Deuteronomy– Book 5 (34 chapters) The name is derived from the Greek deuteronomium, "second" and regarded as ‘the second law’. The Greek title comes from the erroneous Septuagint rendering of the Hebrew mishneh ha-torah ha-zot, "a copy of this law" (Deuteronomy 17:18). “This is primarily a law book and has been hailed as the most theological book of the Old Testament” (M Prior, Ref 2). However, its outright advocacy of land grab and dispossession of the indigenous inhabitants by force makes it morally reprehensible. Most western Bible scholars have played safe by simply ignoring this issue rather than confronting it head on. Deuteronomy may be divided into three sermons delivered by Moses to the Israelites in the plains of Moab, at the end of the final year of their wanderings through the wilderness.   First sermon Deuteronomy 1-4 essentially reviews the events of Book 4 (Numbers) – the grumblings and frustrations of the Israelites over the hardships they suffered in the desert, their doubts about the Promised Land and the forty years of wandering in the wilderness before they got there. Their God while claiming to be just is quite ruthless, punishing them harshly repeatedly over understandable lapses and even destroying a whole  generation adjudged to have disobeyed God's commands. (Deut 2.14-15): Moses recalls “38 years passed from the time we left Kadesh until we crossed the Zered Valley. By then the entire generation of fighting men had perished… The Lord’s hand was against them until he had totally eliminated them from the camp.” Moses recalled how they defeated the Amorite King Sihon. (Deut 2.31-34): “The Lord said to me: I have delivered Sihon over to you. Now conquer and possess his land.” So the Israelites destroyed all his towns and killed all the men, women and children; “We left no survivors.” King Og of Bashan fared no better. (Deut 3.7): “The Lord gave king Og into our hands and all his army. We took all his cities, all 60 of them, all fortified with high walls, gates and bars… We completely destroyed them, as we had done with King Sihon – men, women and children…” Second sermon Deuteronomy chapters 5-26 is composed of two distinct addresses. The first, in chapters 5-11, elaborates on another version of the Ten Commandments. Deut 5.6-21 introduced the deutero version of the Ten Commandments – the more familiar version appeared in Exod 20.2-17. Chapters 12-26 contains the Deuteronomic Code, a series of commands, made up of extensive laws, admonitions, and injunctions to the Israelites regarding how they ought to conduct themselves in Canaan, the promised land. These include the rejection of other cultures and religious practices, conditions for imposing the death penalty, dietary principles, celebration of the Jubilee Year when all debts are forgiven and so on. Our primary interest is with the open intolerance, violence and extremism advocated for the takeover of lands belonging to others. (Deut 7.1-11) When the Lord your God brings you into the land to occupy and drives out before you seven nations mightier and more numerous than you – the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and the Jubesites – you must destroy them totally. Do not intermarry with them, for that would turn your children to other gods. Break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles and burn their idols. For the Lord has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession… (Deut 7.16) You shall destroy all the peoples that Lord your God gives over to you, showing them no pity. (Deut 9.1-5) You are about to cross the Jordan today and dispossess nations larger than and mightier than you… The Lord goes ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them and drive them out quickly as he promised … (Deut 10-19) When you march to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept, subject all the people to forced labour for you. If they refuse to make peace, engage them in battle. Kill all the males and take the women, children, livestock and all else as booty for yourselves… In the cities the Lord your God is bequeathing you, do not leave anything that breathes alive. Destroy them completely - the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites- as the Lord has commanded you. (Deut 21.11-13) If you notice a beautiful woman among your captives and are attracted to her, take her as your wife. Bring her into your home; shave her head, trim her nails and put aside the clothers she was wearing. After she has mourned her parents for a month, you may go to her… Some other quaint rules (Deut 22.5-28) A woman must not wear men’s clothing nor a man women’s clothing for the Lord your God detests anyone doing so. If you see a bird’s nest and the mother sitting on the young or the eggs, do not take the mother – you may take the young. When you build a new house, make a parapet around the roof, so that are not responsible if someone falls from the roof. Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; do not plough with an ox and a donkey yoked together; do not wear clothing of wool and linen woven together; make tassels on the four corners of the clock you wear. If a man finds that his wife was not a virgin on first contact, the girl’s parents must provide proof of virginity by displaying 'the cloth' before the elders. If the charge is untrue, the man pays 100 shekels of silver to the girl’s father and he cannot divorce her. If the charge is true, the men of the town shall stone the girl to death. If a man rapes a virgin, she must pay 50 shekels to her father and he must marry the girl. Third sermon The concluding discourse sets out sanctions against breaking the law, blessings to the obedient, and curses on the rebellious. The Israelites are solemnly ordered to adhere faithfully to the covenant, and so secure for themselves, and for their posterity, the promised blessings. The remainder of the book deals with the Last Will and Testament of Moses and his appointment of Joshua to lead the people across the Jordan (Deut 31.3-6). The book ends with the death of Moses aged 120 years. He ‘was buried in a valley in the Moab but no one knows his burial place to this day’. References 1. Wikipedia 2. Michael Prior: The Bible & Colonialism, Sheffield Academic Press 1999