Deuteronomy
The law of love: Moses restates the covenant to a new generation on the threshold of the land.
Deuteronomy records the last words of Moses. The forty years are over, the old generation has died, and Israel is camped in the plains of Moab across the Jordan from Jericho. Before he dies, Moses gathers the people and preaches a series of addresses that review their history, restate the Law, and set before them the choice of life or death.
The book is not a mere repetition of the Law. Moses applies it to a new generation and a new setting—settled life in the land, with kings, cities, and neighbors. Above all, he presses the motive of love. The generation that died in the wilderness obeyed, when it obeyed at all, out of duty and fear. The new generation must “love the LORD thy God with all thine heart” (6:5).
Deuteronomy was the Lord Jesus’ Bible in the wilderness. He answered each of Satan’s temptations with a quotation from it (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10), and He named Deuteronomy 6:5 the first and great commandment. Few books were more precious to faithful Israel or are more quoted in the New Testament.
Writer: Moses; another hand added the account of his death
Written: About 1451 BC, in Moses’ final year; the closing account records his death.
Name: Second giving or repetition of the law
Title and authorship
The Hebrew title, Elleh haddebarim, “These be the words,” comes from the opening verse. The English title comes from the Greek deuteronomion, “second law,” drawn from 17:18, where the king is to write “a copy of this law.” It is a repetition, not a different law. It is the Fifth Book of Moses.
Moses wrote Deuteronomy and delivered it to the priests (31:9, 24–26). The account of his death in chapter 34 was added by another inspired hand, traditionally Joshua. The Lord Jesus and the apostles quote the book as Moses’ writing (Matthew 19:7–8; Acts 3:22).
Historical background
The plains of Moab, east of the Jordan, in the eleventh month of the fortieth year after the Exodus, about 1451 BC.
The new generation of Israel, about to cross the Jordan and possess the land under Joshua.
A covenant renewal document
The structure of Deuteronomy—historical prologue, stipulations, blessings and curses, witnesses, and provision for public reading—resembles second-millennium BC treaties between great kings and their vassals. The form fits the age of Moses far better than the seventh-century date proposed by critics.
Moses’ final year
The speeches were delivered in the eleventh month of the fortieth year (1:3). Aaron had already died on Mount Hor, and Miriam at Kadesh. Moses viewed the land from Pisgah on Mount Nebo, died at 120 years old with undimmed eyes, and was buried by the LORD in a valley in Moab (34:1–7).
Prophecy fulfilled in history
Deuteronomy 28 foretold siege famine so severe that parents would eat their children (fulfilled in the sieges of Samaria and Jerusalem), deportation to a nation “whom thou hast not known,” scattering “among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other,” and a trembling heart among the nations. Jewish history since AD 70 has been a commentary on this chapter.
Key passages
Deuteronomy 6:4–5
The Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD,” followed by the command to love Him wholly.
Deuteronomy 18:15
God promises a Prophet like unto Moses; Peter and Stephen identify Him as Christ (Acts 3:22; 7:37).
Deuteronomy 30:19
“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life.”
Deuteronomy 6:5
Wholehearted love for the Lord provides the governing motive of obedience.
Deuteronomy 11:26–28
Blessing and curse are set before Israel in relation to obedience and disobedience.
Deuteronomy 31:24–26
The written law is entrusted to the nation as an enduring witness.
Outline
1–4 · Remember the past
Moses recalls the journey and urges the people to learn from their fathers’ failures.
5–26 · Obey in the present
The commandments are repeated and applied to worship, family, justice, leadership, and community life.
27–30 · Prepare for the future
Blessings, curses, covenant renewal, and the call to choose life explain the nation’s responsibility.
31–34 · The last words of Moses
Joshua is commissioned; Moses gives his song and blessing before his death.
Original language
שְׁמַע (shema, H8085) — “Hear”
More than hearing sound: to listen with the intent to obey. The Shema (6:4–9) became Israel’s daily confession and the opening of the answer Christ gave to “Which is the first commandment?” (Mark 12:29).
אֶחָד (echad, H259) — “one”
The ordinary word for one, often of a unified oneness: “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24), “one cluster” (Numbers 13:23). “The LORD our God is one LORD” affirms the one true God while leaving room for the plurality revealed elsewhere.
