Deuteronomy according to puppets…
Deuteronomy
The name Deuteronomy comes from a Greek mistranslation of the Hebrew name of the book.
The Hebrew name means “A copy of this law.”
The Greek “Deuteronomy” means “Second Law.”
In the New Testament, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy more than any other Old Testament book.
The Suzerain-Vassal Treaty
The structure of Deuteronomy as a whole is laid out in the way ancient peoples documented their legal agreements between one party and another.
Deuteronomy fits neatly into the structure of what is known as a “Suzerain-Vassal Treaty.”
In the Ancient Near East, the Suzerain was the greater ruling party and the vassal/vassals were the lesser party/parties who were subject to the Suzerain.
Agreements between the two parties followed specific procedures.
Elements of a Vassal Treaty
1. Preamble: Identifies the parties of the treaty (Deut. 1:1)
2. Historical Prologue: Describes past relationship between the parties (Deut. 1:2-11:32)
3. Stipulations/Obligations: Assumed by both parties (Deut. 12:1-26:15)
4. Deposit and periodic Reading: (Deut. 10:1-5; 31:9-13, 24-26)
5. Witnesses: Usually gods, but heaven and earth here (Deut. 4:26; 30:19; 31:28), and oaths sworn before them (Deut. 26: 16-19; 29:10-29)
6. List of Blessings/Curses: For obedience or disobedience to stipulations (Deut. 27:1-28:68)
Side note:
Modern English translators have sometimes found awkward passages in the Bible that they felt would be offensive to many Christian readers, so they sometimes rephrased some rather blunt and at times crass language into more polite renderings.
Moses Recounts the History of the Wilderness Wanderings (1:1–3:29; 9:7–10:11)
The first major portion of Deuteronomy is made up of Moses retelling the history of Israel after they left Egypt.
Leaving Mount Horeb
Appointment of leaders
Sending out spies
Israel’s rebellion
Wandering in the wilderness
Defeat of Sihon
Defeat of Og
Dividing up the land
Moses forbidden to enter the Promised Land
The golden calf
New tablets
Moses Recounts the Law of the LORD (4:1–9:6; 10:12–26:15)
The Ten Commandments
The Shema
Driving out nations
Don’t forget the LORD
Love and obey the LORD
Setting up the Tabernacle
Don’t worship other gods
Clean and unclean food
Tithes
The Sabbath Year
The Festivals
Wartime
Marrying foreigners
Courts, kings, and prophets
Miscellaneous laws
The Shema (6:4-9)
The “Shema” contains one of the daily prayers of the Jews.
"Sh'ma Yisra'el. YHWH Eloheinu. YHWH Ehad."
“Shema” means “Hear!” or “Listen!”
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
Or “Hear, O Israel! The LORD [is] our God, the LORD alone.”
Or “Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God [is] the LORD alone.”
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”
In the New Testament, Jesus said that this commandment was the greatest commandment of them all.
If you keep this one law, you are keeping all of God’s laws.
If you break this one law, you are breaking all of God’s laws.
The King (17:14-20)
Deuteronomy places strict rules on the kings of Israel.
The king must not be a foreigner.
The king must not have many horses.
The king must not have many wives.
The king must not have much silver or gold.
The king must carry a copy of the Law with him to read every day.
Why all the rules for Israel’s kings when Israel had no king at the time?
Possibly because by the time the scribes finished putting all these laws together into one unified "Law of Moses," so much time had passed that Israel actually did have kings at that point, so special emphasis may have been placed on these kingly commands because of this.
We see later how Israel's kings pretty much broke all these rules all of the time.
The Prophet (18:14-22)
“I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth.”
Why are prophets needed?
Because Israel demanded an intermediary at Sinai.
The prophet of God must not:
Practice sorcery or divination
Say God said something that God didn’t say
Speak in the name of other gods
The test of a true prophet:
If what the prophet says does not come true, he must have been lying
Blessings and Curses (26:16–30:20)
Moses commanded the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin to stand on top of Mount Gerizim once they had entered the Promised Land and pronounce the blessings that would take affect if Israel was faithful to the Covenant.
