Deuteronomy30:1–10

Where the English smooths the original

• וְהָיָה֩ The verse opens with וְהָיָה (wəhāyāh, root hāyāh) — a whole clause, “and it shall come to pass,” the formula that frames a future certainty. The BSB renders only the bare conjunction “When,” dropping the weight of the verb that turns the chapter into prophecy already underway.
• וַהֲשֵׁבֹתָ֙ The phrase the BSB smooths to “you call them to mind” is וַהֲשֵׁבֹתָ אֶל־לְבָבֶךָ (wahăšēḇōṯā ’el-ləḇāḇeḵā, root šûḇ) — literally “and you bring [them] back to your heart.” The verb is a Hiphil of the same šûḇ (“return”) that drives the whole unit: the people’s turning begins inwardly, by laying the blessing and curse back upon the heart.
• הִדִּיחֲךָ֛ The closing verb is הִדִּיחֲךָ (hiddîḥăḵā, root nādach) — not a neutral “banished” but “thrust away, driven off,” the violent shove of an exile. Cambridge notes this exact form is Jeremiah’s favorite word for the dispersion; the passive of the same root reappears in v. 4.
• הַבְּרָכָה֙ Hebrew names them with the article and singular — הַבְּרָכָה וְהַקְּלָלָה, “the-blessing and-the-curse” — pointing back to the two definite covenant outcomes set out in chapters 27–28, not blessings and curses in general.

Where the English smooths the original

• וְשַׁבְתָּ֞ The BSB’s “return” is וְשַׁבְתָּ (wəšaḇtā, root šûḇ) — the human counterpart to God’s “restoring” in v. 3. Hebrew uses one verb for both moves: the people turn (v. 2) and God turns their captivity (v. 3). The English splits what the Hebrew binds with a single root.
• וְשָׁמַעְתָּ֣ וְשָׁמַעְתָּ בְקֹלוֹ (wəšāma‘tā ḇəqōlô, root šāma‘) is literally “and you hear his voice.” In Hebrew hearing already means heeding; the BSB’s “obey” names the result but loses the picture — covenant obedience as an attentive ear, not first a busy hand.
• עַד־ The preposition is עַד (‘ad), “as far as / all the way to the LORD,” a stronger word than a plain “to.” Repentance is not a glance Godward but a return that travels the whole distance back to him.
• לְבָבְךָ֖ The pair בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל־נַפְשֶׁךָ (“with all your heart and all your soul”) is the language of Deuteronomy 6:5 transplanted into the promise of restoration — the Shema’s love-command becomes the measure of the returning that God himself will produce (v. 6).

Where the English smooths the original

• וְשָׁ֨ב The BSB’s “restore you from captivity” is וְשָׁב יְהוָה אֶת־שְׁבוּתְךָ (wəšāḇ … ’eṯ-šəḇûṯəḵā, root šûḇ). The verb is in Qal (intransitive), which — Keil, Cambridge, and the Pulpit all insist — “never has the force of the Hiphil”: it does not mean “cause the captives to return” but “turn the captivity” itself, i.e., reverse the whole calamity. God turns as the people turned (v. 2).
• וְרִחֲמֶ֑ךָ וְרִחֲמֶךָ (wəriḥămeḵā, root rāḥam) — “and he will have compassion on you,” from the root for the womb (reḥem). The mercy promised is visceral, motherly tenderness, not a cool pardon. The BSB keeps it, but the Hebrew root locates it in the bowels.
• וְשָׁ֗ב The verse repeats וְשָׁב a second time before “gather” — “he will turn-back and gather.” This is the Hebrew idiom for “again”: God will once more gather. The BSB folds the repeated šûḇ into a plain “and gather,” losing the threefold drumbeat of “turning” that knits vv. 2–3 (you turn — he turns your captivity — he turns again to gather).
• הָ֣עַמִּ֔ים Here the word for the nations shifts to הָעַמִּים (hā‘ammîm, root ‘am, “peoples”), distinct from gōyim in v. 1. The gathering reaches into all the peoples — JFB’s point that the scope is the whole earth, not one captivity.

