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Deuteronomy 31:10

in Deuteronomy 31

Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,

KJV

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,

This verse in Deuteronomy 31

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

At the end of every seven years - thou shalt read this law - Every seventh year was a year of release, Deu 15:1, at which time the people’s minds, being under a peculiar degree of solemnity, were better disposed to hear and profit by the words of God. I suppose on this ground also that the whole book of Deuteronomy is meant, as it alone contains an epitome of the whole Pentateuch. And in this way some of the chief Jewish rabbins understand this place.

This site's exposition

Moses wrote this law, and delivered it

on Deuteronomy 31:9-11

The law goes into writing and then into two sets of hands, the priests who bear the ark and the elders of Israel. The public reading is fixed to one point in the calendar, the feast of tabernacles in the year of release, which makes it every seventh year, and it happens in the place which the Lord shall choose, the phrase that falls fifteen times in chapters 12 to 26 and never once names the place. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set this beside the ordinary practice of drawing two copies of a contract, one lodged for safekeeping and one left with the parties, and read verse 9 and verse 26 that way. Nehemiah 8:1-8 and 8:14-18 record such a reading at this same feast centuries later.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

on Deuteronomy 31:9-13

It was usual in cases of public or private contract for two copies of the engagement to be made--one to be deposited in the national archives or some secure place for reference, should occasion require. The other was to remain in the hands of the contracting parties (Jer 32:12-14). The same course was followed on this renewal of the covenant between God and Israel.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

Moshe commanded them, saying: After seven years have ended, on the holy day of the Sh’mittah year, during the Sukkos festival;
Targum · Onkelos Deuteronomy 31:10, via Sefaria, Metsudah Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009 [with Onkelos translation]

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיְצַ֥וand he commanded

    vaytzavH6680494 times

  • מֹשֶׁ֖הMoses

    moshehH4872765 times

  • אוֹתָ֣ם<obj.> them

    ʾotamH85310935 times

  • לֵאמֹ֑ר<to> saying

    lemorH5595305 times

  • מִקֵּ֣ץ׀from [the] end of

    miketzH709367 times

  • שֶׁ֣בַעseven

    sheva'H7651394 times

  • שָׁנִ֗יםyears

    shanimH8141877 times

  • בְּמֹעֵ֛דat [the] appointed time of

    bemoedH4150223 times

  • שְׁנַ֥ת[the] year of

    shenatH8141877 times

  • הַשְּׁמִטָּ֖הthe remission

    hashemitahH80595 times

  • בְּחַ֥גat [the] festival of

    bechagH228262 times

  • הַסֻּכּֽוֹת׃the booths

    hasukotH552131 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible.