When people discover that I have published a commentary on Deuteronomy1, they often ask, "Why Deuteronomy?" The question, I have come to discern, has two sides to it. One is the lack of awareness of Deuteronomy's importance. A more practical one is the perception that the book of Deuteronomy is very difficult to understand.
Deuteronomy is a complex book. Repetitions, e.g., is a hallmark of the book. There is, however, order and art in this complexity. Let me set out here some suggestions that will help reduce the sense of confusion when reading the book of Deuteronomy.
Recognize that at least three generations of Israelites are involved in the "conversations" recorded in the book. There is:
1. GenA: The generation who left Egypt as adults during the Exodus. They appear, and are referred to, entirely in the historical recollections in the earlier parts of Deuteronomy. We would read about their disobedience, rebellion against Yahweh for which they were destined to wander the wilderness for forty years until their demise, except for Joshua and Caleb. In this commentary I shall refer to them, if they need to be distinguished, as GenA.
2. GenB: The generation who were children when they left Egypt, or who were born during the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. They were the ones to whom Moses' original expositions were addressed. They were the generation who conquered the lands of the Amorite kings east of the Jordan, and, when Moses addressed them, poised on the edge of the Promised Land to conquer it under Joshua's leadership. If I need to distinguish them in the commentary I shall refer to them as GenB.
3. GenN: The generation to whom the book of Deuteronomy was addressed. Moses' expositions had been recorded and ordered as we now have it in the book of Deuteronomy, but the book was addressed to a generation then living many years after Moses' original events. They are addressed directly only infrequently but they are there in the book. For example, when Deut 3:11 says,
Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites,"
we have to recognize that these words were not spoken to either Gen A or GenB, but to the Israelites living many years after them. I shall refer to them, if we need to, as GenN. But remember that GenN was a very assorted audience. They could have been the Israelites reading the words of the book during the heydays of Solomon. They would have understood the book's significance differently from the Jews reading it with the news of their northern brethren being hauled away into exile by the Assyrians still ringing in their ears. The significance of the book would be different again for the Jews reading it while the Babylonian army was approaching and the probability of their own exile was imminent.
In a sense, of course, we belong to this GenN. Because we live in cultures and circumstances vastly removed from them—especially, with the vast difference knowing Jesus as Lord makes—we will now read the book of Deuteronomy differently from the other past GenN audiences. The question of how we can or ought to do so is the challenge set before us.
Recognize that at least three speakers are involved in the "conversations" recorded in the book. There is,
1. Yahweh: Most of the time his voice is heard in Deuteronomy through the quotes in the reported accounts of His spokesman Moses. Nonetheless, Yahweh appears and speaks directly to Moses and Joshua in:
31:14, when Yahweh commands Moses and Joshua to present themselves at them at the Tent of Meeting for Joshua to be commissioned,
31:15-21, when Yahweh predicts that Israel would abandon his covenant with them and instructs Moses to write down the "song of witness against Israel,"
32:48-52, when Yahweh instructs Moses to leave and ascend to Mount Nebo where Moses would die,
34:5, when Yahweh calls Moses to survey the land of Canaan just prior to the latter's death.
2. Moses: All that he says in Deuteronomy are directed at GenB. Often Moses would quote conversations and words he had addressed in the past to GenA. When he does, however, he does so for the benefit of GenB. In reading these historical recollections, it is important that we first discern the context and point of the original conversation, and then the point of Moses recalling them for GenB.
3. The Narrator/Editor. As we have noted in our discussion of the authorship and origin of the book, thought Deuteronomy may be Mosaic in origin, the book owes its present form to someone(/s) living in the conquered land some years after the events. This person—whom we shall call the Narrator—does not identify himself, but we have to take seriously the work of his anonymous hand. Take, e.g., Moses' speeches in the book. In the present form of the book, Deuteronomy is composed of three speeches by Moses: 1:1-4:40, 4:44-29:1 & 29:2-32:47. It seems odd that Moses should structure his addresses so disproportionately, so that his second, and often assumed to be the main, address should be nearly five times the length of the first, and well over four times the third. Furthermore, it would be difficult to imagine how any teacher would consider working through the pedagogically dense and emotionally demanding material in 12:1-28:68 in one go.
To be sure, the narrator does not tell us that Moses gave three addresses. What he has done is leave us four—what commentators call—"headings" at 1:1-5, 4:44-5:1, 29:1-2a, and 33:1-2a, which has the effect of partitioning the book into three addresses.
While convenient as labels (which we shall continue to use in this commentary) it is important to recognize that these are not addresses in the sense that Moses went out to the people one day and spoke 1:6-4:40, and on another day spoke from 5:1-28:68, and so on. The narrator's concern is to record what Moses taught. This does not necessarily carry with it the demand that he has to record them in the order—chronological or logical—in which they were given. Careful analysis of the book shows that he did not; rather he had reorganized most of the material into a powerful literary presentation instead of an oral one (as Moses' original would have been). A narrator he may be, a minute secretary he is not. This literary presentation is part of the narrator's voice. As the person who, under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit, gave Moses' teachings the form it now has in the canon of our Scripture, his voice is just as authoritative as Moses. This observation, of course, raises all sorts of implications for reading the text; implications that can only be considered as specific texts are treated. Nevertheless, unless we take cognizance of this, we will miss much of what is going on in the text we are reading.
Recognize that the book of Deuteronomy is, from a stylistic point of view, a highly complex piece of narrative literature (probably the most complex work to be found in the Old Testament). This is particularly obvious in the Hebrew text. Repetitions are rampant, which (when their purposes are not appreciated) is what contributes to the sense of being lost for readers of the English texts. I shall try to navigate this difficulty with diagrams (see The Structure of Deuteronomy below) as much as possible so that you get to see that the repetitions are, at least, not chaotic, even if you cannot yet fully appreciate the manner of the writer's telling.
Remember that Deuteronomy was originally addressed to the ancient Israelites. Moses and the narrator could assume that they knew their history and customs and rites, and were existentially engaged with—and emotionally affected by—them. Most of us are only vaguely, if at all, familiar with these things. I hope the commentary, and all the other aids and resources, provided here in ALBERITH will help you grasp something of what is involved and what it can mean for life in your circumstances.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2016