Ezra reads the Law to the people, adapted from Ridpath's Universal History, 1897, Wikimedia
Deuteronomy: Canonizing Interpretation
Deuteronomy describes itself as the words of Moses expounding upon revelation. At the same time, it commands that all Israelites—including the king—learn Moses’ words exactly and never add to or subtract from them, even though Deuteronomy itself reworks earlier texts such as the Covenant Collection in Exodus. Despite this attempt to establish final authority, Deuteronomy undergoes the same process it models: it is combined with other texts and reinterpreted by later works such as Ezra–Nehemiah.
Published: August 7, 2025
|
Last Updated: September 7, 2026
The common interpretation of the verb beʾer is to explain, expound, or clarify. For an alternative understanding of the term as “write down,” see Itamar Kislev, “Understanding Deuteronomy on Its Own Terms,” TheTorah (2015).
For more on this point, see David Frankel, “Moses’ Commandments: The Secret of R. Nissim of Marseilles,” TheTorah (2016).
Stephen Geller, “Fiery Wisdom: Logos and Lexis in Deuteronomy 4,” Prooftexts 14 (1994): 103-139; Steven Weitzman, “Sensory Reform in Deuteronomy,” in Religion and the Self in Antiquity, eds. David Brakke, Michael L. Satlow, and Steven Weitzman (Indiana University Press, 2005), 123-139.
The text reads (verse numbers in this chapter vary depending on the edition):
דברים ה:יט וַיְהִי כְּשָׁמְעֲכֶם אֶת הַקּוֹל מִתּוֹךְ הַחֹשֶׁךְ וְהָהָר בֹּעֵר בָּאֵשׁ וַתִּקְרְבוּן אֵלַי כָּל רָאשֵׁי שִׁבְטֵיכֶם וְזִקְנֵיכֶם. ה:כ וַתֹּאמְרוּ הֵן הֶרְאָנוּ יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ אֶת כְּבֹדוֹ וְאֶת גָּדְלוֹ וְאֶת קֹלוֹ שָׁמַעְנוּ מִתּוֹךְ הָאֵשׁ הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה רָאִינוּ כִּי יְדַבֵּר אֱלֹהִים אֶת הָאָדָם וָחָי. ה:כא וְעַתָּה לָמָּה נָמוּת כִּי תֹאכְלֵנוּ הָאֵשׁ הַגְּדֹלָה הַזֹּאת אִם יֹסְפִים אֲנַחְנוּ לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶת קוֹל יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ עוֹד וָמָתְנוּ. ה:כב כִּי מִי כָל בָּשָׂר אֲשֶׁר שָׁמַע קוֹל אֱלֹהִים חַיִּים מְדַבֵּר מִתּוֹךְ הָאֵשׁ כָּמֹנוּ וַיֶּחִי. ה:כג קְרַב אַתָּה וּשֲׁמָע אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר יֹאמַר יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ וְאַתְּ תְּדַבֵּר אֵלֵינוּ אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר יְדַבֵּר יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ אֵלֶיךָ וְשָׁמַעְנוּ וְעָשִׂינוּ.
Deut 5:19 When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, you came up to me, all your tribal heads and elders, 5:20 and said, “YHWH our God has just shown us His majestic Presence, and we have heard His voice out of the fire; we have seen this day that man may live though God has spoken to him. 5:21 Let us not die, then, for this fearsome fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of YHWH our God any longer, we shall die. 5:22 For what mortal ever heard the voice of the living God speak out of the fire, as we did, and lived? 5:23 You go closer and hear all that YHWH our God says, and then you tell us everything that YHWH our God tells you, and we will willingly do it.”
See David Glatt-Gilead, “Deuteronomy: The First Torah,” TheTorah (2015).
See e.g., Abraham ibn Ezra, Genesis 6:18, R. Moses Nahmanides, introduction to the commentary on the Torah.
As for the verse range, some scholars believe the CC begins already in Exodus 20:18.
For a discussion of these laws in comparison with each other and the version in the Holiness Collection in Leviticus, see Zev Farber, “The Hebrew Slave: Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy,” TheTorah (2015); Aaron J. Koller, “The Hebrew Slave: Reading the Law Collections as Complementary,” TheTorah (2015).
For some description of cult centralization in Deuteronomy, see David Glatt-Gilead, “How the Jerusalem Temple Was “Chosen” as the Only Place of Worship,” TheTorah (2017); Simeon Chavel, “Debates Over Centralizing Sacrificial Worship and Eating Non-Sacrificial Meat,” TheTorah (2016); Baruch Alster, “Deuteronomy: Religious Centralization or Decentralization?” TheTorah (2014); Zvi Koenigsberg, “The Place(s) that YHWH will Choose: Ebal, Shiloh, and Jerusalem,” TheTorah (2019).
See discussion in Eve Levavi Feinstein, “The Rape of the Unbetrothed Virgin in Torah and Assyrian Law,” TheTorah (2013).
See discussion in Bernard Levinson, Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation (Oxford University Press, 1997); Bruce Wells, “The Interpretation of Legal Traditions in Ancient Israel,” Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 3.4: Interpreting the Interpreters: Hermeneutics in Ancient Israel and Mesopotamia (2015): 234–266.
Of course, there is much overlap between Deuteronomic laws and those of the Holiness collection, but in this case, most scholars argue that H is building on D and not the other way around. See Jeffrey Stackert, Rewriting the Torah: Literary Revision in Deuteronomy and the Holiness Legislation, FAT 52 (Mohr Siebeck, 2007).
For more on this ceremony in Deuteronomy, see Marc Zvi Brettler, “The Hakhel Ceremony,” TheTorah (2014).
See discussion in Lisbeth S. Fried, “Sukkot in Ezra-Nehemiah and the Date of the Torah,” TheTorah (2015).
For more on this development, see Jacob L. Wright, “The Origins of Torah Study,” TheTorah (2015); Aaron Demsky, “Historical Hakhel Ceremonies and the Origin of Public Torah Reading,” TheTorah (2017).
Michael Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (Oxford University Press, 1985), 108-109.
What we have here is an early predecessor to the modern day divrei Torah, talks based on explaining biblical verses!
