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Deuteronomy: Introductory discourse
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Special nature and problems
The English title of this work, meaning “second law,” is derived from a faulty Greek translation of chapter 17, verse 18, referring to “a copy of this law”: the implication being that the book is a second law or an expanded version of the original law for the new generation of Israelites about to enter Canaan. Hebrew texts take the opening words of the book as title, Ele ha-Devarim (These Are The Words), or simply Devarim (Words). As noted in Composition and authorship, above, the book is in a class by itself in the Pentateuch, so much so that modern scholars tend to consider it apart from the other four books, and some see it in style, content, and concerns more closely related to the succeeding books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, constituting a “Deuteronomic history.” In spite of its homogeneous style and tone—it is assigned for the most part to a single source, D—the content indicates to critical scholars very composite traditions, ages, and situations behind the finished form. This book has elicited a library of scholarship going back to the early 19th century, not only because of the complicated critical and historical problems calling for solution but also because of its spiritual and theological message, which gives it a special place among Old Testament writings.
In form, the book is ostensibly a discourse by Moses “to all Israel” in the final month in Moab before they go over the Jordan into Canaan. Actually it comprises three separate discourses, a set of laws, two poems, and various other matters, all ascribed to Moses directly—here it is Moses who sets forth the laws, not God through him. These materials are centered on the presentation of the rules of life and worship for the coming stay in the Promised Land, along with exhortations and explanations pointing to YHWH, the marvellous liberator from Egypt and guide in the wilderness, as the divine source and reason for the commands. The traditional view was that, with the possible exception of the account of Moses’ death, the whole book was written by Moses, based on the phrase “And Moses wrote this song” in chapter 31, verse 22.
Some early Church Fathers identified the book with “the book of the law” (II Kings, chapter 22, verse 8), found in the 18th year of King Josiah’s reign (c. 621 bce), and made the basis of his great religious reform the following year. Wilhelm M.L. de Wette, a German biblical scholar, in 1805 established the predominant modern view that Deuteronomy (or its nucleus, or main portion) was found in Josiah’s time and was a distinctive book, separate from the Tetrateuch. He also held that it was composed shortly before its discovery; other, more recent, scholars would put it as much as a century earlier and connect it with earlier reforms, while some associate it with the writings and teachings of the 8th-century-bce prophet Hosea and with the E source. Furthermore, the references to localities near Shechem as cultic places, taken with certain passages in Joshua, indicate a northern provenance for the book and not the southern source connected with a cultic center at Jerusalem, as had been previously supposed from the associated material in II Kings. Some scholars see the form and occasion of Deuteronomy as a Covenant renewal ceremony in which the whole law is read, as in Joshua, chapter 8, verses 30–35, and thus view it as a liturgical document, as well as a lawbook. In any case, the tendency is to see various layers of materials and lines of transmission, perhaps going back to quite early preliterary sources, before its final formation in the 8th or 7th century bce.
The book may be divided as follows: (1) introductory discourse to the whole book (chapter 1 to chapter 4, verse 43); (2) introductory discourse to the lawbook (chapter 4, verse 44, through chapter 11); (3) the lawbook (chapters 12–28); (4) concluding exhortation and traditions about the last days and death of Moses (chapters 29–34).
First introductory discourse of Moses
The first introductory discourse, spoken by Moses, traces the journey of the Israelites from Mt. Horeb to Moab, with some noticeable differences in detail from the account in Exodus and Numbers and an emphasis on Moses being banned from entrance into the Promised Land because the Lord was angry at the Israelites. To this historical retrospect is appended an exhortation to the people to obey God’s laws and norms, recalling the imageless God of the revelation and Covenant at Horeb as a warning against making images and serving man-made gods. The uniqueness and soleness of the God of the Exodus and Covenant, his power and presence in his marvellous acts of redemption and revelation, and his gracious selection of Israel are proclaimed in rhetorical questions; moreover, it is emphasized that the God of Israel (“YHWH your God”) “is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.” The injunctions against idolatry appear to come from later experience and religious crisis in Canaan. The fact that other nations have their own gods and objects of worship is recognized elsewhere in Deuteronomy.
Second introductory discourse
The second discourse, also ascribed to Moses, again refers to the Covenant at Horeb and sets forth the Ten Commandments, which the people are admonished to obey rigorously, emphasizing the mediating function of Moses at Horeb between the awesome divine presence and the awestruck people. Israel is further admonished to obey the law through wholehearted love of God, expressed in what became the central liturgical expression of Israel’s faith, beginning, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord Alone. You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” If they obey God’s laws, avoid other gods, and do what is right and good, they will possess the land promised by God—him who rescued them from Egypt and has brought them thus far. They are to avoid marriage and all other intercourse with the peoples of the land, utterly destroying them and their idolatrous altars and cultic places, for they are a special, holy people chosen by God out of all the peoples because of his love, not because of their greatness or power. This marvellous love will continue to be exercised, and the people will be blessed with all good things—prosperity, fertility, health, and success in battle—if they obey God’s ordinances. They are urged to remember the 40-year period of wilderness wandering, in which they were tested (disciplined) by God through hardship and hunger (to find out whether or not they would keep his commands) and saved by him: man does not live by bread alone but, rather, by whatever God provides (e.g., manna from heaven). Another time of testing will come when they live in the rich, fertile land of Canaan and eat their fill and perhaps forget the Lord and his laws, ascribing their wealth to their own power and might and even venturing into idolatrous worship of the gods of the land. If they do so they shall perish, just as the idolatrous nations of the land shall.
