Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 29:24
So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses Israel on the plains of Moab, forecasting the aftermath of covenant breach. The verse records a future moment when foreign nations observe Judah’s complete desolation and voice a question about God’s judgment.
The words — The phrase כּל־ הַגּוֹיִם (kol-hagoyim) translates literally as “all the nations,” marking the observers as external witnesses. The verb עָשָׂה ('asah) means “has he done,” structuring the devastation as a deliberate divine act rather than an accidental disaster.
The thread — This sequence of outsiders questioning divine punishment runs in Jeremiah 22:8, 1 Kings 9:8, and 2 Chronicles 7:21. In each passage, the text records nations asking why God destroyed a land or city, followed by a stated cause.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to acknowledge that covenant obedience governs national stability and that divine judgment produces visible, historically documented outcomes. It demands a direct confrontation between disobedience and consequence without softening the causal link.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 22:8 And many nations will pass by this city and ask one another, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?’
- 1 Kings 9:8 And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’
- 2 Chronicles 7:21 And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’
- Lamentations 2:15 All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
- Lamentations 4:12 The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any people of the world, that an enemy or a foe could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
- Ezekiel 14:23 They will bring you consolation when you see their conduct and actions, and you will know that it was not without cause that I have done all these things within it,’ declares the Lord GOD.”
- Romans 2:5 But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.