Moses commanded the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali to stand on top of Mount Ebal once they had entered the Promised Land and pronounce the curses that would take affect if Israel was unfaithful to the Covenant.
Israel’s Rebellion Predicted (31:1-29)
Moses wrote down The Law of the LORD and placed it with the Ark of the Covenant for future generations to read.
Moses told Joshua to “be strong and courageous” as he would be the new leader of Israel.
Moses predicted that after his own death Israel would surely turn away from God and worship other gods.
Moses said that God would eventually destroy their land because of this.
The Song of Moses (31:30–32:47)
This song is thought to be the oldest text within Deuteronomy.
It explains that in the beginning, “El Elyon” divided up the peoples of the earth and gave them land according to the number of “the sons of God.”
This song seems to indicate:
The gods of other nations were living deities
God allowed the different peoples to practice polytheism.
Israel’s God is above all of these other deities
He chose Israel out of all the peoples to be His chosen people.
It was in God’s plan that other nations would worship other gods, but that Israel would worship Him alone.
Other texts show Israel’s role in the world to be to introduce the rest of the peoples of the earth to their God, but they often failed at this task.
Paul addresses this issue in the New Testament, in Acts 17:26-30…
“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands…so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. […] we should not think that the divine being is…an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”
-- Acts 17:26-30
Moses Blesses the Tribes (32:48–33:29)
Reuben
“Let Reuben live and not die…”
Judah
“Help him!”
Levi
He guards your covenant
He teaches your precepts to Israel
He offers incense before you
Simeon
Not mentioned... perhaps because by the time the scribes got around to writing this down no one was repeating blessings for Simeon, because Simeon had been absorbed by Judah.
Benjamin
He is a shield
Joseph
All good blessings go to Joseph
He is a prince among his brothers
Ephraim and Manasseh are very numerous
Zebulun and Issachar
Zebulun “goes out”
Issachar stays in his tent
Both will be rich
Gad
He chose the best land
He’s a leader
He’s a ferocious lion
Dan
He’s a lion’s cub
Naphtali
“…he will inherit southward to the lake.”
Asher
Your brothers will favor you
You will be very strong
The Death of Moses (34:1-12)
The end of Deuteronomy is seen as a eulogy honoring Moses.
The text says that Moses climbed to the top of Mount Nebo and viewed the Promised Land, but did not enter it.
He died on top of the mountain at the age of 120, but the text says that despite his age he was still “vibrant” and full of life.
The text also says that God himself buried Moses and that no one knows where he is buried.
The text says that since then, no prophet has ever been as great as Moses.
Deuteronomy 28:30 is an example of this. Modern translators have that verse read: "You will betroth a wife, but another man will lie with her." However, in Hebrew the phrase we translate as "lie with her" is much stronger and is not considered a very nice word at all.
In fact, the closest English equivalent would be the "f-word."
So yeah... that's in the Bible...
Moses Recounts the History of the Wilderness Wanderings (1:1–3:29; 9:7–10:11)
The first major portion of Deuteronomy is made up of Moses retelling the history of Israel after they left Egypt.
Leaving Mount Horeb
Appointment of leaders
Sending out spies
Israel’s rebellion
Wandering in the wilderness
Defeat of Sihon
Defeat of Og
Dividing up the land
Moses forbidden to enter the Promised Land
The golden calf
New tablets
Moses Recounts the Law of the LORD (4:1–9:6; 10:12–26:15)
The Ten Commandments
The Shema
Driving out nations
Don’t forget the LORD
Love and obey the LORD
Setting up the Tabernacle
Don’t worship other gods
Clean and unclean food
Tithes
The Sabbath Year
The Festivals
Wartime
Marrying foreigners
Courts, kings, and prophets
Miscellaneous laws
The Shema (6:4-9)
The “Shema” contains one of the daily prayers of the Jews.
"Sh'ma Yisra'el. YHWH Eloheinu. YHWH Ehad."
