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From: Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Israel Facing Life and Death: The Two Ways

[15] “See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. [16] If you
obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day,
by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his com-
mandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multi-
ply, and I the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to
take possession of it. [17] But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear,
but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, [18] I declare to you
this day, that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land which you are
going over the Jordan to enter and possess. [19] I call heaven and earth to wit-
ness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing
and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, [20]
loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means
life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord
swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

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Commentary:

30:15-20. The last verses of the discourse addresses a touching and solemn
appeal to Israel, spelling out what its responsibilities are: it is completely free
to choose between good and evil; but depending on whether it is faithful or un-
faithful, it will be blessed or punished by the Lord.

The concluding exhortation (vv. 19-20) is particularly moving: “choose life”, lo-
ving the Lord, for “that means life”. In the New Testament we find passages
which echo the same ideas: “I am the life,” our Lord will say (Jn 14:6); and St
Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20); “for to
me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).

Cf. RSV footnote to v. 16: this follows the (fuller) Septuagint Greek (as do the
New Vulgate and the Spanish). The words “If you obey the commandments of
the Lord your God” do help to stress the contrast with what it says in v. 17.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.