Deuteronomy 29-30 · Featured Study

ASV

The Land Covenant

On the plains of Moab, before Israel has crossed the Jordan, Moses cuts a covenant the text itself calls distinct: “beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.” The chapters foretell exile for disobedience before the land is ever entered, then promise a return and a changed heart when Israel turns back. This page walks the text in order, then sets out the two ways the church has read what kind of covenant this is.

Summary

In Deuteronomy 29-30 Moses renews Israel's covenant in Moab, on the edge of the land, before a single generation has crossed the Jordan. The text foretells exile for disobedience, then promises regathering and a circumcised heart when Israel turns back, and the church has read the covenant's own nature in two different ways.

Deuteronomy 29:1 calls this covenant distinct from Sinai: "beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb"
The covenant binds everyone present in Moab and everyone "not here with us this day" (29:14-15), meaning the generations still to come
Exile is foretold in Deuteronomy 29:22-28, written before Israel has entered the land at all
Deuteronomy 30:6, "Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart," is the chapter's hinge: the promised return is paired with a changed heart, not obedience alone
Two readings of what kind of covenant this is are named here with their holders; the modern political status of Israel is not addressed on this page

Beside the Covenant of Horeb

29:1: the text's own distinction from Sinai

These are the words of the covenant which Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

Deuteronomy 29:1ASV

The covenant made in Moab is named beside the covenant made at Horeb, forty years earlier.

Moses stands with the second generation, the one that will cross the Jordan, and opens with a claim the text makes for itself: this covenant is “beside” the one cut at Horeb, Sinai’s other name. The Hebrew word carries both senses that the church has since divided over: an addition alongside the first covenant, or a renewal built on it. The chapters that follow do not settle which sense Moses meant; they simply proceed to renew the terms for a new generation.

It does not lie in the power of ministers to fix the terms of the covenant; they are only to dispense the seals of it. This is said to be besides the covenant made in Horeb; for, though the covenant was the same, yet it was a new promulgation and ratification of it.

Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist

Deut 29:1

Renewed With Every Generation

29:9-15: the oath binds those standing here, and those not yet born

Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do. Ye stand this day all of you before Jehovah your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy sojourner that is in the midst of thy camps, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water; that thou mayest enter into the covenant of Jehovah thy God, and into his oath, which Jehovah thy God maketh with thee this day; that he may establish thee this day unto himself for a people, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he spake unto thee, and as he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Deuteronomy 29:9-13ASV

Keep the words of this covenant: every rank of Israel enters the oath together, to be God's own people.

Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, but with him that standeth here with us this day before Jehovah our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day

Deuteronomy 29:14-15ASV

Not with you only: the oath reaches to everyone “not here with us this day.”

Verse 15 is the covenant’s own statement of its reach. The plain sense names the sick and the absent among those physically present that day; a long line of Jewish and Christian readers has also heard in it every generation of Israel still to come, bound to the same oath their fathers swore in Moab.

The principal design of the renewing of this covenant at this time was to fortify them against temptations to idolatry. Though other sins will be the sinner's ruin, yet this was the sin that was likely to be their ruin.

Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist

Deut 29:13

Exile Foretold

29:22-28: written before Israel has entered the land at all

even all the nations shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt,

Deuteronomy 29:24-25ASV

The nations ask why; the answer is idolatry, the breaking of this same covenant.

Before a single tribe has crossed the Jordan, Moses describes a land laid waste, brimstone and salt, compared openly to Sodom and Gomorrah (29:22-23), and the watching nations asking why. The answer given is covenant breach rather than military defeat: Israel forsook the covenant of Jehovah, the God of their fathers. The curse is stated as a consequence of disobedience, not as a limit on the covenant’s own promise.

The Promised Return

30:1-5: regathering, after the curse has fallen

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither Jehovah thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto Jehovah thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul; that then Jehovah thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the peoples, whither Jehovah thy God hath scattered thee.

Deuteronomy 30:1-3ASV

When the blessing and the curse have both come to pass, and Israel returns to the LORD, He will turn their captivity.

If any of thine outcasts be in the uttermost parts of heaven, from thence will Jehovah thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: and Jehovah thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

Deuteronomy 30:4-5ASV

Gathered from the uttermost parts of heaven, and brought back into the land their fathers possessed.

Chapter 30 opens on the far side of the exile chapter 29 foretold. The scattering is not the covenant’s last word: repentance is met with a promised gathering, described in terms wider than any single historical return.

