The Deuteronomic legislation is designed for the reformation, by no means of the cultus alone, but at least quite as much of the civil relations of life.  The social interest is placed above the cultus, inasmuch as everywhere humane ends are assigned for the rites and offerings.  In this it is plainly seen that Deuteronomy is the progeny of the prophetic spirit.  Still more plainly does this appear in the motifs of the legislation; according to these, Jehovah is the only God, whose service demands the whole heart and every energy; He has entered into a covenant with Israel, but upon fundamental conditions that, as contained in the Decalogue, are purely moral and of absolute universality.  Nowhere does the fundamental religious thought of prophecy find clearer expression than in Deuteronomy,—­the thought that Jehovah asks nothing for Himself, but asks it as a religious duty that man should render to man what is right, that His will lies not in any unknown height, but in the moral sphere which is known and understood by all. 1

************************************** 1.  The commandments which I command thee are not unattainable for thee, neither are they far off; not in heaven so that one might say, Who can climb up into heaven and bring them down, and tell us them that we might do them! not beyond the sea so that one might say, Who shall go over the sea, and fetch them, and tell us them that we might do them!—­but the matter lies very near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, so that thou canst do it (Deut. xxx. 11-14). ****************************************

But the result of the innovation did not correspond exactly to its prophetic origin.  Prophecy died when its precepts attained to the force of laws; the prophetic ideas lost their purity when they became practical.  Whatever may have been contemplated, only provisional regulations actually admitted of being carried, and even these only in co-operation with the king and the priests, and with due regard to the capacity of the masses.  The final outcome of the Deuteronomic reformation was principally that the cultus of Jehovah was limited to Jerusalem and abolished everywhere else,—­such was the popular and practical form of prophetic monotheism.  The importance of the Salomonic temple was thereby increased in the highest degree, and so also the influence of the priests of Jerusalem, the sons of Zadok, who now in point of fact got rid entirely of their rivals, the priests of the country districts.

9.  JEREMIAH AND THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.

Josiah lived for thirteen years after the accomplishment of his great work.  It was a happy period of external and internal prosperity.  The nation possessed the covenant, and kept it.  It seemed as if the conditions had been attained on which, according to the prophets, the continuance of the theocracy depended; if their threatenings against Israel had been fulfilled, so now was Judah proving itself the heir of their promises.  Already in Deuteronomy is the “extension of the frontier” taken into consideration, and Josiah actually put his hand to the task of seeking the attainment of this end.