Deuteronomy30
New International Version
1When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations,
2and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today,
3then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.
4Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.
5He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.
6The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
7The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you.
8You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today.
9Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors,
10if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
11Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.
12It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”
13Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”
14No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
15See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.
16For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,
18I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
20and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Deuteronomy 30.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: Mercies promised to the repentant. (1–10). The commandment manifest. (11–14). Death and life set before them. (15–20).
vv1-10
In this chapter is a plain intimation of the mercy God has in store for Israel in the latter days. This passage refers to the prophetic warnings of the last two chapters, which have been mainly fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and in their dispersion to the present day; and there can be no doubt that the prophetic promise contained in these verses yet remain to come to pass. The Jewish nation shall in some future period, perhaps not very distant, be converted to the faith of Christ; and, many think, again settled in the land of Canaan. The language here used is in a great measure absolute promises; not merely a conditional engagement, but declaring an event assuredly to take place. For the Lord himself here engages to “circumcise their hearts;” and when regenerating grace has removed corrupt nature, and Divine love has supplanted the love of sin, they certainly will reflect, repent, return to God, and obey him; and he will rejoice in doing them good. The change that will be wrought upon them will not be only outward, or consisting in mere opinions; it will reach to their souls. It will produce in them an utter hatred of all sin, and a fervent love to God, as their reconciled God in Christ Jesus; they will love him with all their hearts, and with all their soul. They are very far from this state of mind at present, but so were the murderers of the Lord Jesus, on the day of Pentecost; who yet in one hour were converted unto God. So shall it be in the day of God's power; a nation shall be born in a day; the Lord will hasten it in his time. As a conditional promise this passage belongs to all persons and all people, not to Israel only; it assures us that the greatest sinners, if they repent and are converted, shall have their sins pardoned, and be restored to God's favour.
vv11-14
The law is not too high for thee. It is not only known afar off; it is not confined to men of learning. It is written in thy books, made plain, so that he who runs may read it. It is in thy mouth, in the tongue commonly used by thee, in which thou mayest hear it read, and talk of it among thy children. It is delivered so that it is level to the understanding of the meanest. This is especially true of the gospel of Christ, to which the apostle applies it. But the word is nigh us, and Christ in that word; so that if we believe with the heart, that the promises of the Messiah are fulfilled in our Lord Jesus, and confess them with our mouth, we then have Christ with us.
vv15-20
What could be said more moving, and more likely to make deep and lasting impressions? Every man wishes to obtain life and good, and to escape death and evil; he desires happiness, and dreads misery. So great is the compassion of the Lord, that he has favoured men, by his word, with such a knowledge of good and evil as will make them for ever happy, if it be not their own fault. Let us hear the sum of the whole matter. If they and theirs would love God, and serve him, they should live and be happy. If they or theirs should turn from God, desert his service, and worship other gods, that would certainly be their ruin. There never was, since the fall of man, more than one way to heaven; which is marked out in both Testaments, though not with equal clearness. Moses meant that same way of acceptance, which Paul more plainly described; and Paul's words mean the same obedience, on which Moses more fully treated. In both Testaments the good and right way is brought near, and plainly revealed to us.
Key Words
כֹּל: properly, the whole; hence, all, any or every (in the singular only, but often in a plural sense)
אֵלֶּה: these or those
דָּבָר: a word; by implication, a matter (as spoken of) or thing; adverbially, a cause
בּוֹא: to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)
עַל: above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications
בְּרָכָה: benediction; by implication prosperity
קְלָלָה: vilification
אֲשֶׁר: who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.
נָתַן: to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etc.)
פָּנִים: the face (as the part that turns); used in a great variety of applications (literally and figuratively); also (with prepositional prefix) as a preposition (before, etc.)
Cross References
Deuteronomy 30Paul explicitly applies the 'not in heaven' and 'very nigh' language to the Gospel of Christ.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, John Calvin, JFB
Paul quotes this verse directly to describe the word of faith which is in the mouth and heart.
Supported by Matthew Henry, John Calvin, JFB
Connected to the promised future gathering and spiritual restoration of all Israel through the Deliverer.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
The earlier command to circumcise one's own heart is here promised as a sovereign work of God.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Nehemiah explicitly quotes this promise of gathering those scattered to the uttermost parts of heaven.
Supported by JFB
Identifies the circumcision of the heart as the spiritual circumcision made without hands by Christ.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Echoes that God has not spoken in secret or obscure enigmas, but clearly and understandably.
Supported by John Calvin
Christ's work gathers together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Parallel promise of the New Covenant where God writes His law directly onto human hearts.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Parallel prophetic promise of spiritual regeneration, replacing a stony heart with a heart of flesh.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Contrasts God's rejoicing over them to destroy them with His renewed rejoicing over them for good.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The foundational presentation of the blessing and the curse that Moses set before the people.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Solomon's temple prayer directly anticipates this sequence: sin, exile, calling to mind, and repentance.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Paul adapts the 'who shall go up' concept to 'who shall descend into the deep'.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Earlier promise that they would find God in exile if they searched with all their heart.
Joshua practically applies Moses' charge, demanding the people actively choose whom they will serve.