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Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 10

1 At that same time the Lord said to me, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark. 2 I will write on the tablets the same words that were on the first tablets you broke, and you must put them into the ark.” 3 So I made an ark of acacia wood and carved out two stone tablets just like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 4 The Lord then wrote on the tablets the same words, the Ten Commandments, which he had spoken to you at the mountain from the middle of the fire at the time of that assembly, and he gave them to me. 5 Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets into the ark I had made—they are still there, just as the Lord commanded me. 6 During those days the Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and his son Eleazar became priest in his place. 7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a place of flowing streams. 8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi⁠ to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings in his name, as they do to this very day. 9 Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance among his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance just as the Lord your God told him. 10 As for me, I stayed at the mountain as I did the first time, 40 days and nights. The Lord listened to me that time as well and decided not to destroy you. 11 Then he said to me, “Get up, set out leading the people so they may go and possess the land I promised to give to their ancestors.” 12 Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to revere him, to obey all his commandments, to love him, to serve him with all your mind and being,⁠ 13 and to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving you today for your own good? 14 The heavens—indeed the highest heavens—belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it. 15 However, only to your ancestors did he show his loving favor, and he chose you, their descendants, from all peoples—as is apparent today. 16 Therefore, circumcise your hearts and stop being so stubborn!⁠ 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords,⁠ the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe,⁠ 18 who justly treats the orphan and widow,⁠ and who loves resident foreigners, giving them food and clothing.⁠ 19 So you must love the resident foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 20 Revere the Lord your God, serve him, be loyal to him, and take oaths only in his name.⁠ 21 He is the one you should praise; he is your God, the one who has done these great and awesome things for you⁠ that you have seen. 22 When your ancestors went down to Egypt, they numbered only seventy, but now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.

Texts in conversation

Compare Code of Ur Nammu and Deuteronomy 10:18

Ancient Near East, Sumerian · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

The Code of Ur-Nammu, one of the oldest legal texts from Mesopotamia, says that widows and orphans must not be given to the powerful, protecting them from abuse. Deuteronomy follows this tradition and similarly demands justice for the widow and orphan.

Passages

Code of Ur Nammu

Ancient Near East, Sumerian
By granting immunity in Akkad to the maritime trade from the seafarers' overseer, and to the herdsman from the "oxen-taker," the "sheep-taker," and the "donkey-taker," he set Sumer and Akkad free. At that time, he established standardized weights and measures. He fashioned the bronze silé-measure, standardized the one mina weight, and set the stone-weight of a shekel of silver in relation to one mina. The orphan was not delivered up to the rich man; the widow was not delivered up to the mighty man; the poor man with one shekel was not delivered up to the man of one mina. If a man plants for another without the owner's knowledge, he must bring in the produce.
2100 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Code of Ur Nammu

Deuteronomy 10:18

Hebrew Bible
16 Therefore, circumcise your hearts and stop being so stubborn! 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe, 18 who justly treats the orphan and widow, and who loves resident foreigners, giving them food and clothing. 19 So you must love the resident foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

References

"... As Amenemope is the only extra-biblical cognate related to the biblical concept of protecting the gēr alongside the widow, this study postulates, with some caution, that the Egyptian wisdom literature had some influence on Deuteronomy’s interest in adding the gēr to the widow-orphan dyad. Admittedly, Amenemope’s genre belongs to wisdom literature rather than a legal tradition; however, the mandates for the widow and the stranger in this context both relate to providing food and oil for the widow and the stranger. Lohfink posits that the widow-orphan doublet is a fixed word pair first observed in the Code of Ur-Nammu (late–3rd millennium) that Israel inherits as a dyad and which functions as a symbolic name for those in need of help. In the Covenant Code, which many scholars date before D, the widow-orphan dyad appears twice apart from any mention of the gēr. Glanville posits the reference to the pair in Exodus 22:22, 24 is ancient, predating the Exodus narrative. Further, Achenbach identifies the Covenant Code as the first time in Israelite history that the gēr are acknowledged together with the dyad as an integral part of personae miserabiles ..."
Josh Dunahoo, The Ger in Deuteronomy: Expanding Ancient Near Eastern Precedent for the Protection of Vulnerable Classes (George Fox University, 2020), 13–14.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Code of Ur Nammu and Deuteronomy 10:18

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