Deuteronomy 1 - Introduction

General Title to the whole Book

It dates the following wordsor discourses by Moses, as beyond, i.e. E. of, Jordan, in the end of the fortieth yearof the wanderings, after the smiting of Sîḥôn and -Ôg. Like some other titles in the O.T. (e.g. Jeremiah 1:1-3) this is composite, as appears from (1) the various styles in which it is written, Deuteronomy 1:1 aand 4 forming one sentence and marked by deuteronomic phrases, while Deuteronomy 1:3, a separate sentence in the middle of the other, is in the distinctive style of P (see I.P.pp. 58, 71, 204); and (2) the discrepancy between the locality stated in 1 a, beyond Jordan(which is further defined by Deuteronomy 1:5 as the land of Moaband by Deuteronomy 3:29 etc. as the gai, or glen, opposite Beth-Pe-or, near the N. E. corner of the Dead Sea) and the localities in 1 b, 2, which, so far as they can be identified, lay in the region S. and S.W. of the Dead Sea. There are thus three successive strata in the Title: (a) 1 a, 4, entitling apparently all the discourses and legislation in the Bk of Deut.; (b) 3, probably added by either P or a Priestly editor when Deut. was joined to the rest of the Pent.; and (c) 1 b, 2, best explained as a note or gloss erroneously transferred here from another place (see below), (a) and (b) together separate the -Fifth Book of Moses" from its predecessor. Some indeed take Deuteronomy 1:1 as retrospective, understanding by the phrase, these be the words which Moses spake to all Israel, the sayings ascribed to him in Ex., Lev. and Num., and thus explain the apparent references in 1 b, 2 to the region of Israel's earlier wanderings. But this theory is precluded by the fact that the Bk of Num. closes with a retrospective statement and by the absence from Lev. and Num. of words of Moses connected with any of the localities named in 1 b.