A long list of the apostasies of Israel is presented in chapter 9 to demonstrate the point that Israel is going in to possess the land of Canaan not through any virtue of their own but because of God’s promise to the patriarchs. This is followed in chapter 10 by a moving declaration of what God requires of Israel—fear (reverence), walking in his ways, love, wholehearted service, and keeping his commandments—and an extolling of the wondrous, unique, powerful God who liberated them from Egypt. Chapter 11 extols the richness of the land of Canaan and describes how it will bloom for them if they are observant of God’s commandments and promises that they will hold the territory from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates to the western sea (Mediterranean). It closes with the choice set before them by Moses of “a blessing and a curse”—the former if they obey the commandments, the latter if they do not. This choice is posed to them immediately before the presentation of the laws and norms beginning in chapter 12.
Deuteronomy: the lawbook and the conclusion
The lawbook
The laws are the central core and purport of the book of Deuteronomy. They are couched in a hortatory, sermonic style that has led to their being categorized as preached law. Emphatic statements of what must or must not be done are connected with exhortations to fulfill these injunctions, pointing to the motivations and spirit in which they should be carried out. There is a wide variety of laws here—ritual, criminal, social—but they are all set within this preaching context and aimed at the service of God. This is no dry legal code but, rather, a book written in fluent and moving prose. Scholars have seen duplications and parallels between the laws presented here and those in the Covenant Code in chapters 21–23 of Exodus; but to this a common source may be ascribed, and Deuteronomy may be considered a work in its own right and not a mere expansion of the Covenant Code.
The lawbook comprises chapters 12–26, supplemented by chapters 27–28. After an initial order to destroy the pagan cultic places and idols, the lawbook goes to its basic injunction: to set up a single central sanctuary in Canaan, where all Israel is to make their offerings, as distinct from the present unregulated practice, “every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.” The spot is designated only “the place which the Lord your God will choose,” which some interpreters, following King Josiah, have understood to be Jerusalem and which others understand to be Shechem. (The blessing and curse passage immediately preceding in chapter 11 specifies Mts. Gerizim and Ebal, on either side of Shechem, as the places of blessing and curse, respectively; and an even more elaborate ritual is prescribed for the same locality in chapter 27.) Instructions are given for the proper killing of animals for food, previously connected with the sacrificial cult, and the people are admonished when they settle in Canaan not to inquire about how other nations serve their gods, possibly to follow their abominable practices. Inserted at this point is the striking exhortation, “Everything that I command you you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to it or take from it.”
Chapter 13 warns the people to beware of the temptations to apostasy arising from the urging or example of prophet-diviners, kinfolk or friends, or a whole town; they are to kill the tempters and destroy the towns. Chapter 14 is devoted mainly to a list of living things that may or may not be eaten, the “clean” and “unclean,” similar to the list in Leviticus, chapter 11; and to laws for tithes and first fruits to be brought annually to the central sanctuary and triennially to the Levites in the towns, who are specified as having no “portion” of their own (two years to the center, the third year to the town Levites). Chapter 15 deals mainly with the releases to be granted every seventh year to debtors of their debts and Hebrew slaves of their bondage; lenders are exhorted and commanded not to refuse loans to the poor in the sabbatical year of release, and God’s redemption of Israel from Egypt is given as the reason for freeing one’s Hebrew slaves in the sabbatical release. The first section of chapter 16, verses 1–17, gives the rules for celebrating the three main festivals of the religious year: Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Booths, which are to be observed at the central sanctuary (hence later called the three pilgrim festivals).
Beginning with verse 18 of chapter 16 there is a discussion of the appointment and character of judges, and of judicial procedures and punishments for apostasy, homicide, and other crimes; similarly, beginning with verse 14 of chapter 17 there are rules on the selection of a king and for his conduct, and the injunction that he read from “a copy of this law,” so that he may be edified and chastened. The first portion of chapter 18 deals with the office and support of priests, referred to here as “the Levitical priests…all the tribe of Levi,” not distinguishing the Aaronic priests from the lesser Levites. This is followed—after a passage inveighing against abominable cultic and divinatory practices of the nations of the land—by a promise that God will raise up prophets among the people and instructions on how to tell true from false prophets. Thus the offices of judge, king, priest, and prophet are considered in chapters 16–18.
