The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 66

such 11s might naturally be adopted in I\ hortatory discourse (it occurs frequently in the P~alms) instead of ':J'fW.? (Exod. niii. 12), the form more suitable fordidactio composition ; •and indeed this explanation accounts for the larger number of the peculiar phrases cited, such as "with all the heart and with all the soul" ( eh. iv. 29; d. 5; x. 12, &c.), "that they may learn to fear Jehovah'' (eh. iv. 10; xiv. 23; u;i. 19; xxxi. 12, 13), "which thou knewest not" (eh. viii. 3), "which thy fnthers knew not" (eh. viii. 16), "be strong and of a good courage" (eh. iii. 28), and so on. The ~dmonition, "take good heed" (eh. ii. 4; xxiv. 8), 11 take heed to thy- ;7 1111lf," 11?Y'::t (eh. iv. 9; vi. 12), is certainly not peculiar to the Deuteronomist, the stronger form being found in Gen. xxiv. 6; xxxi. 24, 29; Exod. x. 28 i xix. 12; xxxiv. 12; nor is the frequent combination of law, or laws a.rtd statutes, or testi- monies, or commandments, or judgments (eh. v. 28; vi. 1, 17, 20; vii. 11 ; viii. 11 ; xi. 1; x.xvi. 17; x.xx. 16), foreign to the earlier books (cf. Gen. xxvi. 5; Levit. xxvi. 15), while the injunction to "walk in the ways of Jehovah" (eh. v. 33; viii. 6; x. 12; xi. 22; xix. 9, &c.) is only an echo of Gen. xviii. 19. But even though every one of the cited instances could be made good, it would not amount to a necessary proof of di,•ersity of authorship. It is too large a demand upon the credulity of the human mind to expect instantaneous assent to the proposition that no one can com- pose in two different styles (say an argumentative or didactic, and a rhetorical or hortatory), and much more that it \\'as impossible for the great Hebrew lawgiver, "a propl,et in whom we must acknowledge one of the most marvellous of minds of original power" (Ewald), to strike another key, and with a flood of impassioned eloquence, rendered all the more powerful and impressive because of his nearness to the better country, even an heavenly, ere he closed his earthly career to enforce upon the peoplo'e hearts the statutes and commandments he had been honoured, in the nnme of their covenant Jehovah, to prescribe for their obedience. Then, as to the second part of this objection, viz., the linguistic resemblance of Deuteronomy to the prophetical Y>-ritings of Jeremiah, it is easy enough to show, as Bohlen has elabor- ately done, that a number of "words, favourite terms of expression, and peculiar phrases" are common to both, such as "the iron furnace," referring to the bondage in Egypt (Deut. iv. 20; Jer. xi. 4. The phrase also occurs in 1 Kings viii. 51, and in all the three places it unquestionably looks back to the "smoking furnace " of Gen. :xv. 17); "to scatter among the people," or" among th11 heathen," in speaking of the Babylonish exile (Deut. iv. 27 ; Jer. ix. 16); "to circumcise the heart," or "the foreskin of the heart" (Dent. x. 16; x.xx. 6; Jer. iv. 4; ix. 26) ; "to pollute the land" by means of divorce (Dent. xxiv. 4; Jer. iii. 1). Both writers pronounce "a curse" upon di!ohedience (Deut. xxvii. 26; Jer. xi. 3), threaten Israel, if rebellious, ,~it!J becoming "a proverb and a byword'' among the nations (Deut. xxviii. 37; Jer. xxiv. 9), describe their destroyers as "a nation from afar, whose tongue thou shalt not understand" (Dent. xxviii. 49; Jer. v. 15), and whose "horses are swifter thnn eagles" (Deut. xxviii. 49; Jer. iv. 13), and refer in like terms to the miseries they should endure while besieged (Deut. xxviii. 63 ; Jer. xix. 9), while both predict a subsequent restoration from captivity (Deut. xxx. 3; Jer. xxix. 14). Both denounce tl,e worship of the sun and moon (Deut. xvii. 3; Jer. viii. 2), deliver warnings against false prophets (Dent. xiii. 1; xvili. 20; Jer. xiv. 13; xxiii. lG, 17), and forbid the practice of cutting the body ae a sign of mourning for the dead (Deut. xiv. 1 ; Jer. Xl'i. 6; xii. 5). But while these resemblances a.re undeniable, and while it is scarcely likely that they can have been the result of pure chance, it is not quite "evident that father and son must have laboured in common o,i this compendium of the law" (Bohlen), or that Jeremiah, or Hilkiah, or some member of the Mosaio  'rIIlt AltTJ-tOmlHIP OF 'fHE PENTATF,tJCI-1.