A COPY OF THE INSTRUCTION — and the two words that gave the book of Deuteronomy its name. Mishneh is a DUPLICATE, a second of a thing, from the root for ‘two’; it is the word for a double portion and for Joseph's second chariot. So Deuteronomy 17:18 tells the king to write himself a transcript of the instruction the priests keep. ⭐ The construct phrase stands in exactly ONE verse of the Hebrew Bible; without the article, mishneh torat mosheh stands in one more, Joshua 8:32, where Joshua writes a copy on stones. ⚠ The Septuagint read the phrase as to deuteronomion touto, ‘this SECOND LAW’, the Latin followed with Deuteronomium, and the book has carried that word as its title ever since — in Hebrew it is simply Devarim, ‘words’, from its opening line. The Douay-Rheims preserves the moment in plain sight, printing ‘the Deuteronomy of this law’ where the KJV and ASV print ‘a copy’. A copy and a second law are not the same claim, and the book is named for the one the Hebrew does not require. → first discussed at Deut 17:18