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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) He is thy life, and the length of thy days.—This is the Old Testament form of a well-known saying in the New Testament, which may yet be fulfilled in Israel, “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 30:20. That thou mayest love the Lord thy God — Here he shows them in short what their duty is; to love God as the Lord, a being most amiable, and as their God, a God in covenant with them: as an evidence of their love, to obey his voice in every thing, and by constancy in this love and obedience, to cleave to him all their days. And what encouragement had they to do this? For he is thy life and the length of thy days — He gives life, preserves life, restores life, and prolongs it, by his power, though it be a frail life, and by his presence, though it be a forfeited life. He sweetens life by his comforts, and completes all in life everlasting.

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

That thou mayest love the Lord - Compare Deuteronomy 6:5. Love stands first as the essential and only source of obedience.

He is thy life - Or, "that" (i. e., "to love the Lord") "is thy life;" i. e., the condition of thy life and of its prolongation in the promised land. Compare Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 32:47.

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

He is thy life, i.e. the cause or author of thy life, as life is used John 14:6 17:3.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

That thou mayest love the Lord thy God,.... And show it by keeping his commands:

and that thou mayest obey his voice; in his word, and by his prophets:

and that thou mayest cleave unto him; and to his worship, and not follow after and serve other gods:

for he is thy life, and the length of thy days; the God of their lives, and the Father of their mercies; the giver of long life, and all the blessings of it; and which he had promised to those that were obedient, to him, and which they might expect:

that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them; the land of Canaan, often thus described; this was the grand promise made to obedience to the law, and was typical of eternal life and happiness; which is had, not through man's obedience to the law, but through the obedience and righteousness of Christ.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. love … obey … cleave] See on Deuteronomy 6:5, Deuteronomy 10:20, Deuteronomy 13:4 (5).

for that is thy life, etc.] Variant from Deuteronomy 4:1; Deuteronomy 4:40, etc.

sware] See on Deuteronomy 1:8.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - For he is thy life; rather, for this is thy life; to love the Lord is really to live the true, the higher life (cf. Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 32:47).



Deuteronomy 30:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

חיּיך הוּא כּי, for that (namely, to love the Lord) is thy life, that is, the condition of life, and of long life, in the promised land (vid., Deuteronomy 4:40).