Deuteronomychapter 30
20 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
Moses closes his third address with this chapter, and with it the long argument of the book. The chapter before it ended with the people scattered from their land. This one speaks from beyond that loss and describes a return, to a nation that has not yet entered the land once. Listen for what sets the return in motion and for who does the work on the heart. Listen also for the answer to an objection about whether the command is out of reach. The chapter ends on one command, and a reader should hear it as the whole book's appeal.
Context
- Who
- A people who had not yet entered the land once, being told what a second entry would look like
- What
- The promise of return and a renewed heart after exile, and the charge to choose life by loving and obeying the LORD.
- Where
- The plains of Moab, with the speech looking past the land to a scattering among the nations and a return from it
- When
- The fortieth year after the Exodus, about 1406 BC on the early date of the Exodus, spoken in the same sitting as chapter 29.
- Why
- To assure Israel that a return would follow the judgment, and to press on them the choice the whole book has set out.
Historical context
The chapter is Moses closing the third address, in the fortieth year on the plains of Moab. The occasion is the end of the argument the whole book has been making, so what stands here is a charge rather than a statute. Its opening is unusual in its standpoint. Chapter 28 ended with Israel scattered, and this chapter opens after that scattering has happened and describes the way back. Moses is therefore describing a second entry into the land to a people who have not made the first one. A first hearer knew what the terms of verse 9 were, because they are the blessing vocabulary of 28:4 and 28:11 handed back, the fruit of the body, the cattle and the land. He also knew what circumcision was as a sign, which is what makes the promise at verse 6 carry its force. Deuteronomy 10:16 had laid that act on the people as a command, and here God undertakes it himself. The two errands named at verses 12 and 13, going up to heaven and crossing the sea, were the standard images for a thing out of reach.
Significance
The passage told them that the commandment was within reach, and it measured nearness by whether a thing could be obeyed. Moses ends on doing, that thou mayest do it. It also gave them one command out of the whole address, therefore choose life, with the reason attached being their children. The promise of return meant that failure would not be the last word on the nation, which mattered to a people who had just heard sixty-eight verses of sanctions.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The section that carries this chapter is read in the days before the Jewish new year. This is the site's reading of where Deuteronomy meets the Jewish year, recorded at scripts/data/book-facts/deuteronomy.json and marked there as the writer's reading. The chapter's subject fits that season, since it describes a turning back.
Sforno reads the returning of 30:2 as repentance whose whole purpose is to do God's will from that point on. He reports his sages saying of this kind of repentance that it reaches up to the throne of God's majesty (Sforno on Deuteronomy 30:2:1, Munk translation, CC-BY, citing Yoma 86). He reads the first verse as the moment a man sees clearly what has happened to him. He then understands how far he had gone from the Torah, and so from God (Sforno on Deuteronomy 30:1:1). He takes the listening of the next verse as a turn away from man-made law (Sforno on Deuteronomy 30:2:2).
How it is read
Malbim weighs two Hebrew words for sending away, and builds the chapter's comfort on the difference. Casting something away puts it far off, spoils it, and leaves the thrower indifferent to where it lands. Driving something away keeps the driver close to it the whole time. It leaves the thing unspoilt, and leaves him knowing where it is. He takes the second word as the one used of Israel among the nations. God is driving them towards a place where they can rest, which he offers as proof that God's eyes are on them for good (Malbim on Deuteronomy 30:1:3, Sefaria Community Translation, CC0). On the gathering itself he says God gives Israel mercy in the heart of the nations first, and gathers them after that (Malbim on Deuteronomy 30:3:2).
The verses about the commandment being near are the ones a Christian reader meets in Paul's hands at Romans 10:6 to 10:8. The classical reading keeps them on the study of the Torah. Rashi holds that the word about heaven would place a duty on Israel to climb after the Torah if it really were there (Rashi on Deuteronomy 30:12:1, citing Eruvin 55a). He explains the nearness of the word by saying that the Torah was given to Israel in writing and by mouth (Rashi on Deuteronomy 30:14:1). That is the classical doctrine of a written and an oral Torah.
Rashi reads the choice of 30:15 to 30:18 as two pairs bound together. Doing good brings life and doing evil brings death, and he marks each of the four terms in the verses that follow (Rashi on Deuteronomy 30:15:1, 30:16:1, 30:17:1 and 30:18:1). Sforno reads the peace of 30:8 as the age the Messiah opens once the hostile nations are gone. He holds that Israel will never be exiled again after it (Sforno on Deuteronomy 30:7:1 and 30:8:1). The corpus holds Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 30:4:1, 30:6:1, 30:9:1, 30:10:1, 30:13:1 and 30:20:1 without a text that may be kept here. It holds Malbim on Deuteronomy 30:4:1 and 30:5:1 the same way. All are cited without quotation.
