Albert Barnes Commentary Deuteronomy 30:11-20

"For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love Jehovah thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, that thou mayest live and multiply, and that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in the land whither thou goest in to possess it. But if thy heart turn away, and thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish; ye shall not prolong your days in the land, whither thou passest over the Jordan to go in to possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that thou mayest live, thou and thy seed; to love Jehovah thy God, to obey his voice, and to cleave unto him; for he is thy life, and the length of thy days; that thou mayest dwell in the land which Jehovah sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." — Deuteronomy 30:11-20 (ASV)

Ignorance of the requirements of the law cannot be pleaded (Deuteronomy 30:10–14); therefore, life and death, good and evil, are solemnly set before the people for their own choice (Deuteronomy 30:15–20), and an earnest exhortation to choose the better part concludes the address.

(Deuteronomy 30:11–14). The righteousness which is of faith is really and truly described in these words of the Law; and, under Paul’s guidance (see marginal references), we affirm it was intended to be so. For the simplicity and accessibility which Moses here attributes to the Law of God can neither be found nor experienced in it except through faith, even though outwardly and in the letter that Law is written out for us so that he may run that readeth, and is set forth in its duties and its sanctions as plainly as it was by Moses before the Jews.

The seeming ease of the commandment, and yet its real impossibility to the natural man, form part of the qualifications of the Law to be our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.

(Deuteronomy 30:11) Not hidden from you - Rather, not too hard for you, as in Deuteronomy 17:8.

Neither is it far off - Compare Luke 17:21.

(Deuteronomy 30:13) The paraphrase of this verse in the Jerusalem Targum is noteworthy, and should be compared with Paul’s rendering in Romans 10:7: “Neither is the law beyond the great sea, that you should say, Oh that we had one like Jonah the prophet who could descend into the depths of the sea and bring it to us!”

(Deuteronomy 30:14) In your mouth, and in your heart - Compare Deuteronomy 6:6; Deuteronomy 11:18–20.

(Deuteronomy 30:20) That you may love the Lord - Compare Deuteronomy 6:5. Love stands first as the essential and only source of obedience.

He is your life - Or, “that” (i.e., “to love the Lord”) is your life; i.e., the condition of your life and of its prolongation in the promised land. Compare Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 32:47.