Editorial note: Source collation note — paragraph 3: “name from its commencement, אלה הדברים elleh haddebarim, these are”; “law; the original is משנה התורה mishneh hattorah, a repetition”; “its running title is ספר דברים sepher debarim, the book”. source PDF page 3: “name from its commencement, הדברים אלה ELLEH HADDEBARIM these are”; “law; the original is התורה משנה mishneh hattorah a repetition”; “its running title is דברים ספר SEPHER DEBARIM the book”. Compared with CLA_DEU.PDF PDF p. 3. The source-font or layout comparison does not securely establish every letter, mark or local sequence in these passages. The flagged language readings or layout are retained; the original source pages should be consulted for these specific readings. Additional-source investigation: an automated comparison of surrounding English text located possible corresponding passages in OCR from separately digitized printed volumes. The linked scan pages are research locators; their images have not been collated for this note's flagged readings. OCR agreement does not verify Greek or Hebrew letters, diacritics, word order, or table layout. The flagged readings or layout remain uncertain. CLA_DEU.PDF, PDF page 3; Additional printed-scan page locator (OCR context only; flagged reading unverified).
PREFACE TO THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY
WE have borrowed the name of this book, as in former cases, from the Vulgate Latin, Deuteronomium, as the Vulgate has done from the Greek version of the Septuagint, Δευτερονομιον, which is a compound term literally signifying the second law, because it seems to contain a repetition of the preceding laws, from which circumstance it has been termed by the rabbins משנה mishneh, the iteration or doubling.
It appears that both these names are borrowed from Deuteronomy 17:18, where the king is commanded to write him a copy of this law; the original is משנה התורה mishneh hattorah, a repetition or doubling of the law, which the Septuagint have translated το δευτερονομιον, this second law, which we, properly enough, translate a copy of the law: but in Hebrew, like the preceding books, it takes its name from its commencement, אלה הדברים ELLEH HADDEBARIM, these are the words; and in the best rabbinical Bibles its running title is ספר דברים SEPHER DEBARIM, the book of debarim, or the book of the words. Our Saxon ancestors termed it [Anglo-Saxon] the after law.
The Book of Deuteronomy contains an account of what passed in the wilderness from the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt to the seventh day of the twelfth month of the same; making in the whole a history of the transactions of exactly five weeks, the months of the Jews being lunar. The history is continued about seven days after the death of Moses; for he began to deliver his first discourse to the people in the plains of Moab the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, Deuteronomy 1:3, and died on the first day of the twelfth month of the same year, aged 120 years.
As the Israelites were now about to enter into the promised land, and many of them had not witnessed the different transactions in the wilderness, the former generations having been all destroyed except Joshua and Caleb; to impress their hearts with a deep sense of their obligation to God, and to prepare them for the inheritance which God had prepared for them. Moses here repeats the principal occurrences of the forty years, now almost elapsed; shows them the absolute necessity of fearing, loving, and obeying God; repeats the ten commandments, and particularly explains each, and the ordinances belonging to them, adding others which he had not delivered before; confirms the whole law in a most solemn manner, with exceeding great and precious promises to them that keep it, and a denunciation of the most awful judgments against those who should break it; renews the covenant between God and the people; prophesies of things which should come to pass in the latter days; blesses each of the tribes, prophetically, with the choicest spiritual and temporal blessings; and then, having viewed the whole extent of the land, from the top of Mount Nebo or Pisgah, he yielded up the ghost, and was privately buried by God, leaving Joshua the son of Nun for his successor.
The Book of Deuteronomy and the Epistle to the Hebrews contain the best comment on the nature, design, and use of the law; the former may be considered as an evangelical commentary on the four preceding books, in which the spiritual reference and signification of the different parts of the law are given, and given in such a manner as none could give who had not a clear discovery of the glory which was to be revealed. It may be safely asserted that very few parts of the Old Testament Scriptures can be read with greater profit by the genuine Christian than the Book of Deuteronomy.
The contents of the different chapters may be thus briefly summed up:— On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, after the departure from Egypt, the Israelites being then on the east side of Jordan, in the land of the Moabites, Moses gives them a brief recapitulation of what took place in the wilderness, from their leaving Mount Horeb till they came to Kadesh; chap. 1.
Their travels from Kadesh till they come to the country of the Amorites, with the defeat of Sihon their king; chap. 2.
The war with Og, king of Bashan, with the dividing his land and that of Sihon among the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; chap. 3.
Moses exhorts them to observe the Divine precepts; threatens those who should violate them; and appoints Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan, to be the cities of refuge on the east side of Jordan; chap. 4.
Repeats the decalogue, and tells the people what effect the publication of it had on their fathers, when God spoke to them from the mount; chap. 5. Exhorts them to love God with all their heart, and promises them an abundance of good things; chap. 6.
Repeats the command to exterminate the Canaanites, and all vestiges of their idolatry; chap. 7.
Recites the many interpositions of God’s kindness which they had received during their forty years’ travel in the wilderness, and strongly exhorts them to remember those mercies, and not to forfeit a continuance of his favours by ingratitude and disobedience; chap. 8.
Shows them that they were to pass Jordan in a short time, and that God was about to bring them in, not on account of their goodness, but of his mercy; chap. 9.
Gives an account of the second tables of the law, which he made at the command of God; mentions their journey from Beeroth to Jotbath, the choosing of the Levites, and the necessity of having the heart circumcised; chap. 10.
Continues an account of God’s mighty acts in their behalf, and shows the blessings which should come on them who kept his law, and the curse on those who were disobedient. The blessings to be pronounced on Mount Gerizim, and the curses on Mount Ebal; chap. 11.
Commands them to destroy all monuments of idolatry in the land, to offer the different offerings and sacrifices, and to avoid eating of blood; chap. 12.
Ordinances against false prophets, idolatrous cities, &c.; chap. 13. Forbids their cutting themselves at funerals, recapitulates the law concerning clean and unclean animals, and exhorts them to remember the Levites; chap. 14.
Every seventh year shall be a year of release for the poor of usury; first-born, &c.; chap. 15.
Concerning the annual feasts, passover, pentecost, and tabernacles; the establishment of judges and officers; no groves to be planted near the altar of God; chap. 16.
Idolaters are to be put to death; difficult cases in equity to be referred to the superior judges; of a king and his duties; chap. 17. All divination is prohibited. The grand promise of an EXTRAORDINARY PROPHET. How false prophets are to be distinguished; chap. 18. The laws relative to the cities of refuge, and how the intentional murderer is to be treated; chap. 19.
Laws relative to the carrying on of war; who should be sent back from the army, how they are to treat the Canaanites, and how they are to commence sieges, chap. 20.
How to make expiation for an uncertain murder; marriages with captives; rights of the first-born, &c.; chap. 21.
Things lost or strayed are to be restored to their right owners; men and women must not interchange apparel; improper mixtures to be avoided; of the tokens of virginity; adulterers and adulteresses to be put to death; chap. 22.
Eunuchs, bastards, Moabites, and Ammonites, are not to be permitted to enter into the congregation of the Lord. Harlots not to be tolerated; chap. 23.
Laws relative to divorce; privileges of the newly-married man: concerning pledges, wages, gleanings, &c.; chap. 24.
More than forty stripes shall not be given. If a man die childless, his brother shall take his wife. Of weights, measures, &c.; chap. 25. Different ceremonies to be used in offering the first-fruits; tithes. Of full self-consecration to God; chap. 26.
The words of the law to be written on stones, and to be set up on Mount Ebal. The tribes which stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the obedient, and those which should stand on Mount Ebal to curse the disobedient. Who they are that are to be cursed; chap. 27.
The blessings of those who are faithful; curses against the disobedient; chap. 28.
A recital of the covenant of God, made not only with them, but for their posterity; chap. 29.
Promises of pardon to the penitent; good and evil, life and death, are set before them; chap. 30.
Moses, being now 120 years old, delivers a copy of the law which he had written into the hands of the priests, to be laid up in the ark, and to be publicly read every seventh year; a charge is given to Joshua; chap. 31. The prophetical and historical song of Moses: he is commanded to go up to Mount Nebo that he may see the promised land; chap. 32. The prophetical blessing of the twelve tribes. The indescribable happiness of Israel; chap. 33.
Moses views the promised land from the top of Mount Nebo, dies, and is privately buried by the Lord. The Israelites mourn for him thirty days. Joshua takes command of the people. The character of Moses; chap. 34. At the close of this book I have added a number of useful TABLES, such as no edition of the Bible ever could boast, viz.:
Table I. A perpetual table, showing through the course of 13 lunar cycles (which embrace every possible variation) the day of the week with which the Jewish year begins, and on which the passover is held; as also the lengths of the months Marchesvan and Cisleu. Table II. Containing the whole variations in the reading of the Pareshioth or sections of the law for every year of the Jewish cycle of 247 years.
Table III. To find, with the help of Table IV., the day of the week upon which any Jewish new moon or festival happens.
Table IV. To determine upon what day of the week any Jewish month commences for any given year; as also the day of the week upon which the Jews celebrate their principal fasts and festivals. Table V. Containing the order of reading the Pareshioth and Haphtaroth for 90 Jewish years, i.e., from A. M. 5572 to A. M. 5661, both inclusive, connected with the corresponding dates in the CHRISTIAN ERA, according to the Gregorian or new style. Table VI. Containing the year of the Jewish lunar cycle, the golden number, the first day of the Jewish pass over, Easter Sunday, and the commencement of each Jewish year according to the Gregorian Calendar, A. D. 1812 to A. D. 1900, both inclusive. All concluded with an explanation of the preceding tables. To them succeeds A Chronology of the Pentateuch, with the Book of Joshua; or a Systematic Arrangement of Events from the creation of ADAM, A. M. 1, to the birth of Peleg, A. M. 1757, and thence to the death of Joshua, A. M. 2561. This chronology includes two tables, viz.: Table I. The birth and death of all the patriarchs, from Adam, A. M. 1, to Rhea, son of Peleg, A. M. 1787. Table II. A chronology of ancient kingdoms synchronized with the sacred history, from A. M. 1757, B. C. 2247, to A. M. 2561, B. C. 1443. The whole so calculated as to prevent the necessity of having recourse to systems of chronology for historic facts in anywise connected with those mentioned in the SACRED WRITINGS.
