings of the earth

nor the people of the lands ²⁴  ever thought ²⁵ 

that enemy or foe would enter

the gates ²⁶  of Jerusalem. ²⁷ 

Daniel 9:7

9:7 “You are righteous, ²⁸  O Lord, but we are humiliated this day ²⁹  – the people ³⁰  of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you.

¹ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.

² tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”

³ sn Beginning with 29:1, the verse numbers through 29:29 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 29:1 ET = 28:69 HT, 29:2 ET = 29:1 HT, 29:3 ET = 29:2 HT, etc., through 29:29 ET = 29:28 HT. With 30:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

⁴ sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (which some English versions substitute here for clarity, cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

⁵ tn Heb “in the mountain.” The demonstrative pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁶ sn Anakites. See note on this term in Deut 1:28.

⁷ tn Heb “great and tall.” Many English versions understand this to refer to physical size or strength rather than numbers (cf. “strong,” NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT).

⁸ tn The meaning of the term translated “hornets” (צִרְעָה, tsir’ah) is debated. Various suggestions are “discouragement” (HALOT 1056-57 s.v.; cf. NEB, TEV, CEV “panic”; NCV “terror”) and “leprosy” (J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy [JPSTC], 360, n. 33; cf. NRSV “the pestilence”), as well as “hornet” (BDB 864 s.v.; cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT). The latter seems most suitable to the verb שָׁלַח (shalakh, “send”; cf. Exod 23:28; Josh 24:12).

⁹ tn Heb “the remnant and those who hide themselves.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 7:19.

¹¹ tn Heb “clap their hands at you.” Clapping hands at someone was an expression of malicious glee, derision and mockery (Num 24:10; Job 27:23; Lam 2:15).

¹² tn Heb “of which they said.”

¹³ tn Heb “perfection of beauty.” The noun יֹפִי (yofi, “beauty”) functions as a genitive of respect in relation to the preceding construct noun: Jerusalem was perfect in respect to its physical beauty.

¹⁴ tn Heb “the joy of all the earth.” This is similar to statements found in Pss 48:2 and 50:2.

¹⁵ tn Heb “they have opened wide their mouth against you.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “We have swallowed!”

¹⁷ tn Heb “We have attained, we have seen!” The verbs מָצָאנוּ רָאִינוּ (matsa’nu ra’inu) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first retains its full verbal sense and the second functions as an object complement. It forms a Hebrew idiom that means something like, “We have lived to see it!” The three asyndetic 1st person common plural statements in 2:16 (“We waited, we destroyed, we saw!”) are spoken in an impassioned, staccato style reflecting the delight of the conquerors.

¹⁸ tn The verb בָּצַע (batsa’) has a broad range of meanings: (1) “to cut off, break off,” (2) “to injure” a person, (3) “to gain by violence,” (4) “to finish, complete” and (5) “to accomplish, fulfill” a promise.

¹⁹ tn Heb “His word.” When used in collocation with the verb בָּצַע (batsa’, “to fulfill,” see previous tn), the accusative noun אִמְרָה (’imrah) means “promise.”

²⁰ tn Heb “commanded” or “decreed.” If a reference to prophetic oracles is understood, then “decreed” is preferable. If understood as a reference to the warnings in the covenant, then “threatened” is a preferable rendering.

²¹ tn Heb “from days of old.”

²² tn Heb “He has overthrown and has not shown mercy.” The two verbs חָרַס וְלֹא חָמָל (kharas vÿlo’ khamal) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first retains its verbal sense and the second functions adverbially: “He has overthrown you without mercy.” וְלֹא חָמָל (vÿlo’ khamal) alludes to 2:2.

²³ tn Heb “He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.” The term “horn” (קֶרֶן, qeren) normally refers to the horn of a bull, one of the most powerful animals in ancient Israel. This term is often used figuratively as a symbol of strength, usually in reference to the military might of an army (Deut 33:17; 1 Sam 2:1, 10; 2 Sam 22:3; Pss 18:3; 75:11; 89:18, 25; 92:11; 112:9; 1 Chr 25:5; Jer 48:25; Lam 2:3; Ezek 29:21), just as warriors are sometimes figuratively described as “bulls.” To lift up the horn often means to boast and to lift up someone else’s horn is to give victory or cause to boast.

²⁴ tn Heb “inhabitants of the mainland.”

²⁵ tn Heb “they did not believe that.” The verb הֶאֱמִינוּ (he’eminu), Hiphil perfect 3rd person common plural from אָמַן (’aman, “to believe”), ordinarily is a term of faith and trust, but occasionally it functions cognitively: “to think that” (Job 9:16; 15:22; Ps 116:10; Lam 4:12) and “to be convinced that” (Ps 27:13) (HALOT 64 s.v. I אמן hif.1). The semantic relationship between “to believe” = “to think” is metonymical, that is, effect for cause.

²⁶ sn The expression “to enter the gates” of a city is an idiom referring to the military conquest of that city. Ancient Near Eastern fortified cities typically featured double and sometimes triple city gates – the bulwark of the defense of the city. Because fortified cities were enclosed with protective walls, the Achilles tendon of every city was the city gates – the weak point in the defense and the perennial point of attack by enemies (e.g., Judg 5:8, 11; 1 Sam 17:52; Isa 29:6; Jer 17:27; 51:54; Ezek 21:20, 27; Mic 1:9, 12; Neh 1:3; 2:3, 13, 17).

²⁷ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

²⁸ tn Heb “to you (belongs) righteousness.”

²⁹ tn Heb “and to us (belongs) shame of face like this day.”

³⁰ tn Heb “men.”