Chapter I: Preface

An adequate exposition of Deuteronomy requires the discussion of many topics. The author has endeavoured to keep these various claims in view: at the same time the limits of the volume have dictated selection and compression. In particular, a chapter on miracle in the Old Testament has been wholly omitted. That topic cannot be said to have a peculiar or exclusive relation to Deuteronomy. Yet the writer would have wished to include in the volume a reasoned statement of the grounds on which he owns and asserts the supernatural in Old Testament history; all the more because he admits critical views which have sometimes been associated, and still oftener supposed to be associated, with rationalistic views generally. For the present this discussion is postponed. In some instances, also, the writer has been obliged to content himself with statements on critical questions more brief than he could have desired; but it is hoped that enough has been said to explain the position assumed, and to make clear the main lines of argument.

The task of adjusting the matter to the space would have been easier if it had seemed legitimate to omit the critical and archæological questions on the one hand, or, on the other, to leave untouched the bearing of the thoughts and Laws of Deuteronomy on the religious history of the race, and on the dangers and duties of our own age. But an exposition of Deuteronomy must endeavour to open the appropriate outlooks in all these directions.

Owing to the author's distance from London the work of passing the book through the press has necessarily been left wholly to others. It is hoped that oversights which may have arisen from this cause will be pardoned.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE
THE AUTHORSHIP AND AGE OF DEUTERONOMY 1

CHAPTER II

THE HISTORIC SETTING OF DEUTERONOMY 37

CHAPTER III

THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT 48
DEUT. i.-iii.

CHAPTER IV

THE DECALOGUE--ITS FORM 60
DEUT. v. 1-21.

CHAPTER V

THE DECALOGUE--ITS SUBSTANCE 73

CHAPTER VI

THE MEDIATORSHIP OF MOSES 106
DEUT. v. 22-33.

CHAPTER VII

LOVE TO GOD THE LAW OF LIFE 116
DEUT. vi. 4, 5.

CHAPTER VIII

EDUCATION--MOSAIC VIEW 146
DEUT. vi. 6-25.

CHAPTER IX

THE BAN 168
DEUT. vii.

CHAPTER X

THE BAN IN MODERN LIFE 184

CHAPTER XI

THE BREAD OF THE SOUL 202
DEUT. viii.

CHAPTER XII

ISRAEL'S ELECTION, AND MOTIVES FOR FAITHFULNESS 218
DEUT. ix.-xi.

CHAPTER XIII

LAW AND RELIGION 239
DEUT. xii.-xxvi.

CHAPTER XIV

LAWS OF SACRIFICE 253
DEUT. xii.

CHAPTER XV

THE RELATION OF OLD TESTAMENT SACRIFICE TO CHRISTIANITY 267

CHAPTER XVI

LAWS AGAINST IDOLATROUS ACTS AND CUSTOMS 277
DEUT. xiii., xiv.

CHAPTER XVII

THE SPEAKERS FOR GOD--I. THE KING 295
DEUT. xvii. 14-20

CHAPTER XVIII

SPEAKERS FOR GOD--II. THE PRIEST 308
DEUT. xviii. 1-8

CHAPTER XIX

SPEAKERS FOR GOD--III. THE PROPHET 334
DEUT. xviii. 9-22

CHAPTER XX

THE ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF ISRAELITE LIFE 355

CHAPTER XXI

JUSTICE IN ISRAEL 377

CHAPTER XXII

LAWS OF PURITY (CHASTITY AND MARRIAGE) 396

CHAPTER XXIII

LAWS OF KINDNESS 411

CHAPTER XXIV

MOSES' FAREWELL SPEECHES 433
DEUT. iv. 1-40, xxvii.-xxx.

CHAPTER XXV

THE SONG AND BLESSING OF MOSES 452
DEUT. xxxii., xxxiii.

CHAPTER XXVI

MOSES' CHARACTER AND DEATH 471