The great utility of these tables will, I think, be at once evident to every Biblical critic, chronologist, and antiquary; and for the immense labour employed in their construction the editor, no doubt, will have their hearty thanks.
ADAM CLARKE.
THE FIFTH BOOK OF MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY
-Year before the common Year of Christ, 1451
-Julian Period, 3263.
-Cycle of the Sun, 10.
-Dominical Letter, B
-Cycle of the Moon, 10.
-Indiction, 15.
-Creation from Tisri or September, 2553.
Joseph Benson
Argument
BEN_VOL1.PDF, source PDF p. 709
Editorial note: Source collation note — paragraph 4: “by the greek interpreters δευτερονομιον, deuteronomy, (from δευτερος νομος,) a second law, or”. source PDF page 709: “by the Greek interpreters δευτερονομιον (from δευτερος νομος a second law, or”. Compared with BEN_VOL1.PDF PDF p. 709. The source-font or layout comparison does not securely establish every letter, mark or local sequence in these passages. The flagged language readings or layout are retained; the original source pages should be consulted for these specific readings. Additional-source investigation: an automated comparison of surrounding English text located possible corresponding passages in OCR from separately digitized printed volumes. The linked scan pages are research locators; their images have not been collated for this note's flagged readings. OCR agreement does not verify Greek or Hebrew letters, diacritics, word order, or table layout. The flagged readings or layout remain uncertain. BEN_VOL1.PDF, PDF page 709; Additional printed-scan page locator (OCR context only; flagged reading unverified).
THE FIFTH BOOK OF MOSES, CALLED
DEUTERONOMY.
ARGUMENT.
THIS last book of Moses, consisting, in a great measure, of a recapitulation of former laws, is therefore called by the Greek interpreters δευτερονομιον, DEUTERONOMY, (from δευτερος νομος,) a second law, or a second edition of the law, because it is a repetition of many of the laws, as well as of much of the history contained in the three foregoing books. They to whom the first law was given were all dead, and a new generation was sprung up, to whom God would have his laws repeated by Moses himself, that they might make a deeper impression upon them. However, the laws contained here are not to be considered as bare repetitions. They are attended with several additions, explications, and enlargements; and especially are enforced by the strongest and most pathetic motives to obedience. Moses here, with more than human energy, opens to the Israelites the true spirit and design of all these laws; shows that true peace and happiness would most certainly arise from observing them; and, on the contrary, that disquiet and misery would as certainly be the consequence of departing from them to follow their own imaginations. In the strongest and most magnificent terms he sets forth the glorious privilege and happiness of being under such a divine conduct as Israel was under; he seems to rise above himself in speaking of it; and to manifest that he wants words sufficiently expressive to declare what he feels on this subject. He is particularly concerned to make the people conceive of GOD as a pure, invisible Spirit, of whom there neither is nor can be any manner of likeness. He labours to raise their thoughts of the great JEHOVAH far above all that human error had conceived among the nations, above all the objects of sense and sight, whether on the earth, in the waters, or in the heavens, those glorious bodies, the sun, the moon, the stars, even all the host of heaven, then the great objects of worship among mankind, being only his creatures and servants to execute his commands, and do his pleasure. The book begins with a brief rehearsal of the most remarkable events that had befallen them since they came from mount Sinai. In the fourth chapter begins a pathetic exhortation to obedience: from the twelfth to the twenty-seventh are repeated many particular laws, enforced in the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth, with promises and threatenings, which are formed into a covenant in the twenty-ninth and thirtieth chapters. Care is taken, chap. 31., to perpetuate the remembrance of these things among them, particularly by a song, chap. 32., concluded with a blessing, chap. 33. Through the whole of this book we may discern Moses to speak as a person under the immediate influence of a divine inspiration, and toward the conclusion of it as evidently guided by a prophetic spirit, and having his mind enlightened to discern the state and condition of the Israelites in ages to come. What he utters on this occasion is with all the majesty and confidence of one who had a divine commission, and knew with certainty that what he foretold, however remote the time, would surely come to pass: and, accordingly, the greater part of these predictions we see accomplished in the world at this present time. Upon the whole, such is this book of Deuteronomy, so different from the writings of every other lawgiver, so evidently treating the subjects of it with more than human understanding, and delivering them with more than human majesty, that whoever comes to the reading of it with an unprejudiced mind will feel, while he is reading, that it is indeed divine.
Joseph Sutcliffe
The Fifth Book of Moses, Called Deuteronomy.
SUT_VOL1.PDF, source PDF p. 459
Editorial note: Additional printed-edition collation — Sutcliffe, vol. 1 (1834): The printed Deuteronomy introduction confirms אלה הדברים and ספר דברים, as well as Νομος and Δευτερος. The current word order and base letter readings are retained. SUT_VOL1.PDF, PDF page 459; Sutcliffe, printed Commentary, vol. 1 (1834), p. 160.
THE FIFTH BOOK OF MOSES,
CALLED DEUTERONOMY.
The title of this Book in the Hebrew is, אלה הדברים ELLEH HA-DEBAREEM, these are the words; or, ספר דברים SEPHER DEBAREEM, the book of the words. Some of the Jews called it, the Misne, or repetition of the law; others, the Book of Admonition. But the Seventy Jews who translated the Pentateuch into Greek, called it Deuteronomy, from Νομος Nomos the law, and Δευτερος Deuteros a second time. Moses, being now one hundred and twenty years of age, possessing recollection and all his faculties unimpaired, employed the last five weeks of his life in repeating the law to the new generation, and enriched it with glosses, improvements, and new revelations. The divine authenticity of this book is fully allowed by many quotations in the New Testament. Here our Saviour found a threefold weapon to repel the tempter. The last chapter is supposed to have been written by Joshua, or under his sanction. Moses commences by a rehearsal of events since the Exodus from Egypt; he discovers throughout the sublime spirit of a divine lawgiver and preacher, and closes his work with luminous prophecies of future times.
Daniel Whedon
Introduction.
WHD_CO02.PDF, source PDF p. 558
Editorial note: Source collation note — paragraph 4: “first two hebrew words אלה הדברים, elleh hadd’bharim”. source PDF page 558: “first two Hebrew words הדברים אלה Elleh Hadd’bharim. Contents.”. Compared with WHD_CO02.PDF PDF p. 558. The source-font or layout comparison does not securely establish every letter, mark or local sequence in these passages. The flagged language readings or layout are retained; the original source pages should be consulted for these specific readings. Additional-source investigation: an automated comparison of surrounding English text located possible corresponding passages in OCR from separately digitized printed volumes. The linked scan pages are research locators; their images have not been collated for this note's flagged readings. OCR agreement does not verify Greek or Hebrew letters, diacritics, word order, or table layout. The flagged readings or layout remain uncertain. WHD_CO02.PDF, PDF page 558; Additional printed-scan page locator (OCR context only; flagged reading unverified).
DEUTERONOMY
INTRODUCTION.
Title.
1. The name of this book (Deuteronomy, in our English Bible) is derived from the Greek title in the Septuagint Version, and corresponds to one that was sometimes employed by the Jews, Mishneh Hattorah — Repetition of the Law. By some of the rabbinical writers it was called the Book of Reproofs. In the Hebrew Bible the title consists of the first two Hebrew words אלה הדברים, Elleh Hadd’bharim.
Contents.
2. The book consists of three discourses purporting to have been delivered to the Israelites by Moses in the fortieth year after they left Egypt, and just before his death. In addition to these three discourses are two poems, namely, the Song of Moses and The Blessings of the Tribes. Then there is a supplementary chapter giving an account of the great Lawgiver’s death.
(1.) The first discourse extends from Deuteronomy 1:6, to Deuteronomy 4:40. In this discourse Moses recounts some of the prominent events that have occurred since the departure from Egypt. The contests of the Hebrews with their enemies, and the defeat of the latter, are related. The long years of the Wandering are stated to have been the result of the faintheartedness and rebellion of their fathers. Moses reminds his hearers that Jehovah was angry with him on their account; and that though he was to be permitted to look over the Promised Land in its length and its breadth, he would not be privileged to set foot upon its soil. He further exhorts the people to obedience, and especially warns them against idolatry, which had already so signally brought the divine displeasure upon them, and which he tells them will bring sorer punishments in the future. At the close of this first division is a statement of the selection of three cities of refuge on the east of the Jordan. Deuteronomy 4:41-43.
(2.) The second discourse may be considered as extending from Deuteronomy 4:44, inclusive, to Deuteronomy 26:19. It is announced as “The Law which Moses set before the children of Israel.” The discourse proper opens with chap. 5. Moses commences with a repetition of the Law — “the Ten Words” which had been spoken by Jehovah himself. This Law forms the basis of the whole code — the entire body of the legislation in accordance with which a holy nation, a peculiar people, would be recognised. Moses then gives a more detailed exposition of the first table of the law. This part extends from Deuteronomy 5:22, to Deuteronomy 11:32.
