"When all these words, the blessing and the curse which I have set before thee, shall come." The allusion to the blessing in this connection may be explained on the ground that Moses was surveying the future generally, in which not only a curse but a blessing also would come upon the nation, according to its attitude towards the Lord as a whole and in its several members, since even in times of the greatest apostasy on the part of the nation there would always be a holy seed which could not die out; because otherwise the nation would necessarily have been utterly and for ever rejected, whereby the promises of God would have been brought to nought, - a result which was absolutely impossible. "And thou takest to heart among all nations," etc., sc., what has befallen thee - not only the curse which presses upon thee, but also the blessing which accompanies obedience to the commands of God, - "and returnest to the Lord thy God, and hearkenest to His voice with all the heart," etc. (cf. Deuteronomy 4:29); "the Lord will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and gather thee again." את־שׁבוּת שׁוּב does not mean to bring back the prisoners, as the more modern lexicographers erroneously suppose (the Kal שׁוּב never has the force of the Hiphil), but to turn the imprisonment, and that in a figurative sense, viz., to put an end to the distress (Job 42:10; Jeremiah 30:8; Ezekiel 16:53; Psalm 14:7; also Psalm 85:2; Psalm 126:2, Psalm 126:4), except that in many passages the misery of exile in which the people pined is represented as imprisonment. The passage before us is fully decisive against the meaning to bring back the prisoners, since the gathering out of the heathen is spoken of as being itself the consequence of the "turning of the captivity;" so also is Jeremiah 29:14, where the bringing back (השׁיב) is expressly distinguished from it. But especially is this the case with Jeremiah 30:18, where "turning the captivity of Jacob's tents" is synonymous with having mercy on his dwelling-places, and building up the city, again, so that the city lying in ruins is represented as שׁבוּת, an imprisonment.

(Note: Hupfeld (on Psalm 14:7) has endeavoured to sustain the assertion that שׁבוּת is a later form for the older and simpler forms, שׁבי, שׁביה, by citing one single passage of the Old Testament. The abstract form of שׁבי is שׁבית, imprisonment (Numbers 21:29), then prisoners. This form has been substituted by Jeremiah for שׁבוּת in one passage, viz., Deuteronomy 32:44; and the Masoretic punctuators were the first to overlook the difference in the two words, and point them promiscuously.)

Deuteronomy 30:8 Parallel Commentaries

Deuteronomy 30:2 And shall return to the LORD your God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children...

Proverbs 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

Isaiah 1:25,26 And I will turn my hand on you, and purely purge away your dross, and take away all your tin...

Jeremiah 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, said the LORD...

Jeremiah 32:39,40 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them...

Ezekiel 11:19,20 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh...

Ezekiel 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Ezekiel 37:24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments...

Romans 11:26,27 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer...

Ephesians 2:16 And that he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.