What is the context?
Moses writes the law and entrusts it to the Levitical priests and elders. It is to be read at the appointed gathering during the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh-year time of release.
The listeners include men, women, children, and resident foreigners. The purpose is that they hear, learn to fear the Lord, and carefully obey. Children who have not yet known the law are specifically included so that instruction continues into another generation.
Entrusting the written instruction to leaders does not make it their private possession. The passage requires that the people for whose life it is given actually hear it.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley emphasizes the priests’ and elders’ duty to preserve, read, and teach the law. He proposes several assemblies as the practical means of reaching so many listeners; that arrangement is his explanation, not a detail stated in the command. The USCCB notes connect the appointed year with the earlier release provisions. The text’s explicit concern is public hearing that leads to reverence and obedience.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.