The second part of this second discourse is included in Deuteronomy 12:1, to Deuteronomy 26:19. This begins with, “These are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do in the land which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess,” and closes with an impressive exhortation to the people that they should keep these commandments so that they should become a holy people and exalted above the nations. This second part of the discourse is called by some of the critics the Deuteronomic code. “It is not a mere supplement to the first legislation. It is an independent reproduction of its substance, sometimes merely repeating the older laws, but at other times extending or modifying them.” — W. ROBERTSON SMITHE, Old Testament in the Jewish Church. We find in this part an exposition and enforcement of the principal statutes. The enactments pertaining to religious observances are in the main found in the section extending from Deuteronomy 12:1, to Deuteronomy 16:17. Then follow directions in reference to civil administration. This section is from Deuteronomy 16:18, to Deuteronomy 21:23. Then come the regulations for the social life of the people. This section extends from Deuteronomy 22:1, to Deuteronomy 26:19.
(3.) The third discourse includes chaps. 27-30. As if to make this discourse more formal and impressive the elders of Israel are represented as associated with Moses while he is delivering it. It commences with, “And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day,” (Deuteronomy 27:1.) Then follow directions in reference to the erection of stones on Mount Ebal, on which, when the people shall have entered into the possession of the land, were to be written “all the words of this law.” The people are also commanded to build an altar for the presentation of offerings. Special directions are also given for the imposing ceremony to be observed when the tribes stationed on Gerizim are to pronounce blessings, and the tribes stationed on Ebal, curses; and all the people are to respond, “Amen.” The twenty-eighth chapter has an elaborate statement of blessings in case of obedience, and curses in case of disobedience. The twenty-ninth and thirtieth chapters constitute the closing part of this discourse. This part is characterized as the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb, (xxix, 1.) Moses, after referring to God’s former mercies, calls upon the people to pledge themselves anew and enter into a covenant with Jehovah their God. He again pronounces the sentence of rejection in case of apostasy, but promises restoration on repentance; and in concluding this address and his announcement of the divine legislation he solemnly sets before them blessing and cursing. This discourse has sometimes been called “The Blessing and the Curse.”
The last division of the book proper includes chaps. 31-33. This gives an account of the final arrangement which Moses makes with the people, including the delivery of the law to the custody of “the priests, the sons of Levi,” with the requirement that every seven years the law should be read. The appointment of Joshua as successor to Moses is told. Then follow those two incomparable poems, The Song of Moses and The Blessing of the Tribes.
The supplementary chapter (34) gives an account of the death and burial of Moses.
Views of Recent Critics as to the Authorship.
3. In treating of the question of authorship it seems proper to present some of the views of modern criticism as to the composition of the entire Pentateuch. But it is neither possible nor desirable to give at length the diverse theories of the critics, destructive and reconstructive, who have published the results of their investigations, from Astruc, who wrote about the middle of the last century, to Kuenen and W. Robertson Smith. The hypotheses of a few will suffice.
Astruc, in a work published in 1753, holds that Moses had before him two principal documents, each characterized by the word that is used for God. Besides these two, which are called Elohistic and Jehovistic, respectively, Moses employed ten others for the earlier part of his work. Vater, in 1815, and Hartmann, in 1818, carried the views of Astruc still further, and maintained that the Pentateuch was made up of a number of fragments put together without much reference to their connexion. Both of these critics opposed the documentary hypothesis so far as it was in the way of their “hypothesis of fragments.” Vater’s view was that a collection of laws in the time of David and Solomon formed the basis of the work. This, in his opinion, was the book found in the reign of Josiah; and its fragments were incorporated in Deuteronomy. The rest of the Pentateuch was composed of fragments of narrative and legislation written at various times. The whole was collected and put in its present shape between the time of Josiah and the exile. Hartmann assigns the date of the Pentateuch as late as the exile. This “fragmentary hypothesis” had to give way to the supplementary hypothesis, which was adopted with modifications by De Wette, Bleek, Hupfeld, Knobel, Kurtz. Though they agree in the general view, they differ greatly in the details. Delitzsch agreed with these critics in admitting that there were distinct authors of the earlier portions of the Pentateuch, but he maintained that Deuteronomy is the work of Moses. In the preface which he wrote to CURTISS’S Levitical Priests, (pp. 8, 9,) 1877, he says: “In my commentary on Genesis, up to the last edition, I have defended the authenticity of Deuteronomy, and even yet it appears to me there are weighty reasons for this, such as the psychological truth of the testamentary addresses, the freshness and richness of the Egyptian reminiscences, the freedom with which the speaker reproduces historical incidents, laws, and, above all, the decalogue, a freedom which is scarcely conceivable except on the supposition that the speaker was the lawgiver himself. I feel even yet compelled to hold, when I consider Deuteronomy 31:9, that Deuteronomy belongs essentially to those portions of the Pentateuch which were written by Moses himself. For if this testimony were fictitious, Deuteronomy would be a far more immoral fabrication than the pseudo-decretals of Isidore.”
It is proper to state that Delitzsch has announced his conviction “that the processes which in their origin and progress have resulted in the final form of the Torah, as we now possess it, continued into the post-exile period, and perhaps had not ceased their activity even at the time of the formation of the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint translation.” — Zeitschrift fur Kirchliche Wissenschaft, 1880.
Ewald adopted a theory which is substantially as follows: The early history of the Israelites as embodied in the Pentateuch and Joshua he designates as the great Book of Origins. The oldest historical work is the Book of the Wars of Jehovah. Of this, only a few fragments exist. Then followed the biography of Moses. Only a small portion of this has been preserved. The third and fourth documents are more full. These are the Book of the Covenant, which was written in the time of Samson, and the Book of Origins, which was written by a priest in the time of Solomon. Then there was a third historian of the primitive times, or the first prophetic narrator of the northern kingdom, in the days of Elijah or Joel. The sixth document was by the fourth historian of the primitive times, or the second prophetic narrator, who lived in the eighth century before Christ. Then there is a fifth historian, or third prophetic narrator, who wrote not long after Joel, who collected the works of his predecessors. ‘“The real purpose of the history, both in its prophetical and in its legal aspects, began now to be discerned. Some steps were taken in this direction by an unknown writer at the beginning of the seventh century before Christ, and then in a far more comprehensive manner by the Deuteronomist who flourished in the time of Manasseh and lived in Egypt. In the time of Jeremiah appeared the poet who wrote the blessing of Moses as it appears in Deuteronomy. A somewhat later editor incorporated the originally independent work of the Deuteronomist and the lesser additions of his two colleagues with the history as left by the fifth narrator, and thus the whole was finally completed.” — SMITH’S Dictionary of the Bible, article “Pentateuch.” There is a theory of the composition of the Pentateuch known to critics as the Graf hypothesis. Graf’s theory is stated in his work entitled The Historical Books of the Old Testament, two Historico-Critical Examinations, by K.H. Graf, Doctor Theology and Philosophy, Professor in the Royal University of Meissen. He makes three divisions of the Pentateuch. The first is the Elohistic and Jehovistic portion, which includes nearly all that is narrative from Genesis to the end of Numbers, and also the legislation as given in Exodus 13, 20-23, and 34. He makes Deuteronomy the second division. The third division, in his view, is what is called the Levitical legislation, which includes the legislative portions of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, except what he places in the first division. The last revision, he thinks, took place after the return from exile. But Graf modified his view almost as soon as it was published. For he found reason to believe that what is called the Elohistic element and the Levitical are essentially one, and instead of being the earliest they are the latest. Kuenen, in a lecture on the Five Books of Moses, (pp. 13, 14,) states his views of their origin. According to him the first edition of the Pentateuch was written about 750 B.C., by a prophet. The second edition, or revision, was much enlarged, and probably written 620 B.C., by a prophet of priestly descent. The third, which is essentially the same that we possess, was written 450 B.C., by a priest. Kuenen professes to be able to give the number of verses that are in each edition. The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua have, in round numbers, two hundred and ten verses. In the first edition there were eighty; in the second, one hundred and twenty, and in the third two hundred and ten. He holds that Moses wrote nothing of the Pentateuch but an abbreviated form of the Ten Commandments. In his opinion Deuteronomy was not written until the reign of Josiah, about 425 B.C., perhaps by Hilkiah, and, though ascribed to Moses, he was in no sense the author of it. “At a time when notions about literary property were yet in their infancy an action of this kind was not regarded as unlawful. Men used to perpetrate such fictions as these without any qualms of conscience.” — KUENEN’S Religion of Israel, vol. ii, pp. 18, 19. Professor W. Robertson Smith, while he agrees with most of the theories of such critics as Graf and Kuenen, yet claims that he upholds the canonicity and inspiration of the Book of Deuteronomy as strenuously as his most determined opponents. He does not accept the Mosaic authorship, but he does not adopt the theory of Kuenen that Deuteronomy is a forgery. “The comparison of Deuteronomy 18 with 2 Kings 23:8, seq., effectually disproves the idea of some critics, that the Deuteronomic code was a forgery of the temple priests or of their head, the high priest Hilkiah.” — Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 362. He holds that the Pentateuch is a history incorporating at least three bodies of law, and that the history does not profess to be written by Moses. He further states that the Pentateuch was written in Canaan, and if it is all by one hand, was not completed till the period of the kings. The three groups of laws, or ritual ordinances, that it embodies are: (1.) The collection. Exodus 21-23. This he calls the first legislation. (2.) The law of Deuteronomy. What is called the Deuteronomic code is embraced in chaps. 12-26. This is not a mere supplement to the first legislation, but an independent reproduction of its substance, sometimes merely repeating the older laws, at other times extending or modifying them. (3.) The Levitical legislation. These ordinances are found in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. The first two legislations deal with Israel as a nation, the third with Israel as a Church. It will be seen that the critics who reject the view which ascribes the authorship of Deuteronomy to Moses are at variance among themselves in their theories; but they generally agree that it is the Book of the Law which Hilkiah the high priest found in the house of the Lord during the reign of Josiah. 2 Kings 22:8.
Reasons for Assigning the Authorship to Moses.
