Go to Related Reading
About this book

Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 30

1 “When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses⁠ I have set before you, you will reflect upon them in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you. 2 Then if you and your descendants turn to the Lord your God⁠ and obey him with your whole mind and being just as I am commanding you today,⁠ 3 the Lord your God will reverse your captivity and have pity on you. He will turn and gather you from all the peoples among whom he has scattered you.⁠ 4 Even if your exiles are in the most distant land, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.⁠ 5 Then he will bring you to the land your ancestors possessed and you also will possess it; he will do better for you and multiply you more than he did your ancestors.⁠ 6 The Lord your God will also cleanse your heart, and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love him with all your mind and being and so that you may live. 7 Then the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, on those who hate you and persecute you. 8 You will return and obey the Lord, keeping all his commandments I am giving you today. 9 The Lord your God will make the labor of your hands abundantly successful and multiply your children, the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil. For the Lord will once more rejoice over you to make you prosperous just as he rejoiced over your ancestors,⁠ 10 if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this scroll of the law. But you must turn to him with your whole mind and being. 11 “This commandment I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it too remote.⁠ 12 It is not in heaven, as though one must say, ‘Who will go up to heaven to get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’⁠ 13 And it is not across the sea,⁠ as though one must say, ‘Who will cross over to the other side of the sea and get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ 14 For the thing is very near you—it is in your mouth and in your mind so that you can do it. 15 “Look! I have set before you today life and prosperity on the one hand, and death and disaster on the other.⁠ 16 What I am commanding you today is to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to obey his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. Then you will live and become numerous and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are about to possess. 17 However, if you turn aside and do not obey, but are lured away to worship and serve other gods, 18 I declare to you this very day that you will certainly perish! You will not extend your time in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. 19 Today I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you⁠ that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live! 20 I also call on you to love the Lord your God, to obey him and be loyal to him, for he gives you life and enables you to live continually in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 30:15 and Baruch 3:9

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

Share:

Summary

Baruch teaches that wisdom is the path to life based on the “Two Ways” tradition from Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy gives the people a choice between life and death and Baruch interprets that to mean life is found in seeking wisdom through the Torah.

Passages

Deuteronomy 30:15

Hebrew Bible
13 And it is not across the sea, as though one must say, ‘Who will cross over to the other side of the sea and get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ 14 For the thing is very near you—it is in your mouth and in your mind so that you can do it. 15 “Look! I have set before you today life and prosperity on the one hand, and death and disaster on the other. 16 What I am commanding you today is to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to obey his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. Then you will live and become numerous and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are about to possess. 17 However, if you turn aside and do not obey, but are lured away to worship and serve other gods,
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Baruch 3:9

Deuterocanon
7 For this cause, you have put your fear in our hearts, to the intent that we should call upon your name. We will praise you in our captivity, for we have called to mind all the iniquity of our fathers who sinned before you. 8 Behold, we are yet this day in our captivity where you have scattered us, for a reproach and a curse, and to be subject to penalty according to all the iniquities of our fathers who departed from the Lord our God. 9 Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life! Give ear to understand wisdom! 10 How is it, O Israel, that you are in your enemies’ land, that you have become old in a strange country, that you are defiled with the dead, 11 that you are counted with those who are in Hades?
200–50 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Baruch

References

"... The similarity in phraseology and ideology between the book of Deuteronomy and wisdom literature, particularly the book of Proverbs, has been extensively documented. The author of the book of Baruch is aware of this similarity and in the frame of the wisdom poem (Baruch 3:9–15; 4:1–4), has adroitly exploited the commonalities in thought and expression between the two types of literature to fuse wisdom teaching with the teachings of Torah. (the association of “wisdom/law” and “life” in Deuteronomy 4:40; 30:15; Proverbs 6:23; Baruch 4:1) In this way he encompasses wisdom within the bounds of the teaching of Torah expressed in the book of Deuteronomy. This fusion of wisdom with the Deuteronomic Torah has been extended by the author of Baruch 3:9–4:4. The wisdom poem (Baruch 3:15–38) which, as shown above, is modeled on Job 28:12–28, has been viewed from the perspective of Deuteronomy 4 and 30. These two chapters, which form the beginning and conclusion of the long farewell address of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy, contain many correspondences and may be regarded as a type of inclusio for the main contents of the book. They are regarded as coming from a relatively later exilic layer and appear to sum up much of the book’s teaching ..."
Ruth Henderson, “The Inter-textual Dialogue between Deuteronomy 4, 30 and Job 28:12–20 in Baruch 3:9–4:4,” in Studies on Baruch: Composition, Literary Relations, and Reception (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2016), 43–59.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Tags

Your feedback

Deuteronomy 30:15 and Baruch 3:9

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library