19 Let heaven and earth be my witnesses against you this day that I have put before you life and death, a blessing and a curse: so take life for yourselves and for your seed:
See, I have put before you today, life and good, and death and evil;
But he who does evil to me, does wrong to his soul: all my haters are in love with death.
I have taken the way of faith: I have kept your decisions before me.
And if it seems evil to you to be the servants of the Lord, make the decision this day whose servants you will be: of the gods whose servants your fathers were across the River, or of the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living: but I and my house will be the servants of the Lord. Then the people in answer said, Never will we give up the Lord to be the servants of other gods; For it is the Lord our God who has taken us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house, and who did all those great signs before our eyes, and kept us safe on all our journeys, and among all the peoples through whom we went: And the Lord sent out from before us all the peoples, the Amorites living in the land: so we will be the servants of the Lord, for he is our God. And Joshua said to the people, You are not able to be the servants of the Lord, for he is a holy God, a God who will not let his honour be given to another: he will have no mercy on your wrongdoing or your sins. If you are turned away from the Lord and become the servants of strange gods, then turning against you he will do you evil, cutting you off, after he has done you good. And the people said to Joshua, No! But we will be the servants of the Lord. And Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have made the decision to be the servants of the Lord. And they said, We are witnesses.
I give you orders before God and Christ Jesus and the angels of God's selection, to keep these orders without giving thought to one side more than another.
Give ear now to the words of the Lord: Up! put forward your cause before the mountains, let your voice be sounding among the hills. Give ear, O you mountains, to the Lord's cause, and take note, you bases of the earth: for the Lord has a cause against his people, and he will take it up with Israel.
Let your hand be near for my help; for I have given my heart to your orders.
Get together before me all those who are in authority in your tribes, and your overseers, so that I may say these things in their hearing, and make heaven and earth my witnesses against them.
For the word of God is for you and for your children and for all those who are far off, even all those who may be marked out by the Lord our God.
O earth, earth, earth, give ear to the word of the Lord! The Lord has said, Let this man be recorded as having no children, a man who will not do well in all his life: for no man of his seed will do well, seated on the seat of the kingdom of David and ruling again in Judah.
Be full of wonder, O heavens, at this; be overcome with fear, be completely waste, says the Lord. For my people have done two evils; they have given up me, the fountain of living waters, and have made for themselves water-holes, cut out from the rock, broken water-holes, of no use for storing water.
I have taken your unchanging word as an eternal heritage; for it is the joy of my heart.
For the Lord says, As for the unsexed who keep my Sabbaths, and give their hearts to pleasing me, and keep their agreement with me:
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Deuteronomy 30
Commentary on Deuteronomy 30 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 30
One would have thought that the threatenings in the close of the foregoing chapter had made a full end of the people of Israel, and had left their case for ever desperate; but in this chapter we have a plain intimation of the mercy God had in store for them in the latter days, so that mercy at length rejoices against judgment, and has the last word. Here we have,
Deu 30:1-10
These verses may be considered either as a conditional promise or as an absolute prediction.
Deu 30:11-14
Moses here urges them to obedience from the consideration of the plainness and easiness of the command.
Deu 30:15-20
Moses here concludes with a very bright light, and a very strong fire, that, if possible, what he had been preaching of might find entrance into the understanding and affections of this unthinking people. What could be said more moving, and more likely to make deep and lasting impressions? The manner of his treating with them is so rational, so prudent, so affectionate, and every way so apt to gain the point, that it abundantly shows him to be in earnest, and leaves them inexcusable in their disobedience.