Deuteronomy30
New Living Translation
1“In the future, when you experience all these blessings and curses I have listed for you, and when you are living among the nations to which the Lord your God has exiled you, take to heart all these instructions.
2If at that time you and your children return to the Lord your God, and if you obey with all your heart and all your soul all the commands I have given you today,
3then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and gather you back from all the nations where he has scattered you.
4Even though you are banished to the ends of the earth, the Lord your God will gather you from there and bring you back again.
5The Lord your God will return you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will possess that land again. Then he will make you even more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors!
6“The Lord your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul and so you may live!
7The Lord your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate and persecute you.
8Then you will again obey the Lord and keep all his commands that I am giving you today.
9“The Lord your God will then make you successful in everything you do. He will give you many children and numerous livestock, and he will cause your fields to produce abundant harvests, for the Lord will again delight in being good to you as he was to your ancestors.
10The Lord your God will delight in you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.
11“This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach.
12It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’
13It is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey?’
14No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.
15“Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster.
16For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.
17“But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods,
18then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.
19“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!
20You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors 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.