What the rabbis say
The teaching the rabbis drew from 30:3 is one of the most striking in the book. Rashi points out that the Hebrew says God will return rather than that he will bring back. He carries their reading that God's presence dwells with Israel through the whole misery of the exile (Rashi on Deuteronomy 30:3:1, citing Megillah 29a). Scripture therefore speaks of his own redemption when it speaks of theirs, and he returns with them. Rashi offers a second reading beside it. The gathering is so hard a work that God is described as taking each exile by the hand and drawing him from his place.
On the witnesses of 30:19 the rabbis put an argument in God's mouth. Rashi gives it at length. Look at the heavens made to serve you, which have never altered their course. Look at the earth made to serve you, which has never yielded barley from sown wheat. Neither earns a reward for keeping to its nature nor suffers a loss for failing, and neither has ever changed. Israel, which does earn reward and does suffer punishment, has all the more reason to obey its Maker (Rashi on Deuteronomy 30:19:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 306:1). Rashi also explains the word for the commandment being beyond reach as meaning hidden rather than difficult, taking the sense from the Targum (Rashi on Deuteronomy 30:11:1).
The corpus carries more locators on this chapter, given for a reader to follow. Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 7:4:3 stands at 30:1. Megillah 29a:4 and Bamidbar Rabbah 7:10 stand at 30:3, Bamidbar Rabbah 23:14 at 30:4. Arakhin 32b:11 stands at 30:5, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 17:8:4 at 30:6. Eikhah Rabbah 3:22 stands at 30:7. Bereshit Rabbah 53:10 and Bereshit Rabbah 53:11 stand at 30:9. Devarim Rabbah 8:1-2 stands at 30:11. Bava Metzia 59b:1 and Bava Metzia 59b:5 stand at 30:12, Ein Yaakov, Eiruvin 5:7 at 30:14. Eikhah Rabbah 3:13 stands at 30:15, Ein Yaakov, Sukkah 4:12 at 30:17. Devarim Rabbah 4:3 stands at 30:19. Avot DeRabbi Natan 2:2 and Aggadat Bereshit 66:1 stand at 30:20.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 30:3 to 30:19, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929-1934; Malbim, Malbim on Deuteronomy 30:1:3 and 30:3:2, Sefaria Community Translation, CC0, with Malbim on Deuteronomy 30:4:1 and 30:5:1 cited without text; Sforno, Sforno on Deuteronomy 30:1:1, 30:2:1, 30:2:2, 30:7:1 and 30:8:1, Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 30:4:1, 30:6:1, 30:9:1, 30:10:1, 30:13:1 and 30:20:1, cited without text; MannaFest, the Deuteronomy book facts, at scripts/data/book-facts/deuteronomy.json, where the new year reading is recorded as the writer's reading, 2026; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/30.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
When you turn, he will turn your captivity
Deuteronomy 30:1-3
Chapter 28 ended with Israel scattered, and this chapter opens after the scattering. The return starts with memory, when Israel will “call them to mind in all the nations”, the order Moses gave at 4:29-31. Clarke read the gathering “from all the nations” as reaching past the return from Babylon, and Barnes set it beside Solomon's prayer at 1 Kings 8:46-50.
Deuteronomy 30:1
“The rejection of Israel and the desolation of the promised inheritance were not to be the end of God’s dispensations. The closing words of the address therefore are words of comfort and promise. Compare marginal reference and Deu 4:29 ff; 1Ki 8:46-50. The chastisements of God would lead the nation to repent, and thereupon God would again bless them. Deu 30:3 Will turn thy captivity - Will change or put an end to thy state of captivity or distress (compare Psa 14:7; Psa 85:2; Jer 30:18).”
Henry sets out the repentance in stages: calling to mind in verse 1, then returning to the LORD, then obeying His voice. He reads you and your children two ways, as a duty to train the children in obedience or as the condition that keeps the blessing in the family line. The prodigal, Henry notes, came to himself before he came home.
Albert Barnes reads restore you from captivity as an end to any state of distress, and he compares Psalm 14:7 and Jeremiah 30:18. Henry sets the compassion beside Jeremiah 31:18-20, where the LORD hears Ephraim grieving and yearns over him. The anger of 29:20 gives way to pity.
