Deuteronomy 27:14-26

Appointment of the Levites to Curse

According to 11 13 both a blessing and a curse were to be pronounced, here we have only curses, twelve in number. There Leviwas one of six tribes appointed to bless; here the Levites, in religious distinction from all the other tribes, are to pronounce the curses. Further, the 12 curses are not confined to sins dealt with in the Code of D; the objects of only 7 are forbidden in D, of 6 in E, Exodus 20:2-23, of 1 in J, Exodus 34, and of as many as Deuteronomy 27:9 in H, Leviticus 17-26. The inferences are reasonable that this passage is not from the same hand as the preceding (i.e. not from E) and not from D.

The inclusion of so many sins forbidden only in H does not necessarily imply that the list of curses is exilic (Berth.). It may be from a source independent of all those documents, some national or local liturgy; and Meyer Luther (Die Israeliten, 552) suggest that it was in use at the sanctuary of Shechem. Nor is the hand which introduced it here that of D, but of a late editor, for note the simple term Levitesinstead of D's the priests the Levitesand the phrase unto all the men of Israel, found elsewhere only in Joshua 10:24 in a passage with many editorial elements. D's phrase is all Israel(see, above Deuteronomy 27:9).