Old
Testament history
History is a central element of the Old
Testament. It is the subject of narration in
the specifically historical books and of
celebration, commemoration, and
remonstration in all of the books. History
in the Old Testament is not history in the
modern sense; it is the story of events seen
as revealing the divine presence and power.
Nevertheless, it is the account of an actual
people in an actual geographical area at
certain specified historical times and in
contact with other particular peoples and
empires known from other sources. Hence, far
more than with other great religious
scriptures, a knowledge of the historical
background is conducive, if not essential,
to an adequate understanding of a major
portion of the Old Testament. Recent
archaeological discoveries as well as
comparative historical research and
philological studies, collated with an
analysis and interpretation of the Old
Testament text (still the major source of
information), have made possible a fuller
and more reliable picture of biblical
history than in previous eras. For another
presentation of Old Testament history, see
Judaism.
Early
developmentsBackground and beginnings
The geographical theatre of the Old
Testament is the ancient Near East,
particularly the Fertile Crescent region,
running from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
up to Syria and down through Palestine to
the Nile Delta. In this area great
civilizations and empires developed and
seminomadic ethnic groups, such as the
Hebrews, were involved in the mixture of
peoples and cultures. The exact origin of
the Hebrews is not known with certainty, but
the biblical tradition of their origin in a
clan that migrated from Mesopotamia to
Canaan (Palestine) early in the 2nd
millennium bce has analogues in what is
known of the movements of other groups in
that area and period. There are, moreover,
obvious Mesopotamian motifs in biblical
cosmogony and primeval history in the early
part of the Bible, and Mesopotamian
place-names are the obvious bases of some of
the personal names of the clan’s forebears.
Canaanite influences are evident in the
Hebrew alphabet, poetry, and certain
mythological themes. Linguistic and other
similarities with neighbouring Semitic
peoples, such as the Amorites and Moabites,
are also evident.
Exodus and conquest
According to biblical tradition, the
clan migrated to Egypt because of a famine
in the land of Canaan, were later enslaved
and oppressed, and finally escaped from
Egypt to the desert east of the Isthmus of
Suez under a remarkable leader, Moses. The
account—a proclamation, celebration, and
commemoration of the event—is replete with
legendary elements, but present-day scholars
tend to believe that behind the legends
there is a solid core of fact; namely, that
Hebrew slaves who built the fortified cities
of Pithom and Rameses somehow fled from
Egypt, probably in the 13th century bce,
under a great leader (see also Moses). A
stele (inscribed stone pillar) of the
pharaoh Merneptah of that time in which he
claims to have destroyed Israel is the first
known nonbiblical reference to the people by
name. Whether the destruction was in the
intervening desert or in Canaan (and whether
a true or a false claim) is not clear. The
tradition ascribes to Moses the basic
features of Israel’s faith: a single God,
called YHWH, who cannot be represented
iconically, bound in a covenant relationship
with his special people Israel, to whom he
has promised possession of (not, as with
their forefathers, mere residence in) the
land of Canaan. There is some dispute among
scholars as to when such features as the
Mosaic Covenant actually emerged and as to
which of the traditional 12 tribes of Israel
entered Canaan at the end of the period of
wandering in the desert.
The
biblical account of the conquest of Canaan
is again, from the point of view of
historical scholarship, full of legendary
elements that express and commemorate the
elation and wonder of the Israelites at
these events. The conquest of
Canaan—according to tradition, a united
national undertaking led by Moses’
successor, Joshua—was a rather drawn out and
complicated matter. Archaeological evidence
tends to refute some of the elements of the
biblical account, confirm others, and leave
some open. According to the tradition, after
an initial unified assault that broke the
main Canaanite resistance, the tribes
engaged in individual mopping-up operations.
Scholars believe that Hebrews who had
remained resident in Canaan joined forces
with the invading tribes, that the other
Canaanite groups continued to exist, and
that many of them later were assimilated by
the Israelites.
The tribal league
The invading tribes who became masters
of parts of Canaan, although effectively
autonomous and lacking a central authority,
considered themselves a league of 12 tribes,
although the number 12 seems to have been
more canonical or symbolical than
historical. Some scholars, on the analogy of
Greek leagues of six or 12 tribes or cities
with a common sanctuary, speak of the
Israelite league as an “amphictyony,” the
Greek term for such an association; but
others hold that there is no evidence that
the Israelites maintained a common shrine.
Certain leaders arose, called judges, who
might rule over several tribes, but this
arrangement was usually of a local or
regional character. However, the stories
about such “judges” (who were frequently
local champions or heroes, such as Gideon,
Jephthah, and Samson), though encrusted with
legend, are now thought to be substantially
historical. The period from about 1200 to
1020 is called, after them, the period of
the judges. It was during this period that
Israelite assimilation of Canaanite cultural
and religious ideas and practices began to
be an acute problem and that other invaders
and settlers became a threat to the security
of Israel. One of the chief threats was from
the Philistines, an Aegean people who
settled (c. 12th century bce) on the coast
of what later came to be called, after them,
Palestine. Organized in a league of five
cities, or principalities, the Philistines,
who possessed a monopoly of iron implements
and weapons, pushed eastward into the
Canaanite hinterland and subjugated
Israelite tribes, such as the Judahites and
Danites, that stood in their way, even
capturing the sacred ark from the famous
shrine of Shiloh when it was brought into
battle against them. The Philistine threat
was probably the decisive factor in the
emergence of a permanent political (but at
first primarily military) union of all
Israel under a king—what historians call the
united monarchy (or kingdom).