Deuteronomy 30:3
“Gather thee from all the nations - This must refer to a more extensive captivity than that which they suffered in Babylon.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 30:4-5
Nehemiah prays this promise back to God at Nehemiah 1:8-9, asking for the gathering it names. Verse 5 sets the return above the first entry, since God will make Israel “prosper and multiply more than your fathers”. Moses describes a second entry into the land to a people who have not yet made the first.
Deuteronomy 30:4
“One of the Chaldee paraphrasts applies this to the Messiah, explaining it thus: The word of the Lord shall gather you by the hand of Elias the great priest, and shall bring you by the hand of the king Messiah; for this was God's covenant with him, that he should restore the preserved of Israel, Isa. xlix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the return from Babylon left Israel fewer than its fathers, so they look beyond it. Henry holds the promise fulfilled when the LORD brought the people back into their land, and notes that some expect a further fulfilment. Multiply more than the fathers is the measure.
Deuteronomy 30:5
“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 (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 30:6-7
At 10:16 the people were commanded to circumcise their hearts, and here God undertakes the act himself. Jeremiah 4:4 repeats the command, Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26 carry the promise, and Paul takes it up at Romans 2:29, while verse 7 turns the curses on the enemies. Clarke held the promise unfulfilled in his day, and Gill read it of a future turning of the Jewish people to their Messiah.
Deuteronomy 30:6
“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 (1810-1826)evangelical
put all these curses upon: Henry reads the transfer as the curses turning from a burden on Israel into a defence against the enemies who hate and persecute it. He cites Isaiah 51:22-23, where the LORD takes the cup of staggering from His people and hands it to their tormentors. The same cup changes hands.
Deuteronomy 30:7
“And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies,.... Recorded in Deu 28:16; that is, the Word of the Lord, as the Targum of Jonathan; for he being now sought unto, and embraced, will be their King and their Saviour, and revenge their enemies: and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee: the Turks and Papists, the former having taken possession of their land, and the latter being violent persecutors of them in all their countries. This will be fulfilled when the vials of God's wrath will be poured on the antichristian states, Rev 16:1.”
Deuteronomy 30:8-10
Verse 9 hands back the blessing words of 28:4 and 28:11, the fruit of womb, livestock and land, so the promise is measured in the terms the curse used. Gill argued that the “if” of verse 10 has the force of for, since verse 6 has already promised the obedience, while other readers keep the condition as a condition.
Wesley reads the delight of the LORD against 28:63, where the same God was pleased to destroy. He adds that the fruit of the womb, the livestock and the land, once received to Israel's hurt, would now serve its good in a changed heart. Henry notes that many have plenty to their harm.
Deuteronomy 30:9
“It is promised, The Lord will make thee plenteous in the fruit of thy cattle and land, for good. Many have plenty for hurt; the prosperity of fools destroys them. Then it is for good when with it God gives us grace to use it for his glory.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Wesley reads the if as a warning against receiving the grace of God in vain. Grace never cancels duty, he adds. Henry finds the covenant of grace ordered so that whatever it requires it also promises, as verse 6 promises the heart that will turn to the LORD with all its soul.
Deuteronomy 30:10
“It is observable, that Moses calls God, the Lord thy God twelve times in these ten verses. In the threatnings of the former chapter, he is all along called the Lord, a God of power, and the judge of all. But in the promises of this chapter, the Lord thy God, a God of grace, and in covenant with thee.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The word is very near you
Deuteronomy 30:11-13
Two errands are named, going up to heaven and crossing the sea, and neither is required. Paul quotes these verses at Romans 10:6-7 of the righteousness that is by faith, changing the sea to the deep and applying it to bringing Christ up from the dead. Barnes held that Paul gives the words their true intent, and the commandment is near because it has already been spoken to them.
Deuteronomy 30:11
“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.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 30:11
“OUR Lord Jesus Christ, in John's Gospel, in the 46th verse of the fifth chapter, says, "Moses wrote of Me." Hence we may safely interpret much that Moses said, not only of the Law, but also of the Gospel. Indeed, the Law itself was given primarily to drive men to the Gospel. It was meant to show them the impossibility of salvation by their own works and so to shut them up to a salvation which is available even for sinners.”
It is not in heaven: Calvin reads the verse beside Isaiah 45:19, where the LORD says He did not speak in secret, so no one must ascend into heaven to get the law and proclaim it. He refused the reading that finds a free will to obey in these verses, and held that the power to obey differs from the power to understand. Adam Clarke looks ahead to the Word made flesh.
