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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 Sirach 15:17

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

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Summary

Sirach echoes Deuteronomy 30 by presenting the choice between life and death as two possible paths. In Deuteronomy, this choice frames Israel’s covenant obedience, and Sirach repeats it to highlight human responsibility in following 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

Sirach 15:17

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
15 If you choose, you can keep the commandments. To be faithful is a matter of your choice. 16 He has set fire and water before you. You will stretch forth your hand to whichever you desire. 17 Before man is life and death. Whichever he likes, it will be given to him. 18 For the wisdom of the Lord is great. He is mighty in power, and sees all things. 19 His eyes are upon those who fear him. He knows every act of man.
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

References

"... Ben Sira presents a kind of drama of salvation—salvation not in the sense of deliverance from something but as the bestowal of well-being, blessing, and life. His theological starting point is the biblical (especially the Deuteronomic) view of covenant and Torah. Through the covenant, God bestowed on Israel its status as the chosen people. In the same covenant, God set the divine commandments before them. The alternative possibilities to obey and disobey these commandments would lead like two roads to blessing and life or to curse and death. (On the ambiguities of the relationship between Ben Sira and the Deuteronomic tradition, see Mack, Wisdom and Hebrew Epic, 113, 120. However, on Ben Sira’s use of a two-ways theology that is related to Deuteronomy: Sirach 15:17; Deuteronomy 30:15, see Nickelsburg, Resurrection, 164 n. 21. The vitalistic language in 24:12–22 and its connection with the Mosaic Torah in verse 23 fits well with the notion of covenantal blessing as life) One could not short-circuit the process that led from the grace of covenantal election to the fullness of covenantal blessing and life. Responsible obedience to the commandments of Torah was an integral and necessary part of the covenant. In this sense Torah was a gift that brought the possibility of life ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature between the Bible and the Mishnah: A Historical and Literary Introduction (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005), 58.

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

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Deuteronomy 30:15 and Sirach 15:17

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