Augustine of Hippo : Because this precept that I am sending you today is not out of measure or far from you. He is not in heaven, saying-that is, for you to say- "Who will come up to heaven for us and bring it to us and hear it?" Nor is it on the other side of the sea, saying-that is, for You say: "Who will go for us across the sea and bring it to us and listen to it and put it to work?" This word is very close to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart and in your hands so that you put it to work. The Apostle says that this is the word of faith, belonging to the New Testament (Cf Rm 10,8). But we can ask why previously they are called commandments to the things that are written in the book of this law (Cf Deuteronomy 29,21). And the explanation is because they all mean the spiritual things belonging to the New Testament, if they are understood correctly. We can also ask why what is said here: Nor is it on the other side of the sea, for you to say: «Who will go for us to the other side of the sea and bring it to us?, The Apostle picks it up, saying: Who will go down into the abyss? "And, in explaining these words, he adds: This is: bringing Christ up from the dead (Rm 10,7). The explanation is that the author calls sea to all the life that passes in this world, and that is crossed with death, so that in a certain way the sea ends and death is called the other side of the sea, as if was the other side of this life, which is indicated by the word sea. On the other hand, what the text says: And in your hands, the Apostle does not collect it, but only says: In your mouth and in your heart (Rm 10,8). And this he continued until the end, saying: For with the heart one believes to obtain justice, and with the mouth confession is made to obtain salvation (Rm 10,10). With good reason, then, the translated text of the Hebrew, as far as I could verify, does not have the words: in your hands. But I do not believe that the Seventy have added it uselessly. They want to say that the hands themselves, which signify the works, must also be received in the heart, where faith is, that works through love (Galatians 5,6). Because if the things that God commands are done externally with the hands and are not made with the heart, there is no one so foolish that he thinks that this is how the commandments are fulfilled. For the rest, if love, which is the fullness of the law (Cf Rm 13,10), dwells in the heart, even though one can not work with the bodily hands, it naturally has peace with men of good will (Cf Lc 2,14). — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 54 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)