C. Chs. 12 26. The Statutes and Judgements
The Deuteronomic Code, of which all the rest of the book is the
religious and historical introduction and enforcement, consists of
some seventy separate laws, connected by and mingled with exhortations
and religious formulas in a style similar to that of t... [ Continue Reading ]
_These are the statutes and the judgements_ As in Deuteronomy 6:1 but
_minus_the Commandment or Charge (Miṣwah) because this, the
introductory enforcement of the religious principles on which the laws
are based, is now finished.
_observe to do_ See on Deuteronomy 4:6; Deuteronomy 5:1.
_God of thy... [ Continue Reading ]
First Statement of the Law of the One Altar
In the Pl. address, with one later insertion, Deuteronomy 12:3, and
possibly another Deuteronomy 12:5 _b_; the rest is a unity. It
appropriately opens with the command to destroy all the places at
which the nations worship, whom Israel is about to disposs... [ Continue Reading ]
I. First Division of the Laws: on Worship and Religious Institutions
Deuteronomy 12:2 to Deuteronomy 16:17; Deuteronomy 16:21 to
Deuteronomy 17:7
Some 16 laws occupying because of their subject the premier place in
the Code.
2 28. The Law of the One Altar and its Corollary
As we have seen the law... [ Continue Reading ]
Second Statement of the Law of the Single Sanctuary
With a different preface from the first, contrasting Israel's duty
after settlement to concentrate on the one altar, not with the
practice of the Canaanites, but with that of Israel itself in the time
of the wanderings: for the rest substantially... [ Continue Reading ]
Third Statement of the Law of the One Sanctuary
In the Sg. address and with phrases characteristic of that form. In
substance much the same as the two previous statements, the
_zebaḥim_being curiously omitted from the list of offerings.
Deuteronomy 12:15 f. are clearly a later insertion. We see fro... [ Continue Reading ]
Practical Corollary to the Law of the One Altar
Originally among the Semites as among some other races all slaughter
of domestic animals was sacramental 1 [132] : cp. the Heb. and Arab.
word -for altar, lit. _slaughter-place_(see on Deuteronomy 12:3). But
if this law was still to prevail when sacri... [ Continue Reading ]
Transition to the Laws in 13 (and those in Deuteronomy 16:21 to
Deuteronomy 17:7)
When settled in W. Palestine Israel shall not inquire into the manner
of the worship of the local deities, and so be enticed to imitate it
in the worship of their own God, for the Canaanites in their worship
practise... [ Continue Reading ]
(Deuteronomy 13:1 in Heb.) is remarkable here; and would seem more in
place at the beginning of the section before 29. The text is not
certain; LXX A harmonises to Sg. throughout, but other versions
confirm the Heb., though variously (LXX B _you_and the rest Sg., but
Sam. _thee_and the rest Pl.), in... [ Continue Reading ]