Bible Commentaries

Deuteronomy 30:1 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 the LORD thy God hath driven thee,

Ver. 1. The blessing and the curse.] When thou hast made trial of both, and hath bought thy wit, as feeling by woeful experience what an evil and a bitter thing sin is, and how easily thou mightest have redeemed thine own sorrows by better obedience.

Deuteronomy 30:2 And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;

Ver. 2. And shalt return to the Lord.] By sin we run away from God; by repentance we return to him.

Deuteronomy 30:3 That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.

Ver. 3. That then the Lord thy God.] Conversio Iudaeorum magnifice hic promittitur, saith one. Here is a stately promise of the conversion of the Jews, concerning which, {See Trapp on "Romans 11:25"} &c.

Deuteronomy 30:4 If [any] of thine be driven out unto the outmost [parts] of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:

Ver. 4. If any of thine be driven.] The Jews have been, for this sixteen hundred years and upwards, a dejected and despised people, hated and cast out by a common consent of all nations, for their unexpiable guilt in murdering the Messiah, which they now begin to be somewhat sensible of, and will be so more and more. {See Trapp on "Deuteronomy 28:28"}

Deuteronomy 30:6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

Ver. 6. And the Lord thy God.] See Deuteronomy 10:16.

Deuteronomy 30:7 And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.

Ver. 7. Will put all these curses upon thine enemies.] God will recompense "tribulation to them that have troubled you"; [2 Thessalonians 1:6] he will "spoil the spoilers"; [Isaiah 33:1] "deliver the just out of trouble, and the wicked shall come in his stead." [Proverbs 11:8 Isaiah 65:13-14] It seemeth to the Church’s enemies an incredible paradox, and a news by far more admirable than acceptable, that there should be such a transmutation of conditions on both sides to contraries; but so it will be, as sure as the coat is on their backs, or the heart in their bodies. See Lamentations 4:21.

Deuteronomy 30:8 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.

Ver. 8. And thou shalt return.] Come again to thyself, as the prodigal, who had been for some while beside himself.

Deuteronomy 30:9 And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:

Ver. 9. And in the fruit of thy land for good.] God will provide that thou shalt not be the worse for thine outward abundance; that fulness shall not breed forgetfulness. It is as hard to bear prosperity, as to drink much wine and not be giddy, or as to drink strong waters and not weaken the brain thereby. The parable of the sun and wind is well known. Some of those in Queen Mary’s days, who kept their garments close about them, wore them afterwards more loosely, when they came to prosperity and preferment. It is a marvellous great mercy to have outward comforts and contentments for good. Bonus Deus Constantinum Magnum tantis terrenis implevit muneribus, quanta optare nullus auderet, saith Augustine, ^(a) God of his goodness heaped all good things upon Constantine.

Deuteronomy 30:11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it [is] not hidden from thee, neither [is] it far off.

Ver. 11. For this commandment.] This word of faith, [Romans 10:8] that teacheth the righteousness of faith, [Romans 10:6] and speaketh on this wise, the doctrine of salvation by faith that works by love, this is clearly enough revealed in both Testaments, so that none can reasonably plead ignorance, and think to be excused by it.

Deuteronomy 30:12 It [is] not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

Ver. 12. Who shall go up for us to heaven?] And yet to know heavenly things, is to ascend into heaven. [Proverbs 30:4]

Deuteronomy 30:13 Neither [is] it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

Ver. 13. Neither is it beyond the sea.] Beyond the sea it was to us, till blessed Luther’s books were brought hither, together with Tyndale’s translation and other good men’s writings. Some Papists jeer us, and say that turkeys, hops, and heresy came into this kingdom in one bottom. Howbeit, long before this the Lady Anne, wife to king Richard II, sister to Winceslaus king of Bohemia, by living here was made acquainted with the gospel; whence also many Bohemians coming hither conveyed Wycliffe’s books into Bohemia, whereby a good foundation was laid for the ensuing Reformation, A.D. 1417, by the help of another good queen there, called Sophia. The writings also of John Huss, brought thence, wrought much good in this kingdom, a hundred years before Luther’s time.

Deuteronomy 30:14 But the word [is] very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

Ver. 14. Very nigh.] Nigher than the skin is to the flesh, or the flesh to the bones; it is within thy nature, and shall be in thy heart, λογος εμφυτος, an inbred or indwelling word. [James 1:21]

That thou mayest do it,] sc., By believing in Christ, [John 6:24] and yielding the obedience of faith. [Hebrews 8:10]

Deuteronomy 30:15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;

Ver. 15. See, I have set before thee.] Matters of great importance must be set on with greatest vehemency.

Deuteronomy 30:16 In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

Ver. 16. To love the Lord.] God must be obeyed out of love, or all is lost.

Deuteronomy 30:17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

Ver. 17. But if thine heart turn away.] This is that death and evil. [Deuteronomy 30:15]

Deuteronomy 30:18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, [and that] ye shall not prolong [your] days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

Ver. 18. I denounce unto you.] See on Deuteronomy 30:15.

Deuteronomy 30:19 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:

Ver. 19. Life and death, blessing and cursing.] Of God it may be more truly affirmed, than ever it was of Charles V, Emperor,

“ Una gerit bellum, monstrat manus altera pacem. ”

Therefore choose life.] Which yet man, of himself, can as little do as a dead carcass can fiy aloft. It was therefore an unsound and unsavoury speech of him that said, Quod vivamus, Dei munus est; quod bene vivamus, nostrum: That we live, it is of God; but that we live well, it is of ourselves. See the contrary in Isaiah 11:12, Hosea 14:8, John 15:5.

Deuteronomy 30:20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he [is] thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Ver. 20. For he is thy life.] He in whom thou livest, as the fish doth in the water, the lamp in the oil, &c. He is the author of life natural, spiritual, and eternal to his obedient servants.