4. (1.) The writer assumes to be Moses. Let us look at different passages in Deuteronomy where Moses is spoken of, or speaks, as the author: Moses began to declare this law, (Deuteronomy 1:5.) And I spake unto you, saying, (Deuteronomy 1:9.)
I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, (Deuteronomy 1:20.)
The Lord was angry with me for your sake, (Deuteronomy 1:37.) And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, (Deuteronomy 31:9.)
And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, (Deuteronomy 31:24-26.)
And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, (Deuteronomy 32:44.)
(2.) The testimony which we find in the New Testament to the Mosaic authorship ought, we think, to be convincing.
There can be no question that at the time of Christ, Deuteronomy was accepted as the work of Moses.
In the account of the temptation given by Matthew, (chap. 4,) Jesus is represented as replying three times “It is written,” and the words with which he answers the tempter are quoted from Deuteronomy. The tempter says, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” Matthew 4:3.
Jesus replies, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” See Deuteronomy 7:3. Again the tempter says, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down.” Matthew 4:6.
And again Jesus replies, “It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Deuteronomy 6:16.
Once more the tempter says, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Matthew 4:9.
Jesus replies to the third temptation, “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Deuteronomy 6:13. In Mark 12:29, where Jesus replied to the inquiry of the scribe, “Which is the first commandment of all?” he quotes from Deuteronomy 6:4, 5, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
The same quotation is found in Matthew 22:37, and in Luke 10. 27. In that great discourse which John has recorded, Jesus, in concluding, says, “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.” John 5:46.
Can there be any question that the reference is to what is said by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken?”
Again, in Luke 24:27, where it reads, “Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself,” is there not an evident reference to the same passage in Deuteronomy?
When the Pharisees inquired of Jesus, “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement?” he replied, “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives.” Matthew 19:7, 8. The reference to Moses is to Deuteronomy 24:1, “Let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.” In Mark 10:2 the Pharisees come to Jesus with a question of divorce, and refer to the law of Moses as found in Deuteronomy 24:1. Jesus says, “For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.” The Saviour speaks of Moses as a man and as an author.
When others, in the New Testament, quote from Deuteronomy, they ascribe it to Moses. Peter, in Acts 3:22, says, “For Moses truly said unto the fathers,” and then quotes from Deuteronomy 18:15. Stephen, in Acts 7:37, says, “This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel,” and then quotes the same passage.
Paul, in Romans 10:5, says, “Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law.” In the following verse there is a manifest reference to Deuteronomy 30:11-14. In Romans 10:19, Paul writes, “First Moses saith,” and then quotes from Deuteronomy 32:21. “But in truth the work speaks for itself. No imitator could have written in such a strain. We scarcely need the express testimony of the work to its own authorship. But having it, we find all the internal evidence conspiring to show that it came from Moses. Those magnificent discourses, the grand roll of which can be heard and felt even in a translation, came warm from the heart and fresh from the lips of Israel’s lawgiver. They are the outpourings of a solicitude which is nothing less than parental. It is the father uttering his dying advice to his children no less than the prophet counselling and admonishing his people. What book can vie with it either in majesty or in tenderness? What words ever bore more surely the stamp of genuineness? If Deuteronomy be only the production of some timorous reformer, who, conscious of his own weakness tried to borrow dignity and weight from the name of Moses, then assuredly all arguments drawn from internal evidence for the composition of any work are utterly useless. “In spite, therefore, of the dogmatism of modern critics, we declare unhesitatingly for the Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy.” — PEROWNE, J.J.S., in SMITH’S Dictionary of the Bible, article “Pentateuch.” The Purpose of the Book.
5. “The book of Deuteronomy was intended for a people’s handbook of Hebrew law. Unlike the bulk of the three preceding books, it is wholly popular: it is not meant for use among the learned only, whether priests or laymen. Once every seven years during the feast of tabernacles it was ordered to be read before the assembled people, that every one might know what was to be done and what was not to be done. Most solemn words of warning and entreaty were added, that the Hebrews might see it was no earthly king to whom their allegiance was due, but the Judge of all the earth, who would demand from them a sharp account for treason done to his greatness. A repetition of the law for general use and in popular language was a boon to the nation at large. But it was more. It was a monument to all ages of the divine leadings of the lawgiver. Handbooks of this nature are not uncommon now, but they were so uncommon then, and for thousands of years afterward, that the fifth book of Moses is a proof that he was guided to the task by more than human sagacity and foresight. The idea of such a blessing to a nation stamps the man in whose mind it first woke into life as standing head and shoulders above his fellows. Many a century had to pass away before the great lawyers of the Roman Empire bethought themselves of drawing up even a scientific digest of the imperial law. A people’s edition was a step far beyond their imagination. But Moses took that step three thousand years ago and more.” — Deuteronomy the People’s Book, p. 278.
“In this book Moses no longer comes before us as an historian or a legislator; but he appears as a grand orator, a sublime poet, a heart-stirring preacher, a divinely inspired prophet of God. After a life of one hundred and twenty years he is now about to depart and be with God. This magnificent prophecy is his farewell voice to the world. It shows how true the witness of those who then beheld him is, that ‘his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.’ From the heights of Pisgah he surveyed the hills and valleys, the lakes and rivers of Palestine; and his inner eye ranged over the widespread scenery of coming events. The map of the future was unrolled before him; he prophesied of Israel’s destinies even till the coming of Christ.
“Thus he was a type and figure of the Levitical law. He was a specimen of all the holy men who lived and died under it. He did not cross the confines of the temporal Canaan; but he was about to pass into the regions of the
Outline of Contents.
WHD_CO02.PDF, source PDF p. 568
Editorial note: The supplied edition prints “Deuteronomy 24:19-23” here (WHD_CO02.PDF, physical PDF page 569). The surrounding discussion of the laws about leaving produce for the stranger, fatherless, and widow corresponds to Deuteronomy 24:19–22 in the King James Version. The origin of the printed numbering is not established here; the historical wording is retained. WHD_CO02.PDF, PDF page 569.
spiritual antitype; and he cheers us with a glorious vision of a blessed death and of the land beyond it. We lose sight of Moses on the specular height of Pisgah; but the next thing we hear of him is that he is brought to be a witness and partaker of Christ’s glory on the mount of transfiguration.” — WORDSWORTH, Introduction to Deuteronomy, p. 203.
OUTLINE OF CONTENTS.
Introductory, Deuteronomy 1:1-5. From Horeb to Kadesh, Deuteronomy 1:6-46. From Kadesh to the Territory of the Amorites, Deuteronomy 2:1-23. Conquest of the Amorites, Deuteronomy 2:24-37. Conquest of the Kingdom of Og; A View of the Land, Deuteronomy 3:1-11. Division of the Land Conquered, Deuteronomy 3:12-20. Appointment of Joshua as the Successor of Moses, Deuteronomy 3:21-29. The People Exhorted to Faithfully Observe the Law, Deuteronomy 4:1-40. Idolatry Specially Forbidden, Deuteronomy 4:15-24. Dispersion among the Heathen Threatened in case of Disobedience, Deuteronomy 4:25-28. Choice of Three Cities of Refuge East of the Jordan, Deuteronomy 4:41-43. Repetition and Exposition of the Law, Deuteronomy 5:1-vi, 26. Command to Destroy the Seven Canaanitish Nations, Deuteronomy 7:1-26. Review of Jehovah’s Merciful Dealings with the People, Deuteronomy 8:1-10. Warning against Forgetfulness of Him, Deuteronomy 8:11-20. Order to Prepare to Pass the Jordan — Reminder of Former Transgressions, Deuteronomy 9:1-29. Renewal of the Stone Tables containing the Ten Commands, Deuteronomy 10:1-4. They are Deposited in the Ark of the Covenant, Deuteronomy 10:5. Death of Aaron Noticed, Deuteronomy 10:6, 7. Separation of the Tribe of Levi, Deuteronomy 10:8, 9. Exhortation to Obedience and Love, Deuteronomy 10:12-22. Charge to Keep God’s Statutes, Deuteronomy 11:1-9. Description of the Land of Promise, Deuteronomy 11:10-12. Prosperity Promised on Condition of Obedience to God, Deuteronomy 11:13-32. Offerings to be Made at the Place which the Lord shall Choose, Deuteronomy 12:1-32. The Punishment of Those who Enticed the People to Idolatry,
Adam Clarke
Preface to the Book of Deuteronomy
CLA_DEU.PDF, source PDF p. 3
Editorial note: Source collation note — paragraph 3: “name from its commencement, אלה הדברים elleh haddebarim, these are”; “law; the original is משנה התורה mishneh hattorah, a repetition”; “its running title is ספר דברים sepher debarim, the book”. source PDF page 3: “name from its commencement, הדברים אלה ELLEH HADDEBARIM these are”; “law; the original is התורה משנה mishneh hattorah a repetition”; “its running title is דברים ספר SEPHER DEBARIM the book”. Compared with CLA_DEU.PDF PDF p. 3. The source-font or layout comparison does not securely establish every letter, mark or local sequence in these passages. The flagged language readings or layout are retained; the original source pages should be consulted for these specific readings. Additional-source investigation: an automated comparison of surrounding English text located possible corresponding passages in OCR from separately digitized printed volumes. The linked scan pages are research locators; their images have not been collated for this note's flagged readings. OCR agreement does not verify Greek or Hebrew letters, diacritics, word order, or table layout. The flagged readings or layout remain uncertain. CLA_DEU.PDF, PDF page 3; Additional printed-scan page locator (OCR context only; flagged reading unverified).
PREFACE TO THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY
WE have borrowed the name of this book, as in former cases, from the Vulgate Latin, Deuteronomium, as the Vulgate has done from the Greek version of the Septuagint, Δευτερονομιον, which is a compound term literally signifying the second law, because it seems to contain a repetition of the preceding laws, from which circumstance it has been termed by the rabbins משנה mishneh, the iteration or doubling.
