Deuteronomy, whose main author is Moses, comes from the derivative of two Greek words, deuteros, meaning "second", and nomos, "law." This book, like other normative texts collected in the Pentateuch, highlights what God requires of his chosen people, and he does so by specifying the command that Jesus called "principal": "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength" (Mk 12.30) These words are the spinal cord of the entire discourse, which now assumes a more personal character than when the people heard it on Sinai, because it was there that Moses limited himself to transmitting what he received from God, while in Moab as a prophet , is expressed in the first person to reveal to the people
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Jehovah, indeed, is the Creator God of heaven and earth; but on the exclusive basis of his love, God chose Israel to establish a special alliance with him. Before Israel itself was called into existence, God had already chosen him in the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom he promised that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan (6.10; 7.6-8). The fulfillment of the promise is permanently contemplated on the horizon of Deuteronomy, when it evokes, on the one hand, the events that put an end to the slavery of Israel in Egypt and, on the other, the many wonders that the people witnessed over the years. of the desert. And now, next to the eastern margin of the Jordan, when the fulfillment of the promise is about to become a splendid reality, Moses exhorts the Israelites to freely abide by the commitment to which the covenant of God obliges them: « I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse; Choose life, then, so that you and your offspring may live, loving Jehovah your God, listening to his voice and following him "(30.19-20). To the love of God, Israel must correspond with its total and unreserved surrender, obeying the divine will: "Love, then, Jehovah, your God, and keep his ordinances, his statutes, his decrees and his commandments, every day"
Jehovah, indeed, is the Creator God of heaven and earth; but on the exclusive basis of his love, God chose Israel to establish a special alliance with him. Before Israel itself was called into existence, God had already chosen him in the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom he promised that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan (6.10; 7.6-8). The fulfillment of the promise is permanently contemplated on the horizon of Deuteronomy, when it evokes, on the one hand, the events that put an end to the slavery of Israel in Egypt and, on the other, the many wonders that the people witnessed over the years. of the desert. And now, next to the eastern margin of the Jordan, when the fulfillment of the promise is about to become a splendid reality, Moses exhorts the Israelites to freely abide by the commitment to which the covenant of God obliges them: « I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse; Choose life, then, so that you and your offspring may live, loving Jehovah your God, listening to his voice and following him "(30.19-20). To the love of God, Israel must correspond with its total and unreserved surrender, obeying the divine will: "Love, then, Jehovah, your God, and keep his ordinances, his statutes, his decrees and his commandments, every day"