Deuteronomy 31:11

When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God,.... As all the males were obliged to do three times in the year, and one of those times was the feast of tabernacles, and so a proper season

And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, At the end of every seven years ... thou shalt read this law.

Thyself in part, for the Jews tell us that the king was in person to read some part of it; or, at least, thou shalt cause it to be read by the priests or Levites, for he could not read it himself in the hearing of all Israel, but this was to be done by several persons, and to the people met in several congregations. See , &c.

Deuteronomy 31:11 When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.Ver. 11. Thou shalt read this law.] Which was nevertheless "read in their synagogues every Sabbath day." And by this reading, at the feast of Tabernacles, every seventh year, the original copy written by Moses, they might perceive that those copies that they had amongst them were right and authentic. It was ill ordered in our English Bibles of the new translation, that between the printers’ haste and correctors’ oversight, such foul errors have been lately committed, as Judas printed for Jesus in the great Bible. The Turkish Koran is written and to be read in Arabic, under pain of death not to mistake a letter, which is as easily done in this tongue as in any. Lightfoot’ s Miscellanies.

Deuteronomy 31:9-13. MOSES RESIGNS HIS CHARGE AS TO THE PRIESTS.(9-11) And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests . . . And . . . commanded them, saying . . . thou shalt read.—This must be distinguished from the deliverance of the “book” to the Levites in Deuteronomy 31:25-26. The deliverance here must be understood as a charge and a trust conveyed to the priests, making them responsible for the “reading of the law,” and for the instruction of the people. This is the special duty of the priests. They are said to “bear” the ark of the covenant here; not because they always carried it (they did sometimes, as in Joshua 3), but because they were responsible for it, just as they were also responsible for the exposition of the law (Deuteronomy 17:9). This is another example of the distinction between priests and Levites in the book of Deuteronomy. (10, 11) At the end of every seven years, in the . . . year of release, in the feast of tabernacles . . . thou shalt read this law.—The fulfilment of this command, as far as the reading of the law is concerned, is described in Joshua 8:34-35; and again “at the feast of tabernacles” in Nehemiah 8. That the law read on these occasions was especially the book of Deuteronomy appears from the Talmudical treatise Sotah (p. 41), where the reading of it by the king is described as beginning with Deuteronomy 1:1 : “These are the words.” It is in this connection that the story is told of Agrippa that he wept when he came to Deuteronomy 17:15, “Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee.” But they said, “Fear not, Agrippa, thou art our brother,” and he then finished the reading. It was read from a platform erected in the forecourt of the temple. From this passage it is clear that the “reading” was understood to refer specially to the book of Deuteronomy. (13) That their children . . . may hear.—It is obvious from this that the existence of many copies of the law was not contemplated by the writer. Comp. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 : “These words shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them.”

11. appear before, etc.] Rather see the face of, as in Deuteronomy 16:16; thy God, Sam. LXX A and other codd, your God LXX B. in the place, etc.] See on Deuteronomy 12:5. thou shalt read this law] The Sg. address is striking; for according to Deuteronomy 31:9 Moses is addressing the priests and elders; nor because of the following before all Israel can the whole nation be here addressed. We are left therefore with the supposition that the charge described in this passage was originally addressed to one individual, and the context Deuteronomy 31:1-8; Deuteronomy 31:14 ff. make it probable that this was Joshua. Yet the text is uncertain: Sam. has he or one shall read (not, as Steuern. and Berth. say, shall be read, for the vb. is followed by an accusative); the LXX codd. (with few exceptions) have Pl. ye shall read, as also in next v.; this, however, may be due to harmonising. On this law see on Deuteronomy 31:9.

Compare the marginal references. It is not to be supposed that the whole of the Pentateuch was read, nor does the letter of the command require that it should be so.

11. Thou shalt read this law — This was a formal reading of the law in a general assembly of the whole nation gathered to the place that Jehovah should appoint.