Deuteronomy 30:12
Nor is it in heaven, that thou shouldst say: Which of us can go up to heaven to bring it unto us, and we may hear and fulfill it in work?
Open Deuteronomy 30:12 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- nec in cælo situm, ut possis dicere : Quis nostrum valet ad cælum ascendere, ut deferat illud ad nos, et audiamus atque opere compleamus ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὐκ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ἄνω ἐστὶν λέγων Τίς ἀναβήσεται ἡμῖν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ λήμψεται αὐτὴν ἡμῖν, καὶ ἀκούσαντες αὐτὸ ποιήσομεν;
- Hebrew (WLC)
- לֹ֥א בַשָּׁמַ֖יִם הִ֑וא לֵאמֹ֗ר מִ֣י יַעֲלֶה לָּ֤נוּ הַשָּׁמַ֨יְמָה֙ וְיִקָּחֶ֣הָ לָּ֔נוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵ֥נוּ אֹתָ֖הּ וְנַעֲשֶֽׂנָּה
Haydock's commentary
Work. There is no need of studying the mysteries of astrology, as the Magi do, to understand the will of God. (Grotius)
St. Paul adds, (ver. 7.) or who shall descend into the deep? which is not in [the] Hebrew. (Calmet)
But he probably alludes to the following verse, as the sea is often styled the deep. It was not necessary for the Jews, or for Christians, (Haydock) to undertake long voyages, to discover the true God, as the ancient philosophers were obliged to do; and after they had obtained some idea of the truth, they were afraid to declare it, on account of the prejudices of the people. (Calmet)
But the most illiterate among us, may easily obtain sufficient knowledge to regulate his life. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian The Five Books Against Marcion, The Judicial Severity of Christ and the Tenderness of the Creator, Asserted in Contradiction to Marcion. The Cure of the Ten Lepers. Old Testament Analogies. The Kingdom of God Within You; This Teaching Similar to that of Moses. Christ, the Stone Rejected by the Builders. Indications of Severity in the Coming of Christ. Proofs that He is Not the Impassible Being Marcion Imagined
Then, turning to His disciples, He says: “Woe unto him through whom offences come! It were better for him if he had not been born, or if a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones,” that is, one of His disciples. Judge, then, what the sort of punishment is which He so severely threatens. For it is no stranger who is to avenge the offence done to His disciples. Recognise also in Him the Judge, and one too, who expresses Himself on the safety of His followers with the same tenderness as that which the Creator long ago exhibited: “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of my eye.” Such identity of care proceeds from one and the same Being. A trespassing brother He will have rebuked. …
St Augustine A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness, Passages to Show that God’s Commandments are Not Grievous
He afterwards adduces those passages which represent God as recommending His own commandments as not grievous: let us now attend to their testimony. “Because,” says he, “God’s commandments are not only not impossible, but they are not even grievous. In Deuteronomy: ‘The Lord thy God will again turn and rejoice over thee for good, as He rejoiced over thy fathers, if ye shall hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments, and His ordinances, and His judgments, written in the book of this law; if thou turn to the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. …