Will bring thee into the land - As this promise refers to a return from a captivity in which they had been scattered among all nations, consequently it is not the Babylonish captivity which is intended; and the repossession of their land must be different from that which was consequent on their return from Chaldea.

Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist

Deut 30:5

The Heart Circumcised

30:6: the passage's own hinge

And Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

Deuteronomy 30:6ASV

The gathering is paired with a changed heart, not obedience by itself.

The promised return does not stop at geography. The LORD Himself will circumcise the heart, so that love for Him, not bare compliance, becomes possible. This single verse is the hinge the whole passage turns on: the sign given to Abraham in the flesh (Genesis 17:11) is here promised worked inwardly, a hope that runs forward into the New Covenant’s own language of a heart made new.

God will circumcise thine heart - This promise remains yet to be fulfilled. Their heart, as a people, has never yet been circumcised; nor have the various promises in this chapter been ever yet fulfilled. There remaineth, therefore, a rest for this people of God.

Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist

Deut 30:6

Not Too Hard, Not Far Off

30:11-14: the word made near, and Paul's own use of it

For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

Deuteronomy 30:11-14ASV

Not in heaven, not beyond the sea: the word is near, in the mouth and in the heart.

Paul quotes this passage directly in Romans 10:6-8, reading its language of nearness as a picture of the righteousness that comes by faith rather than by ascent to heaven or descent to the deep.

Ignorance of the requirements of the law cannot be pleaded Deu 30:10-14; hence, Deu 30:15-20 life and death, good and evil, are solemnly set before the people for their own choice; and an earnest exhortation to choose the better part concludes the address. Deu 30:11-14. “The righteousness which is of faith” is really and truly described in these words of the Law; and, under Paul’s guidance (see marginal references) we affirm was intended so to be.

Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869Presbyterian

Deut 30:11

It is not in heaven - Shall not be communicated in that way in which the prophets received the living oracles; but the Word shall be made flesh, and dwell among you.

Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist

Deut 30:12

Choose Life

30:15-20: the closing choice

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed;

Deuteronomy 30:19ASV

Heaven and earth called as witnesses to the choice itself.

Moses closes the covenant the way he closes every major address in this book: with a choice set plainly before the people, and heaven and earth called to witness it. Life and death, blessing and cursing, are not abstractions here; they are the terms of the covenant just renewed.

The Two Readings

what kind of covenant this is, and who holds each reading

Deuteronomy 29:1 leaves room for both readings below in its own wording. Neither reading disputes what the text says; they differ on what kind of covenant it is.

The land covenant

older name: “the Palestinian covenant”

Dispensational writers, following C. I. Scofield’s notes and carried forward by Charles Ryrie and Arnold Fruchtenbaum, read these chapters as a covenant in its own right, distinct from Sinai, guaranteeing Israel’s title to the land on terms that outlast any single generation’s obedience. The older name comes from the passage’s setting on the edge of the land; this page speaks of the land covenant to avoid confusion with the modern state, which this page does not address.

Covenant renewal

Sinai, renewed in Moab

A wide range of commentators, older and modern alike, read the same chapters as the Mosaic covenant renewed for the generation about to cross the Jordan, not a new covenant. Peter Craigie’s Deuteronomy commentary (NICOT, 1976) and most non-dispensational readers hold this view, reading “beside” in 29:1 as a renewal built on Horeb rather than an addition alongside it.

Where the readings meetboth readings, the same text

Both readings agree on everything the text itself states: the covenant is renewed in Moab, the exile is real and foretold, the return is promised, and the heart-circumcision of 30:6 is the passage’s center. They differ only on the technical question of whether Deuteronomy 29-30 constitutes a distinct covenant or a renewal of Sinai’s covenant. This page names both readings and their holders and does not stamp a verdict on the question.

The Words Underneath

the Hebrew the passage turns on

The words underneath

berith: covenant

Hebrew · H1285

בְּרִית

Strong's entry: a compact (because made by passing between pieces of flesh)

The word the whole passage turns on, used through both chapters of the covenant itself, renewed or distinct.

284 times in the Old Testament · berith, in full →

shub: to return: return

Hebrew · H7725

שׁוּב

Strong's entry: to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point); generally to retreat; often adverbial, again

To turn or return. Used seven times across chapter 30 of Israel's return to the LORD, and the LORD's return to Israel: the chapter's own repeated word.

1,056 times in the Old Testament · shub, in full →

lebab: heart

Hebrew · H3824

לֵבָב

Strong's entry: the heart (as the most interior organ)

Heart. The word circumcised in 30:6, and the word the closing choice of 30:15-20 is finally about.

252 times in the Old Testament · lebab, in full →