אָהַב (ahab, H157) — “love”
The verb of covenant affection and loyalty. Deuteronomy uses it both for God’s love to Israel (7:8) and Israel’s required love to God (6:5; 10:12; 11:1; 30:6).
זָכַר (zakar, H2142) — “remember”
One of the book’s great verbs. Israel is told to remember the bondage, the wilderness, and the LORD who gives power to get wealth; forgetting God in prosperity is the danger Moses fears most.
Doctrinal study
Love as the fulfilling of the Law
Moses reduces the Law to love for God (6:5), and Leviticus adds love for one’s neighbor (19:18). Christ joined the two: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40). Paul concludes, “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10).
The Prophet like unto Moses
Deuteronomy 18:15–19 promises a Prophet raised up from among the brethren, speaking God’s words, whom Israel must hear. Moses’ parallels with Christ are many: spared at birth from a king’s decree, rejected by his brethren at first, a mediator of a covenant, and leader of God’s people out of bondage.
Latter-day restoration
Moses foresaw not only the scattering but the regathering: God will “turn thy captivity,” gather Israel “from all the nations,” bring them into the land, and “circumcise thine heart” to love Him (30:3–6). This new heart is the same promise Jeremiah and Ezekiel attach to the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 36:26).
Commentary notes
Remember, obey, prepare
The book’s three addresses follow a helpful pattern: remember the past (1–4), obey God today (5–26), and prepare for tomorrow (27–34). Looking back at God’s faithfulness gives strength to obey now and courage to face what is ahead.
The king’s copy of the Law
Israel’s future king was to write out his own copy of the Law and read it all the days of his life (17:18–19). Writing out Scripture by hand remains one of the best ways to learn it.
The Rock
The Song of Moses calls God “the Rock” five times (32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31) and contrasts Him with the “rock” of the heathen. Paul identifies the Rock that followed Israel with Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4).
Christ in the book
- Moses — the Prophet like unto him (Acts 3:22)
- The Rock — “that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4)
- The one hanged on a tree — accursed of God (21:23; Galatians 3:13)
- The kinsman who raises up seed to the dead (25:5–10)
- The city of refuge — safety for the guilty who flee (19:1–13)
Applications
Historical
- The second giving of the Law to Israel’s new generation, with a review of the wilderness years and instructions for life in the land, closing with Moses’ song, blessing, and death.
- Moses presents the law again to the generation that will enter Canaan, applying the covenant’s continuing requirements to their life in the land.
- Moses’ last words explain why the journey that could have been brief became forty years of wandering and why the lesson must be remembered.
Doctrinal
- Deuteronomy details the end of the Tribulation and the restoration of Israel “in the latter days” (4:30; 30:1–6). Chapter 28 outlines the nation’s scattering among all peoples, chapter 30 its regathering and new heart, and chapter 32 God’s judgment on Israel’s enemies before the kingdom.
- The promised Prophet like Moses directs attention to Christ, while the warnings and restoration passages trace Israel’s future under God’s covenant dealings.
- The book’s national promises retain their address to Israel; devotional lessons arise from their principles without erasing that original audience.
Devotional
- The believer can enter into the enjoyment of God’s promises through loving obedience rather than mere duty. An eleven-day journey can become a forty-year labor (1:2); many Christian lives are a wilderness wandering because they never learned to love and obey.
- Love for God and remembrance of his redemption provide the motive for sustained obedience.
- The instruction to teach God’s word in the home connects faithfulness with daily decisions concerning possessions, authority, worship, and relationships.
Answering the critics
A widely held critical theory says Deuteronomy was composed in the seventh century BC by the priest Hilkiah and the scribe Shaphan and “discovered” in the temple to promote King Josiah’s reforms (2 Kings 22).
Deuteronomy expressly states that Moses wrote it and gave it to the Levites to keep beside the ark (31:24–26). Its covenant structure matches treaties of the Mosaic period, its laws assume life before the conquest, and the Jews always received it as Moses’ writing. Christ quoted it as Scripture with full authority. To call it a pious forgery would require Josiah’s reform to rest on a lie.