“…It will be useful to have a simple outline of the matter before us: [7] 1. Preamble (1:1-5). 2. Historical prologue (1:6-4:49). 3. Stipulations (5-26). 4. Curses and Blessings or Covenant Ratification (27-30). 5. Succession Arrangements or Covenant Continuity, in which are included the invocation of witnesses and directions for the disposition and public reading of the treaty (31-34).
To analyze Deuteronomy in terms of a documentary pattern is not incompatible with the obvious fact that the book according to its own representations consists almost entirely of a series of addresses. For the specific kind of document in view would be orally proclaimed to the vassals at the covenant ceremony. Stylistically, this is reflected in the characteristic “I-thou” form of the suzerainty treaties, which is itself a point of correspondence with Deuteronomy. Also indicative of the oral proclamation of the covenant text is the evidence for the act of response by the vassal during the covenant ritual. Such a response is, in fact, incorporated into the very text of Esarhaddon’s Nimrud treaty where it consists of a self-maledictory oath binding the vassal to the lord’s stipulations, which are repeated in summary in the response. [8] Deuteronomy also mentions the Amen to be uttered by the Israelites in the course of their ceremony (Deut. 27:15-26; cf. 26:17, 18; 29:12; Ex. 24:7; Josh. 24:16-18, 21, 24). [9] The treaty document was thus the libretto of the covenant ceremony, sometimes including the response of the vassal as well as the declarations of the suzerain. When, therefore, we identify Deuteronomy as a treaty text we are also recognizing it as the ceremonial words of Moses. The customary conception of these Mosaic addresses as a freely ordered farewell must be so far modified as to recognize that their formal structure closely followed fixed ceremonial-legal traditions, though they are certainly no stereotyped liturgical recital nor the dispassionate product of an imperial foreign office….”
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