eople of the Jews, before they left the wilderness and entered into
the land of Canaan; wherefore it is called Deuteronomy, or the
second law. In it some small matters of the law are altered, as was
to be expected, when the Jews were going to change their place and
their whole way of life. But the whole teaching and meaning of the
book is exactly that of Exodus and Leviticus. Moreover, it is, if
possible, the grandest and deepest book of the Old Testament. Its
depth and wisdom are unequalled. I hold it to be the sum and
substance of all political philosophy and morality of the true life
of a nation. The books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, grand as
they are, are, as it were, its children; growths out of the root
which Deuteronomy reveals.

Now if Moses did not write it, who did?

As for the style of it being different from that of Exodus and
Leviticus, the simple answer is, Why not? They are books of history
and of laws. This is a book of sermons or orations, spoken first,
and not written, which, of course, would be in a different style.
Besides, why should not Moses have spoken differently at the end of
forty years' such experience as never man had before or since?
Every one who thinks, writes, or speaks in public, knows how his
style alters, as fresh knowledge and experience come to him. Are
you to suppose that Moses gained nothing by HIS experience?

As for a few texts in it being like Isaiah or Jeremiah, they are
likely enough to be so; for if (as I believe) Deuteronomy was
written long before those books, what more likely than that Isaiah
and Jeremiah should have studied it, and taken some of its words to
themselves when they were preaching to the Jews just what
Deuteronomy preaches?

As for any one else having written it in Moses' name, hundreds of
years after his death, I cannot believe it. If there had been in
Israel a prophet great and wise enough to write Deuteronomy, we must
have heard more about him, for he must have been famous at the time
when he did live; while, if he were great enough to write
Deuteronomy, he would have surely written in his own name, as Isaiah
and all the other prophets wrote, instead of writing under a feigned
name, and putting words into Moses' mouth which he did not speak,
and laws he did not give. Good men are not in the habit of telling
lies: much less prophets of God. Men do not begin to play cowardly
tricks of that kind till after they have lost faith in the