Deu 30:16 | KD | STEP | In conclusion, Moses sums up the contents of the whole of this preaching of the law in the words, “life and good, and death and evil,” as he had already done at , in the first part of this address, to lay the people by a solemn adjuration under the obligation to be faithful to the Lord, and through this obligation to conclude the covenant afresh. He had set before them this day life and good (“ good ” = prosperity and salvation), as well as death and evil (רע, adversity and destruction), by commanding them to love the Lord and walk in His ways. Love is placed first, as in , as being the essential principle of the fulfilment of the commandments. Expounding the law was setting before them life and death, salvation and destruction, because the law, as the word of God, was living and powerful, and proved itself in every man a power of life or of death, according to the attitude which he assumed towards it (vid., ). נדּח, to permit oneself to be torn away to idolatry (as in ). As ; Deu 8:19. He calls upon heaven and earth as witnesses ( , as in ), namely, that he had set before them life and death. וּבחרתּ, in , is the apodosis: “ therefore choose life .”

‏ Deuteronomy 30:16

In conclusion, Moses sums up the contents of the whole of this preaching of the law in the words, “life and good, and death and evil,” as he had already done at Deu 11:26-27, in the first part of this address, to lay the people by a solemn adjuration under the obligation to be faithful to the Lord, and through this obligation to conclude the covenant afresh. He had set before them this day life and good (“good” = prosperity and salvation), as well as death and evil (רע, adversity and destruction), by commanding them to love the Lord and walk in His ways. Love is placed first, as in Deu 6:5, as being the essential principle of the fulfilment of the commandments. Expounding the law was setting before them life and death, salvation and destruction, because the law, as the word of God, was living and powerful, and proved itself in every man a power of life or of death, according to the attitude which he assumed towards it (vid., Deu 32:47). נדּח, to permit oneself to be torn away to idolatry (as in Deu 4:19).

As Deu 4:26; Deu 8:19. He calls upon heaven and earth as witnesses (Deu 30:19, as in Deu 4:26), namely, that he had set before them life and death. וּבחרתּ, in Deu 30:19, is the apodosis: “therefore choose life.”