26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over the Jordan to possess it; you shall not prolong your days on it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you - A most solemn method of adjuration, in use among all nations in the world. So Virgil, Aen., lib. xii., ver. 176, etc.
Tum pius Aeneas stricto sic ense precatur:
Esto nunc Song testis et haec mihi terra vocanti -
Fontesque fluviosque voco, quaeque aetheris alti
Relllgio, et quae caeruleo sunt numina ponto, etc.
"Then the great Trojan prince unsheathed his sword,
And thus, with lifted hands, the gods adored:
Thou land for which I wage this war, and thou
Great source of day, be witness to my vow! -
Almighty king of heaven and queen of air,
Propitious now and reconciled by prayer, -
Ye springs, ye floods, ye various powers who lie
Beneath the deep, or tread the golden sky, -
Hear and Attest!"
Pitt.
God and man being called upon to bear testimony to the truth of what was spoken, that if there was any flaw or insincerity, it might be detected; and if any crime, it might not go unpunished. Such appeals to God, for such purposes, show at once both the origin and use of oaths. See the note on Deuteronomy 6:13.
I (r) call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong [your] days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
(r) Though men would abuse you, yet the insensible creatures will be witnesses of your disobedience.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day,.... Should they be guilty of such a sin, since they were so strongly and publicly cautioned against it; and even the heaven and the earth were called upon as witnesses of the law being set before them, which so expressly forbids it, Deuteronomy 30:19.
that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over Jordan to possess it; though they were now about to go over Jordan and inherit the land of Canaan, yet they would not enjoy it long, but be taken and carried captive out of it; as the ten tribes were by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, and the two tribes by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and both for their idolatry and other crimes.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you--This solemn form of adjuration has been common in special circumstances among all people. It is used here figuratively, or as in other parts of Scripture where inanimate objects are called up as witnesses (Deuteronomy 32:1; Isaiah 1:2).
*More commentary available at chapter level.