“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:”
My Notes
What Does Deuteronomy 29:23 Mean?
Moses describes the desolation that covenant unfaithfulness will produce: 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 — three elements of total agricultural destruction. Brimstone (sulfur) — toxic to soil. Salt — the ancient method of rendering land permanently infertile (Judges 9:45, Abimelech sowed Shechem with salt). Burning — the surface charred. Together: the promised land — the land flowing with milk and honey — becomes permanently uninhabitable. The fertility is reversed. The blessing becomes desolation.
It is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein — three levels of agricultural failure. Not sown — no one even attempts to plant. Nor beareth — nothing produces fruit. Nor any grass groweth — even the most basic vegetation will not grow. The barrenness is absolute: from cultivated crops to wild grass, nothing survives.
Like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim — the comparison is to the most complete destruction in Israel's memory. Four cities of the plain, all overthrown — not damaged or conquered but overthrown (mahpekhah — turned upside down, overturned completely). The destruction of the promised land will mirror the destruction of Sodom: total, permanent, sulfurous desolation.
Which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath — the overthrow is attributed directly to God. The anger (aph — nostril-flaring fury) and wrath (chemah — burning heat) are God's. The destruction is not natural. It is divine — the expressed fury of a covenant God whose terms have been violated.
The passage is part of Deuteronomy 29's covenant renewal. Moses describes what future generations and foreign nations will see when they look at the destroyed land (v.22) and ask: why has the LORD done this? (v.24). The answer (v.25-26): they forsook the covenant and served other gods. The desolation is the land's testimony to covenant unfaithfulness.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What does the promised land becoming like Sodom reveal about the reversibility of God's blessings under covenant unfaithfulness?
- 2.How does the triple barrenness (not sown, not bearing, no grass) describe the totality of the desolation?
- 3.Why does Moses frame the destruction as something future nations will ask about — and what does the land's condition 'testify'?
- 4.What blessings in your life might you be treating as permanent that this verse warns could be reversed?
Devotional
The whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning. The promised land. The land flowing with milk and honey. The inheritance God gave Abraham's descendants — turned to sulfur, salted earth, and scorched ground. Nothing grows. Nothing is planted. Not even grass survives. The blessing has become a wasteland.
Like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah. The comparison is deliberate and devastating. The promised land — the most blessed real estate on earth — will look like Sodom after the fire fell. The same desolation. The same permanent barrenness. The same sulfurous wasteland. God's garden will become God's garbage dump.
Which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath. The LORD did it. Not an enemy army alone. The LORD — in anger, in wrath. The same God who gave the land overthrows it. The same hand that planted the garden salts the soil. The destruction is as personal as the blessing was.
Future generations will look at the land and ask: why? (v.24). And the answer will be written in the brimstone: they forsook the covenant. They served other gods. The desolation is not random. It is testimonial — the land itself testifying to what happens when a people abandons the God who gave them everything.
The land that should have been Eden became Sodom. Not because God is cruel. Because the covenant has teeth. The blessings are real. The curses are equally real. The same God who makes land flow with milk and honey can make it burn with brimstone and salt. The difference is not God's character. It is the people's faithfulness.
What has God given you that you are treating as if it cannot be lost? The promised land looked permanent. It was not. The blessings looked irrevocable. They were not. The covenant has two sides. And the desolation is as real as the abundance.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Even all nations shall say,.... For the destruction of this land, and the people of it, would be, as it has been, so…
The description is borrowed from the local features of the Dead Sea and its vicinity. The towns of the vale of Siddim…
It appears by the length of the sentences here, and by the copiousness and pungency of the expressions, that Moses, now…
brimstone, etc.] The prediction is in terms of the surroundings of the Dead Sea. Beareth, lit. causeth to sprout;…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture