Deuteronomy 30

All of these things will happen to you: the blessing and the curse that I have laid out in front of you. When they have come, and you think them over while you are living among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you,

1And 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,

Note"The blessing and the curse" points back to the list Moses has just recited (chapters 27–28): the good outcomes that follow from keeping the agreement with God and the disasters that follow from breaking it. Ancient treaties between a ruler and a subject people regularly ended with such paired lists.

2and when you come back to the LORD your God and obey his voice, following everything I am commanding you today, you and your children, with your whole heart and your whole self,

2And 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;

Note"Heart" in Hebrew is the seat of thinking, choosing and planning as much as of feeling, closer to "mind" or "will" than to romantic emotion. The word rendered "your whole self" is *nephesh*, the whole living person, breath and appetite and life together; the King James translates it "soul," which now suggests an immaterial part of a person, a narrower idea than the Hebrew. "Obey his voice" translates a single verb meaning to hear and act on what is heard; in Hebrew, listening and obeying are not two separate things.

3then the LORD your God will bring you back from captivity and treat you with pity. He will come back for you and gather you from all the nations where he scattered you.

3That 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.

NoteThe Hebrew phrase behind "bring you back from captivity" is ambiguous and translators divide over it: it can mean "bring back your captives" or, more broadly, "restore your fortunes", reverse your reversal. It also echoes the ordinary word for "turn" or "come back," which sounds repeatedly through this chapter: the people turn back to God, and God turns their situation around.

4Even if some of your people have been driven away to the far edge of the sky, the LORD your God will gather you from there and bring you back from there.

4If 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:

NoteLiterally "the end of the heavens", the point where the sky meets the ground. It is a stock expression for the farthest imaginable distance, not a claim about a particular place.

5The LORD your God will bring you into the land your ancestors held, and you will take it as your own. He will make things go well for you, and he will make you more numerous than your ancestors were.

5And the LORD 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.

6The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, so that you will love the LORD your God with your whole heart and your whole self, and so live.

6And 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.

NoteCircumcision, cutting away the foreskin, was the physical mark of belonging to this people, applied to every male infant. To "circumcise the heart" applies that image inwardly: cutting away what has grown hard or dull so the person can respond. The phrase was already a familiar figure of speech; an uncircumcised ear or heart meant one closed off and unresponsive.

7The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies, on the people who hate you and have hunted you down.

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

8And you will turn back and obey the voice of the LORD and do everything he has commanded, which I am commanding you today.

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

9The LORD your God will make everything you do turn out well: you will have many children, your animals will have many young, and your land will produce much. It will all be for your good. The LORD will once again be glad over you and do you good, just as he was glad over your ancestors.

9And 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:

10This will happen if you listen to the voice of the LORD your God and keep his commands and his rules that are written in this book of the law, and if you turn back to the LORD your God with your whole heart and your whole self.

10If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

NoteA "book" here is a scroll, not a bound volume. "Law" translates *torah*, which covers instruction and teaching generally, not only legal rules.

11This command that I am giving you today is not hidden from you, and it is not far away.

11For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.

12It is not up in heaven, so that you would have to say, "Who will go up to heaven and get it for us, and tell it to us, so we can do it?"

12It 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?

13It is not on the other side of the sea, so that you would have to say, "Who will cross the sea and get it for us, and tell it to us, so we can do it?"

13Neither 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?

14No, the word is very close to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

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

NoteBeing "in your mouth" means it is something recited aloud and repeated; "in your heart" means memorized and thought over. Together the two phrases say the instruction is already in the people's possession, not stored somewhere they would have to fetch it from.

15Look: today I have put in front of you life and what is good, and death and what is bad.

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

16Today I am commanding you to love the LORD your God, to live the way he says, and to keep his commands, his rules, and his decisions. Then you will live and grow in number, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are going into to take as your own.

16In 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.

NoteThree different Hebrew words are stacked here for the content of the instruction: commands (direct orders), statutes or "rules" (fixed, standing regulations, often about worship and ritual), and judgments or "decisions" (rulings of the kind a judge hands down in a case). The piling-up is a way of saying "the whole body of it," not three sharply separate categories.

17But your heart may turn away, so that you will not listen. You may be pulled away to bow down to other gods and serve them.

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

18I am telling you plainly today that if that happens, you will certainly die. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan River to go and take as your own.

18I 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.

NoteMoses is speaking east of the Jordan River, in Moab; the people have not yet entered the land. Crossing the Jordan is the step that lies immediately ahead of them, which is why it keeps being named.

19Today I call the sky and the earth as witnesses against you: I have put in front of you life and death, blessing and curse. So choose life, so that you and your descendants may live.

19I 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:

NoteCalling witnesses was the standard closing move in an ancient treaty: the parties named gods, rivers, mountains or the sky and earth themselves as observers who would later testify that the agreement had been made and could say who broke it. Naming sky and earth invokes the two largest and most permanent things available, witnesses that will outlast everyone present.

20Choose life so that you may love the LORD your God, obey his voice, and hold on to him tightly. He is your life and the length of your days. Then you will live in the land that the LORD promised to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

20That 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.

Note"Hold on to him tightly" translates a verb meaning to stick or be glued to something; the same word describes a man joining to his wife in Genesis 2:24. "Length of days" is an ordinary Hebrew idiom for a long life.