Read this if you…
- want Moses' farewell speech — the great valedictory before he dies on the edge of the Promised Land
- like the line 'I set before you life and death — choose life' (the verse that titled an Allen Ginsberg poem, among other things)
- care about the Shema in chapter 6 — 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord' — the daily prayer of Judaism for three thousand years
Skip this if you…
- don't want to read explicitly religious/Christian texts
The lineage through Deuteronomy
- Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes. Deuteronomy shaped it. - Deuteronomy gives Hobbes both his evidence and his throne — he grounds the sovereign's authority in "Moses' seat" and the Mosaic covenant - It also hands him a weapon: Hobbes reads Deuteronomy's own line that "no man knoweth of his sepulchre to this day" as proof the text was written *after* Moses died, opening his case against Mosaic authorship - A founding act of biblical criticism, built out of Deuteronomy 34 and the "volume of the law" in chapters 11–27
Depicted in Art
Multi-scene fresco: angel shows Moses the Promised Land from Mount Nebo, the 120-year-old prophet preaches with rays of light from his head, Joshua kneels to receive the baton of succession, and Moses' corpse lies on a shroud surrounded by Israelites.
Luca Signorelli and Bartolomeo della Gatta, 1482
Rays of light beam from Moses' forehead as he stretches out his arms; God the Father descends from the upper left with open arms to receive him, ministering angels in attendance.
Alexandre Cabanel, 1851
The horned, bearded prophet sits with tablets tucked under one arm, fingers tangled in his flowing beard, on the verge of rising in righteous anger.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1515
Moses places his hand on Joshua's bowed head before the high priest Eleazar and the assembled congregation, transferring leadership.
James Tissot, 1902
Moses stands alone at the summit of Pisgah, robed and bearded, gazing across the broad expanse of Canaan at sunset.
Frederic Leighton, 1881
A lone goat with red wool wrapped around its horns stands stranded in the salt-encrusted desolation of the Dead Sea shore at sunset.
William Holman Hunt, 1855
Cloaked Moses crouches at the very edge of a rocky precipice, gazing down at the green Canaan valley far below.
James Tissot, 1902
An elderly, anguished Moses lifts the two stone tablets high above his head, his face caught between fury and devotion.
Rembrandt van Rijn, 1659
Moses descends a craggy slope, the two stone tablets clutched against his chest, radiant beams streaming from his forehead.
Gustave Doré, 1866
Recommended Editions
King James Version
Oxford University Press · 1611
The most influential and commonly quoted translation in English. The prose rhythm everyone else is responding to, even modern translations.
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Notable Quotes
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
- Jesus of Nazareth, religious teacher; central figure of Christianity, c. 4 BCE–c. 30 CE: "Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart."
- Julius Wellhausen, German biblical scholar; founder of Old Testament higher criticism, 1844–1918: "Deuteronomy is the starting-point … when its position has been historically ascertained, we cannot decline to go on."
- Moses Maimonides (Rambam), medieval Jewish philosopher and Torah codifier, 1138–1204: Maimonides named his great legal code Mishneh Torah — 'the second Torah' — after the phrase in Deuteronomy 17:18.
- J.A. Thompson, Old Testament scholar; author of the Tyndale Commentary on Deuteronomy, 1913–2002: "Deuteronomy is one of the greatest books of the Old Testament."
- Gerhard von Rad, Lutheran theologian; major 20th-century Old Testament scholar, 1901–1971: "Never before had there been such an all-inclusive treatment of the traditions of Israel."
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