—about to enter the Promised Land into an unknown future. As a completed book, Deuteronomy probably had its major impact then, in the fifth century. However, much in it is far older than that, and a substantial link with the laws of Moses need not be denied. Even if as a book Deuteronomy was relatively late, nobody is accusing its authors of perpetrating some pious fraud. In any society, law is something which develops constantly, to meet new situations and changing circumstances, but its basis remains