The united monarchy
The monarchy was initiated during the
career of Samuel, a prophet of great
influence and authority who was also
recognized as a judge and is depicted in
varying biblical accounts as either
favouring or not favouring the reign of a
human king over Israel. In any case, he
anointed Saul, a courageous military leader
of the tribe of Benjamin, as king (c. 1020
bce). Saul won substantial victories over
the Ammonites, Philistines, and Amalekites,
leading the tribes in a “holy war,” and for
a time the Philistine advance was stopped;
but Saul and his son Jonathan were killed in
a disastrous battle with the Philistines in
central Palestine. His successor, David, a
former aide (and also his son-in-law) who
had fallen out of favour with him, at first
took over (c. 1010) the rule of Judah in the
south and then of all Israel (c. 1000).
Through his military and administrative
abilities and his political acumen, David
established a centralized rule in Israel,
cleared the territory of foreign invaders,
and, in the absence of any aggressive
foreign empire in the area, created his own
petty empire over neighbouring city-states
and peoples. He established his capital in
Jerusalem, which until then had maintained
its independence as a Canaanite city-state
wedged between the territories of Saul’s
tribe Benjamin and David’s tribe Judah, and
moved the ark there from the small Israelite
town in which it had been stored by the
Philistines, establishing it in a tent
shrine. This felicitous combination of holy
ark, political reign, and central city was
to be hailed and proclaimed by future ages.
Under David’s successor, his son Solomon
(reigned c. 961–922), Israel became a
thriving commercial power; numerous
impressive buildings were erected, including
the magnificent Temple (a concrete symbol of
the religiopolitical unity of Israel); a
large harem of foreign princesses was
acquired, sealing relations with other
states; the country was divided into 12
districts for administrative, supply, and
taxation purposes. Foreign cults set up to
serve the King’s foreign wives and foreign
traders led to charges of idolatry and
apostasy by religious conservatives. In the
latter years of his reign, Solomon’s
unpopular policies, such as oppressive
forced labour, led to internal discontent
and rebellion, while externally the vassal
nations of Damascus (Aram) and Edom staged
successful revolts against his rule. The
central and northern tribes, called Israel
in the restricted sense, were especially
galled by the oppressive policies, and soon
after Solomon’s death Israel split off to
become a separate kingdom. The united
monarchy thus became the divided monarchy of
Israel (the northern kingdom) and Judah (the
southern kingdom).
From the
period of the divided monarchy through the
restorationThe divided monarchy: from
Jeroboam I to the Assyrian conquest
Jeroboam I, the first king of the new state
of Israel, made his capital first at Shechem,
then at Tirzah. Recognizing the need for
religious independence from Jerusalem, he
set up official sanctuaries at Dan and
Bethel, at the two ends of his realm,
installing in them golden calves (or bulls),
for which he is castigated in the
anti-northern account in the First Book of
the Kings. Israel engaged in conflicts with
Judah and, sometimes jointly with Judah,
against foreign powers. At first there was
great dynastic instability in the northern
kingdom, until the accession of Omri
(reigned c. 884–c. 872), one of its greatest
kings, who founded a dynasty that lasted
through the reign of his two grandsons (to
842). Under Omri an impressive building
program was initiated at the capital, Moab
was subjugated (an event confirmed in an
extrabiblical source, the Moabite Stone),
and amicable relations were established with
Judah. The Phoenician kingdom of Tyre was
made an ally through the marriage of his son
Ahab to the Tyrian princess Jezebel. Ahab
(reigned c. 874–853 bce)—unless the episode
recounted in I Kings, chapter 20, actually
took place four reigns later—fought off an
attempt by Damascus, heading a coalition of
kings, to take over Israel. Near the end of
his reign, Ahab joined with Damascus and
other neighbouring states to fight off the
incursions of the great Assyrian Empire in
their area. Peaceful relations were cemented
with Judah through the marriage of Ahab’s
daughter (or sister) Athaliah to Jehoram,
the son of the king of Judah (not to be
confused with Ahab’s son, Jehoram of
Israel). But the establishment of a pagan
Baal temple for Jezebel and her attempt to
spread her cult aroused great opposition on
the part of the zealous Yahwists among the
common people. There was also resentment at
the despotic Oriental manner of rule that
Ahab, incited by Jezebel, exercised. She and
her cult were challenged by Elijah, a
prophet whose fierce and righteous character
and acts, as illumined by legend, are
dramatically depicted in the First Book of
the Kings. In the reign of Ahab’s son
Jehoram, Elijah’s disciple Elisha inspired
the slaughter of Jezebel and the whole royal
family, as well as of all the worshippers of
Baal, thus putting a stop to the Baalist
threat. Jehu, Jehoram’s general who led this
massacre, became king and established a
dynasty that lasted almost a century (c.
