Deuteronomy

A Commentary

Richard D. Nelson

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9780664229542
• eBook ISBN: 9781611645071
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

This volume, a part of the Old Testament Library series, explores the book of Deuteronomy.

The Old Testament Library provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing.

March Forth 1:1–18

Setting the Scene

1:1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab.^a 2 It is eleven days from Horeb by the Mount Seir road to Kadesh-barnea. 3 It was in the fortieth year in the eleventh month on the first day of the month that Moses spoke to the Israelites according to everything that Yahweh had commanded him in regard to them,^b 4 after he had struck down Sihon king of the Amorites who ruled^c in Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan who ruled in Ashtaroth, in Edrei.^d 5 On the other side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began^e to state clearly^f this law, saying:

6 Yahweh our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Set out, march forth,^g and go into the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors^h in the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negeb, and the seacoast—the land of the Canaanitesⁱ—and the Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates River. 8 See, I hereby give^j the land over to you. Go in and take over the land that Yahweh swore^k to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them^l and to their descendants after them.”

Moses Appoints Judges

9 At that time I said to you, “I cannot carry you by myself. 10 Yahweh your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as many as the stars in the sky. 11 May Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times larger than you are and bless you, just as he promised you! 12 How can I carry^m the weight and burden of you and your bickering by myself? 13 Choose for each of your tribes men who are wise, understanding, and experiencedⁿ and I will appoint them as your leaders.”^o

14 You answered me, “What you have proposed to do is good.”

15 So I took the leaders of your tribes,^p men who were wise and experienced, and appointed them as leaders over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers for your tribes.^q 16 I commanded your judges at that time, “Hear out^r your kindred and judge fairly between any person and a kindred or a resident alien. 17 Do not show partiality in judgment. Hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Any matter that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me and I will hear it.” 18 So I commanded you at that time about all the things that you should do.

a. Alternate translation joining v. 1b to v. 2 as an itinerary: “Through the wilderness …, it is eleven days … by the Mount Seir road.”

b. Alternate translation: “to speak to them.”

c. This understands yāšab as “sat on the throne” rather than as “lived” (3:2; 4:46; cf. Amos 1:8 with Amos 2:3).

d. Another option is to connect the end of v. 4 with the first phrase of v. 5: “in Edrei on the other side of the Jordan.” MT “in Edrei” (with no “and”) may be construed as the location of Og’s defeat (cf. 3:1).

e. The verb y’l hip‘il implies a deliberate and decisive initiative in a new situation. See A. Kapelrud, TDOT 5:357–58.

f. This translation is required by the context. The pi‘el of b’r is also used for writing something down clearly (27:8; Hab 2:2). Other possible translations are “explain” or “expound.”

g. The verbal hendiadys with pānâ (turn) implies volition and decision (cf. vv. 24, 40). Lākem is a centripetal or reflexive dative, indicating that an action has a decisive effect on the grammatical subject: “make your way,” IBHS 11.2.10d.

h. Alternate translation connecting the pronomial suffix to “hill country” rather than to “Amorites”: “all its neighboring territories.”

i. Taking this expression as a summary of v. 7a conforms with the masoretic punctuation. An alternate translation would understand “the land of Canaan” as a reference only to “the seacoast.”

j. This translation reflects the performative speech indicated by the perfect tense, in which a legal transfer takes place in the speaking of the formula, IBHS 30.5.1d. The preposition lipnê implies “at your disposal” (cf. 2:31; 7:2, 23).

k. Follows MT, Syr., and Vulg. This is smoothed out to “I swore” by OG and Sam.

l. Follows MT and OG. Because the land was not actually given to the patriarchs, Sam. eliminates “to them and.”

m. Modal use of the imperfect to denote capability, IBHS 31.4c.

n. Here, and in v. 15, the translation construes the participle actively in the sense of “those who know,” corresponding to the parallel notions of “wise” and “understanding.” It is possible to understand the participle in a passive way as “known” in the sense of “reputable.”

o. The bêt of identity (beth essestiae) indicates “in the capacity of being your leaders,” IBHS 11.2.53.

p. Follows MT, Sam., Syr., and Vulg. This phrase is awkward—these men have not yet actually become tribal leaders—and is probably a secondary expansion. OG simplifies to “I took from you.”

q. Follows MT and Sam. in reading lšbṭykm. OG has the phonetically similar lšpṭykm, “as your judges,” a confusion of labials, probably reinforced by contamination from the next verse.

r. That is, hear both sides of the argument; literally “listen between” (cf. Judg 11:10). I use the translation “kindred” for the singular and plural of “brother.”

Verse 1a is the first heading in an all-encompassing system of rubrics that organizes the final form of Deuteronomy. The other headings are 4:44–45 “This is the law”; 28:69 [ET 29:1], “These are the words of the covenant”; and 33:1, “This is the blessing.” Verses 1–5 present an expanded introduction to an address by Moses that begins with v. 6 and is eventually interrupted by the action of 4:41–43. This introduction lays out the dramatic setting of Deuteronomy, just before the invasion, and establishes its genre as a valedictory testament. The dramatic moment is fixed in time by references to the exodus (“fortieth year”), Horeb, wilderness experience (Kadesh-barnea), and conquest east of the Jordan. The section stresses that the words that follow are indeed the words of Moses, authorized by Yahweh and shaped for easy comprehension (note f). Deuteronomy is not the promulgation of some new law, but an exposition and reaffirmation of the law that had already been given (vv. 3, 5).