Chapter 19 deals again with crime and punishment. It distinguishes between unintentional manslaughter and murder, setting up cities of refuge for the manslayer and ordering the murderer to be killed by the blood avengers. It also lays down the rules for witnesses and the punishment for perjury. It closes with the famous lex talionis: “Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,” which in context may spell out what is to happen to the false witness and even could be interpreted as a moderating, rather than an inhumane, precept (no more than an eye for an eye, etc.). Chapter 20 gives the rules for holy war, listing the situations that exempt men from military service (e.g., a newly married man) and distinguishing the treatment of non-Canaanite and Canaanite cities; the latter are to be utterly destroyed, yet it is forbidden to destroy fruit-bearing trees. There are also rules on holy war in 21:10–14; 23:9–14; 24:5; and 25:17–19. Chapters 20–25 contain a great variety of laws; the just treatment of women captives, sexual offenses, exclusions from the religious community, public hygiene in campgrounds, and many other things.
The last of the laws are set forth in chapter 26, dealing with the first fruits offering and tithes. At the annual offering (or soon after entering Canaan), in the central sanctuary, the worshipper is to recite a piece beginning, “A wandering Aramaean was my father,” affirming his link with the patriarchs and extolling God’s wondrous deeds on behalf of Israel. And every third year he is to set aside his tithe “to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow” and make an affirmation “before the Lord” that he has complied and avoided any ritual stain.
The final passage in chapter 26 proclaims that “this day” God has proclaimed his law, Israel has affirmed its commitment to God and his law, and God has affirmed his choice of Israel as his special, holy people, to be set up high above all the nations. This is the hortatory conclusion to chapters 12–26 and to the “second law,” or Covenant, contained therein.
The emphasis on the laws given on “this day” is continued in the supplementary chapters 27–28, which deal with Covenant ratification and renewal ceremonies, apparently a reference to an original ceremony in Moab, one in Canaan on the first day in the land, and subsequent, possibly annual, renewal ceremonies. Blessings and curses are to be pronounced from Mts. Gerizim and Ebal for respectively fulfilling or disobeying the Covenant: all good things or all bad things will befall the people, as they keep or fail to keep the Covenant. Some of the curse consequences in chapter 28, referring to siege, subjugation, and exile, are believed by some scholars to reflect late pre-exilic or exilic situations. The curse consequences fill up the bulk of these chapters and are recounted in powerful, moving language, ending with a threat to return the people to Egypt.
Concluding exhortation and traditions about the last days of Moses
Chapters 29–31 comprise the third and last address of Moses to the people of Israel. They are preceded by an introductory verse referring to “these words” as a covenant made in Moab, in addition to the one made at Horeb (Sinai). After reminding them of all that God has done for them, Moses calls on the whole people to enter into the sworn Covenant made this day that they may be his people and he may be their God, warning the secret apostate of the calamities that will befall him. Yet the possibility of a return to God and the land is held out to those who will suffer exile and persecution as punishment for their apostasy, again presumably a reflection of the exilic situation (chapter 30 verses 1–10 seems clearly to be an interpolation inspired by the actual experience of exile). This law, it is emphasized, is no recondite, remote thing up in the sky but is, rather, very close to men, “in your mouth and in your heart”; what is revealed is made plain, it is not the secret things of God. Moses sets before them the classic Deuteronomic choice: “life and good” over “death and evil.” The people are given that choice and told the consequences of loving the Lord and keeping the Covenant or of going the other way.
The final chapters are concerned with the last words and acts of Moses: directing Joshua to lead Israel after his death, writing down “this law,” calling for a sabbatical renewal ceremony of it on the Feast of Booths, ordering that it be put beside the ark of the Covenant, and uttering two poems. The first, “The Song of Moses” (chapter 32), praises the faithfulness and power of the Lord, decries the faithlessness and wickedness of Israel, and predicts the consequent divine punishment; it adds, however, that in the end the Lord will relent and will vindicate his people. The second poem, “The Blessing of Moses” (chapter 33), blesses each of the tribes of Israel, one by one, and the blessings are associated with God’s love, the law commanded by Moses, and the kingship of God over his people. There are indications in both poems of a considerably later date (after Joshua’s time, perhaps in the period of the Judges); Moses is spoken of in the third person in “The Blessing” poem.
The narrative of Deuteronomy, and thus of the Pentateuch, ends with Moses’ ascent to the top of Mt. Pisgah, his being shown the Promised Land by God, and his death there in the land of Moab, buried by God in an unknown grave. It is emphasized in the closing words that Moses was a unique prophet “whom the Lord knew face to face” and through whom the Lord wrought unique “signs and wonders” and “great and terrible deeds.” Thus end the Five Books of Moses.
Seymour Cain