Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Moses continues preaching: whence first, he promises them a return from captivity, if they return to God's law. Second, verse 11, he teaches that God's law is close at hand for them. Third, verse 15, he sets before them life and death, good and evil. Fourth, verse 19, he invokes heaven and earth as witnesses to this.
Vulgate Text: Deuteronomy 30:1-20
1. When therefore all these words shall have come upon you — the blessing or the curse which I have set before you — and you are moved to repentance of heart among all the nations into which the Lord your God has dispersed you, 2. and you return to Him and obey His commands, as I command you today, with your children, with your whole heart and your whole soul, 3. the Lord your God will bring back your captivity, and will have mercy on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples among which He previously dispersed you. 4. If you have been scattered to the ends of heaven, from there the Lord your God will bring you back, 5. and will take you and bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and blessing you He will make you more numerous than your fathers were. 6. The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring: that you may love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul, that you may live. 7. And all these curses He will turn upon your enemies, and those who hate you and persecute you. 8. But you shall return and hear the voice of the Lord your God; and you shall do all the commandments which I command you today: 9. and the Lord your God will make you abound in all the works of your hands, in the offspring of your womb, in the fruit of your cattle, in the richness of your land, and in the abundance of all things. For the Lord will return to rejoice over you in all good things, as He rejoiced in your fathers: 10. if however you hear the voice of the Lord your God, and keep His precepts and ceremonies which are written in this law; and return to the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul. 11. This commandment which I command you today is not above you, nor far away; 12. nor is it in heaven, so that you could say: 'Which of us can ascend to heaven, to bring it down to us, that we may hear and fulfill it?' 13. Nor is it across the sea, so that you might make excuses and say: 'Which of us can cross the sea, and bring it to us, that we may hear and do what is commanded?' 14. But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 15. Consider that today I have set before you life and good, and on the contrary, death and evil: 16. that you may love the Lord your God, and walk in His ways, and keep His commandments, ceremonies, and judgments; and that you may live and be multiplied, and He may bless you in the land which you are entering to possess. 17. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, and being led astray by error you worship foreign gods and serve them; 18. I foretell you today that you shall perish, and in a short time die in the land which, after crossing the Jordan, you are entering to possess. 19. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both you and your offspring may live; 20. and that you may love the Lord your God, and obey His voice, and cling to Him (for He is your life and the length of your days), that you may dwell in the land for which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give it to them.
Verse 4: If You Have Been Scattered to the Ends of Heaven
4. "If you have been scattered to the ends (in Hebrew, to the extremity) of heaven, from there the Lord will bring you back." — It is a hyperbole, as if to say: If you were at the end of the world, God will bring you back from there; if you were exiled to the remotest regions of the earth, which lie under the Arctic and Antarctic poles, He will recall you from there to your homeland. Whence Francis Valesius, chapter 26 of Sacred Philosophy, from our text here gathers that there are Antipodes; for those who live under the Arctic pole are Antipodes to those who live under the Antarctic, and vice versa. God moreover here implies that the Hebrews could be scattered there, and therefore that there is habitable land in those places.
Abulensis takes "the ends of heaven" as the four regions of heaven, namely East, West, South, and North. But more aptly, by "ends" you may understand the two poles already mentioned: because just as the hinges of a door are fixed and immovable, and upon them the door turns and moves, so the poles are fixed and immovable, and upon them heaven revolves.
This is one of the more important passages of Scripture which the Jews cite for themselves and always set against Christians, namely that they are now in their final captivity, dispersed into the four regions of the world, where they await the Messiah who will gather them together again and bring them back to Judea: for they argue this Scripture was not fulfilled in the return from the Babylonian captivity, because in that captivity they were not dispersed to the four regions of the world, and because only two tribes then returned to Judea, while the other ten remained in Assyria.
But Nehemiah, chapter 1, verses 8 and 9, expressly teaches that this passage and this promise was fulfilled in the return from the Babylonian captivity; for Moses does not assert that they would be dispersed to the ends of heaven, but speaks conditionally, and says: Even if it should happen that you are dispersed to the ends of heaven, from there I will bring you back; and it is a hyperbole, as I said. Add that Moses speaks of the state of the law and of Judaism; for while that state endured, he promises them return to Judea, if they repent: but now this state has been abolished, together with Judaism, through Christ. Whence the two tribes have now been in their full dispersion and overthrow for 1600 years; and the ten tribes for two thousand years and more, and whatever penance they have done or may do, we have not yet seen them brought back in so long a time. Finally, the Jews cannot repent and return to God unless they receive Christ sent by God: but they will do this at the end of the world, when He will bring them back to Jerusalem through Elijah and Enoch, convert and save them.
Verse 6: He Will Circumcise Your Heart
6. HE WILL CIRCUMCISE YOUR HEART, that is, He will remove superfluous and harmful desires, and the hardness of your will. Whence the Septuagint translate it as perkathariei, that is, He will thoroughly purify your heart; see what was said at Leviticus chapter 26, verse 41.
Verse 9: He Will Return So That He May Rejoice
9. HE WILL RETURN SO THAT HE MAY REJOICE. Not as if God were changeable, so that He now rejoices, now grieves; but Scripture speaks of God in an anthropopathic manner. For when men have compassion on someone and receive him back into favor, they rejoice at his good fortune and happiness, whereas before they had hated him and had rejoiced at his punishments and afflictions. But in God there is no temporal change of such passions; rather, God has rejoiced from eternity, simultaneously and at once in a single act, over the entire order of punishment and rewards, which will run through all eternity and will befall these or those persons, and in that act and that joy He always perseveres and will persevere.
