Deuteronomy

PREFACE

*A bundle of myrrh, beloved to me.* Myrrh, an aromatic tree, grows up in height only five cubits, [0446] whose bark and root and leaves and all parts are bitter. Myrrh is bitter, and is laid upon corpses that it may keep off the rottenness of worms. This is the old law comprised in five books: bitter, that is, sparing no one, whence also it was signified by Marath; laid upon corpses, that is, devised for sinners, that it might keep off from them the corruption of crimes. The bundle of this law is Deuteronomy, that is, a gathering of many little branches into one. For the law having been completed in four volumes, this fifth was added, gathering briefly into one the things said at large, and supplying also certain things passed over. And it was added to them that it might satisfy the number of the law. For five is the number of the law, four of the Gospel. Whence also the feeding of the five thousand men in the Gospel looks to the fathers of the Old Testament, the feeding of the four thousand to the fathers of the New; for to those were promised and given earthly things, which lie under the five senses; to those, the four-square, that is, the solidity of the land of the living. This book serves the Gospel also in its name, in the order of its exposition, in its own dignity. For in Hebrew it is called *Elleh Haddebarim,* that is, "these words"; in Greek δευτερονόμιον, which in Latin is "the second law": not, as some have said, another after the one aforesaid, whence in the aforesaid books it was said: *The Lord spoke;* but here, *Moses spoke;* but second, that is, repeated a second time, prefiguring by this name the Gospel, which succeeded the law, and to which nothing shall succeed. Since also it gathers many things briefly and supplies certain things, it prefigures the form of the Gospel: for this is the abridged word which the Lord made upon the earth, and it supplies the imperfect things of the law; whence: *I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil*. And when this work is said to be so worthy that it is commanded to be borne in the hands of the king, it discloses the dignity of the Gospel, which was ordained in the hand of the Mediator. Since therefore it thus serves the Gospel, deservedly is it a bundle beloved by Christ, not so much for its own sake as because it shows the wheel in the midst of the wheel. The intention is to recapitulate the aforesaid with a threefold end: that it may be the more closely committed to memory; that the usefulness of the aforesaid may be impressed. For to say often what is useful ought neither to be irksome, as the Apostle says, nor troublesome to hear; and that the hardness of the Jews may be condemned, who so many times did not understand the things said. The manner of proceeding: he sets before it what is as it were a prologue, in which he shows who wrote, and what, etc. Afterward he calls to mind the grave offence for which they perished in the desert, that by this fear he may rouse them to hearing. Afterward he sets apart the cities of refuge. Afterward he recapitulates things said and done, and supplies things good and evil. Afterward he commands this book to be placed in the ark, and in the seventh year to be read to all Israel at the feast of tabernacles. Afterward he subjoins the canticle: *Hear ye,* etc., in memory of their murmuring and of its penalty, of obedience and of its reward. And after that, the blessings of the tribes. Last, of the death of Moses.