842–745), the longest in the history of
Israel.
Meanwhile,
in Judah, the Baal cult introduced by
Athaliah, the queen mother and effective
ruler for a time, was suppressed after a
revolt, led by the chief priests, in which
Athaliah was killed and her grandson Joash (Jehoash)
was made king. In the ensuing period, down
to the final fall of the northern kingdom,
Judah and Israel had varying relations of
conflict and amity and were involved in the
alternative expansion and loss of power in
their relations with neighbouring states.
Damascus was the main immediate enemy, which
annexed much of Israel’s territory,
exercised suzerainty over the rest, and
exacted a heavy tribute from Judah. Under
Jeroboam II (783–741) in Israel and Uzziah (Azariah;
783–742) in Judah, both of whom had long
reigns at the same time, the two kingdoms
cooperated to achieve a period of
prosperity, tranquillity, and imperial sway
unequalled since Solomon’s reign. The threat
of the rising Assyrian Empire under
Tiglath-Pileser III soon reversed this
situation. When a coalition of anti-Assyrian
states, including Israel, marched against
Judah to force its participation, the
Judahite king Ahaz (c. 735–720) called on
Assyria for protection; the result was the
defeat of Israel, which suffered heavily in
captives, money tribute, and lost provinces,
while Judah became a vassal state of
Assyria. In about 721, after an abortive
revolt under King Hoshea, the rump state of
Israel was annexed outright by Assyria and
became an Assyrian province; its elite
cadre, amounting to nearly 30,000 according
to Assyrian figures, was deported to
Mesopotamia and Media, and settlers were
imported from other lands. Thus, the
northern kingdom of Israel ceased to exist.
Its decline and fall were a major theme in
the prophecies of Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and
Micah.
The final period of the kingdom of Judah
Meanwhile, the southern kingdom of Judah
was to have another century and a half of
existence before a similar and even grimmer
fate befell it. Hezekiah (reigned c. 715–c.
686), who instituted a religious reform to
return worship to a pure Yahwist form, also
displayed political independence, joining a
coalition of Palestinian states against
Assyria. But the coalition was soon
defeated, and Judah—with Jerusalem
besieged—bought off the Assyrians, led by
Sennacherib, with tribute. In the reign of
Manasseh (c. 686–c. 642) there was a revival
of pagan rites, including astral cults in
the very forecourts of the temple of YHWH,
child sacrifice, and temple prostitution;
hence, he is usually portrayed as the most
wicked of the kings of Judah. If he had any
tendencies toward independence from Assyrian
domination, they apparently were suppressed
by his being taken in chains to Babylon,
where he was molded into proper vassal
behaviour, although one edifying and
probably unhistorical biblical account
reports his repentance and attempt at
religious reform after his return to Judah.
The great religious reform took place in the
reign of his grandson Josiah (640–609)
during a period when the Assyrian Empire was
in decline and was precipitated by the
discovery of the Book of the Law during the
restoration of the Temple. It was proclaimed
by the king to be the Law of the realm, and
the people pledged obedience to it. In
accordance with its admonitions, the pagan
altars and idols in the Temple were removed,
rural sanctuaries (“high places”) all the
way into Samaria were destroyed, and the
Jerusalem Temple was made the sole official
place of worship. (For an identification of
the law book with the legal portion of
Deuteronomy, see below Old Testament
literature: Deuteronomy.) Josiah also made
an attempt at political independence and
expansion but was defeated and killed in a
battle with the Egyptians, the new allies of
the fading Assyrian Empire. During the
reigns of his sons Jehoiakim (c. 609–598)
and Zedekiah (597–586), Judah’s independence
was gradually extinguished by the might of
the new dominant Babylonian Empire under
Nebuchadrezzar. The end came in 586 with the
Babylonian capture of Jerusalem and the
destruction of the principal buildings,
including the Temple and the fortifications.
The first deportation of Judahites to
Babylon, during the brief reign of Josiah’s
grandson Jehoiachin in 597, was followed by
the great deportation of 586, which was to
be a theme of lament and remembrance for
millennia to come. (Numerous Jews also
migrated to Egypt during this troubled
time.) Exhortations and prophecies on the
decline and fall of Judah are to be found in
Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Jeremiah
(who played a significant role in the
events), while the conditions and meaning of
the exile are proclaimed by Ezekiel and
Deutero-Isaiah (chapters 40–55 of Isaiah).