“Shema” means “Hear!” or “Listen!”
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
Or “Hear, O Israel! The LORD [is] our God, the LORD alone.”
Or “Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God [is] the LORD alone.”
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”
In the New Testament, Jesus said that this commandment was the greatest commandment of them all.
If you keep this one law, you are keeping all of God’s laws.
If you break this one law, you are breaking all of God’s laws.
The King (17:14-20)
Deuteronomy places strict rules on the kings of Israel.
The king must not be a foreigner.
The king must not have many horses.
The king must not have many wives.
The king must not have much silver or gold.
The king must carry a copy of the Law with him to read every day.
Why all the rules for Israel’s kings when Israel had no king at the time?
Possibly because by the time the scribes finished putting all these laws together into one unified "Law of Moses," so much time had passed that Israel actually did have kings at that point, so special emphasis may have been placed on these kingly commands because of this.
We see later how Israel's kings pretty much broke all these rules all of the time.
The Prophet (18:14-22)
“I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth.”
Why are prophets needed?
Because Israel demanded an intermediary at Sinai.
The prophet of God must not:
Practice sorcery or divination
Say God said something that God didn’t say
Speak in the name of other gods
The test of a true prophet:
If what the prophet says does not come true, he must have been lying
Blessings and Curses (26:16–30:20)
Moses commanded the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin to stand on top of Mount Gerizim once they had entered the Promised Land and pronounce the blessings that would take affect if Israel was faithful to the Covenant.
Moses commanded the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali to stand on top of Mount Ebal once they had entered the Promised Land and pronounce the curses that would take affect if Israel was unfaithful to the Covenant.
Israel’s Rebellion Predicted (31:1-29)
Moses wrote down The Law of the LORD and placed it with the Ark of the Covenant for future generations to read.
Moses told Joshua to “be strong and courageous” as he would be the new leader of Israel.
Moses predicted that after his own death Israel would surely turn away from God and worship other gods.
Moses said that God would eventually destroy their land because of this.
The Song of Moses (31:30–32:47)
This song is thought to be the oldest text within Deuteronomy.
It explains that in the beginning, “El Elyon” divided up the peoples of the earth and gave them land according to the number of “the sons of God.”
This song seems to indicate:
The gods of other nations were living deities
God allowed the different peoples to practice polytheism.
Israel’s God is above all of these other deities
He chose Israel out of all the peoples to be His chosen people.
It was in God’s plan that other nations would worship other gods, but that Israel would worship Him alone.
Other texts show Israel’s role in the world to be to introduce the rest of the peoples of the earth to their God, but they often failed at this task.
Paul addresses this issue in the New Testament, in Acts 17:26-30…
“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands…so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. […] we should not think that the divine being is…an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”
-- Acts 17:26-30
Moses Blesses the Tribes (32:48–33:29)
Reuben
“Let Reuben live and not die…”
Judah
“Help him!”
Levi
He guards your covenant
He teaches your precepts to Israel
He offers incense before you
Simeon
Not mentioned... perhaps because by the time the scribes got around to writing this down no one was repeating blessings for Simeon, because Simeon had been absorbed by Judah.
Benjamin
He is a shield
Joseph
All good blessings go to Joseph
He is a prince among his brothers
Ephraim and Manasseh are very numerous
Zebulun and Issachar
Zebulun “goes out”
Issachar stays in his tent
Both will be rich
Gad
He chose the best land
He’s a leader
He’s a ferocious lion
Dan
He’s a lion’s cub
Naphtali
“…he will inherit southward to the lake.”
Asher
Your brothers will favor you
You will be very strong
The Death of Moses (34:1-12)
The end of Deuteronomy is seen as a eulogy honoring Moses.
The text says that Moses climbed to the top of Mount Nebo and viewed the Promised Land, but did not enter it.He died on top of the mountain at the age of 120, but the text says that despite his age he was still “vibrant” and full of life.
The text also says that God himself buried Moses and that no one knows where he is buried.
The text says that since then, no prophet has ever been as great as Moses.
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