Deuteronomy

Author: Moses

Deuteronomy is Moses’ last preaching, given on the plains of Moab before Israel crosses the Jordan.

Outline

  1. Remember the wilderness (1–4)

    Moses retells the journey and warns Israel not to forget what they saw at the mountain.

  2. The covenant expounded (5–26)

    The commandments are repeated and applied to worship, judges, kings, war, and the poor.

  3. Blessing and curse (27–30)

    Israel is set before life and death, and the book looks ahead to exile and return.

  4. Moses’ last acts (31–34)

    Joshua is commissioned, a song and a blessing are given, and Moses dies on the mountain.

Key verses

  • Deuteronomy 6:4–5

    Israel is told that the Lord is one, and that they are to love him with all the heart.

  • Deuteronomy 18:15

    Moses says the Lord will raise up a prophet like him from among the people.

  • Deuteronomy 30:19

    Moses sets before Israel life and death and calls them to choose life.

Deuteronomy stands at the edge of the land. The generation that refused to enter has died. Moses is about to die too. The book is his preaching to their children, delivered in the plains of Moab, looking across the Jordan. It is not a new law in the sense of a second religion. It is the covenant explained again, with the wilderness behind the hearers and the conquest in front of them. The English name means “second law.” The book itself keeps saying “remember.”

Moses begins by retelling the story the people already belong to. He recalls the command to leave Horeb, the appointment of judges, the spies, and the years of wandering. He is careful about his own exclusion. He asked to cross over and was refused. The retelling is not nostalgia. It is evidence. Israel has already seen what happens when they will not trust the God who brought them out, and they have seen that he did not abandon the children.

The heart of the preaching is the commandments set in ordinary life. The ten words are repeated. Then Moses presses the Shema: hear, the Lord is one, and you shall love him with all your heart, soul, and might. These words are to be taught to children, bound as a sign, and written on the doorposts. The chapters that follow work that love out in worship that refuses the nations’ images, in judges who do not take a bribe, in a king who must not multiply horses, wives, and silver, and who must copy the law for himself. Prophets are distinguished from diviners. Cities of refuge, war, and the care of the widow, the fatherless, and the stranger are part of the same address. The book keeps tying the commands to the exodus: you were slaves, therefore you shall do this.

Blessing and curse are set before the people in public. They are to stand on Gerizim and Ebal and hear both. Obedience is tied to life in the land, rain, and rest. Disobedience is tied to disease, defeat, and exile. Deuteronomy does not pretend Israel will keep the covenant perfectly. Later chapters describe the curse coming, the people scattered, and then a return when they seek the Lord with all their heart. The choice Moses names is still real: life and death, blessing and cursing. He tells them to choose life, for their sake and their children’s.

The closing chapters hand the story on. Moses writes the law and gives it to the priests and the elders. He commissions Joshua. He teaches a song that will stand as a witness when the people turn away. He blesses the tribes. Then he goes up Nebo. The book says the Lord shows him the land and that he dies there. God buries him, and the place is not known. Joshua is filled with the spirit of wisdom. The last verses say no prophet has arisen since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. The Torah ends with the lawgiver outside the land, and with the people he led standing ready to enter it.

Chapters