The Babylonian Exile and the restoration
The Babylonian Exile (586–538) marks an
epochal dividing point in Old Testament
history, standing between what were
subsequently to be designated the pre-exilic
and post-exilic eras. The Judahite community
in Babylonia was, on the whole, more Yahwist
in religion than ever, following the Mosaic
Law, emphasizing and redefining such
distinctive elements as circumcision and the
sabbath and stressing personal and
congregational prayer—the beginnings of
synagogal worship. It is possible that they
also reached an understanding of historical
events (like that taught by the great
pre-exilic and exilic prophets)—as the
chastening acts of a universal God acting in
history through Nebuchadrezzar and other
conquerors. To this period is also ascribed
the beginning of the compilation of
significant portions of the Old Testament
and of the organizing view behind it. In any
event, it was from this community that the
leadership and the cadres for the
resurrection of the Judahite nation and
faith were to come when Cyrus the Great (labelled
“the Lord’s anointed” in Deutero-Isaiah)
conquered Babylon and made it possible for
them to return (538). A contingent of about
50,000 persons, including about 4,000
priests and 7,000 slaves, returned under
Sheshbazzar, a prince of Judah.
The first
great aim was the rebuilding of the Temple
as the centre of worship and thus also of
national existence; this was completed in
515 under the administration of Zerubbabel
and became the place of uninterrupted
sacrificial worship for the next 350 years.
The next task was to rebuild the walls of
Jerusalem, which was undertaken by Nehemiah,
a Babylonian Jew and court butler who was
appointed governor of Judah and arrived in
444. Nehemiah also began religious reforms,
emphasizing tithing, observance of the
sabbath, and the prohibition against
intermarriage with “foreign” women. This
reform was carried through systematically
and zealously by Ezra, a priest and scribe
who came from Babylon about 400 bce, called
the people together, and read them the “book
of the law of Moses” to bring them back to
the strict and proper observance maintained
in Babylon: circumcision, sabbath
observance, keeping the feasts, and, to seal
it all, avoiding intermarriage. (In this
presentation, modern critical scholarship is
being followed, placing Nehemiah before Ezra
instead of the traditional sequence, which
reverses the positions.) Haggai, Zechariah,
and Malachi are the prophets of this
restoration period. Ezra and Nehemiah are
its narrators.
It was in
this period that enmity between the Jews, or
Judaeans, as they came to be called, and the
Samaritans, a term applied to the
inhabitants of the former northern kingdom
(Israel), was exacerbated. It has been
surmised that this goes back to the old
political rivalry between Israel and Judah
or even further back to the conflict between
the tribes of Joseph and Judah. Scholars
ascribe the exacerbation of enmity in the
restoration period variously to the
Samaritans’ being excluded from
participating in the rebuilding of the
Temple; to Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the
walls of Jerusalem (regarded as a
threatening act by the Samaritan
authorities); or to the proscriptions of
intermarriage by Ezra. The animus of the
Jews against the Samaritans is frequently
expressed in the biblical books dealing with
the restoration (expressions perhaps
engendered by later events), but the
attitude of the Samaritans and a good deal
else about them is not evident. At some time
they became a distinct religious community,
with a temple of their own on Mt. Gerizim
and a Scripture that was limited solely to
the Pentateuch, excluding the Prophets and
Writings.
Old
Testament history proper ends with the
events described in the books of Ezra and
Nehemiah. The books of Chronicles give all
the preceding history, from Adam to the
Babylonian sack of Jerusalem and the exile.
The last two verses of the Second Book of
the Chronicles are repeated in the first two
verses of Ezra: God inspires Cyrus to send
the Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the
Temple. The Persian period of Jewish history
ended with the conquest of Alexander the
Great in 323 bce to begin the Hellenistic
era, in which some of the biblical
(including apocryphal or deuterocanonical)
writings were created (for Hellenistic
Judaism, see Judaism).
Old Testament literature
The Torah (Law, Pentateuch, or Five
Books of Moses)Composition and authorship
The Torah, or Pentateuch (Five Scrolls),
traditionally the most revered portion of
the Hebrew canon, comprises a series of
narratives, interspersed with law codes,
providing an account of events from the
beginning of the world to the death of
Moses. Modern critical scholarship tends to
hold that there were originally four books
(Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers)
resulting from the division into manageable
scrolls—a so-called Tetrateuch—to which
later was added a fifth scroll, or book,
Deuteronomy. A theory, once widely held,
that the Book of Joshua was originally
integral with the first five books to form a
Hexateuch (Six Scrolls) is now generally
regarded as dubious.
The
traditional Jewish and Christian view has
been that Moses was the author of the five
books, that “of Moses” means “by Moses,”
citing in support passages in the Pentateuch
itself that claim Mosaic authorship. Since
these claims, however, are written in the
third person, the question still arises as
to the authorship of the passages; e.g., in
Deuteronomy, chapter 31, verse 9: “And Moses
wrote this law, and gave it to the priests .
. . and to all the elders of Israel.” The
last eight verses of Deuteronomy (and of the
Pentateuch), describing Moses’ death, were a
problem even to the rabbis of the 2nd
century ce, who held that “this law” in the
verse quoted refers to the whole Torah
preceding it. There are also other passages
that seem to be written from the viewpoint
of a much later period than the events they
narrate.
