Deuteronomy 4:29
But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
Study Note
Study Note
Moses promises that even in exile, if Israel seeks the Lord with all their heart and soul, they will find him — because God is accessible even from the furthest reaches of human disobedience and displacement. The 'all your heart and soul' formula (shema-language) makes covenant-seeking a totalizing commitment, not a partial or peripheral act. The promise is strikingly unconditional in its positive direction: exile does not close the door to God, it can open it. Jeremiah 29:13 repeats the promise in a letter to the exiles themselves, and Jesus' parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:20) dramatizes the same conviction that seeking God in extremity finds God running to meet the seeker.
Other Translations
But from thence ye shall seek Jehovah thy God, and thou shalt find him, when thou searchest after him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
`And--ye have sought from thence Jehovah thy God, and hast found, when thou seekest Him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
But if in those lands you are turned again to the Lord your God, searching for him with all your heart and soul, he will not keep himself from you.
Cross References
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and …
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will …
Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of …
Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will …
And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, …
Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with …
I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord: I will keep thy statutes.
I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word.