It appears that both these names are borrowed from Deuteronomy 17:18, where the king is commanded to write him a copy of this law; the original is משנה התורה mishneh hattorah, a repetition or doubling of the law, which the Septuagint have translated το δευτερονομιον, this second law, which we, properly enough, translate a copy of the law: but in Hebrew, like the preceding books, it takes its name from its commencement, אלה הדברים ELLEH HADDEBARIM, these are the words; and in the best rabbinical Bibles its running title is ספר דברים SEPHER DEBARIM, the book of debarim, or the book of the words. Our Saxon ancestors termed it [Anglo-Saxon] the after law.
The Book of Deuteronomy contains an account of what passed in the wilderness from the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt to the seventh day of the twelfth month of the same; making in the whole a history of the transactions of exactly five weeks, the months of the Jews being lunar. The history is continued about seven days after the death of Moses; for he began to deliver his first discourse to the people in the plains of Moab the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, Deuteronomy 1:3, and died on the first day of the twelfth month of the same year, aged 120 years.
As the Israelites were now about to enter into the promised land, and many of them had not witnessed the different transactions in the wilderness, the former generations having been all destroyed except Joshua and Caleb; to impress their hearts with a deep sense of their obligation to God, and to prepare them for the inheritance which God had prepared for them. Moses here repeats the principal occurrences of the forty years, now almost elapsed; shows them the absolute necessity of fearing, loving, and obeying God; repeats the ten commandments, and particularly explains each, and the ordinances belonging to them, adding others which he had not delivered before; confirms the whole law in a most solemn manner, with exceeding great and precious promises to them that keep it, and a denunciation of the most awful judgments against those who should break it; renews the covenant between God and the people; prophesies of things which should come to pass in the latter days; blesses each of the tribes, prophetically, with the choicest spiritual and temporal blessings; and then, having viewed the whole extent of the land, from the top of Mount Nebo or Pisgah, he yielded up the ghost, and was privately buried by God, leaving Joshua the son of Nun for his successor.
The Book of Deuteronomy and the Epistle to the Hebrews contain the best comment on the nature, design, and use of the law; the former may be considered as an evangelical commentary on the four preceding books, in which the spiritual reference and signification of the different parts of the law are given, and given in such a manner as none could give who had not a clear discovery of the glory which was to be revealed. It may be safely asserted that very few parts of the Old Testament Scriptures can be read with greater profit by the genuine Christian than the Book of Deuteronomy.
The contents of the different chapters may be thus briefly summed up:— On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, after the departure from Egypt, the Israelites being then on the east side of Jordan, in the land of the Moabites, Moses gives them a brief recapitulation of what took place in the wilderness, from their leaving Mount Horeb till they came to Kadesh; chap. 1.
Their travels from Kadesh till they come to the country of the Amorites, with the defeat of Sihon their king; chap. 2.
The war with Og, king of Bashan, with the dividing his land and that of Sihon among the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh; chap. 3.
Moses exhorts them to observe the Divine precepts; threatens those who should violate them; and appoints Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan, to be the cities of refuge on the east side of Jordan; chap. 4.
Repeats the decalogue, and tells the people what effect the publication of it had on their fathers, when God spoke to them from the mount; chap. 5. Exhorts them to love God with all their heart, and promises them an abundance of good things; chap. 6.
Repeats the command to exterminate the Canaanites, and all vestiges of their idolatry; chap. 7.
Recites the many interpositions of God’s kindness which they had received during their forty years’ travel in the wilderness, and strongly exhorts them to remember those mercies, and not to forfeit a continuance of his favours by ingratitude and disobedience; chap. 8.
Shows them that they were to pass Jordan in a short time, and that God was about to bring them in, not on account of their goodness, but of his mercy; chap. 9.
Gives an account of the second tables of the law, which he made at the command of God; mentions their journey from Beeroth to Jotbath, the choosing of the Levites, and the necessity of having the heart circumcised; chap. 10.
Continues an account of God’s mighty acts in their behalf, and shows the blessings which should come on them who kept his law, and the curse on those who were disobedient. The blessings to be pronounced on Mount Gerizim, and the curses on Mount Ebal; chap. 11.
Commands them to destroy all monuments of idolatry in the land, to offer the different offerings and sacrifices, and to avoid eating of blood; chap. 12.
Ordinances against false prophets, idolatrous cities, &c.; chap. 13. Forbids their cutting themselves at funerals, recapitulates the law concerning clean and unclean animals, and exhorts them to remember the Levites; chap. 14.
Every seventh year shall be a year of release for the poor of usury; first-born, &c.; chap. 15.
Concerning the annual feasts, passover, pentecost, and tabernacles; the establishment of judges and officers; no groves to be planted near the altar of God; chap. 16.
Idolaters are to be put to death; difficult cases in equity to be referred to the superior judges; of a king and his duties; chap. 17. All divination is prohibited. The grand promise of an EXTRAORDINARY PROPHET. How false prophets are to be distinguished; chap. 18. The laws relative to the cities of refuge, and how the intentional murderer is to be treated; chap. 19.
Laws relative to the carrying on of war; who should be sent back from the army, how they are to treat the Canaanites, and how they are to commence sieges, chap. 20.
How to make expiation for an uncertain murder; marriages with captives; rights of the first-born, &c.; chap. 21.
Things lost or strayed are to be restored to their right owners; men and women must not interchange apparel; improper mixtures to be avoided; of the tokens of virginity; adulterers and adulteresses to be put to death; chap. 22.
Eunuchs, bastards, Moabites, and Ammonites, are not to be permitted to enter into the congregation of the Lord. Harlots not to be tolerated; chap. 23.
Laws relative to divorce; privileges of the newly-married man: concerning pledges, wages, gleanings, &c.; chap. 24.
More than forty stripes shall not be given. If a man die childless, his brother shall take his wife. Of weights, measures, &c.; chap. 25. Different ceremonies to be used in offering the first-fruits; tithes. Of full self-consecration to God; chap. 26.
The words of the law to be written on stones, and to be set up on Mount Ebal. The tribes which stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the obedient, and those which should stand on Mount Ebal to curse the disobedient. Who they are that are to be cursed; chap. 27.
The blessings of those who are faithful; curses against the disobedient; chap. 28.
A recital of the covenant of God, made not only with them, but for their posterity; chap. 29.
Promises of pardon to the penitent; good and evil, life and death, are set before them; chap. 30.
Moses, being now 120 years old, delivers a copy of the law which he had written into the hands of the priests, to be laid up in the ark, and to be publicly read every seventh year; a charge is given to Joshua; chap. 31. The prophetical and historical song of Moses: he is commanded to go up to Mount Nebo that he may see the promised land; chap. 32. The prophetical blessing of the twelve tribes. The indescribable happiness of Israel; chap. 33.
Moses views the promised land from the top of Mount Nebo, dies, and is privately buried by the Lord. The Israelites mourn for him thirty days. Joshua takes command of the people. The character of Moses; chap. 34. At the close of this book I have added a number of useful TABLES, such as no edition of the Bible ever could boast, viz.:
Table I. A perpetual table, showing through the course of 13 lunar cycles (which embrace every possible variation) the day of the week with which the Jewish year begins, and on which the passover is held; as also the lengths of the months Marchesvan and Cisleu. Table II. Containing the whole variations in the reading of the Pareshioth or sections of the law for every year of the Jewish cycle of 247 years.
Table III. To find, with the help of Table IV., the day of the week upon which any Jewish new moon or festival happens.
Table IV. To determine upon what day of the week any Jewish month commences for any given year; as also the day of the week upon which the Jews celebrate their principal fasts and festivals. Table V. Containing the order of reading the Pareshioth and Haphtaroth for 90 Jewish years, i.e., from A. M. 5572 to A. M. 5661, both inclusive, connected with the corresponding dates in the CHRISTIAN ERA, according to the Gregorian or new style. Table VI. Containing the year of the Jewish lunar cycle, the golden number, the first day of the Jewish pass over, Easter Sunday, and the commencement of each Jewish year according to the Gregorian Calendar, A. D. 1812 to A. D. 1900, both inclusive. All concluded with an explanation of the preceding tables. To them succeeds A Chronology of the Pentateuch, with the Book of Joshua; or a Systematic Arrangement of Events from the creation of ADAM, A. M. 1, to the birth of Peleg, A. M. 1757, and thence to the death of Joshua, A. M. 2561. This chronology includes two tables, viz.: Table I. The birth and death of all the patriarchs, from Adam, A. M. 1, to Rhea, son of Peleg, A. M. 1787. Table II. A chronology of ancient kingdoms synchronized with the sacred history, from A. M. 1757, B. C. 2247, to A. M. 2561, B. C. 1443. The whole so calculated as to prevent the necessity of having recourse to systems of chronology for historic facts in anywise connected with those mentioned in the SACRED WRITINGS.
The great utility of these tables will, I think, be at once evident to every Biblical critic, chronologist, and antiquary; and for the immense labour employed in their construction the editor, no doubt, will have their hearty thanks.
ADAM CLARKE.
THE FIFTH BOOK OF MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY
-Year before the common Year of Christ, 1451
-Julian Period, 3263.
-Cycle of the Sun, 10.
-Dominical Letter, B
-Cycle of the Moon, 10.
-Indiction, 15.
-Creation from Tisri or September, 2553.
