Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Bible verses · Also called: Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Deut. 30:15-20, Choose Life, I Have Set Before You Life and Death

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¹⁵ See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
¹⁶ In 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.
¹⁷ But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
¹⁸ I 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.
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:
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.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 · KJV · 신명기 article

The text is the New Korean Revised Version (1998), shown under a licence from the Korean Bible Society. Wording may differ slightly from the Korean Revised Version and the Revised New Korean Standard Version. Read in the Korean Revised Version

In this passage Moses, making a covenant on the plains of Moab, sets before Israel life and good, death and evil, and urges the people to choose life. It forms the conclusion of the sermons in Deuteronomy and is often cited in discussions of human choice and responsibility.

Context

Deuteronomy consists of the farewell sermons that Moses delivered to Israel on the plains of Moab before they crossed the Jordan River. Chapters 29–30 depict the renewal of the covenant in Moab, and this passage forms its conclusion. Moses has already set forth blessings and curses (chapter 28), the promise of restoration after exile (30:1-10), and the assurance that the commandment is not far off (30:11-14). He now calls the people to choose between two ways: loving and obeying God, or serving other gods. The expression "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you" signifies the summoning of witnesses to the covenant.

Interpretation

Historical and literary reading: A view widely known in Old Testament scholarship compares this structure—blessings and curses set side by side, with witnesses summoned—to the suzerainty treaties of the ancient Near East. A suzerainty treaty was an agreement between the king of a great power and a vassal state. In this reading, "good" and "life" refer to the community's long life in the promised land.
Reformed reading: The Reformed tradition understands this exhortation as setting forth the responsibility of the covenant people. At the same time, it reads the passage together with the promise in verse 6 of the same chapter that God "will circumcise thine heart." It therefore holds that even the ability to obey comes from the grace of God.
Wesleyan reading: Traditions shaped by Wesleyan theology, such as Methodist and Holiness churches, cite this passage as grounds for holding that human beings bear a genuine responsibility to respond and to choose. The prior grace of God that makes such a response possible is called prevenient grace.
Jewish reading: Within Judaism, too, this passage has long been cited as a classic text on human free choice.

Debates and Issues

Predestination and free will: In the predestination and free will debate, this passage is frequently cited in support of positions that emphasize free will. Calvinists respond that a command to choose does not in itself imply an ability to choose on one's own.
The scope of "good": Proponents of prosperity theology sometimes cite this passage as grounds for the claim that obedience brings material blessing to the individual. Critics respond that this blessing is bound to a covenantal context concerning the community of Israel and the promised land and therefore cannot be turned into a formula for personal wealth.
Translation: In the Korean Revised Version (Gaeyeok Hangeul), the word bujong-hara is an archaic term meaning "to cling to and follow." It renders the Hebrew dabaq ("to cleave, to hold fast"), which the KJV translates "cleave unto him" (Deuteronomy 30:20). The alternation in the Korean text between neo (singular "you") and neohui (plural "you") reflects the interchange of singular and plural forms in the original Hebrew.

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