The Book of Deuteronomy

The Covenant: Gift of Life and Requirement for Life

Beginning in the ninth century, Israel passed through a serious crisis: seduced by the prestige of neighboring nations, it gave itself increasingly to pagan practices. To meet this danger, movements of resistance in the name of God arose: reforms imposed by kings (Jehoshaphat, Jehu, Hezekiah, and others), decisive interventions by prophets, return to the traditions shaped by the priests, and the thinking and educational work of the “sages.”

All these currents meet in the present Book, to which the Septuagint gives the name “Deuteronomy” or “Second Law” (in the Hebrew Bible the title is derived from the first words of the Book, as is the case with the other Books of the Pentateuch).

The book was composed by a Levite of the northern kingdom, probably around the eighth century, and has for its purpose not the reform of institutions but the conversion of hearts and the education of the people in fidelity to the covenant. After it had been forgotten for a while, King Josiah solemnly promulgated it in 622 B.C. as the document that would serve as the basis for a great movement of religious reform (see 2 Ki 22–23).

Ever since the time of Moses the Levite priests had constantly preached the covenant and had specified and adapted its requirements. Under their direction the people had regularly renewed their commitments to it in solemn celebrations. It is these liturgical texts and these sermons that are the basis of the Book. But the Book also draws upon the teaching of the prophets and the writings of the sages; it profits from memories of the conquest of Palestine and of God’s holy wars; it also shows familiarity with the collections of laws put together by the Levites. In short, it summarizes all the riches of Israel’s traditions (that is why the Book is put on the lips of Moses), while at the same time adapting them to a new situation. Though fundamentally traditional, Deuteronomy fully accepts the new political and economic conditions of the life of its time. It is a Book that uses the whip but also knows how to speak to the heart.

The exhortation is full of warmth when it introduces a theology of fidelity and infidelity into the sermons of Moses.

Deuteronomy allows us to understand just what it means to be the people of God and to grasp both the riches and the exigencies of the covenant that unites this people to God. The covenant is an unmerited gift and an urgent summons to which a response must be given in the midst of concrete reality.

Thus Deuteronomy constantly calls the believer back to basic attitudes: an ever deeper faith, a love of God that excludes all compromise, a joyous service of God, a real and optimistic acceptance of earthly realities, and a strength capable of overcoming.

Between the end of the seventh century and the early decades of the next (from Josiah to the morrow of the fall of Jerusalem) the great historical work was published that includes the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. This collection is based on Deuteronomy, which serves as its doctrinal foundation. Historical memories are inserted into a religious outlook that is characteristic of the Deuteronomistic school: fidelity is the way to salvation, infidelity debases the people and leads them to destruction. As in the Book of Deuteronomy, Jerusalem has a central place in worship and in the dramatic history of Israel. Our text, in its original edition, was therefore parallel to this collection of books and provided the theological framework for long stretches of history.

During the Exile, the Book was revised because it had to be adapted to an entirely new situation; thus a second edition allowed new applications. Finally, after the Exile, the Book was incorporated into the Pentateuch, and stories were added to it for which there had been no room in Numbers.

The Book of Deuteronomy may be divided as follows:

I: Moses’ First Address (1:1—4:43)

II: Moses’ Second Address (4:44—28:69)

A: The Covenant with Israel (4:44—11:32)

B: The Deuteronomic Code (12:1—28:69)

III: Moses’ Third Address (29:1—33:29)

IV: The Death of Moses (34:1-12)