Where the English smooths the original

• נִֽדַּחֲךָ֖ The BSB’s “Even if you have been banished” is אִם־יִהְיֶה נִדַּחֲךָ (’im-yihyeh niddaḥăḵā, root nādach) — literally “if your outcast-one is,” a Niphal participle of the same root “to thrust away” used in v. 1. The English smooths the awkward Hebrew noun-clause; the LXX read it “if thy dispersion be” (Ellicott).
• בִּקְצֵ֣ה הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם בִּקְצֵה הַשָּׁמָיִם (biqṣēh haššāmāyim) is “at the edge of the heavens,” not the BSB’s gentler “farthest horizon.” The phrase reaches to the cosmic rim; Ellicott notes its echo in the Greek of Matthew 24:31, “from one end of heaven to the other,” the gathering of the elect.
• יִקָּחֶֽךָ The closing verb is יִקָּחֶךָ (yiqqāḥeḵā, root lāqach), “he will take / fetch you” — a hands-on word, God personally reaching to seize the exile. The BSB’s “return you” names the outcome but loses the picture of God’s own hand laying hold (Ellicott records the rabbinic image of him taking each man “by the hand”).
• וּמִשָּׁ֖ם The doubled מִשָּׁם … מִשָּׁם (“from there… from there”) brackets the verse — wherever “there” is, however far, the gathering reaches it. The BSB collapses the emphatic repetition into a single “from there.”

Where the English smooths the original

• וֶהֱבִֽיאֲךָ֞ וֶהֱבִיאֲךָ (wehĕḇî’ăḵā, root bô’, Hiphil) is “he will cause you to come / bring you in” — the same “entering the land” verb that runs through Deuteronomy’s land-promise. The BSB’s “bring you into” is faithful, but in Hebrew it is the technical word for taking possession of the inheritance.
• יָרְשׁ֥וּ The land is the one the fathers יָרְשׁוּ (yārəšû, root yārash), “took in possession by dispossessing its tenants,” and the people וִירִשְׁתָּהּ “shall possess it.” The doubled root means more than “owned”: it is conquest-possession, occupying by driving out — Ellicott insists this can mean no land but Palestine.
• וְהֵיטִֽבְךָ֥ וְהֵיטִבְךָ (wəhêṭiḇḵā, root yāṭaḇ, Hiphil) is “he will make it well for you / do you good” — the verb of covenant prosperity. Cambridge links it to the same “do thee good” of 28:63; in that verse it was God rejoicing to destroy, here to bless — the same goodness turned toward life.
• מֵאֲבֹתֶֽיךָ “More than your fathers” is מֵאֲבֹתֶיךָ (mê’ăḇōṯeḵā) — a comparative “from / above your fathers.” Keil rests his whole non-literal reading here: a multiplication beyond the nation’s peak under David and Solomon could never fit in Palestine, and so must be fulfilled in the “Israel according to the spirit.”

Where the English smooths the original

• וּמָ֨ל The central promise is וּמָל יְהוָה … אֶת־לְבָבְךָ (ûmāl … ’eṯ-ləḇāḇəḵā, root mûl) — “YHWH will circumcise your heart.” In 10:16 Israel was commanded to circumcise their own hearts; here God himself becomes the surgeon. The BSB keeps the image, but the shift of subject — from the people's duty to God's deed — is the theological heart of the chapter.
• לְאַהֲבָ֞ה The purpose is לְאַהֲבָה (lə’ahăḇāh, root ’āhaḇ), “to love the LORD” — an infinitive of result. The circumcised heart’s fruit is not first obedience but love; God cuts away what cannot love so that love becomes possible. The Shema’s command (6:5) is here turned into a promise God fulfills.
• לְמַ֥עַן חַיֶּֽיךָ לְמַעַן חַיֶּיךָ (ləma‘an ḥayyeḵā) is literally “for the sake of your life” — Cambridge’s rendering — not merely the BSB’s purpose-clause “so that you may live.” Life itself is the goal; Gill reads it of spiritual and eternal life, the circumcised heart being the first pulse of a life that did not exist before.
• זַרְעֶ֑ךָ God circumcises your heart “and the heart of זַרְעֶךָ (zar‘eḵā, “your seed / offspring”).” The promise runs down the generations; the inward circumcision, like the outward, is covenantal and hereditary in scope — the children are included in the surgery.

Where the English smooths the original

• הָאָל֖וֹת The word for “curses” here is הָאָלוֹת (hā’ālōṯ, root ’ālāh, an imprecation/oath-curse) — not the qəlālāh of v. 1. Cambridge flags the change: this is the sworn covenant-curse, the broken-oath penalty of 29:20. The BSB renders both words “curses,” hiding a deliberate shift of vocabulary that some take as a seam in the text.
• וְנָתַן֙ וְנָתַן (wənāṯan, root nāṯan) is the same verb “to give / set” that placed the blessing and curse “before you” in v. 1. Now God gives the curse a new address — “upon your enemies.” The covenant penalty is not abolished but redirected; the curse still falls, only elsewhere.
• אֹיְבֶ֥יךָ “Your enemies” and “those who hate you” are participles — אֹיְבֶיךָ … שֹׂנְאֶיךָ (’ōyəḇeḵā … śōnə’eḵā) — “the ones hating you, persecuting you,” ongoing hostility frozen into a name. K&D hears in the reversal the echo of Genesis 12:3: “him who curses you I will curse.”
• רְדָפֽוּךָ רְדָפוּךָ (rəḏāp̄ûḵā, root rādaph) is “they pursued / persecuted you” — a perfect tense, a settled past of hounding. The BSB’s present “persecute you” loses the sense that this is the record of what the enemies have already done, now answered.

