Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 30:20
and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses Israel at the close of his final covenant speech, immediately after setting before them the choice of life and death (v. 19). This is the concluding exhortation of the Deuteronomic covenant renewal.
The words — דָּבָק (dāvaq, H1692), "cleaving," is the same root in Genesis 2:24 and Deuteronomy 10:20; it carries the sense of sticking fast, adhering, not merely following. The verse structures the three commands as infinitive absolutes with לְ ("by loving," "by listening," "by cleaving"), presenting them as the means by which life is sustained.
The thread — Deuteronomy 10:20 repeats the "hold fast" (דָּבָק) command in a different covenant context, and the claim "He is your life" finds its New Testament echo in John 11:25 and 17:3.
Why it lands — The verse ties Israel's physical survival in the land directly to a relational posture—love, attention, and dependence on Yahweh rather than on any other source of life. It asks the reader to examine whether their life is actually held to God or to something else.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Cross-references
- John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.
- Deuteronomy 10:20 You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.
- John 17:3 Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.
- John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
- Acts 17:25 Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
- Acts 17:28 ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
- Deuteronomy 4:40 Keep His statutes and commandments, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.
- Deuteronomy 10:12 And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
- Psalms 66:9 He preserves our lives and keeps our feet from slipping.
- Deuteronomy 5:16 Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.