Deuteronomy 30:12
“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 (1810-1826)evangelical
Cross references
Deuteronomy 30:12
- Quoted inRomans 10:6“But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down)”
'Who shall ascend into heaven?' (righteousness of faith speaks)
beyond the sea: Wesley and Henry both think of the philosophers of the nations, who would cross the sea in search of wisdom. Israel heard the commandment near at hand. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that the youngest in Israel knew what the wisest of the nations still sought.
Deuteronomy 30:13
“Neither beyond the sea - The knowledge of this commandment is not to be fetched from far distant places, to which divers of the wise Heathens travelled for their wisdom; but it was brought to thy very doors and ears, and declared to thee in this wilderness.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Romans 10:8 quotes this verse and names what is near, the word of faith, which we preach. Paul keeps the two organs Moses used and works them in the other order, the heart believing unto righteousness and the mouth making confession unto salvation at Romans 10:9-10. Moses ends on doing, that thou mayest do it, so nearness in this chapter is measured by whether a thing can be obeyed.
Deuteronomy 30:14
“But the word is very nigh unto thee - The doctrine of salvation preached by the apostles; in thy mouth, the promises of redemption made by the prophets forming a part of every Jew’s creed; in thy heart - the power to believe with the heart unto righteousness, that the tongue may make confession unto salvation. In this way, it is evident, St. Paul understood these passages; see Rom 10:6-8, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 30:14
But consider if perhaps all people participate in him insofar as he is Word. This is why the apostle teaches us that he is sought within the seekers by those who choose to find him. He says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who shall ascend into heaven?' that is, to bring Christ down; or, 'Who shall descend into the deep?' that is, to bring Christ up again from the dead. But what does the Scripture say? The Word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1.269patristic
Choose life, that you may live
Deuteronomy 30:15-16
Moses puts the whole covenant into one pair of choices, “life and goodness, as well as death and disaster”, the form of the blessing and the curse at 11:26-28. Verse 16 defines the life by three verbs, to love the LORD, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments. Love stands first and the keeping follows, in the order of 6:5-6.
Deuteronomy 30:15
“There is a certain balance constructed in the interior of each of us by our Creator, on which it is possible to judge the nature of things. "I have set before you life and death, good and evil," two natures contrary to each other. Balance them against each other in your own tribunal.”
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · HOMILY ON PSALM 61:4patristic
Henry reads the promise that those who love the LORD and walk in His ways will live and increase in the land as an appeal to hope. Verse 18 appeals to fear with the threat to perish. Henry finds the same pair of motives at Romans 2:7-9.
Deuteronomy 30:16
“If they would love God, and evidence the sincerity of their love by keeping his commandments--if they would make conscience of keeping his commandments, and do it from a principle of love--then God would do them good, and they should be as happy as his love and blessing could make them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 30:17-18
Verse 17 describes a heart turned to other gods, and Henry observed that the ruin threatened here hangs on that apostasy. The King James word denounce in verse 18 occurs only here in that version. Moses speaks in his own person, “I declare to you today”, putting his own testimony behind the sentence.
Deuteronomy 30:17
“Observe, It is not for every failure in the particulars of their duty that ruin is threatened, but for apostasy and idolatry: though every violation of the command deserved the curse, yet the nation would be destroyed by that only which is the violation of the marriage covenant.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Henry calls idolatry the breach of the marriage covenant, the one sin for which the nation itself would be destroyed. The days cut short here answer verse 20, where the LORD is Israel's life and prolongs it. The warning comes at the edge of the Jordan.
Deuteronomy 30:18
“I denounce unto, you this day that ye shall surely perish,.... By one judgment or another; this he most solemnly averred, and it might be depended upon that it would certainly be their case; see Deu 4:26, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it; but be cut short by death, of one kind or another, by sword, or famine, or pestilence, or be carried into captivity; one or other of which were frequently their case.”
Heaven and earth are called as witnesses at 4:26, here and at 31:28, and addressed at 32:1. Treaties of the second millennium between a great king and a vassal close with such a witness clause, as Meredith Kline and Kenneth Kitchen set out, which bears on the book's date without settling it. The one command follows, “Therefore choose life”, for the sake of the next generation.
Three verbs close the address, love, obey and hold fast, and holding fast is Moses' word at 11:22 and 13:4, repeated at Joshua 22:5. The words “For He is your life” put the life set before them in a person. The last clause reaches back to the oath sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so a chapter that opened among the nations closes on a promise older than the law.