Joseph Benson
Argument
BEN_VOL1.PDF, source PDF p. 709
Editorial note: Source collation note — paragraph 4: “by the greek interpreters δευτερονομιον, deuteronomy, (from δευτερος νομος,) a second law, or”. source PDF page 709: “by the Greek interpreters δευτερονομιον (from δευτερος νομος a second law, or”. Compared with BEN_VOL1.PDF PDF p. 709. The source-font or layout comparison does not securely establish every letter, mark or local sequence in these passages. The flagged language readings or layout are retained; the original source pages should be consulted for these specific readings. Additional-source investigation: an automated comparison of surrounding English text located possible corresponding passages in OCR from separately digitized printed volumes. The linked scan pages are research locators; their images have not been collated for this note's flagged readings. OCR agreement does not verify Greek or Hebrew letters, diacritics, word order, or table layout. The flagged readings or layout remain uncertain. BEN_VOL1.PDF, PDF page 709; Additional printed-scan page locator (OCR context only; flagged reading unverified).
THE FIFTH BOOK OF MOSES, CALLED
DEUTERONOMY.
ARGUMENT.
THIS last book of Moses, consisting, in a great measure, of a recapitulation of former laws, is therefore called by the Greek interpreters δευτερονομιον, DEUTERONOMY, (from δευτερος νομος,) a second law, or a second edition of the law, because it is a repetition of many of the laws, as well as of much of the history contained in the three foregoing books. They to whom the first law was given were all dead, and a new generation was sprung up, to whom God would have his laws repeated by Moses himself, that they might make a deeper impression upon them. However, the laws contained here are not to be considered as bare repetitions. They are attended with several additions, explications, and enlargements; and especially are enforced by the strongest and most pathetic motives to obedience. Moses here, with more than human energy, opens to the Israelites the true spirit and design of all these laws; shows that true peace and happiness would most certainly arise from observing them; and, on the contrary, that disquiet and misery would as certainly be the consequence of departing from them to follow their own imaginations. In the strongest and most magnificent terms he sets forth the glorious privilege and happiness of being under such a divine conduct as Israel was under; he seems to rise above himself in speaking of it; and to manifest that he wants words sufficiently expressive to declare what he feels on this subject. He is particularly concerned to make the people conceive of GOD as a pure, invisible Spirit, of whom there neither is nor can be any manner of likeness. He labours to raise their thoughts of the great JEHOVAH far above all that human error had conceived among the nations, above all the objects of sense and sight, whether on the earth, in the waters, or in the heavens, those glorious bodies, the sun, the moon, the stars, even all the host of heaven, then the great objects of worship among mankind, being only his creatures and servants to execute his commands, and do his pleasure. The book begins with a brief rehearsal of the most remarkable events that had befallen them since they came from mount Sinai. In the fourth chapter begins a pathetic exhortation to obedience: from the twelfth to the twenty-seventh are repeated many particular laws, enforced in the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth, with promises and threatenings, which are formed into a covenant in the twenty-ninth and thirtieth chapters. Care is taken, chap. 31., to perpetuate the remembrance of these things among them, particularly by a song, chap. 32., concluded with a blessing, chap. 33. Through the whole of this book we may discern Moses to speak as a person under the immediate influence of a divine inspiration, and toward the conclusion of it as evidently guided by a prophetic spirit, and having his mind enlightened to discern the state and condition of the Israelites in ages to come. What he utters on this occasion is with all the majesty and confidence of one who had a divine commission, and knew with certainty that what he foretold, however remote the time, would surely come to pass: and, accordingly, the greater part of these predictions we see accomplished in the world at this present time. Upon the whole, such is this book of Deuteronomy, so different from the writings of every other lawgiver, so evidently treating the subjects of it with more than human understanding, and delivering them with more than human majesty, that whoever comes to the reading of it with an unprejudiced mind will feel, while he is reading, that it is indeed divine.
Joseph Sutcliffe
The Fifth Book of Moses, Called Deuteronomy.
SUT_VOL1.PDF, source PDF p. 459
Editorial note: Additional printed-edition collation — Sutcliffe, vol. 1 (1834): The printed Deuteronomy introduction confirms אלה הדברים and ספר דברים, as well as Νομος and Δευτερος. The current word order and base letter readings are retained. SUT_VOL1.PDF, PDF page 459; Sutcliffe, printed Commentary, vol. 1 (1834), p. 160.
THE FIFTH BOOK OF MOSES,
CALLED DEUTERONOMY.
The title of this Book in the Hebrew is, אלה הדברים ELLEH HA-DEBAREEM, these are the words; or, ספר דברים SEPHER DEBAREEM, the book of the words. Some of the Jews called it, the Misne, or repetition of the law; others, the Book of Admonition. But the Seventy Jews who translated the Pentateuch into Greek, called it Deuteronomy, from Νομος Nomos the law, and Δευτερος Deuteros a second time. Moses, being now one hundred and twenty years of age, possessing recollection and all his faculties unimpaired, employed the last five weeks of his life in repeating the law to the new generation, and enriched it with glosses, improvements, and new revelations. The divine authenticity of this book is fully allowed by many quotations in the New Testament. Here our Saviour found a threefold weapon to repel the tempter. The last chapter is supposed to have been written by Joshua, or under his sanction. Moses commences by a rehearsal of events since the Exodus from Egypt; he discovers throughout the sublime spirit of a divine lawgiver and preacher, and closes his work with luminous prophecies of future times.
Daniel Whedon
Introduction.
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DEUTERONOMY
INTRODUCTION.
Title.
1. The name of this book (Deuteronomy, in our English Bible) is derived from the Greek title in the Septuagint Version, and corresponds to one that was sometimes employed by the Jews, Mishneh Hattorah — Repetition of the Law. By some of the rabbinical writers it was called the Book of Reproofs. In the Hebrew Bible the title consists of the first two Hebrew words אלה הדברים, Elleh Hadd’bharim.
Contents.
2. The book consists of three discourses purporting to have been delivered to the Israelites by Moses in the fortieth year after they left Egypt, and just before his death. In addition to these three discourses are two poems, namely, the Song of Moses and The Blessings of the Tribes. Then there is a supplementary chapter giving an account of the great Lawgiver’s death.
(1.) The first discourse extends from Deuteronomy 1:6, to Deuteronomy 4:40. In this discourse Moses recounts some of the prominent events that have occurred since the departure from Egypt. The contests of the Hebrews with their enemies, and the defeat of the latter, are related. The long years of the Wandering are stated to have been the result of the faintheartedness and rebellion of their fathers. Moses reminds his hearers that Jehovah was angry with him on their account; and that though he was to be permitted to look over the Promised Land in its length and its breadth, he would not be privileged to set foot upon its soil. He further exhorts the people to obedience, and especially warns them against idolatry, which had already so signally brought the divine displeasure upon them, and which he tells them will bring sorer punishments in the future. At the close of this first division is a statement of the selection of three cities of refuge on the east of the Jordan. Deuteronomy 4:41-43.
(2.) The second discourse may be considered as extending from Deuteronomy 4:44, inclusive, to Deuteronomy 26:19. It is announced as “The Law which Moses set before the children of Israel.” The discourse proper opens with chap. 5. Moses commences with a repetition of the Law — “the Ten Words” which had been spoken by Jehovah himself. This Law forms the basis of the whole code — the entire body of the legislation in accordance with which a holy nation, a peculiar people, would be recognised. Moses then gives a more detailed exposition of the first table of the law. This part extends from Deuteronomy 5:22, to Deuteronomy 11:32.
The second part of this second discourse is included in Deuteronomy 12:1, to Deuteronomy 26:19. This begins with, “These are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do in the land which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess,” and closes with an impressive exhortation to the people that they should keep these commandments so that they should become a holy people and exalted above the nations. This second part of the discourse is called by some of the critics the Deuteronomic code. “It is not a mere supplement to the first legislation. It is an independent reproduction of its substance, sometimes merely repeating the older laws, but at other times extending or modifying them.” — W. ROBERTSON SMITHE, Old Testament in the Jewish Church. We find in this part an exposition and enforcement of the principal statutes. The enactments pertaining to religious observances are in the main found in the section extending from Deuteronomy 12:1, to Deuteronomy 16:17. Then follow directions in reference to civil administration. This section is from Deuteronomy 16:18, to Deuteronomy 21:23. Then come the regulations for the social life of the people. This section extends from Deuteronomy 22:1, to Deuteronomy 26:19.
(3.) The third discourse includes chaps. 27-30. As if to make this discourse more formal and impressive the elders of Israel are represented as associated with Moses while he is delivering it. It commences with, “And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day,” (Deuteronomy 27:1.) Then follow directions in reference to the erection of stones on Mount Ebal, on which, when the people shall have entered into the possession of the land, were to be written “all the words of this law.” The people are also commanded to build an altar for the presentation of offerings. Special directions are also given for the imposing ceremony to be observed when the tribes stationed on Gerizim are to pronounce blessings, and the tribes stationed on Ebal, curses; and all the people are to respond, “Amen.” The twenty-eighth chapter has an elaborate statement of blessings in case of obedience, and curses in case of disobedience. The twenty-ninth and thirtieth chapters constitute the closing part of this discourse. This part is characterized as the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb, (xxix, 1.) Moses, after referring to God’s former mercies, calls upon the people to pledge themselves anew and enter into a covenant with Jehovah their God. He again pronounces the sentence of rejection in case of apostasy, but promises restoration on repentance; and in concluding this address and his announcement of the divine legislation he solemnly sets before them blessing and cursing. This discourse has sometimes been called “The Blessing and the Curse.”
The last division of the book proper includes chaps. 31-33. This gives an account of the final arrangement which Moses makes with the people, including the delivery of the law to the custody of “the priests, the sons of Levi,” with the requirement that every seven years the law should be read. The appointment of Joshua as successor to Moses is told. Then follow those two incomparable poems, The Song of Moses and The Blessing of the Tribes.
The supplementary chapter (34) gives an account of the death and burial of Moses.
Views of Recent Critics as to the Authorship.