The
documentary hypothesis
Beyond these obvious discrepancies,
modern literary analysis and criticism of
the texts has pointed up significant
differences in style, vocabulary, and
content, apparently indicating a variety of
original sources for the first four books,
as well as an independent origin for
Deuteronomy. According to this view, the
Tetrateuch is a redaction primarily of three
documents: the Yahwist, or J (after the
German spelling of Yahweh); the Elohist, or
E; and the Priestly code, or P. They refer,
respectively, to passages in which the
Hebrew personal name for God, YHWH (commonly
transcribed “Yahweh”), is predominantly
used, those in which the Hebrew generic term
for God, Elohim, is predominantly used, and
those (also Elohist) in which the priestly
style or interest is predominant. According
to this hypothesis, these documents—along
with Deuteronomy (labelled D)—constituted
the original sources of the Pentateuch. On
the basis of internal evidence, it has been
inferred that J and E are the oldest sources
(perhaps going as far back as the 10th
century bce), probably in that order, and D
and P the more recent ones (to about the 5th
century bce). Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers
are considered compilations of J, E, and P,
with Leviticus assigned to P and Deuteronomy
to D.
The Yahwist,
or J, is the master of narrative in biblical
literature, who sketches people by means of
stories. He takes his materials wherever he
finds them, and if some are crude he does
not care, as long as they make a good story.
The book of Genesis, for example, contains
the story of Abraham’s passing off his wife
as his sister, so if the king took her as a
concubine he would honour her supposed
brother instead of having her husband
killed, a story told by J without any
moralistic homily. Not given to subtle
theological speculations, J nearly always
refers to the Deity as YHWH, by his
specifically Israelite personal name
(usually rendered “the Lord” in English
translations), though he is not hidebound
and also employs the term Elohim (“God”),
especially when non-Hebrews are speaking or
being addressed. He presents God as one who
acts and speaks like human persons, a being
with whom they have direct intercourse. The
Yahwist, however, has one very definite
theological (or theo-political)
preoccupation: to establish Israel’s
divinely bestowed right to the land of
Canaan.
More
reflective and theological in the apologetic
sense is the Elohist, or E. No fragment of E
on the primeval history (presented in the
first 11 chapters of Genesis) has been
preserved, and it is probable that none ever
existed but that the Elohist began his
account with the patriarchs (presented in
the remainder of Genesis, in which the J and
E strands are combined). The first passage
that can be assigned to E with reasonable
certainty is chapter 20 of Genesis, which
parallels the two J variants of the “She is
my sister” story noted above. Unlike these,
it tries to mitigate the offensiveness of
the subterfuge: though the patriarch did
endanger the honour of his wife to save his
life, his statement was not untrue but
merely (deliberately) misleading. The
Elohist is also distinct from the Yahwist in
generally avoiding the presentation of God
as being like a human person and treating
him instead as a more remote, less directly
accessible being. Significantly, E avoids
using the term YHWH throughout Genesis (with
one apparent exception), and it is only
after telling how God revealed his proper
name to Moses, in chapter 3 of Exodus, that
he refers to God as YHWH regularly, though
not exclusively. This account (paralleled in
the P strand in chapter 6 of Exodus) is
apparently based on a historical
recollection of Moses’ paramount role in
establishing the religion of YHWH among the
Israelites (the former Hebrew slaves). Also
noteworthy is E’s choice of the term prophet
for Abraham and his characterization of a
prophet as one who is an effective
intercessor with God on behalf of others.
This is in line with his speculations on the
unique character of Moses as the great
intercessor as compared with other prophets
(and also with Joshua as Moses’ attendant).
It is
inferred from certain internal evidence that
E was produced in the northern kingdom
(Israel) in the 8th century bce and was
later combined with J. Because it is not
always possible or important to separate J
from E, the two together are commonly
referred to as JE.
The third
major document of the Tetrateuch, the
Priestly code, or P, is very different from
the other two. Its narrative is frequently
interrupted by detailed ritual instructions,
by bodies of standing laws of a ritual
character, and by dry and exhaustive
genealogical lists of the generations.
According to one theory, the main author of
P seems to have worked in the 7th century
and to have been the editor who combined the
J and E narratives; for his own part, he is
content to add some brief, drab records—with
frequent dates—of births, marriages, and
migrations. The P material is to be found
not merely in Leviticus but throughout the
Tetrateuch, including the early chapters of
Genesis and one of the creation accounts and
ranging from the primeval history (Adam to
Noah) to the Mosaic era. Like the Elohist, P
uses the term Elohim for God until the
self-naming of God to Moses (Exodus, chapter
3, in the P strand) and shows a
non-anthropomorphic transcendent stress.
The
Deuteronomist, or D, has a distinctive
hortatory style and vocabulary, calling for
Israel’s conformity with YHWH’s covenant
laws and stressing his election of Israel as
his special people (for a detailed
consideration of D, see below Deuteronomy:
Introductory discourse). To the
Deuteronomist or the Deuteronomic school is
also attributed the authorship of the Former
Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and
Kings), which scholars call the
“Deuteronomic history.”
