John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 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 sicknesses wherewith Jehovah hath made it sick;" — Deuteronomy 29:22 (ASV)

So that the generation to come of your children. God enforces what we have already seen: that the punishments He would inflict would be no ordinary ones, or such as should fall into contempt from their common use, but like portents, which should awaken astonishment among their posterity. For the question posed here refers to something extraordinary and not easily comprehended.

It is not, however, confined to the preceding clause but refers to the whole list of curses; not as if each of them by itself had awakened such horror, but because, when heaped one upon another, they compelled all men to wonder, both on account of their number, their severity, and their duration, and thus were for a sign and a prodigy.

For it everywhere occurs that men are afflicted with diseases, and barrenness for a single season is a common evil. But that sicknesses should cleave, as it were, to the marrow of a whole people, and that the earth should be dried up as if it were burnt with sulfur, this is an awful spectacle, in which God’s vengeance, which otherwise would be incredible, manifestly appears. And therefore the cases of Sodom and Gomorrah are adduced, in whose destruction it might be seen what end awaits all the reprobate²⁷⁵ (Jude 1:7).

Now the Israelites always had their desolation before their eyes from the time that they entered the land, so that they might be warned by so terrible a judgment and might tremble at it. It is also worthy of notice that strangers are introduced making inquiry. In these words, Moses signifies that this vengeance would be terrible even to heathen nations.

And with this corresponds what we read in Jeremiah: many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city? Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them (Jeremiah 22:8–9). A similar divine menace is recorded in 1 Kings 9:8–9: And at this house, referring to the Temple brought to desolation, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this house? And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, and have taken hold upon other gods, etc. What we find further on is still more fearful: Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle (2 Kings 21:12).

Moses amplifies the crime of their rebellion, when he says, that forsaking the God of their fathers, God their deliverer, God who had made a covenant with them, they had gone and served strange and unknown gods, from whom²⁷⁶ they had received no benefits to induce them. For God had bound them to Himself forever, both by His instruction²⁷⁷ and the incomparable manifestation of His power; there could therefore be no pretense of ignorance or mistake to excuse their defection from Him and their prostitution of themselves to unknown idols.

Meanwhile, let us learn from this passage to inquire anxiously who is the true God and what His will is; because there is no true religion without knowledge. And again, if He convicted His ancient people of wicked ingratitude on account of their deliverance, then we also are now much more inexcusable unless we constantly abide in the faith of our eternal Redeemer.

²⁷⁵ Addition in Fr., “Comme Sainct Jude aussi declare, que la foudre dont elles ont este abysmees, est figure du feu eternal;” as St. Jude also declares, that the thunderbolt whereby they were destroyed, is a type of the eternal fire.., “Comme Sainct Jude aussi declare, que la foudre dont elles ont este abysmees, est figure du feu eternal;” as St. Jude also declares, that the thunderbolt whereby they were destroyed, is a type of the eternal fire.

²⁷⁶ See margin, A..V. — “. — “Who had not given to them had not given to them any portion,” v, 26.,” v, 26.

²⁷⁷ “Sa parole;” His word. — Fr..