Verse 6 reports that the subsequent narrative is a “retelling” of a story already known. For the fictional audience these events are something they have witnessed personally. For their part, the readers of Deuteronomy are also expected to be familiar with these traditions. Moses begins his long discourse with a claim to the land based on a geographical catalog and a divine conveyance rooted in ancestral promise (vv. 6–8). These verses also initiate the overall pattern of chapters 1–3 as one of imperative (“set out, march forth, and go”) followed by journey and action. However, immediate obedience to the command of vv. 7–8 is delayed by preliminary preparations (vv. 9–18). This opening narrative establishes a juridical framework for the application of Deuteronomy’s law in the land and partially answers the need for successors to Moses’ various leadership roles. Israel enters the land as a numerous and organized people committed to the principles of wisdom and justice.¹

[1–5] The perspective of this introduction views Moses as a literary character, depicted in the third person (cf. 5:1; 27:1, 9, 11; 31:1, 7, 10, 25, 30; 32:44). Verse 5 brackets the paragraph by reversing the grammatical sequence of v. 1: verb followed by location. It also repeats “on the other side of the Jordan” and more narrowly identifies “these words” as “this law.” The final form of vv. 1–5 exhibits a concentric pattern: “Moses spoke” (v. 1a), place (v. 1b), time (v. 3a), “Moses spoke” (v. 3b), time (v. 4), place (v. 5a), “Moses began to state clearly” (v. 5b).

Even so, the section reflects a complex history of composition. Successive additions have expanded the core nominal sentence of the title (v. la), piling up information in a composite way. These supplements serve to localize the address of Moses into various redactional horizons. It is difficult to reconstruct a detailed history of these overlapping and competing additions. Nonetheless, it seems clear that vv. 1a, 4, 5 reveal the interests of Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History (DH), while vv. 1b, 2, 3 reflect the horizon of the Pentateuch as a whole. Geographically and temporally, vv. la, 4–5 look forward to lawgiving and conquest (“across the Jordan,” Sihon and Og, Moab), while vv. 1b, 2–3 look back to the wilderness and Kadesh-barnea.²

The “all Israel” theme of v. 1a emphasizes the essential unity of the nation as the audience of Moses’ address (5:1; 27:9, 14; 29:1 [E 2]; 31:1, 7, 11, 30; 32:45). This theme also brackets the entire book (cf. 1:1 with 34:12). The overloaded list of places with prepositions (v. 1b) sounds as if what was formerly an itinerary has been converted into a generalized geographic location. The place names are difficult to identify, and scholars disagree as to whether they reflect wilderness trek stations or sites around the Mount Nebo area. As localities in the wilderness, they would be at odds with the Beth-peor locale of 3:29; 4:46a; 34:6 and with the Moab situation of v. 5. Mapped as an itinerary, they seem to look backward in time from the Arabah via Paran to places nearer Horeb.³ In any case, the literary effect is one of setting the scene in history, pulling present and past together. The text emphasizes that the speech of Moses takes place “in the wilderness” and not yet in the land, illustrating this fact by a list of wilderness names.

The timetable and itinerary of v. 2 are a geographical parenthesis, since Israel is not at Kadesh-barnea when Moses speaks. Roads were often designated by their destination, so the “Mount Seir road” would be a route from Horeb that continued beyond Kadesh-barnea onward to Seir. This notice does point forward to the upcoming narratives that begin with 1:19 (“to Kadesh-barnea”) and repeatedly highlight that location (1:46; 2:14; 9:23). Seir, too, reappears in 1:44; 2:1, 5. The rhetorical point is that a wilderness journey that could have taken a mere matter of days turned out to consume an entire generation (v. 3; 1:46; 2:1, 14).

Verse 3 is part of a chain of dates involving Josh 4:19 and 5:10. It is usually related to the Priestly Writer and linked to 32:48–52, chapter 34, and the itinerary fragments of 10:6–7. The beginning of “the eleventh month” of “the fortieth year” means that Israel will soon be crossing the Jordan. This date connects Deuteronomy to the rest of the Pentateuch and emphasizes that it is a testament spoken on the very day of Moses’ death.⁴ Moreover, the “words of Moses” (v. 1) are unequivocally designated as Yahweh’s words. In contrast to the calendrical “when” of v. 3, v. 4 offers a narrative “when” that foreshadows 2:26–3:7 and also signals that the crossing is at hand.

Verse 5 specifies that “the words” of v. 1 consist precisely in an act of lawgiving. It aptly points to what follows as explicated law, characterized by the motivations and comments typical of Deuteronomy. The designation of the locale as Moab prepares for 28:69 [ET 29:1]; 34:1, 5, 6, 8. “Began” forms a unifying bracket with “finished” in 31:1; 32:45. The phrase “this law” will be picked up by the new major heading of 4:44. At this point the law is oral, a speech delivered before death (4:44–45). This n...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Bibliography
• Introduction
• Commentary
• Index of Ancient Sources
• Index of Modern Authors