Other
Pentateuchal theories
This documentary theory of the
composition of the Pentateuch has been
challenged by eminent 20th-century scholars
who have offered alternative or additional
methods of analysis and interpretation. Form
criticism, for example, has stressed
particular literary forms and the historical
setting out of which they arose: the sagas,
laws, legends, and other forms and the
particular tribal or cultic context that
gives them meaning. Tradition criticism
centres on the pre-literary sources; i.e.,
on the oral traditions and the circles out
of which they originated as accounting for
the variety of the materials in the
Pentateuch. Archaeological criticism has
tended to substantiate the reliability of
the typical historical details of even the
oldest periods and to discount the theory
that the Pentateuchal accounts are merely
the reflection of a much later period. The
new methods of criticism have served to
direct attention to the life, experience,
and religion out of which the Pentateuchal
writings arose and to take a less static and
literal view of the constituent documentary
sources; yet most scholars still accept the
documentary theory, in its basic lines, as
the most adequate and comprehensive ordering
of the variegated Pentateuchal materials.
The following presentation rests mainly on
an analysis and interpretation of the
literary sources. (See below The critical
study of biblical literature: exegesis and
hermeneutics.)
In any
case, the five books that have come down in
various texts and versions have been seen as
a unit in the religious communities that
preserved them. Their basic content may be
divided thus: (1) beginnings of the world
and man—the primeval history; (2)
patriarchal narratives—from Abraham to
Joseph; (3) Egyptian slavery and the Exodus;
(4) the revelation and Covenant at Sinai;
(5) wanderings and guidance in the
wilderness (divisible into two separate
sub-blocks, before and after Sinai); (6)
various legal materials—the Decalogue,
Covenant Code, and passages of cultic and
Deuteronomic laws—interspersed in the
narrative, which take up the greater portion
of the Pentateuch.
Genesis
This book is called Bereshit in the
Hebrew original, after its first word (and
the first word of the Bible), meaning “In
the beginning.” It tells of the beginnings
of the world and man and of those acclaimed
as ancestors of the Hebrew people—all under
the shaping action and purpose of God. The
book falls into two main parts: chapters
1–11, dealing with the primeval history, and
chapters 12–50, dealing with the patriarchal
narratives; the latter section is again
divisible into the story of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob (chapters 12–36) and the story of
Joseph (chapters 37–50), which may be
treated as a unit of its own.
The
primeval history
The Bible begins with the creation of
the universe. It tells the story with images
borrowed from Babylonian mythology,
transformed to express its own distinctive
view of God and man. Out of primary chaos,
darkness, void, depths, and waters God
creates the heaven and the earth and all
that dwell therein—a coherent order of
things—by his will and word alone. He says,
“Let there be . . .” and there is. Actually,
there are two creation accounts: the first
(1–2:4), ascribed to P, simply gives a terse
day-by-day account including the culminating
creation of man, in the divine “image and
likeness,” followed by the primordial
sabbath on the seventh day. The other
(2:4–25), ascribed to J, starts with an arid
wasteland and the creation of man (Adam),
described specifically as being formed by
God out of dust and made into a living thing
by God blowing the breath of life into him.
He and the woman (Eve) created for him out
of his rib are put into a paradisal garden
(Eden), especially created for them to till
and to tend and to sustain life. The two are
forbidden only to eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil on pain of death
(there is also a tree of life in the middle
of the garden). The cosmic setting and
concern of the P account is thus followed by
the human setting and concern of the J
account. Creation is followed by temptation,
disobedience, and fall and all that follows
from that for the history of mankind. At the
instigation of the serpent, the shrewdest of
the beasts, who holds out the possibility of
attaining godlike knowledge, the woman eats
of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and
gives some to her husband to eat also. Their
distinction from beasts and children
manifests itself immediately by a sense of
modesty about exposing their bodies, and
loincloths become the first products of the
higher knowledge. The primal human couple
are punished by God for their disobedience
by being driven out of the idyllic garden
into the world of pain, toil, and death.
The reason
given by YHWH to the divine beings is:
“Behold, the man has become like one of us,
knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put
forth his hand and take also of the tree of
life, and eat, and live for ever.” These
words apparently point back to the
polytheistic mythology (the existence of
divine, magical powers; the gods’ jealousy
of mankind; the tree of eternal life; etc.)
from which the Yahwist drew his images and
symbols explaining man’s suffering,
frustration, and limitation. In the biblical
framework and rendering (and subsequent
interpretation), the archaic stories and
images acquire a different meaning, suitable
to the idea of a transcendent deity and an
imperfect mankind.
With the
exile from the garden, human history and
culture begins. In the story of Adam’s sons,
Cain and Abel, man has already become a
herdsman and farmer, and also a murderer:
again probably a reflection of older
mythical material and, again, one that puts
an emphasis on human sin and estrangement
from God. In the story of the Flood that
follows there are evident borrowings from
the Mesopotamian stories of a flood sent by
the gods to destroy mankind, but in the
biblical account it is emphasized that man’s
extreme wickedness is the cause and that
Noah is saved along with his family by God’s
deliberate choice because he is a righteous
man. (In the flood story in the Babylonian
Gilgamesh epic, by contrast, there is no
apparent moral reason why the gods resolved
to destroy mankind, and the only reason why
the hero of the Flood and his kin are saved
is that he is favoured by one of the gods,
who tricks the others, including the chief
god.) After the Flood, God blesses Noah and
bestows on man the earth and the things on
it for sustenance and makes a covenant with
Noah and all creatures that he will never
again unleash a world-destroying flood. The
permanent order of the world is assured, and
God’s blessing and covenant make their first
explicit appearance in the Bible.
