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 30:5 and Job 42:10

Hebrew Bible

Share:

Summary

Deuteronomy promises that the exiles will be regathered in the future, their fortunes restored, and their numbers increased beyond those of their ancestors. Job ends with a similar narrative reversal when his fortunes are restored after suffering.

Passages

Deuteronomy 30:5

Hebrew Bible
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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Job 42:10

Hebrew Bible
8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede for you, and I will respect him, so that I do not deal with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 9 So they went, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and did just as the Lord had told them; and the Lord had respect for Job. 10 So the Lord restored what Job had lost after he prayed for his friends, and the Lord doubled all that had belonged to Job. 11 So they came to him, all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they dined with him in his house. They comforted him and consoled him for all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12 So the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

References

"... Deuteronomy 30:1-10 represents the quintessential promise of restoration beyond exile. The passage assumes Israel's future covenant breaking, the onslaught of the covenantal curses (Deuteronomy 28-29 [Hosea 5:9-14]), and Israel's location in exile (Deuteronomy 30:1 [Hosea 5:15]). At the center of this text is YHWH's promise to remedy the source of Israel's problem; that is, to circumcise their heart (Deuteronomy 30:6). Here the promise of YHWH healing Israel may pick up on this idea. Regardless, the promise from Deuteronomy 30:3 that YHWH will restore the fortunes of Israel depends upon YHWH's transformation of their obduracy in order to effect a return to YHWH and the land. While ("to restore fortunes") can refer more generally to the restoration of one's personal wealth or the overall spiritual restoration (e.g., Job 42:10), it often entails a return to the land from exile (e.g., Jeremiah 29:14; 30:3; 33:26). The proximity to 5:14-6:3, Hosea's earlier promises of restoration to the land (2:16-25 [English 14-23]; 3:5), and the allusion to Deuteronomy 30:3 lend support for understanding this passage as denoting a future promise of restoration and return to the land ..."
Derek Drummond Bass, “Hosea’s Use of Scripture: An Analysis of His Hermeneutics” (diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008), 190.

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

Your feedback

Deuteronomy 30:5 and Job 42:10

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library