Thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.1:31
The Book of Deuteronomy takes its name from the Greek “deuteronomion”: the law repeated. It consists of Moses’ parting counsels to his people on the eve of their entry into the land which the Lord has given them.
They have wandered for forty years in the wilderness. They have fought their way through savage lands. Now they are within sight of the Promised Land.
The Lord has told Moses that he will not enter into this land. Moses calls the people together and says, The Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over the Jordan. . . .
But ye shall go over, and possess that good land.
Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you. . . .4:21–23
He reminds them of past tribulations from which God in His goodness and mercy delivered them; he exhorts them to obey the Law, and warns them of terrible punishments for trespasses; he repeats, in substance, the Ten Commandments5:6–21 for the generation which has grown up in the wilderness; and he gives the people scores of commandments for their life in the new land:
When they come into this land, and have conquered its people, they must drive out and utterly destroy them: for the Lord has said, Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. . . .9:5
In the land of plenty which is to be theirs, they are to remember, Moses says, how the Lord fed them manna in the wilderness: That he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord, doth man live.8:3
They shall not harden their hearts to the needy: For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.15:11
Judgments are to be rendered with justice: Thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eye of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.16:19
And in all things they are to obey the statutes and the judgments of the Lord: in gleaning the fields; in dividing the land (Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor’s landmark27:17); in marriage and in divorce; in waging war and in the taking of prisoners; in dealing with crime; in the punishment of adulterers, of usurers, of those guilty of murder; in matters of tithing; and in the giving of charity to strangers, to the fatherless, and to widows.
If they obey the commandments, they will he blessed above all people: And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.26:11
But if they forsake the commandments and the statutes of the Lord, His curse will fall upon them: Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.28:16 The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed. . . .28:20 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.28:37
THE RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT
The Lord commands Moses to reestablish the covenant made between Him and the children of Israel at Sinai.
Moses speaks to the people: Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day: That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers. . . .29:10–13
The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.29:29
And Moses says to the people, I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.30:19
THE DEATH OF MOSES
The Lord says to Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die. . . .31:14
He reveals a future for Israel full of evils and troubles: Therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.31:19
It is a song of prophecy. The people will forsake God still, say the words of the song, and He will punish them with terrible misfortunes. But in the end they will repent; and God will show them His mercy:
Moses writes down the song and teaches it to the people. It begins:
Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect. . . .32:1–4
Moses goes up from the plains of Moab to the top of mount Pisgah, and looks down upon the promised land.
The Lord says to him, I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.34:4
Moses dies in the land of Moab. He is buried in a valley: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.
And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.34:6–7
And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him. . . .
And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.34:9–10