Friday, July 20, 2007

Deuteronomy 4:41–49

Deuteronomy 4:41–49: Cities of Refuge, and the Law

Synopsis

I’m sort of combining two short sections together, for this post.

Verses 41–43 outline the cities of refuge that Moses set aside in the land East of the Jordan. (You can refer back to Numbers 35, for information about cities of refuge.)

Then in verses 44–49 there is an introduction to the laws that Moses is about to reiterate for the Israelites. Since a good portion of the book of Deuteronomy will be Moses reminding the Israelites of the laws that the LORD has handed down, these verses are basically saying “here is where Moses started setting the laws before the Israelites.”

Thoughts

There’s not much to say about these passages, they’re both pretty straightforward.

I’m 99% sure that none of the laws given to the Israelites in Deuteronomy are new; they’re all rules that were already handed down, in the books of Exodus and Numbers.

No comments: