Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Chapter Thirty
Moses continues his discourse: wherefore, first, he promises them return from captivity, if they return to the law of God. Secondly, verse 11, he teaches that the law of God is at hand for them. Thirdly, verse 15, he sets before them life and death, good and evil. Fourthly, verse 19, he calls heaven and earth as witnesses of this.
1. Now when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing or the curse, which I have set forth before thee, and thou art touched with repentance of thy heart among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God shall have driven thee, 2. And shalt return to him, and shalt obey his commandments, as I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 3. The Lord thy God will bring back thy captivity, and will have mercy on thee, and gather thee again out of all the nations, into which he scattered thee before. 4. If thou be driven as far as the poles of heaven, the Lord thy God will fetch thee back from thence, 5. And will take thee to him, and bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and blessing thee he will make thee more numerous than were thy fathers. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed: that thou mayest love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. 7. And all these curses he will turn upon thy enemies, and upon them that hate and persecute thee. 8. But thou shalt return, and hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God; and shalt do all the commandments which I command thee this day: 9. And the Lord thy God will make thee abound in all the works of thy hands, in the fruit of thy womb, and in the fruit of thy cattle, in the plenty of thy land, and in the abundance of all things. For the Lord will return to rejoice over thee in all good things, as he rejoiced in thy fathers: 10. If yet thou hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and keep his precepts and ceremonies, which are written in this law; and return to the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. 11. This commandment, that I command thee this day, is not above thee, nor far off from thee; 12. Nor is it in heaven, that thou shouldst say: Which of us can go up to heaven to bring it unto us, and we may hear and fulfil it in work? 13. Nor is it beyond the sea, that thou mayest excuse thyself, and say: Which of us can cross the sea, and bring it unto us: that we may hear and do that which is commanded? 14. But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. 15. Consider that I have set before thee this day life and good, and on the other hand death and evil: 16. That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and thou mayest live, and he may multiply thee, and bless thee in the land which thou goest in to possess. 17. But if thy heart be turned away, and thou wilt not hearken, and being deceived with error thou adore strange gods, and serve them; 18. I foretell thee this day that thou shalt perish, and shalt remain but a short time in the land, to which thou goest over the Jordan to possess it. 19. I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 20. And that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and obey his voice, and adhere to him (for he is thy life, and the length of thy days) that thou mayest dwell in the land, for which the Lord swore to thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give it to them.
4. IF THOU BE DRIVEN AS FAR AS THE POLES (in Hebrew, to the extremity) OF HEAVEN THE LORD WILL FETCH THEE BACK FROM THENCE.—It is a hyperbole, as if to say: If you were at the end of the world, God will lead you back thence; if you are banished to the farthest regions of the earth, which lie beneath the arctic and antarctic poles, He will recall you thence to your country. Hence Franciscus Valesius, chap. xxvi of the Sacred Philosophy, gathers from this text of ours that there are Antipodes; for those who dwell under the arctic pole are Antipodes to those who dwell under the antarctic, and the reverse. Now God here implies that the Hebrews could be scattered so far, and therefore that there is habitable land there.
Abulensis by the poles of heaven understands the four quarters of heaven, namely East, West, South and North. But more aptly you may take by the poles the two poles just mentioned: because as the hinges of a door are fixed and immovable, and on them the door turns and is moved, so the poles are fixed and immovable, and on them the heaven turns.
This is one of the chief places of Scripture which the Jews cite for themselves, and always object to Christians: namely, that they are now in the last captivity, dispersed into the four quarters of the world, where they await the Messiah, who will gather them again into one and lead them back to Judea; for this Scripture, they say, was not fulfilled in the return from captivity, because in it they were not dispersed into the four quarters of the world, and because only two tribes then returned to Judea, the other ten remaining in Assyria.
But, first, Nehemias, chap. i, verses 8 and 9, expressly teaches that this place and this promise were fulfilled in the return from the Babylonian captivity; for Moses does not assert that they would be scattered to the ends of heaven, but speaks conditionally, and says: Even if it should happen that you were scattered to the ends of heaven, thence I will bring you back; and it is a hyperbole, as I said. Secondly, Moses speaks of the state of the law and of Judaism; for while it stands, he promises them return to Judea if they do penance: but now this state, with Judaism, has been abolished by Christ. Thirdly, the two tribes are now in full dispersion and overthrow, for sixteen hundred years, and the ten tribes for two thousand years and more, and whatever penance they have done or do, yet in so long a time we have not seen them brought back. Fourthly, the Jews cannot do penance and return to God unless they receive Christ, sent by God; and this they will do at the end of the world, when He will then lead them back to Jerusalem through Elias and Henoch, convert and save them.
6. HE WILL CIRCUMCISE THY HEART,—that is, He will take away superfluous and hurtful desires, and the hardness of thy will. Hence the Septuagint render it, He will purge round about thy heart; see what was said on Leviticus chap. xxvi, verse 41.
9. HE WILL RETURN TO REJOICE.—Not as though God were changeable, so as now to rejoice, now to grieve; but Scripture speaks of God in a human manner. For men, when they have pity on someone and receive him into favour, rejoice in his goods and happiness, though before they had hated him and rejoiced in his pains and sufferings. But in God there is no temporal vicissitude of these passions; rather God rejoiced from eternity, at once and in one single act, over the whole order of punishment and rewards, which runs through all eternity and befalls this one or that, and in that act and that joy He ever perseveres and will persevere.