Verse 10: If However You Hear the Voice of the Lord
10. IF HOWEVER YOU HEAR THE VOICE OF THE LORD YOUR GOD. For if you want God to hear you, you must first hear Him, either outwardly through the law, Scripture, or a preacher, or inwardly through holy inspiration speaking within. If you want God to do your will, you must first do what He wills and commands. If you want Him to return to you, you likewise must return and run to meet Him. If you want Him to rejoice over you, you too must rejoice over Him. "Delight in the Lord, and He will give you the petitions of your heart."
Hence holy men obtain everything they ask from God, because in turn they do whatever God requires of them. Thus St. Dominic used to say that he had never asked anything from God that he did not immediately obtain; and when someone suggested: Ask then that Master Conrad (he was a famous Doctor) become a member of your Order, he said: This is indeed difficult, but nevertheless if I ask, I trust it will happen. He asked, and prayed the entire night, and behold, in the morning Conrad came running, prompted by God, and begged for and received the habit of the Order from St. Dominic. The reason, therefore, that God does not always hear us when we pray is that we do not hear Him, nor obey His voice. Oh, how greatly we would be esteemed by God, if we always diligently listened to Him and obeyed Him! St. Francis was accustomed, when he heard an interior inspiration from God even while traveling, to stop and attend entirely to it, saying: Speak, Lord, your servant hears; and as long as the inspiration lasted, he would stand still, and humbly and attentively listen to it, and then immediately fulfill it in action; hence he became so great.
On the contrary, God does not allow Himself to be despised, nor His voice to be neglected; for this is unworthy and injurious to God: whence He punishes such persons by abandoning them and allowing them to fall into grave evils and sins. For this is what He threatens in Proverbs chapter 1, verse 24: "Because I called, and you refused, etc., I also will laugh at your destruction." Whoever therefore is wise, let him hear that word of the Psalmist: "Today if you hear the voice of the Lord, do not harden your hearts."
Verse 11: This Commandment Is Not Above You
11. THIS COMMANDMENT, etc., IS NOT ABOVE YOU, so that you could excuse yourself and say: I cannot reach it, so as to know and fulfill it. In Hebrew it reads: this commandment is not separated from you nor remote.
Verse 14: The Word Is Near You
14. BUT THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART, as if to say: You have the law of God at hand, so that in your heart, that is, your memory, you may meditate on it and speak it with your mouth. The Apostle cites this passage in Romans 10, and allegorically and beautifully, as St. Augustine teaches in Question 53, applies it to faith, to show how easily through it a person can be justified: for it is not necessary for this purpose that anyone ascend into heaven and bring Christ down to us from there, so that we might see Christ and by seeing be saved; but it suffices to believe that Christ is God and descended from heaven for our sake. Likewise it is not necessary that anyone descend to the underworld and bring Christ back from the dead to life; but it suffices that we believe Christ rose by divine power: and to believe this in the heart and profess it with the mouth is very easy. See what was said at Romans 10:6.
Verse 15: I Have Set Before You Life and Death
15. Consider that today I have set before you life and good, and on the contrary evil and death, namely as a free prey, says St. Chrysostom. For He willed that there should be, as it were, a free hunt for death and life, so that, suspended as it were on high, they might be set before the souls of the faithful as prey. The Wise Man alluded to this in Sirach 15:17: "He has set before you water and fire: stretch out your hand to whichever you choose. Before man are life and death, good and evil: whatever pleases him will be given to him." The free will of man, says Jansenius in the same place, God has, as it were, suspended 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.
Verse 16: Walk in His Ways
16. Walk in His ways, by studiously and continuously obeying His law. Note: Scripture frequently uses the verb "to walk," because it belongs to the faithful never to stand still, but always to progress on the way of the Lord. "Never," says St. Bernard, Epistle 253 to Garinus, "does the just man think he has attained perfection; he never says: It is enough; but he always hungers and thirsts for justice: because he has forever bound himself to divine service." Hence in Proverbs 4:18, it is said: "The path of the just, like a shining light, proceeds and increases even to the perfect day." And Psalm 83, verse 8: "Blessed is the man whose help is from You: he has disposed ascents in his heart, etc., they shall go from virtue to virtue." St. Bernard says beautifully, Epistle 253: "There, O Christian, fix the goal of your course and progress, where Christ set it, who never stood still, but rejoiced as a giant to run the way, being made obedient even unto death."
Verse 19: I Call Heaven and Earth as Witnesses
19. I CALL HEAVEN AND EARTH AS WITNESSES TODAY. How heaven and earth are witnesses, both of the law, both of transgression and of divine vengeance, I explained at chapter 4, verse 26.
THAT I HAVE SET BEFORE YOU LIFE AND DEATH. So it should be read with the Roman, Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint texts, not "life and good," as if to say: If you keep this law, I promise you a long and happy life here: but if you violate it, I threaten and predict for you a swift and wretched death, both in this life and in eternity. Choose therefore one of the two.
Verse 20: He Is Your Life
20. FOR HE IS YOUR LIFE, AND THE LENGTH OF YOUR DAYS, as if to say: God is effectively your life and longevity, because He will prolong your life, if you obey His law. Whence in Acts 17, it is said: "In Him," that is, through Him, "we live, and move, and have our being."
St. Dionysius beautifully teaches in chapter 6 of the Divine Names that God is life essentially in Himself; moreover that He is the causal life of animals, plants, men, angels, and the blessed: and this life is threefold -- first, exemplary; second, efficient; third, final.