Therefore, adds Moses, turn to that which Je hovah, in giving you the tables of the law, and establishing the Tabernacle and priesthood, has intimated as a significant symbol, ' to circumcise the foreskin of your heart,' and to cherish love in your inward soul. Think of Jehovah, the just and merciful, whose blessing and curses shall be set before your eyes as a lasting monument upon the mounts Ebal and Gerizim (ch. x.
The mention of that fact leads the Lawgiver to the domestic and practical life of the people when domesticated in their true home, the Land of Pro mise ; which he further regulates by a fixed and solid rule, by new laws, which for this, their new design and purport, form a sort of complement to the laws already given. There, in the land of their forefathers, Jehovah will appoint one fixed place for his lasting sanctuary, when every other place dedicated to the worship of idols is to be de stroyed. At that chosen spot alone arc the sacri fices to be killed, while cattle in general, which are not destined for sacred purposes, but merely for food, may be slaughtered at all places accord ing to convenience—a regulation which still leaves in full force the previous laws concerning the eat ing of blood, and the share of Jehovah in slaugh tered cattle. This sanctuary was to be considered as the central point for all sacred objects. The whole land was, by means of the sanctuary esta blished in the midst of it, consecrated and dedi cated to Jehovah. This consecration was incom patible with any defilement whatsoever. On that account the Canaanites must be exterminated, and all idolatrous abominations destroyed, since no thing ought to be added to or taken from the laws of God (ch. xii.) For the same reason (i.e., for the sake of the holiness of the land, diffused from the sacred centre), no false prophets or sooth sayers are to be tolerated, as they may turn the minds of the people from the law, by establishing a different one, and therefore even a whole town given to the worship of idols must be demolished by force of arms (ch. xiii.) Neither, in like man ner, must the heathen customs of mourning be imitated, or unclean beasts eaten ; but the people must always remain true to the previous laws con cerning food, etc., and shew their real attachment to Jehovah and his religion by willingly paying the tithe as ordained by the law (ch. xiv.) To the same end likewise shall the regulations concerning the years of release and the festivals of Jehovah (to be solemnised in the place of the new-chosen Sanctuary) be most scrupulously observed (ch. xv. xvi.) Only unblemished sacrifices shall be offered, for all idobworshippers must irrevocably be put to death by stoning. For the execution of due
punishment, honest judges must govern the nation, while the highest tribunal shall exist in the place chosen for the Sanctuary, consisting of the priests and judges of the land. If a king be given by God to the people, he shall first of all accommo date himself to the laws of God, and not lead a heathen life. Next to the regal and judicial digni ties, the ecclesiastical power shall exist in its full right ; and again, next to it, the prophetic order (ch. xvii. xviii.) Of all these institutions, the duties of the judicial power are most clearly de fined ; for Jehovah does as little suffer that in his land the right of the innocent shall be turned aside, as that indulgence shall be shewn to the evil-doer (ch. xix.) The exposition of the civil law is followed by that of the martial law, which has some bearing upon the then impending war with Canaan, as the most important war and re presenting that with the heathen nations in gene ral (ch. xx.) These are again followed by a series of laws in reference to the preceding, and refer ring chiefly to hard cases in the judicial courts, by which Moses obviously designed to exhibit the whole of the civil life of his people in its strict application to the theocratic system of law 'and right. Therefore the form of prayer to be spoken at the offering up of the firstlings and tithe—the theocratic confession of faith—by which every Is raelite acknowledges in person that he is what God has enjoined and called him to be, forms a beautiful conclusion of the whole legislation (ch. xxi.-xxvi).
The blessings and curses of Jehovah, the two opposite extremes which were to be impressed upon the minds of the people at their entrance into Canaan, and which have hitherto been spoken of only in general terms, are now set forth in their fullest detail, picturing in the most lively colours the delightful abundance of rich blessings on the one hand, and the awful visitations of Heaven's wrath on the other. The prophetic speeches visibly and gradually increase in energy and enthu siasm, until the perspective of the remotest future of the people of God lies open to the eye of the inspired Lawgiver in all its chequered details, when his words resolve themselves into a flight of poeti cal ecstasy, into the strains of a splendid triumphal song in which the tone of grief and lamentation is as heart-rending as the announcement of divine salvation therein is jubilant (ch. xxvii. xxviii). The history of the law concludes with a supplement concerning him who was deemed worthy by the Lord to transmit his law to Israel (ch. xxxiv.) Thus much regarding the contents and connec tion of the book of Deuteronomy.