Deuteronomy 30:11-20

The Offer of Life or Death

11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.

12 It 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?”

13 Nor 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?”

14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.

16 For 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.

17 But 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,

18 I 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.

19 This 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

20 and 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.

Deuteronomy 30:11-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY 30

This chapter contains some gracious promises of the conversion of the Jews in the latter day, of their calling things to mind that have befallen them, of their repentance, and the circumcision of their hearts to love the Lord, of the return of them to their own land, and of the great increase of them, and of their enjoyment of plenty of good things, De 30:1-10; in it is an account of the Gospel, or word of faith, which at this time should be brought near to the Jews, and be received by them, De 30:11-14; and for the present Moses desires them to consider what he now set before them, and what would be the consequences of receiving or rejecting it, and so what it would be most proper for them to make choice of, De 30:15-20.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 19:8; Isaiah 45:19,23; Isaiah 63:1
• 2. Proverbs 30:4
• 3. Romans 10:6*
• 4. Job 28:14
• 5. Romans 10:7*
• 6. S Deuteronomy 6:6; Romans 10:8*
• 7. Proverbs 10:16; Proverbs 11:19; Proverbs 12:28; Jeremiah 21:8
• 8. Deuteronomy 28:11; Job 36:11; Psalms 25:13; Psalms 106:5; Proverbs 3:1-2
• 9. S Genesis 2:17
• 10. S Deuteronomy 11:26
• 11. Deuteronomy 6:5
• 12. ver 19; Deuteronomy 4:1; Deuteronomy 32:47; Nehemiah 9:29
• 13. S Deuteronomy 8:19
• 14. Deuteronomy 4:26
• 15. ver 1; S Deuteronomy 11:26
• 16. Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:20
• 17. Deuteronomy 4:1; S Deuteronomy 8:3; Deuteronomy 32:47; Psalms 27:1; Proverbs 3:22; S John 5:26; John 11:25; Acts 17:28
• 18. Genesis 12:7
• 19. Psalms 37:3