Deuteronomy 30:20
“That thou mayest love the Lord - Without love there can be no obedience. Obey his voice - Without obedience love is fruitless and dead. And cleave unto him - Without close attachment and perseverance, temporary love, however sincere and fervent - temporary obedience, however disinterested, energetic, and pure while it lasts - will be ultimately ineffectual. He alone who endures to the end, shall be saved. Reader, how do matters stand between God and thy soul? He cannot persevere in the grace of God whose soul is not yet made a partaker of that grace.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: The close of the third address, moving from restoration after exile to the final charge, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Two errands nobody is sent on | Verses 12 and 13 name two impossible journeys in matching sentences, going up to heaven and going over the sea, and the point of naming them is that neither is required of anybody. Verse 14 answers both at once, the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, on Deuteronomy 30:12. | Deuteronomy 30:12, Deuteronomy 30:13, Deuteronomy 30:14 |
| Life and good, death and evil | Verse 15 puts the whole covenant into one pair of choices, and verse 19 states it again as life and death, blessing and cursing. Moses used the same form at 11:26-28 with a blessing and a curse. Verse 16 defines the life by three verbs, to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, so the choice is described by conduct.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, on Deuteronomy 30:15. | Deuteronomy 30:15, Deuteronomy 30:16, Deuteronomy 30:19 |
| The LORD thy God, twelve times over | John Wesley counted the title the LORD thy God twelve times in the first ten verses of this chapter, and set that against chapter 28, where the same speaker says the LORD. The possessive returns through the promise of restoration where the curse chapter had dropped it.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Deuteronomy 30:1. | Deuteronomy 30:1, Deuteronomy 30:3, Deuteronomy 30:6, Deuteronomy 30:9, Deuteronomy 30:10 |
| Love, obey and cleave | Three verbs close the address at verse 20, love, obey and cleave. Cleave unto him is the word Moses used at 11:22 and 13:4, and Joshua repeats it at Joshua 22:5. The same three-verb pattern stood at verse 16 to define the life being offered.John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony, 1563, on Deuteronomy 30:20. | Deuteronomy 30:16, Deuteronomy 30:20 |
The command that becomes a promise
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
Deuteronomy 10:16 laid the act on the people as a command, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart. Twenty chapters later, at verse 6, the same act is something God undertakes to do. Jeremiah 4:4 repeats the command while Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26 carry the promise forward, and Paul takes up circumcision of the heart at Romans 2:29. Adam Clarke held that the promise remained unfulfilled in his own day, and John Gill read it of a future turning of the Jewish people to their Messiah.
The promise measured in the curse's own terms
Verse 9 hands back the blessing vocabulary of 28:4 and 28:11, the fruit of thy body and of thy cattle and of thy land. Verse 7 puts the curses of chapter 28 on the enemies, so the same words land somewhere else. The restoration is priced in the currency the sentence was written in.
Whether verse 10 is a condition
John Gill argued that the if of verse 10 carries the force of for, since verse 6 has already promised the obedience verse 10 speaks of. Other readers keep the condition standing as a condition. The question matters for how much of the return rests on Israel's turning and how much on God's act.
What Paul does with verses 12 to 14
Paul quotes these verses at Romans 10:6-8 and reads them of the righteousness which is of faith. Where Moses says beyond the sea Paul says who shall descend into the deep, applying it to bringing Christ up from the dead. Albert Barnes held that Paul's reading gives the true intent of the words themselves, and John Wesley read the passage of a law made practicable by gospel grace. Paul keeps the two organs Moses used and works them in the other order at Romans 10:9-10, the heart believing unto righteousness and the mouth making confession unto salvation.
Heaven and earth as witnesses
Verse 19 summons heaven and earth to record. The same summons stands at 4:26 and again at 31:28, and the Song addresses them directly when it opens at 32:1. Second millennium treaties between a great king and a vassal close with a witness clause of the same kind. Meredith Kline set the correspondence out in Treaty of the Great King and Kenneth Kitchen in On the Reliability of the Old Testament. It bears on the dating of the book without settling it.
The word that falls once
The word denounce at verse 18 falls once in the whole King James Bible, and this is the place. Moses says it of himself, I denounce unto you this day, which puts a man's own testimony behind the sentence he reads out.
Keep studying
Studies5
Words12
Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, on Deuteronomy 30; Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy, 1963 and The dispensational tradition, Carried with its holders in src/components/book/dossier-content/deuteronomy.ts, with a door to /featured/land-covenant.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.