“See, I have placed before you today life and happiness, and death and adversity,
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil.
- KJV See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
- BSB See, I have set before you today life and goodness, as well as death and disaster.
- NKJV “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil,
- NLT “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses sets before Israel a clear choice: life and good, or death and evil. God's word confronts us with a decisive choice.
Overview
Moses frames the covenant decision starkly as life and prosperity versus death and ruin. There is no neutral ground; the response to God's word determines destiny. This either-or, fulfilled in the gospel's call to choose Christ who is the life, presses every hearer to a definite and urgent decision.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Deut 11:26Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:
- Deut 30:19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants;
- Gal 3:13–14Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”
- 1 Jn 5:11–12The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
- Deut 28:1–14It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you today, that Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
- Deut 32:47For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.”
- Mark 16:16He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned.
- Deut 30:1It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where Yahweh your God has driven you,
- John 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
- 1 Jn 3:23This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded.
- Gal 5:6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 30:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.