23. They will exclaim, ‘The whole land is devastated by sulfur and salt. It is a wasteland with nothing planted and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass. It is like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the lord destroyed in his intense anger.’
24. “And all the surrounding nations will ask, ‘Why has the lord done this to this land? Why was he so angry?’
25. “And the answer will be, ‘This happened because the people of the land abandoned the covenant that the lord, the God of their ancestors, made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
26. Instead, they turned away to serve and worship gods they had not known before, gods that were not from the lord.
27. That is why the lord’s anger has burned against this land, bringing down on it every curse recorded in this book.
28. In great anger and fury the lord uprooted his people from their land and banished them to another land, where they still live today!’
29. “The lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.