Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy (Gk. the second law), the fifth book of the Pentateuch, containing three addresses of Moses to Israel before the passage of Jordan, with certain of his last acts and words. It is hardly, as the title implies, a repetition of the law, which is more elaborately given in Leviticus. Some Hebrew scholars (e.g. Gesenius and Ewald) have regarded it as later than the rest of the Pentateuch; others (as Wellhausen) identify it with the "Book of the Law" found by Hilkiah (2 Kings xxii.), and suppose it to have been composed shortly before that date. Neither hypothesis is precisely verifiable. According to the supporters of the latter, the blessing of Moses (Deut. xxxiii.) is much earlier than the rest.