Book of Deuteronomy

The Book of Deuteronomy (from Greek Δευτερονόμιον, Deuteronómion, "second law"; Hebrew: דְּבָרִים, Devārīm, "[spoken] words") is the fifth book of the Bible, and is considered canonical scripture by both Christians and Jews.

• I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day.
  • Deuteronomy (NRSV), 4:26

• Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God s one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
  • Deuteronomy (NRSV), 6:4-5
• Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people whch are round about you; (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you).
  • Deuteronomy (NRSV), 6:14-15

• And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with Manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might thee know what man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
  • Deuteronomy (NRSV), 8:3

• Deuteronomy prohibits cult prostitution because the Hebrews were adopting the practice from their neighbors.
  • David F. Greenberg, The Construction of Homosexuality, University of Chicago Press, (Aug 15, 1990), p. 95

• Josiah “broke down the houses of the qdeshim, that were in the house of Yahweh, where the women were weaving coverings for the Asherah.” It was during his reign that a book of the Law, thought by most scholars to have been Deuteronomy, was conveniently discovered in the Temple. Although some of the manuscript may have been written earlier, many scholars think it was forged during Josiah’s reign in order to legitimate his reforms. It is in Deuteronomy that the prohibition of cult prostitution appears.
  • Ibid, p. 140

• Among the earliest proponents of the northern-origin theory were A. C. Welch and A. Alt. The latter saw in Deuteronomy a restoration programme drawn up in the northern kingdom some time after the catastrophe of 721 BC, i.e., the destruction of the kingdom by the Assyrians. However, Alt had shed no light on how the book arrived at the Jerusalem temple in Josiah's reign. This is the question that Nicholson wishes to answer in a very interesting monograph. Nicholson's view is that the the ancient core of the Deuteronomic traditions was preserved at the major shrine in the North in the period of the judges. 'Behold there is the feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh' (Judges 21.19) may be a reference to an annual covenant festival. Shechem, Gilgal and Bethel were perhaps other such centers of covenant traditions.
  • "Ancient Judaism: Biblical Criticism from Max Weber to the Present", by Irving M. Zeitlin, (1984)

• As the Israelites proceed toward the promised land, they meet up with the Midianites. Following orders from God, they slay the males, burn their city, plunder the livestock, and take the women and children captive. When they return to Moses, he is enraged because they spared the women, some of whom had led the Israelites to worship rival gods. So he tells his soldiers to complete the genocide and to reward themselves with nubile sex slaves they may rape at their pleasure: “Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.” In Deuteronomy 20 and 21, God gives the Israelites a blanket policy for dealing with cities that don’t accept them as overlords: smite the males with the edge of the sword and abduct the cattle, women, and children. Of course, a man with a beautiful new captive faces a problem: since he has just murdered her parents and brothers, she may not be in the mood for love. God anticipates this nuisance and offers the following solution: the captor should shave her head, pare her nails, and imprison her in his house for a month while she cries her eyes out. Then he may go in and rape her. With a designated list of other enemies (Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites), the genocide has to be total: “Thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them . . . as the Lord thy God has commanded thee.” Joshua puts this directive into practice when he invades Canaan and sacks the city of Jericho. After the walls came tumbling down, his soldiers “utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.” More earth is scorched as Joshua “smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded.”
  • Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature (2012)

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Book of Deuteronomy