Compassion in Deuteronomy

The book of Deuteronomy in the Bible, framed as an eloquent farewell speech from Moses to the people of Israel, can be seen as the founding document or constitution of ancient Israel.^[1] And yet, when the laws in Deuteronomy are compared with their older counterparts in the book of Exodus, they reveal that Israel’s polity was not static, but dynamic, involving continuous interpretation in response to a changing cultural atmosphere.

In this essay, I will argue that the way in which the laws in Deuteronomy expand upon and interpret the laws in Exodus suggests that the underlying social vision of Deuteronomy is an ethic of compassion — what some biblical scholars have deemed “theocentric humanism.”^[2] I will begin by briefly situating the context of the laws in Deuteronomy in relation to those of Exodus. I then offer a literary analysis of three key texts in Deuteronomy, highlighting their humanitarian concern by contrasting them with their original statements (or lack thereof) in Exodus.

By identifying the ethical reasoning employed in these paradigmatic texts in Deuteronomy, we can see how they reveal Israel’s God to be essentially loving and compassionate, with a loyal heart for the least powerful members of society.

The Context of Deuteronomy

Several features of Deuteronomy make it reasonable to see the laws therein as a later expansion and interpretation of the laws found in Exodus.

First, Deuteronomy is addressed to Israelites who had been in the Promised Land for a significant amount of time — long enough for interpretation of the laws in Exodus to have taken place. For example, the book opens by saying, “these are the words Moses spoke … east of the Jordan” (Deut. 1:1 [NIV 2011]). The fact that care is taken to mention the location as “east of the Jordan” assumes that the audience is not currently east of the Jordan. In other words, they are currently in the Promised Land (which is west of the Jordan), and have been there long enough for this reminder to be necessary. The implication is that the audience of the book of Deuteronomy is a newer generation of people with no direct memory of Moses giving the laws found in Exodus.^[3]

Second, and more crucially, Deuteronomy 1:5 frames the rest of the book by saying that “Moses began to expound this law.” Since “this law” refers to the laws in the book of Exodus, this is strong evidence that Deuteronomy is claiming to be a later, yet authoritative, restatement and interpretation of those earlier laws.^[4]

Money Laws

Let us begin our study by putting our money where our mouths are: in Deuteronomy 15:1-18, we see a set of money laws concerning the canceling of debts and freeing of servants.

These laws state that creditors are to “cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite” at “the end of every seven years” (Deut. 15:1-2). Similarly, for those who own Hebrew servants, “in the seventh year you must let them go free” (Deut. 15:12). Note that the laws about canceling debts and freeing servants are grouped together here. This makes sense because people would become servants by selling themselves into debt: “If any of your people — Hebrew men or women — sell themselves to you and serve you …” (Deut. 15:12).

By constrast, in Exodus 21:2, we see the original statement of this law: “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything.” That’s it!

There are two crucial differences between these sets of laws.

First, while the original law in Exodus 21 is applied only to a male servant — “only the man shall go free” (v.4) — its restatement in Deuteronomy applies to “men or women.” Second, the law in Deuteronomy is more generous. As the Old Testament scholar Michael Coogan eloquently summarizes: “in Exodus 21.2, after six years the Hebrew slave is simply released; in Deuteronomy 15.12-15, he is also to be given abundant gifts.”^[5]

In other words, we see that in Deuteronomy a principle emerges: a spirit of generosity is supposed to be extended far beyond the specific laws themselves. For instance, God instructs the people “to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy” and “not send them away empty-handed” but rather to give to them “liberally … as the LORD your God has blessed you” (Deut. 15:11, 13, 14). Later, there is also a reason given for obeying the laws, which is not present in the Exodus law: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today” (Deut. 15:15).

Thus, we can see that at the heart of the Deuteronomic version of these laws is an ethic of compassion, grounded in generosity.

Festival laws

In Deuteronomy 16:1-17, we see laws concerning three festivals: The Festival of Unleavened Bread (also known as Passover), the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Tabernacles.

The most important feature of these laws for our present purpose is who is allowed to celebrate the festivals: “you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, and fatherless and the widows living among you” (Deut. 16:11). In short, special care is taken to include the especially vulnerable classes in Israelite society.

However, one might reasonably ask: why then are the Levites, Israel’s favored priestly tribe, included in this list? Coogan observes that because of a reform issued by King Josiah, all worship “was to take place only at the central sanctuary.”^[6] This means that many Levites “who had earned their livelihood by officiating at local shrines would now be unemployed” and thus they were “a needy and protected class, often grouped with slaves, strangers, orphans, and widows.”^[7]

By contrast, in the original statement of these laws in Exodus 23:14-17, only men are mentioned (Exod. 23:17).

Also again lacking in the Exodus version of the law is a reason for obeying the law, while in Deuteronomy we see that the reason is again rooted in compassionate remembrance of slavery in Egypt (Deut. 16:12).

Harvest laws

In bringing our brief study to a close, I want to draw attention to a small set of laws in Deuteronomy 24:19-21 which in fact have no counterparts in the Exodus laws. These concern harvesting restrictions: “When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow” (Deut. 24:19). Identical laws are repeated for harvesting olive tree branches and grapes (Deut. 24:20, 21).

Once more, we find compassionate laws, but even more importantly, a compassionate reason for obeying them: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this” (Deut. 24:22). Strikingly, we see a beautiful example of this law being put into practice elsewhere in the Bible, by the compassionate man Boaz to the foreign widow Ruth, in the moving narrative of the book of Ruth (cf. Ruth 2).

Conclusion

In the laws in Deuteronomy, then, we see an undeniably strong theme of compassion emerge. Indeed, Coogan notes that these laws arguably “offer something of a populist program”; they have “more of a humanitarian cast” than those found in Exodus, since, in them, “the persons to be shown special attention are the least powerful members of society”.^[8]

It is thus regrettable that many today see in the Hebrew Bible only oppression and violence. On the contrary, the compassionate social vision of Deuteronomy, whose polity is foundational to the rest of the Bible, should reframe our reading of any seemingly oppressive texts.^[9]

Indeed, Deuteronomy is a timely and powerful reminder to those of us living in first world economies that “to refuse help and compassion to the poor and needy is to act like Pharaoh, not like God: acts of economic injustice enslave; they do not liberate.”^[10]