3. In treating of the question of authorship it seems proper to present some of the views of modern criticism as to the composition of the entire Pentateuch. But it is neither possible nor desirable to give at length the diverse theories of the critics, destructive and reconstructive, who have published the results of their investigations, from Astruc, who wrote about the middle of the last century, to Kuenen and W. Robertson Smith. The hypotheses of a few will suffice.
Astruc, in a work published in 1753, holds that Moses had before him two principal documents, each characterized by the word that is used for God. Besides these two, which are called Elohistic and Jehovistic, respectively, Moses employed ten others for the earlier part of his work. Vater, in 1815, and Hartmann, in 1818, carried the views of Astruc still further, and maintained that the Pentateuch was made up of a number of fragments put together without much reference to their connexion. Both of these critics opposed the documentary hypothesis so far as it was in the way of their “hypothesis of fragments.” Vater’s view was that a collection of laws in the time of David and Solomon formed the basis of the work. This, in his opinion, was the book found in the reign of Josiah; and its fragments were incorporated in Deuteronomy. The rest of the Pentateuch was composed of fragments of narrative and legislation written at various times. The whole was collected and put in its present shape between the time of Josiah and the exile. Hartmann assigns the date of the Pentateuch as late as the exile. This “fragmentary hypothesis” had to give way to the supplementary hypothesis, which was adopted with modifications by De Wette, Bleek, Hupfeld, Knobel, Kurtz. Though they agree in the general view, they differ greatly in the details. Delitzsch agreed with these critics in admitting that there were distinct authors of the earlier portions of the Pentateuch, but he maintained that Deuteronomy is the work of Moses. In the preface which he wrote to CURTISS’S Levitical Priests, (pp. 8, 9,) 1877, he says: “In my commentary on Genesis, up to the last edition, I have defended the authenticity of Deuteronomy, and even yet it appears to me there are weighty reasons for this, such as the psychological truth of the testamentary addresses, the freshness and richness of the Egyptian reminiscences, the freedom with which the speaker reproduces historical incidents, laws, and, above all, the decalogue, a freedom which is scarcely conceivable except on the supposition that the speaker was the lawgiver himself. I feel even yet compelled to hold, when I consider Deuteronomy 31:9, that Deuteronomy belongs essentially to those portions of the Pentateuch which were written by Moses himself. For if this testimony were fictitious, Deuteronomy would be a far more immoral fabrication than the pseudo-decretals of Isidore.”
It is proper to state that Delitzsch has announced his conviction “that the processes which in their origin and progress have resulted in the final form of the Torah, as we now possess it, continued into the post-exile period, and perhaps had not ceased their activity even at the time of the formation of the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint translation.” — Zeitschrift fur Kirchliche Wissenschaft, 1880.
Ewald adopted a theory which is substantially as follows: The early history of the Israelites as embodied in the Pentateuch and Joshua he designates as the great Book of Origins. The oldest historical work is the Book of the Wars of Jehovah. Of this, only a few fragments exist. Then followed the biography of Moses. Only a small portion of this has been preserved. The third and fourth documents are more full. These are the Book of the Covenant, which was written in the time of Samson, and the Book of Origins, which was written by a priest in the time of Solomon. Then there was a third historian of the primitive times, or the first prophetic narrator of the northern kingdom, in the days of Elijah or Joel. The sixth document was by the fourth historian of the primitive times, or the second prophetic narrator, who lived in the eighth century before Christ. Then there is a fifth historian, or third prophetic narrator, who wrote not long after Joel, who collected the works of his predecessors. ‘“The real purpose of the history, both in its prophetical and in its legal aspects, began now to be discerned. Some steps were taken in this direction by an unknown writer at the beginning of the seventh century before Christ, and then in a far more comprehensive manner by the Deuteronomist who flourished in the time of Manasseh and lived in Egypt. In the time of Jeremiah appeared the poet who wrote the blessing of Moses as it appears in Deuteronomy. A somewhat later editor incorporated the originally independent work of the Deuteronomist and the lesser additions of his two colleagues with the history as left by the fifth narrator, and thus the whole was finally completed.” — SMITH’S Dictionary of the Bible, article “Pentateuch.” There is a theory of the composition of the Pentateuch known to critics as the Graf hypothesis. Graf’s theory is stated in his work entitled The Historical Books of the Old Testament, two Historico-Critical Examinations, by K.H. Graf, Doctor Theology and Philosophy, Professor in the Royal University of Meissen. He makes three divisions of the Pentateuch. The first is the Elohistic and Jehovistic portion, which includes nearly all that is narrative from Genesis to the end of Numbers, and also the legislation as given in Exodus 13, 20-23, and 34. He makes Deuteronomy the second division. The third division, in his view, is what is called the Levitical legislation, which includes the legislative portions of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, except what he places in the first division. The last revision, he thinks, took place after the return from exile. But Graf modified his view almost as soon as it was published. For he found reason to believe that what is called the Elohistic element and the Levitical are essentially one, and instead of being the earliest they are the latest. Kuenen, in a lecture on the Five Books of Moses, (pp. 13, 14,) states his views of their origin. According to him the first edition of the Pentateuch was written about 750 B.C., by a prophet. The second edition, or revision, was much enlarged, and probably written 620 B.C., by a prophet of priestly descent. The third, which is essentially the same that we possess, was written 450 B.C., by a priest. Kuenen professes to be able to give the number of verses that are in each edition. The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua have, in round numbers, two hundred and ten verses. In the first edition there were eighty; in the second, one hundred and twenty, and in the third two hundred and ten. He holds that Moses wrote nothing of the Pentateuch but an abbreviated form of the Ten Commandments. In his opinion Deuteronomy was not written until the reign of Josiah, about 425 B.C., perhaps by Hilkiah, and, though ascribed to Moses, he was in no sense the author of it. “At a time when notions about literary property were yet in their infancy an action of this kind was not regarded as unlawful. Men used to perpetrate such fictions as these without any qualms of conscience.” — KUENEN’S Religion of Israel, vol. ii, pp. 18, 19. Professor W. Robertson Smith, while he agrees with most of the theories of such critics as Graf and Kuenen, yet claims that he upholds the canonicity and inspiration of the Book of Deuteronomy as strenuously as his most determined opponents. He does not accept the Mosaic authorship, but he does not adopt the theory of Kuenen that Deuteronomy is a forgery. “The comparison of Deuteronomy 18 with 2 Kings 23:8, seq., effectually disproves the idea of some critics, that the Deuteronomic code was a forgery of the temple priests or of their head, the high priest Hilkiah.” — Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 362. He holds that the Pentateuch is a history incorporating at least three bodies of law, and that the history does not profess to be written by Moses. He further states that the Pentateuch was written in Canaan, and if it is all by one hand, was not completed till the period of the kings. The three groups of laws, or ritual ordinances, that it embodies are: (1.) The collection. Exodus 21-23. This he calls the first legislation. (2.) The law of Deuteronomy. What is called the Deuteronomic code is embraced in chaps. 12-26. This is not a mere supplement to the first legislation, but an independent reproduction of its substance, sometimes merely repeating the older laws, at other times extending or modifying them. (3.) The Levitical legislation. These ordinances are found in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. The first two legislations deal with Israel as a nation, the third with Israel as a Church. It will be seen that the critics who reject the view which ascribes the authorship of Deuteronomy to Moses are at variance among themselves in their theories; but they generally agree that it is the Book of the Law which Hilkiah the high priest found in the house of the Lord during the reign of Josiah. 2 Kings 22:8.
Reasons for Assigning the Authorship to Moses.
4. (1.) The writer assumes to be Moses. Let us look at different passages in Deuteronomy where Moses is spoken of, or speaks, as the author: Moses began to declare this law, (Deuteronomy 1:5.) And I spake unto you, saying, (Deuteronomy 1:9.)
I said unto you, Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, (Deuteronomy 1:20.)
And I took twelve men of you, one of a tribe, (Deuteronomy 1:22.) Then I said unto you, (Deuteronomy 1:29.)
The Lord was angry with me for your sake, (Deuteronomy 1:37.) And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, (Deuteronomy 31:9.)
And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, (Deuteronomy 31:24-26.)
And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, (Deuteronomy 32:44.)
(2.) The testimony which we find in the New Testament to the Mosaic authorship ought, we think, to be convincing.
There can be no question that at the time of Christ, Deuteronomy was accepted as the work of Moses.
In the account of the temptation given by Matthew, (chap. 4,) Jesus is represented as replying three times “It is written,” and the words with which he answers the tempter are quoted from Deuteronomy. The tempter says, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” Matthew 4:3.
Jesus replies, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” See Deuteronomy 7:3. Again the tempter says, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down.” Matthew 4:6.
And again Jesus replies, “It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Deuteronomy 6:16.
Once more the tempter says, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Matthew 4:9.
Jesus replies to the third temptation, “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Deuteronomy 6:13. In Mark 12:29, where Jesus replied to the inquiry of the scribe, “Which is the first commandment of all?” he quotes from Deuteronomy 6:4, 5, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
The same quotation is found in Matthew 22:37, and in Luke 10. 27. In that great discourse which John has recorded, Jesus, in concluding, says, “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.” John 5:46.
Can there be any question that the reference is to what is said by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken?”
Again, in Luke 24:27, where it reads, “Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself,” is there not an evident reference to the same passage in Deuteronomy?
When the Pharisees inquired of Jesus, “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement?” he replied, “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives.” Matthew 19:7, 8. The reference to Moses is to Deuteronomy 24:1, “Let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.” In Mark 10:2 the Pharisees come to Jesus with a question of divorce, and refer to the law of Moses as found in Deuteronomy 24:1. Jesus says, “For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.” The Saviour speaks of Moses as a man and as an author.
When others, in the New Testament, quote from Deuteronomy, they ascribe it to Moses. Peter, in Acts 3:22, says, “For Moses truly said unto the fathers,” and then quotes from Deuteronomy 18:15. Stephen, in Acts 7:37, says, “This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel,” and then quotes the same passage.