In the
story of the Tower of Babel, the final story
in the primeval history, a primal unity of
mankind in which there is only one language
is shattered when, in their pride, men
decide to build a city and a tower that will
reach up to the heavens. YHWH again takes
steps to check dangerous collaboration: He
says (to the celestial council), “Come, let
us go down, and there confuse their
language, that they may not understand one
another’s speech,” and scatters them over
the earth. Again, the Yahwist has apparently
used ancient mythological motifs to explain
the diversity of mankind; the story may be
regarded as simply a direct borrowing from
the older traditions, without any
monotheistic adaptation; in its textual
setting, however, it may also be taken as
another instance of the ruin of primal
harmony by human willfulness and pride.
The
patriarchal narratives
The universal primal history of man in
the first 11 chapters of Genesis is followed
by an account of the fathers of the Hebrew
people; i.e., of the origins of a particular
group. From a literary point of view, this
portion may be divided into the sagas of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the story of
Joseph. Although these narratives are not
historical in the ordinary sense, they have
an evident historical setting and refer to
various particulars that fit in with what is
generally known of the time and area. They
apparently rest on the traditions of
particular families, clans, or tribes and
were probably passed down orally before they
took written form. Theologically, they are
an account of a divine promise and Covenant
and of man’s faith and unfaith in response,
with Abraham as the model man of faith.
The Elohist,
as well as J and P, tells the remarkable
story of how God singled out Abraham (Abram)
to migrate from Mesopotamia and sojourn in
Canaan, promised him that he would make him
the ancestor of great nations and that his
posterity would inherit the land of his
sojournings, and singled out as the heirs to
the latter promise first Isaac, Abraham’s
son by his chief wife, Sarah, and then
Jacob, the younger of Isaac’s two sons; how
Jacob acquired the additional name of Israel
and how the wives, children, and children’s
children who, in Jacob-Israel’s own
lifetime, came to constitute a family of 70
souls, became the nucleus of the Israelite
people; and how it came about that this
ethnic group, prior to becoming, as
promised, the masters of the land of their
sojournings, first vacated it to sojourn for
a time in Egypt. Apart from the low-keyed P
strand, it is mostly splendid narrative,
including the Elohist’s account of the
(aborted) sacrifice of Isaac by his father
in response to God’s command, a terse story
packed with meaning, and the Joseph story
about the son of Jacob who is sold into
slavery by his brothers, rises to a high
post in the Egyptian court, and ultimately
helps his family to settle in Egypt. The 12
sons of Jacob-Israel are eponymous ancestors
of Israelite tribes (ancestors after whom
the tribes are named); the actions and
fortunes of the eponymous ancestors,
including certain blessings and other
pronouncements of Jacob-Israel, account for
the future positions and fortunes of the
particular tribes. Though there is less
history and more legend, much of the
atmosphere of an older age is preserved,
with the patriarchs represented as
seminomadic, essentially peaceful and
pastoral tent dwellers—alien residents—among
the settled Canaanites and as observing
customs otherwise only attested in
Mesopotamia. Anachronistic features,
however, insinuate themselves from time to
time.
The God of
the patriarchs is presented as
Yahweh—explicitly by the Yahwist and
implicitly by E and P—i.e., as the same God
who would later speak to Moses. God
apparently was originally the personal,
tutelary deity of each of the patriarchs,
called by a variety of names and later
unified into the one God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. There are various cult legends in
this portion of Genesis, etiological
accounts of the origins of various cult
sites and practices; though probably of
Canaanite origin, these all indicate the
places and customs held holy by the
Israelites and perhaps also by their claimed
Hebrew ancestors. There are direct
appearances of God to some of the main
figures in the narratives, intimate personal
communication between men and God. God’s
particular blessing upon and Covenant with
Abraham is the paradigmatic high point, to
be referred back to continually in later
biblical and post-biblical traditions.
Exodus
The title (in the Greek, Latin, and English
versions) means “a going out,” referring to
the seminal event of the liberation of
Israel from Egyptian bondage through the
wondrous acts and power of God. The book
celebrates and memorializes this great
saving event in song and story and also the
awesome revelation and covenant at Mt.
Sinai. The contents of the book may be
summarized thus: (1) Israel in Egypt, (2)
the Exodus and wanderings, (3) the Covenant
at Sinai, (4) the apostasy of the people and
renewal of the Covenant, and (5) the
instructions on building the Tabernacle and
their execution.