10. IF YET THOU HEAR THE VOICE OF THE LORD THY GOD.—For if thou wouldst have God hear thee, do thou first hear Him, either outwardly through the law, Scripture or preacher, or inwardly speaking by holy inspiration. If thou wouldst have God do thy will, do thou first do what He Himself wills and commands. If thou wouldst have Him run to thee, run to Him. If thou wouldst have Him rejoice over thee, do thou also rejoice in Him. “Delight in the Lord, and he will give thee the requests of thy heart.”
Hence holy men obtain from God all that they ask, because in turn they do whatever God requires of them. So St. Dominic said that he had never asked anything of God which he did not straightway obtain; and when one said to him: Ask then that Master Conrad (he was a celebrated Doctor) become of your Order, he said: This indeed is difficult, yet if I ask, I trust it will come to pass. He asked, and prayed all night, and behold in the morning Conrad ran up, urged by God, and begged and received the habit of the Order from St. Dominic. That God, then, does not now and again hear us when we pray is because we do not hear Him, nor obey His voice. O how highly should we be esteemed before God, if we always listened to Him diligently and obeyed Him! St. Francis, hearing an inward inspiration of God even on a journey, was wont to stop, and attend to it wholly, saying: Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth; and as long as the inspiration lasted he stood still, and humbly and attentively listened to it, and soon fulfilled it in deed; hence he became so great.
On the contrary, God suffers not Himself to be despised, nor His voice neglected; for this is unworthy of and injurious to God: wherefore He punishes such by forsaking them, and letting them rush into grievous evils and sins. For this is what He threatens in Proverbs chap. i, 24: “Because I called, and you refused, etc., I also will laugh in your destruction.” Whoever therefore is wise, let him hear that of the Psalmist: “Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
11. THIS COMMANDMENT, etc., IS NOT ABOVE THEE,—so that thou canst excuse thyself and say: I cannot reach it, to know and fulfil it. In the Hebrew it is, this commandment is not separated from thee nor remote.
14. BUT THE WORD IS NIGH UNTO THEE, IN THY MOUTH, AND IN THY HEART,—as if to say: Thou hast the law of God at hand, that thou mayest ruminate on it in the heart, that is, the memory, and utter it with the mouth. The Apostle cites this place, Romans x, and allegorically and beautifully, as St. Augustine teaches, Question LIII, applies it to faith, to show how easily man can be justified by it: for to this there is no need that one ascend into heaven, and thence bring Christ down to us, that we may see Christ, and seeing be saved; but it is enough to believe that Christ is God, and for our sake came down from heaven. So there is no need that one go down to hell, and thence bring Christ back from the dead to life; but it suffices that we believe that Christ rose by divine power: and to believe this in the heart, and profess it with the mouth, is most easy. See what was said on Romans x, 6.
15. CONSIDER THAT I HAVE SET BEFORE THEE THIS DAY LIFE AND GOOD, AND ON THE OTHER HAND EVIL AND DEATH,—Namely “for free prey,” says St. Chrysostom. “For He willed that the fowling of death and life should be, as it were, free, so that, hung up on high, they might be exposed to the souls of the faithful for prey.” The Wise Man alludes to this, Ecclus. xv, 17: “He hath set water and fire before thee: stretch forth thy hand to which thou wilt. Before man is life and death, good and evil: that which he shall choose shall be given him.” God, says Jansenius there, has as it were suspended the choice of man in the air between two elements: water, as a symbol of the refreshment of eternal life; fire, as an expression of the torments in hell.
16. THAT THOU MAYEST WALK IN HIS WAYS,—by obeying His law zealously and continually. Note: Scripture often uses the word walking, because it belongs to the faithful never to stand still, but always to advance in the way of the Lord. “The just man,” says St. Bernard, epist. 253 to Garinus, “never thinks he has comprehended; he never says, It is enough; but always hungers and thirsts after justice: because he has bound himself to the divine service for ever.” Hence Proverbs iv, 18, it is said: “But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day.” And Psalm lxxxiii, verse 6 and following: “Blessed is the man whose help is from thee: in his heart he hath disposed to ascend, etc., they shall go from virtue to virtue.” Excellently St. Bernard, epist. 253: “There, Christian, fix the goal of thy course and progress, where Christ set it, who nowhere stood still, but rejoiced as a giant to run the way, becoming obedient unto death.”
19. I CALL HEAVEN AND EARTH TO WITNESS THIS DAY.—How heaven and earth are witnesses, both of the law, and of transgression, and of divine vengeance, I explained chap. iv, verse 26.
THAT I HAVE SET BEFORE YOU LIFE AND DEATH.—So it is to be read with the Roman text, the Hebrew, the Chaldee and the Septuagint, and not “life and good”; as if to say: If thou keep this law, I promise thee life here long and happy; but if thou violate it, I threaten, and foretell thee, swift and miserable death, both present and eternal. Choose therefore one of the two.
20. FOR HE IS THY LIFE, AND THE LENGTH OF THY DAYS,—as if to say: God is effectively thy life and length of days, because He Himself will prolong thy life if thou obey His law. Whence Acts xvii: “In him we live, and move, and are.”
…of two, and that threefold: first, exemplary; second, efficient; third, final.