I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over Jordan to possess; you shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
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Basil the Great
AD 379
Not only Paul but generally all those to whom is committed any ministry of the word never cease to testify but call heaven and earth to witness, on the grounds that now every deed is done within them, and they will be present with the judged in the examination of all of life. So it is said, “He shall call to the heavens above and to earth, that he may judge his people.” And so Moses, when about to deliver his oracles to the people, says, “I call heaven and earth to witness this day”; and again in his song he says, “Give ear, O you heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.”
And earth, or all their rational inhabitants. (St. Jerome and St. Basil in Isa. i. 2.) Moses conjures the Israelites, by all that is most sacred, to continue faithful. He speaks with the greatest earnestness, as he does again, chap. xxxii. 1. (Calmet)
He makes use of a sort of oath, by the creatures, in which God shines forth. (Menochius)
Destroy you. He will take from you that delightful country, though he will save a remnant of you out of the captivity of Babylon, and in the latter days, ver. 31. The Jews, in the promised land, were almost always prone to idolatry; till God severely chastised them by the hands of the Babylonians. Since that time, few of them have willingly yielded to the worship of idols, though some have fallen by compulsion, as we read, Daniel iii., and 1 Machabees i. 53., and ii. 16. Jeremias (v. 19) foretold that this would be the case. As you have forsaken me, and served a strange god in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not your ow...
