Notes for Deut 4:1-4

1. Mayes suggests that the opening words "perform a transitional function and is frequently used to mark the turning point from history to the lessons to be drawn from history as laws governing present behaviour." ("Deuteronomy 4 and the Literary Criticism of Deuteronomy," Journal for Biblical Literature 100 (1981): 30)

2. "Decrees," chuqqim, refers to what has been engraved or inscribed (chaqqa), while the "laws," mishpatim, refers to the rules and verdicts issued by a judge (shopet). In traditional Jewish exegesis the term is used of commandments for which the reason is not obvious, such as the dietary laws, while mishpatim refers to laws whose logic and purpose are self-evident, and which societies would have devised even if they had not been commanded by God (see J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy (JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996), 43). The book of Deuteronomy uses a variety of words to refer to the commandments, often without any distinction. The noun-pair—here, and frequently elsewhere in Deuteronomy—serves as a hendiadys for Moses' instructions. The expression "decrees and laws" occurs also in 4:5, 8, 14, 15; 5:1, 31; 6:1, 20; 7:11; 11:1, & 12:1). See also, B. Lindars, "Torah in Deuteronomy," in Words and Meanings: Essays presented to David Winton Thomas, ed. by P. R. Ackroyd & B. Lindars (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), p.127.

3. J. G. McConville, Deuteronomy (Apollos Old Testament Commentary, 5; Leicester: Apollos, 2002), 103.

4. C. J. H. Wright, Deuteronomy (New International Biblical Commentary; Peabody, MS: Hendricksen, 1996), 59.

5. The command not to add or subtract from the terms or laws that have been given was a common feature in many Ancient Near Eastern treaties and law codes; cf., P. C. Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy (New International Commentary on the Old Testament; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 129-30.