Paul, in Romans 10:5, says, “Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law.” In the following verse there is a manifest reference to Deuteronomy 30:11-14. In Romans 10:19, Paul writes, “First Moses saith,” and then quotes from Deuteronomy 32:21. “But in truth the work speaks for itself. No imitator could have written in such a strain. We scarcely need the express testimony of the work to its own authorship. But having it, we find all the internal evidence conspiring to show that it came from Moses. Those magnificent discourses, the grand roll of which can be heard and felt even in a translation, came warm from the heart and fresh from the lips of Israel’s lawgiver. They are the outpourings of a solicitude which is nothing less than parental. It is the father uttering his dying advice to his children no less than the prophet counselling and admonishing his people. What book can vie with it either in majesty or in tenderness? What words ever bore more surely the stamp of genuineness? If Deuteronomy be only the production of some timorous reformer, who, conscious of his own weakness tried to borrow dignity and weight from the name of Moses, then assuredly all arguments drawn from internal evidence for the composition of any work are utterly useless. “In spite, therefore, of the dogmatism of modern critics, we declare unhesitatingly for the Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy.” — PEROWNE, J.J.S., in SMITH’S Dictionary of the Bible, article “Pentateuch.” The Purpose of the Book.
5. “The book of Deuteronomy was intended for a people’s handbook of Hebrew law. Unlike the bulk of the three preceding books, it is wholly popular: it is not meant for use among the learned only, whether priests or laymen. Once every seven years during the feast of tabernacles it was ordered to be read before the assembled people, that every one might know what was to be done and what was not to be done. Most solemn words of warning and entreaty were added, that the Hebrews might see it was no earthly king to whom their allegiance was due, but the Judge of all the earth, who would demand from them a sharp account for treason done to his greatness. A repetition of the law for general use and in popular language was a boon to the nation at large. But it was more. It was a monument to all ages of the divine leadings of the lawgiver. Handbooks of this nature are not uncommon now, but they were so uncommon then, and for thousands of years afterward, that the fifth book of Moses is a proof that he was guided to the task by more than human sagacity and foresight. The idea of such a blessing to a nation stamps the man in whose mind it first woke into life as standing head and shoulders above his fellows. Many a century had to pass away before the great lawyers of the Roman Empire bethought themselves of drawing up even a scientific digest of the imperial law. A people’s edition was a step far beyond their imagination. But Moses took that step three thousand years ago and more.” — Deuteronomy the People’s Book, p. 278.
“In this book Moses no longer comes before us as an historian or a legislator; but he appears as a grand orator, a sublime poet, a heart-stirring preacher, a divinely inspired prophet of God. After a life of one hundred and twenty years he is now about to depart and be with God. This magnificent prophecy is his farewell voice to the world. It shows how true the witness of those who then beheld him is, that ‘his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.’ From the heights of Pisgah he surveyed the hills and valleys, the lakes and rivers of Palestine; and his inner eye ranged over the widespread scenery of coming events. The map of the future was unrolled before him; he prophesied of Israel’s destinies even till the coming of Christ.
“Thus he was a type and figure of the Levitical law. He was a specimen of all the holy men who lived and died under it. He did not cross the confines of the temporal Canaan; but he was about to pass into the regions of the
Outline of Contents.
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Editorial note: The supplied edition prints “Deuteronomy 24:19-23” here (WHD_CO02.PDF, physical PDF page 569). The surrounding discussion of the laws about leaving produce for the stranger, fatherless, and widow corresponds to Deuteronomy 24:19–22 in the King James Version. The origin of the printed numbering is not established here; the historical wording is retained. WHD_CO02.PDF, PDF page 569.
spiritual antitype; and he cheers us with a glorious vision of a blessed death and of the land beyond it. We lose sight of Moses on the specular height of Pisgah; but the next thing we hear of him is that he is brought to be a witness and partaker of Christ’s glory on the mount of transfiguration.” — WORDSWORTH, Introduction to Deuteronomy, p. 203.
OUTLINE OF CONTENTS.
Introductory, Deuteronomy 1:1-5. From Horeb to Kadesh, Deuteronomy 1:6-46. From Kadesh to the Territory of the Amorites, Deuteronomy 2:1-23. Conquest of the Amorites, Deuteronomy 2:24-37. Conquest of the Kingdom of Og; A View of the Land, Deuteronomy 3:1-11. Division of the Land Conquered, Deuteronomy 3:12-20. Appointment of Joshua as the Successor of Moses, Deuteronomy 3:21-29. The People Exhorted to Faithfully Observe the Law, Deuteronomy 4:1-40. Idolatry Specially Forbidden, Deuteronomy 4:15-24. Dispersion among the Heathen Threatened in case of Disobedience, Deuteronomy 4:25-28. Choice of Three Cities of Refuge East of the Jordan, Deuteronomy 4:41-43. Repetition and Exposition of the Law, Deuteronomy 5:1-vi, 26. Command to Destroy the Seven Canaanitish Nations, Deuteronomy 7:1-26. Review of Jehovah’s Merciful Dealings with the People, Deuteronomy 8:1-10. Warning against Forgetfulness of Him, Deuteronomy 8:11-20. Order to Prepare to Pass the Jordan — Reminder of Former Transgressions, Deuteronomy 9:1-29. Renewal of the Stone Tables containing the Ten Commands, Deuteronomy 10:1-4. They are Deposited in the Ark of the Covenant, Deuteronomy 10:5. Death of Aaron Noticed, Deuteronomy 10:6, 7. Separation of the Tribe of Levi, Deuteronomy 10:8, 9. Exhortation to Obedience and Love, Deuteronomy 10:12-22. Charge to Keep God’s Statutes, Deuteronomy 11:1-9. Description of the Land of Promise, Deuteronomy 11:10-12. Prosperity Promised on Condition of Obedience to God, Deuteronomy 11:13-32. Offerings to be Made at the Place which the Lord shall Choose, Deuteronomy 12:1-32. The Punishment of Those who Enticed the People to Idolatry,
Deuteronomy 13:1-18. Animals that Were to be Eaten, Deuteronomy 14:3-21. The Year of Release; Emancipation of Slaves, etc., Deuteronomy 15:1-23. The Three Great Religious Festivals: Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles, Deuteronomy 16:1-17. Judges to be Appointed, Deuteronomy 16:18-20. Image Worship Forbidden, Deuteronomy 16:21, 22. Sacrificial Animals to be Perfect, Deuteronomy 17:1. Idolaters to be Put to Death, Deuteronomy 17:2-7. Difficult Cases of Judgment to be Referred, Deuteronomy 17:8-13. Choice of a King, Deuteronomy 17:14-20. Rights of the Priests and Levites, Deuteronomy 18:1-8. Soothsaying and Idolatrous Worship Forbidden, Deuteronomy 18:9-14. The True Prophet, Deuteronomy 18:15, 16. Rules in Reference to Cities of Refuge, Deuteronomy 19:1-13. A Landmark not to be Removed, Deuteronomy 19:14. Of Witnesses, Deuteronomy 19:15-21. Directions in Reference to Future Wars, Deuteronomy 20:1-20. Forms to be Observed when One was Found Slain, Deuteronomy 21:1-9. Directions respecting Female War Captives, Deuteronomy 21:10-14. Right of the Firstborn, Deuteronomy 21:15-17. The Punishment of an Incorrigible Son, Deuteronomy 21:18-21. Practice of a Kindly Spirit Enjoined, Deuteronomy 22:1-4. The Sexes to be Distinguished by Difference of Dress, Deuteronomy 22:5. Laws for Protection of Life, Deuteronomy 22:6-8. Laws for the Protection of Character and Chastity, Deuteronomy 22:13-30. Grounds of Exclusion from the Congregation, Deuteronomy 23:1-8. Uncleanness to be Avoided, Deuteronomy 23:9-14. Case of a Fugitive Servant, Deuteronomy 23:15. Directions in Reference to Divorce, Deuteronomy 24:1-4. Exemption of the Newly Married, Deuteronomy 24:5. Rule of Pledges, Deuteronomy 24:6, 10. Of Man-stealing, Deuteronomy 24:7. Of Leprosy, Deuteronomy 24:8, 9. Against Oppression, Deuteronomy 24:14-18. Kindness to the Poor, Deuteronomy 24:19-23. Laws Regarding Corporal Punishment, Deuteronomy 25:1-3. Of Marriage with the Childless Widow of a Brother, Deuteronomy 25:5-10. Upright Dealing Enjoined, Deuteronomy 25:13-19. Presentation of the Firstfruits, Deuteronomy 26:1-11. Prayer of the Offerer of the Third Year’s Tithes, Deuteronomy 26:12-15. Covenant Between God and the People, Deuteronomy 26:16-19. Erection of a Memorial Monument and Altar Enjoined, Deuteronomy 27:1-10. Certain of the Tribes to Utter Blessings from Gerizim and others Curses from Ebal, Deuteronomy 27:11-26. Blessings Promised to Obedience, Deuteronomy 28:1-14. Curses Threatened for Disobedience, Deuteronomy 28:15-68. Covenant Between Jehovah and Israel, Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20. Address of Moses, Deuteronomy 31:1-6. He Encourages Joshua, Deuteronomy 31:7, 8. Moses Delivers the Completed Law to the Priests, Deuteronomy 31:9-13; 24-27. The Lord Informs Moses of his Approaching Death, Deuteronomy 31:14-21. Moses Desires the Leaders of the People to be Gathered, and Rehearses to them a Song, Deuteronomy 31:28-32:52. The Blessing of the Tribes, Deuteronomy 33:29. Death and Burial of Moses, Deuteronomy 34:1-8. Joshua the New Leader — The Greatness of Moses,
Deuteronomy 34:9-12.