Deuteronomy 30:4

Deu 30:4 If [any] of thine be driven out unto the outmost [parts] of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:

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 "Deu 28:28"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 30:4. If any of thine be driven out unto the out-most parts of heaven — This part of the prophecy has been fulfilled; they have been thus driven away. From thence will the Lord gather thee — Not the widest and most distant dispersion of any of thy tribes shall cause them to be finally lost.

But God, upon the before-mentioned condition, will so order it that you shall in the most material instances recover your ancient state. Nehemiah pleads this promise in his prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem, Neh 1:8-9. And it was in part fulfilled when Cyrus issued a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, that all the Jews might return, if they pleased, into their own land, Ezr 1:1-5. But the promise is generally considered as having a further view; and as respecting their restoration to their own country in the latter days, after this their long and last dispersion. The Jews themselves apply it to their present condition, being of opinion that God hath appointed a time for their deliverance, and that if they repent he will shorten the days of their banishment. But, as we have just observed, they must also believe in Jesus of Nazareth, as the true Messiah, before they be restored.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And bring thee into thy country.

Even to the world’s end.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(4) If any of thine be driven out.—In the LXX., “If thy dispersion be.”

Unto the outmost parts of heaven.—The LXX. version of these words is traceable in Mat_24:31, “From the one end of heaven to the other.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. If any of thine outcasts] quoted in Neh_1:9; cp. above Deu_30:1 (driven), Deu_28:64, and in another sense Deu_22:1.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven,.... As many of them are in this remote island of ours, Great Britain, reckoned formerly the uttermost part of the earth, as Thule, supposed to be Schetland, an isle belonging to Scotland, is said to be (m); See Gill on Deu 28:49; and as some of them are thought to be in America, which Manasseh Ben Israel (n) had a firm belief of:

from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee; whose eye is omniscient, and reaches every part of the world; and whose arm is omnipotent, and none can stay it, or turn it back. The Targum of Jonathan is,"from thence will he bring you near by the hands of the King Messiah.''

(m) "Ultima Thule", Virgil. Georgic. l. 1. v. 30. Seneca Medea, Act 2. in fine. (n) Spes Israelis, sect. 38.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Poles. The arctic and antarctic, the northern and southern poles; that is, into the most distant regions. (Menochius) --- Hebrew, "the end of heaven," where it seems to rest upon the earth. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Vers. 4, 5. Consequent on this deliverance would be the gathering of Israel from all the places of the dispersion and their return to possess the land which their fathers possessed, in greater numbers than their fathers were. This last statement suggests doubt as to the literal interpretation of this prediction, for, as Keil remarks, "If there is to be an increase in the num-bet of the Jews when gathered out of their dispersion into all the world, above the number of their fathers, and therefore above the number of the Israelites in the time of Solomon and the first monarchs of the two kingdoms, Palestine will never furnish room enough for a nation multiplied like this." The reference in the following verse to a spiritual renewal suggests the inquiry whether the reference here is not to such a gathering and restoration of Israel as that which St. Paul describes in Romans 11., when the branches that had been broken from the olive tree shall be again grafted into it, and all Israel shall be saved after the fullness of the Gentiles shall be, brought in. To Moses, and indeed to all the Old Testament prophets and saints, the Israel of God presented itself as a nation dwelling in a land given to it by God; but as the national Israel was the type of the spiritual Israel, and as Canaan was the type of the spiritual kingdom of God, the full import of what is said concerning the former is only to be perceived when it is viewed as realized in the latter. Certain it is that it was on this principle that the apostles interpreted the fulfillment of the Old Testament declarations concerning Israel, of which the explanation given by St. James of Amo_9:11, 12 may be noted as an instructive example. (Act_15:15-17) If the rebuilding of the ruined tabernacle of David is to be effected by "the residue of men" being brought to "seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom his Name is called," we need not shrink from interpreting this prophecy of Moses as referring to the restoration of Israel by the bringing in of Jew and Gentile into the one fold under the one Shepherd, the Shepherd of Israel. (Joh_9:16)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

General Information:

Moses speaks to the Israelites as if they were one man, so the words "you" and "your" here are singular. (See: Forms of You)

If any of your exiled people are in the farthest places

"Even those of your exiled people who are in the farthest places"

under the heavens

"under the sky" or "on the earth"

translationWords

exile

people of God

heaven

Promised Land

ancestor

possess

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.