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:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 30:19. Choose life — They shall have life that choose it: they that choose the favour of God, and communion with him, shall have what they choose. They that come short of life and happiness, must thank themselves only. They would have had them, if they had chosen them, when they were put to their choice: but they die, because they will die.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

30:15-20 What could be said more moving, and more likely to make deep and lasting impressions? Every man wishes to obtain life and good, and to escape death and evil; he desires happiness, and dreads misery. So great is the compassion of the Lord, that he has favoured men, by his word, with such a knowledge of good and evil as will make them for ever happy, if it be not their own fault. Let us hear the sum of the whole matter. If they and theirs would love God, and serve him, they should live and be happy. If they or theirs should turn from God, desert his service, and worship other gods, that would certainly be their ruin. There never was, since the fall of man, more than one way to heaven; which is marked out in both Testaments, though not with equal clearness. Moses meant that same way of acceptance, which Paul more plainly described; and Paul's words mean the same obedience, on which Moses more fully treated. In both Testaments the good and right way is brought near, and plainly revealed to us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In thy mouth, and in, thy heart - Compare Deuteronomy 6:6; Deuteronomy 11:18-20.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

De 30:15-20. Death and Life Are Set before the Israelites.

15-20. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil—the alternative of a good and happy, or a disobedient and miserable life. Love of God and compliance with His will are the only ways of securing the blessings and avoiding the evils described. The choice was left to them, and in urging upon them the inducements to a wise choice, Moses warmed as he proceeded into a tone of solemn and impressive earnestness similar to that of Paul to the elders of Ephesus (Ac 20:26, 27).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Compare Deu 4:26 Joshua 24:27 Psalm 1:4 Isaiah 1:2.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you,.... Either, literally understood, the heavens above him, and the earth on which he stood, those inanimate bodies, which are frequently called upon as witnesses to matters of moment and importance; see Deuteronomy 4:26; or figuratively, the inhabitants of both, angels and men:

that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; had plainly told them in express words what would be the consequence of obedience and disobedience to the law of God; long life, and the blessings of it in the land of Canaan, to those that obey it; death, by various means, and dreadful curses, to those that disobey it; of which see at large Deuteronomy 28:16,

therefore choose life, that thou and thy seed may live; that is, prefer obedience to the law, and choose to perform that, the consequence of which is life; that they and their posterity might live comfortably and happily, quietly and safely, and constantly, even to the latest ages, in the land of Canaan.

Geneva Study Bible

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore {o} choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

(o) That is, love and obey God; which is not in man's power, but only God's Spirit works it in his elect.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. I call heaven and earth, etc.] As in Deuteronomy 4:26.

set before thee life and death] See on Deuteronomy 30:15.

choose life] In Deut. only here; but cp. Joshua 24:15, Isaiah 7:15 (choose the good). On that thou mayest live see Deuteronomy 30:6.

Deuteronomy 30:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

As Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 8:19. He calls upon heaven and earth as witnesses (Deuteronomy 30:19, as in Deuteronomy 4:26), namely, that he had set before them life and death. וּבחרתּ, in Deuteronomy 30:19, is the apodosis: "therefore choose life."