Дварим 29:21 Комментарий: Ibn Ezra, Ramban, Or HaChaim & Chizkuni

The future generation denotes both your children and the foreigners who will observe the plagues of the land.

AND THE REMOTE GENERATION, YOUR CHILDREN THAT SHALL RISE UP AFTER YOU, SHALL SAY. For the tribes of Israel in the first generation already knew [the cause of the disaster] for they heard the imprecations of the covenant [and therefore he states that the future generation will inquire into the cause of the disaster]. It is possible that this verse refers back to the root that beareth gall and wormwood,³³Succah 52b. that when this occurs in future generations, they will inquire into its cause.

ואמר הדור האחרון..וראו את מכת הארץ, "The later generation will say,…when they see the destruction and the conflagration, etc." Clearly, the Torah envisages that such punishment will not be something isolated. Why does the Torah mention the reaction by a later generation viewing the destruction of the Holy Land before mentioning the fact that they have seen it? The Torah should have written: "the later generation will see what destruction happened to this country and they will ask what caused it." Besides, the word ואמר is totally superfluous here seeing the Torah repeats in verse 23 that "they will say" i.e. all the other nations who came face to face with the destruction in the Holy Land. Furthermore, why did the Torah begin the verse in the singular, i.e. ואמר, only to switch to the plural, i.e. ואמרו כל הגוים, "and all the nations will say?"