Deuteronomy

About Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy is Moses' last message: a renewal of the covenant for the generation about to enter the Promised Land. He retells their story, repeats God's law, and pleads with them to love the LORD with all their heart and choose life. Its call to wholehearted love and obedience echoes through the rest of the Bible, and Jesus called its command to love God the greatest commandment of all.

Written by

Presented as the farewell speeches of Moses, and traditionally attributed to him; the closing account of his death was clearly added by another hand, and scholars debate when the book reached its final form.

When

The speeches are set on the plains of Moab just before Israel entered Canaan—traditionally around 1406 BC or the 1200s BC—while many scholars connect the book's final form to a later period; the question is genuinely debated.

Themes

• Love the LORD your God
• Covenant renewal
• Remembering God's faithfulness
• Blessing and curse
• Choosing life

Key verses

• Deuteronomy 6:4-5Hear, 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.
• Deuteronomy 10:12¶ And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
• Deuteronomy 30:19-20I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.