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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

6 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

So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests

on Deuteronomy 31:9-11

The law goes into writing and into two sets of hands, the priests who carry the ark and the elders. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown compare the two copies of a contract, one lodged for safekeeping and one left with the parties.

This site's exposition

in the year of remission of debt

The year of remission is the seventh year of 15:1-2, when a creditor cancelled what a fellow Israelite owed him. Adam Clarke holds that the solemn mood of that year left the people better disposed to hear the law. The feast itself followed the harvest.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

Moses gives the law to the Levites to lay up beside the ark, and bids them assemble the people to hear his song, ver. 24-30. Commentary on Chapter XXXI 1. Went and spake - Continued to speak, an usual Hebrew phrase.

quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-24-anchored-9-13

And Moses commanded them,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

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

    vaytzavH6680 →494 times

  • מֹשֶׁ֖הMoses

    moshehH4872 →765 times

  • אוֹתָ֣ם<obj.> them

    ʾotamH853 →10935 times

  • לֵאמֹ֑ר<to> saying

    lemorH559 →5305 times

  • מִקֵּ֣ץ׀from [the] end of

    miketzH7093 →67 times

  • שֶׁ֣בַעseven

    sheva'H7651 →394 times

  • שָׁנִ֗יםyears

    shanimH8141 →877 times

  • בְּמֹעֵ֛דat [the] appointed time of

    bemoedH4150 →223 times

  • שְׁנַ֥ת[the] year of

    shenatH8141 →877 times

  • הַשְּׁמִטָּ֖הthe remission

    hashemitahH8059 →5 times

  • בְּחַ֥גat [the] festival of

    bechagH2282 →62 times

  • הַסֻּכּֽוֹת׃the booths

    hasukotH5521 →31 times

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

Where this verse is studied

About Deuteronomy

Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.
Moses Viewing the Promised Land, Frederic Edwin Church, 1846. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Berean Standard Bible, Deuteronomy 15:1-2; 16:13; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament.