Ver. 1. The blessing and the curse.] When thou hast made trial of both, and hath bought thy wit, as feeling by woeful experience what an evil and a bitter thing sin is, and how easily thou mightest have redeemed thine own sorrows by better obedience.
Ver. 2. And shalt return to the Lord.] By sin we run away from God; by repentance we return to him.
Ver. 3. That then the Lord thy God.] Conversio Iudaeorum magnifice hic promittitur, saith one. Here is a stately promise of the conversion of the Jews, concerning which, [See Trapp on “Ro 11:25”] &c.
Ver. 4. If any of thine be driven.] The Jews have been, for this sixteen hundred years and upwards, a dejected and despised people, hated and cast out by a common consent of all nations, for their unexpiable guilt in murdering the Messiah, which they now begin to be somewhat sensible of, and will be so more and more. [See Trapp on “De 28:28”]
Ver. 6. And the Lord thy God.] See Deuteronomy 10:16.
Ver. 7. Will put all these curses upon thine enemies.] God will recompense “tribulation to them that have troubled you”; (2 Thessalonians 1:6) he will “spoil the spoilers”; (Isaiah 33:1) “deliver the just out of trouble, and the wicked shall come in his stead.” (Proverbs 11:8 Isaiah 65:13,14) It seemeth to the Church’s enemies an incredible paradox, and a news by far more admirable than acceptable, that there should be such a transmutation of conditions on both sides to contraries; but so it will be, as sure as the coat is on their backs, or the heart in their bodies. See Lamentations 4:21.
Ver. 8. And thou shalt return.] Come again to thyself, as the prodigal, who had been for some while beside himself.
Ver. 9. And in the fruit of thy land for good.] God will provide that thou shalt not be the worse for thine outward abundance; that fulness shall not breed forgetfulness. It is as hard to bear prosperity, as to drink much wine and not be giddy, or as to drink strong waters and not weaken the brain thereby. The parable of the sun and wind is well known. Some of those in Queen Mary’s days, who kept their garments close about them, wore them afterwards more loosely, when they came to prosperity and preferment. It is a marvellous great mercy to have outward comforts and contentments for good. Bonus Deus Constantinum Magnum tantis terrenis implevit muneribus, quanta optare nullus auderet, saith Augustine, God of his goodness heaped all good things upon Constantine. De Civ. Dei, lib. v. cap. 25.
Ver. 11. For this commandment.] This word of faith, (Romans 10:8) that teacheth the righteousness of faith, (Romans 10:6) and speaketh on this wise, the doctrine of salvation by faith that works by love, this is clearly enough revealed in both Testaments, so that none can reasonably plead ignorance, and think to be excused by it.
Ver. 12. Who shall go up for us to heaven?] And yet to know heavenly things, is to ascend into heaven. (Proverbs 30:4)
Ver. 13. Neither is it beyond the sea.] Beyond the sea it was to us, till blessed Luther’s books were brought hither, together with Tyndale’s translation and other good men’s writings. Some Papists jeer us, and say that turkeys, hops, and heresy came into this kingdom in one bottom. Howbeit, long before this the Lady Anne, wife to king Richard II, sister to Winceslaus king of Bohemia, by living here was made acquainted with the gospel; whence also many Bohemians coming hither conveyed Wickliffe’s books into Bohemia, whereby a good foundation was laid for the ensuing Reformation, A.D. 1417, by the help of another good queen there, called Sophia. The writings also of John Huss, brought thence, wrought much good in this kingdom, a hundred years before Luther’s time.
Ver. 14. Very nigh.] Nigher than the skin is to the flesh, or the flesh to the bones; it is within thy nature, and shall be in thy heart, λογος εμφυτος, an inbred or indwelling word. (James 1:21) That thou mayest do it,] sc., By believing in Christ, (John 6:24) and yielding the obedience of faith. (Hebrews 8:10)
Ver. 15. See, I have set before thee.] Matters of great importance must be set on with greatest vehemency.
Ver. 16. To love the Lord.] God must be obeyed out of love, or all is lost.
Ver. 17. But if thine heart turn away.] This is that death and evil. (Deuteronomy 30:15)
Ver. 18. I denounce unto you.] See on Deuteronomy 30:15.
Ver. 19. Life and death, blessing and cursing.] Of God it may be more truly affirmed, than ever it was of Charles V, Emperor, “ Una gerit bellum, monstrat manus altera pacem. ” Therefore choose life.] Which yet man, of himself, can as little do as a dead carcass can fiy aloft. It was therefore an unsound and unsavoury speech of him that said, Quod vivamus, Dei munus est; quod bene vivamus, nostrum: That we live, it is of God; but that we live well, it is of ourselves. See the contrary in Isaiah 11:12 Ho 14:8 Joh 15:5.
Ver. 20. For he is thy life.] He in whom thou livest, as the fish doth in the water, the lamp in the oil, &c. He is the author of life natural, spiritual, and eternal to his obedient servants.