to dedice.te to the Lord the :6.l'!!t-born of sheep and oxen ; fl.Jld they are imitruoted to observe the three great feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (oh.xiv. 1-xvi. 17). From these religious regulations Moses p&BBeB on to othel'!! more of a civil and social character, giving directions w; to the appointment of judges and magistrates, the trial of idolaters and criminals of various olasseR, the choice and duties of a king, and the rights of priests and Levites; the promise of a Great Prophet like unto Moses, whom they are to hear and obey, is given; and the proper test by which any one pretending to be a prophet is to be tried, is prescribed (eh. xvi. 18-xviii. 22). Following these come some regulations as to the appointment of cities of refuge for the manslayer, the maintenance of landmarks and boundaries, the number of witnesses required to establish a charge against any one, the punishment of false witnesses, the conduct of war, exemption from service in war, the treatment of enemies, the besieging of towns, the expiation of murder where the murderer is unknown, the treatment of women taken in war, the just exercise of paternal authority, and the burial of malefactors who had been executed ( eh. xix. 1-xxi. 23). The address is concluded by a series of miscellaneous injunctions relating to rights of property, the relation of the sexes, regard for animal and human life, the avoidance of what would confound distinctions made by God in the natural world, the preservation of the isanctity of the marriage bond, and the observation of integrity and purity in all the relations of life, domestic and social. After appointing the eucharisticservices on the presentation of the firstfruits and tenths of the products of the field, the address is wound up with a solemn admonition to attend to and observe what the Lord had commanded ( eh. x:xii. 1-x:xvi. 19). In his third address, after directing that the Law should be inscribed on two stone pillars to be set up on Mount Ebal, when the people should have obtained possession of Canaan, Moses proceeds to charge them to proclaim in the most solemn manner, after offering burnt offerings and sacrifices, the blessing and the curse by which the Law was sanctioned, the former on Mount Gerizim, the latter on Mount Ebal ( eh. xxvii. 1-26). He then more fully sets forth the blessings that should come upon the people if they hearkened to the voice of the Lord, and the curses that would befall them if they neglected his word or refused to obey it (eh. x.xviii. 1-68). Moses then recapitulates what the Lord had done for Israel, and, after again referring to the blessings and curses of the Law, adjures the people to accept the covenant which God was graciously pleased to make with them, to adhere to it constantly, and so, having blessing and curse, life and death, set before them, to choose the former for themselves and their posterity (eh. :xxix. 1-xxx. 20). These three addresses of Mo86B to the people are followed by an account of the closing scenes and acts of his life. A few words of encouragement addressed to the people introduce the appointment of Joshua to be his sucoeBBor as the leader of Israel; the Law written out by Moses is handed over to the custody of _the priests, with a command that it shall be read THE BOOK O:F DEUTERONOMY. ., ------------------------------ every seventh yeo.r to the people o.t the Feast of Taberno.cles; Joshua is summoned with Moses into the presence of Jehovah, o.nd receives from him bis commission o.nd authority ; o.nd Moses is commanded to write a song, and teach it to the people (eh. xxxi. 1-22). The o.ctive life of Moses was now drawing to its close. He puts the last hand on the writing of the Lo.w; composes the song which God had commanded him to write; utters o. few words of encouragement to Joshua; delivers the book of the Law to the priests that bore the ark of the covenant, with the injunction to them to put it in the side of the ark; and summons the elders of the tribes and their officers to hear from hie lips, ere he left them, hie solemn charge, and listen to the words of the song he had composed (vers. 23-29). Then follows the song itself; after which comes a short exhortation to the people by Moses, followed by the Divine intimation of the approaching decease or their great leader and lawgiver (eh. xxxii. 1-52). Next is inserted the blessing which Moses pronounced upon Israel in its separate tribes ( eh. xxxiii. 1-29); and to this is appended an account of the death and burial of Moses, with hie eulogium ( eh. xxxiv. 1-12). With this the book terminatea.
§ 3. DESIGN OF THE BOOK. From the survey of the contents of this book, it ie apparent that it is not intended as a supplement to the other books of the Pentatench, but rather is to be viewed as a closing appeal, on the part of the great leader of Israel, to those whom he had conducted and formed into a nation, directed towards inducing them to keep inviolate the covenant of the Lord, that it might be well with them and their children. With this in view, Moses selects those facts in the past history of the people the remembrance of which was most fitted to preserve them in their dependence upon and allegiance to Jehovah, and those parts of the legislation already enacted as bore most closely on the covenant relation of Jehovah to his people. It ie in accordance with this design that laws of a general kind, or such as relate to official functionaries and acts, should be only briefly referred to or altogether passed over; and also that· instructions as to the proper ordering of matters which could be attended to only after the settlement of the nation in Canaan, should form an important element among the farewell cmmsels of him who had brought them to the confines of that land, but was not himself to enter it with them.
§ 4. AUTHOR AND DATE OF THE Booir. This book presents in the general such a uniformity of representation o.nd character, such sameness of style and method, that there can be no hesitation in accepting it as, in the ma.in, the work of one author. Was that author Moses? That he was is the commonly received belief, handed down from a remote antiquity, and which was not seriously questioned till 'YI INTRODUCTION TO