Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 31:11

When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

11. appear before, etc.] Rather see the face of, as in Deu 16:16; thy God, Sam. LXX A and other codd, your God LXX B.

in the place, etc.] See on Deu 12:5.

thou shalt read this law ] The Sg. address is striking; for according to Deu 31:9 Moses is addressing the priests and elders; nor because of the following before all Israel can the whole nation be here addressed. We are left therefore with the supposition that the charge described in this passage was originally addressed to one individual, and the context Deu 31:1-8 ; Deu 31:14 ff. make it probable that this was Joshua. Yet the text is uncertain: Sam. has he or one shall read (not, as Steuern. and Berth. say, shall be read, for the vb. is followed by an accusative); the LXX codd. (with few exceptions) have Pl. ye shall read, as also in next v.; this, however, may be due to harmonising. On this law see on Deu 31:9.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Compare the marginal references. It is not to be supposed that the whole of the Pentateuch was read, nor does the letter of the command require that it should be so. This reading could not be primarily designed for the information and instruction of the people, since it only took place once in seven years; but was evidently a symbolic transaction, intended, as were so many others, to impress on the people the conditions on which they held possession of their privileges and blessings.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Thyself in part, for the Jews tell us that the king was in person to read some part of it; or, at least, thou shalt cause it to be read by the priests or Levites, for he could not read it himself in the hearing of all Israel, but this was to be done by several persons, and to the people met in several congregations. See Neh 8:1, &c.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God,…. As all the males were obliged to do three times in the year, and one of those times was the feast of tabernacles, and so a proper season for the reading of the law; see Ex 23:14;

in the place which the Lord shall choose; the city of Jerusalem, and the temple there:

thou shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing; the book of Deuteronomy, as Jarchi, or it may be the whole Pentateuch: who were to read it is not expressly said; the speech seems to be directed to the priests and elders, to whom the law written by Moses was delivered, De 31:9; and who were either to read it themselves, or take care that it should be read. Josephus x ascribes this service to the high priest; he says, standing in an high pulpit (or on an high bench),

“from whence he may be heard, he must read the laws to all;”

but the Jewish writers commonly allot this work to the king, or supreme governor, who at least was to read some parts of it; so Jarchi says, the king at first read Deuteronomy, as it is said in the Misnah y;

“he read from the beginning of Deuteronomy to De 6:4; hear, O Israel, c. and then added De 11:13 then De 14:22; after that De 26:12; then the section of the king, De 17:14; next the blessings and the curses, De 27:15, with which he finished the whole section;”

and so we find that Joshua, the governor of the people after Moses, read all his laws, Jos 8:35; and so did King Josiah at the finding of the book of the law, 2Ki 23:2, and Ezra, Ne 8:3. The king received the book from the high priest standing, and read it sitting; but King Agrippa stood and read, for which he was praised.

x Antiqu. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 12. y Sotah, ut supra. (c. 7. sect. 8.)

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

11. Thou shalt read this law This was a formal reading of the law in a general assembly of the whole nation gathered to the place that Jehovah should appoint. In Neh 8:18, we learn that at the feast of tabernacles Ezra read in the book of the law of God day by day from the first day unto the last day. Later, the reading was on the first day of the feast, and only portions of Deuteronomy were read.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Deu 31:11 When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

Ver. 11. Thou shalt read this law. ] Which was nevertheless “read in their synagogues every Sabbath day.” Act 15:21 And by this reading, at the feast of Tabernacles, every seventh year, the original copy written by Moses, they might perceive that those copies that they had amongst them were right and authentic. It was ill ordered in our English Bibles of the new translation, that between the printers’ haste and correctors’ oversight, such foul errors have been lately committed, as Judas printed for Jesus in the great Bible. The Turkish Koran is written and to be read in Arabic, under pain of death not to mistake a letter, a which is as easily done in this tongue as in any.

a Lightfoot’s Miscellanies.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)