Where the English smooths the original

• תָשׁ֔וּב The BSB’s “again” is the finite verb תָשׁוּב (ṯāšûḇ, root šûḇ) — “you shall return.” K&D shows it works adverbially here (“you shall again hearken”), the same idiom as v. 9. But Hebrew keeps the verb of turning visible: even the renewed obedience is framed as another act of the unit's master-verb, šûḇ.
• וְשָׁמַעְתָּ֖ וְשָׁמַעְתָּ בְּקוֹל יְהוָה (wəšāma‘tā bəqôl YHWH) — “and you shall hear the voice of YHWH.” The same hearing-as-obedience of v. 2 returns, now as the fruit of the circumcised heart (v. 6), not the condition before it. The BSB’s “obey” loses the deliberate repetition of v. 2’s verb.
• וְעָשִׂ֙יתָ֙ “Follow” in the BSB is וְעָשִׂיתָ (wə‘āśîṯā, root ‘āśāh), “and you shall do / make.” Hebrew obedience is not “following” at a distance but doing — performing the commandments. Ellicott presses the realism: the law of Deuteronomy “has never been kept perfectly,” so this promised doing looks beyond the present age.
• אָנֹכִ֥י The emphatic independent pronoun אָנֹכִי (’ānōḵî), “I myself am commanding,” stresses the speaker — the commandments are not abstract rules but the personal charge of the covenant Lord through Moses, “this day.” English cannot carry the pronoun's stress.

Where the English smooths the original

• וְהוֹתִֽירְךָ֩ The BSB’s “make you abound” is וְהוֹתִירְךָ (wəhôṯîrəḵā, root yāṯar, Hiphil), “he will make you overflow / have surplus” — to jut over and exceed. Not mere sufficiency but excess, plenty with margin: Gill, “enough and to spare, a redundancy of the good things of life.”
• לָשׂ֤וּשׂ The climactic verb is יָשׁוּב … לָשׂוּשׂ עָלֶיךָ (yāšûḇ … lāśûś ‘āleḵā, root śûś), “he will again rejoice / exult over you.” The rare verb śûś (only ~24 verses) is the same one Deuteronomy 28:63 used of God rejoicing to destroy Israel — now turned to rejoicing to do them good. The BSB’s “delight in your prosperity” is true but mutes the shock of the reused word.
• יָשׁ֣וּב “Will again” is יָשׁוּב (yāšûḇ, root šûḇ), the unit's keyword once more — literally “he will turn to rejoice.” K&D: this proves the adverbial “again” of v. 8. The God who turned away to judge now turns back to delight. The whole chapter rides on this verb of turning.
• לְטוֹבָ֑ה Twice the verse stamps the word לְטוֹבָה … לְטוֹב (ləṭôḇāh … ləṭôḇ, root ṭôḇ, “for good”). Poole and Benson catch the reversal: the same mercies once received “for thy hurt” are now given “for good” — the gifts unchanged, the heart that receives them remade.

Where the English smooths the original

• כִּ֣י The verse opens with כִּי (kî), which the BSB renders “if.” Ellicott and Gill note the LXX took it as “if,” but the Hebrew word more naturally means “for / when.” On the “for” reading this is not a fresh condition but the ground of the promises: God will do all this because / when you hearken — the hearing itself being God’s gift from v. 6. The choice of word decides whether grace or condition has the last word.
• לִשְׁמֹ֤ר לִשְׁמֹר (lišmōr, root šāmar) is “to keep / guard / hedge about” the commandments — to watch over them as a treasure, not merely perform them. The BSB’s “keeping” is right, but the root pictures vigilant safekeeping, the opposite of the careless neglect Poole warns against.
• הַכְּתוּבָ֕ה “That are written” is הַכְּתוּבָה (hakkəṯûḇāh, root kāṯaḇ) — a passive participle, “the written one,” singular and definite. Cambridge notes the curious singular, as if quoting 29:20. The authority is a fixed, written text “in this book of the Law” — the Berean principle in seed: life measured against what stands written.
• תָשׁוּב֙ The verse — and the unit — closes on תָשׁוּב אֶל־יְהוָה (ṯāšûḇ ’el-YHWH, root šûḇ), “you turn to YHWH.” The keyword that opened the human response (v. 2) seals the whole passage. From first to last the chapter is the drama of šûḇ — turning and being turned — and it ends, as it began, “with all your heart and all your soul.”