Redemption and revelation
Significant in the early chapters is
God’s special concern for the Hebrew slaves,
his reference to them as “my people,” and
his revelation to Moses, the rebel courtier
whom he has picked to be their leader, that
he is YHWH, the God of their fathers, an
abiding presence that will rescue them from
their misery and bring them into Canaan, the
land of promise. This assurance is repeated
at the critical moments that follow (e.g.,
“And I will take you for my people, and I
will be your God”). In the series of
frustrations, obstacles, and redeeming
events that are narrated, God’s special
causal power and presence are represented as
being at work. God hardens the Pharaoh’s
heart, sends plagues that afflict the
Egyptians but spare the Hebrews, causes the
waters to recede in the Sea of Reeds (or
Papyrus Marsh) to permit passage to the
fleeing Israelites and then to engulf the
pursuing Egyptians (“the horse and his rider
he has thrown into the sea”), and gives the
people guidance in their wandering in the
wilderness. The cryptic “name” that God
gives to himself in his revelation to Moses
(ʿehye ʿǦĨḤḥİ ʿehye), often translated “I am
that I am” or “I will be what I will be,”
may also be rendered “I will cause to be
that which I will cause to be.” In either
case, it is a play on, and an implied
interpretation of, the name YHWH.
The
constancy of God’s directive power and
concern is displayed notably in the period
(40 years) of wilderness wandering (on the
eastern and southern borders of Canaan),
when Israel is tested and tempered not only
by hardship but also by rebellious despair
that looks back longingly to Egyptian
bondage (see also below Numbers). God sends
the people bread from heaven (manna) and
quail for their sustenance (J and P strands)
and, through Moses, brings forth hidden
sources of water (JE strand). When the
Amalekites (a nomadic desert tribe) attack,
Moses, stationed on a nearby hill, controls
the tide of battle by holding high the rod
of God (a symbol of divine power), and when
the enemy is routed he builds an altar
called “The Lord is my banner” (E strand).
Also inserted here is the account (E) of the
visit of Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, a
priest of another people (Midianite) who,
impressed by YHWH’s marvellous deliverance
of Israel, blesses, extols, and sacrifices
to him—under the name Elohim, but in the
context the same God is clearly meant.
God’s power
and presence manifest themselves
impressively in the culminating account of
the Covenant at Mt. Sinai (or Horeb). The
people, forewarned by God through Moses,
agree beforehand to carry out the terms of
the Covenant that is to be revealed, because
God has liberated them from Egypt and
promises to make them his special holy
people; they purify themselves for the
ensuing Covenant ceremony, according to
God’s instructions. Yahweh appears in fire
and smoke, attended by the blare of a ram’s
horn at the top of the mountain, where he
reveals to Moses the terms of the Covenant,
which Moses then passes on to the people
below. Here follow in the text the Ten
Commandments and the so-called Covenant Code
(or Book of the Covenant) of lesser,
specific ordinances, moral precepts, and
cultic regulations, accompanied by a promise
to help the people conquer their enemies if
they will serve no other gods. After this
comes the Covenant ceremony with burnt
offerings and the sacrifice of oxen, with
the blood of the animals thrown both on the
altar and on the people to sacramentally
seal the Covenant, followed by a sacral meal
of Moses and the elders at the mountaintop,
during which they see God. Many modern
scholars hold that this is presented as the
initial form of a Covenant renewal ceremony
that was repeated either annually or every
seven years in ancient Israel.
There are
certain problems and apparent discrepancies
in this account that are explained by
critical scholarship as deriving from the
combination of different sources, mainly J
and E, traditions, or emphases. In the
opening portion (chapter 19) the people are
gathered at the foot of the mountain so as
to hear and meet God, and Moses himself
brings down to them God’s words. In a later
portion (24:12–18, also 32:15–20), after the
sacral meal, Moses goes up on the mountain
to receive “the tables of stone, with the
law and commandments,” inscribed by God
himself, and returns with two stone tablets
written on both sides by the hand of
God—which he breaks in anger at the people’s
worship of the molten calf that has
developed in his absence. Later (chapter
34), at God’s command, Moses cuts two new
stone tablets, upon which after hearing
God’s various promises and exhortations, he
writes “the words of the covenant, the ten
commandments”; finally, he brings the new
tablets down to the people and tells them
what YHWH has commanded. There seem to be
two parallel accounts of the same event,
woven together by the skillful redactor into
a continuing story. There also seem to be
two distinct strands in the account of the
sealing of the Covenant in the first 11
verses of chapter 24. According to one, the
elders are to worship from afar, and only
Moses is to come near YHWH; in the other
strand, as noted, the elders eat the sacred
meal on the mountaintop in the direct
presence of God.
Legislation
The book of Exodus includes not only the
narrative and celebration of God’s
redemptive action in the Exodus and
wanderings and his revealing presence at Mt.
Sinai but also a corpus of legislation, both
civil and religious, that is ascribed to God
and this revelation event. The Covenant
Code, or Book of the Covenant, presented in
chapters 20–23, immediately following the
Decalogue (Ten Commandments), opens with a
short passage on ritual ordinances, followed
by social and civil law applying to specific
situations (case law), including the
treatment of slaves, capital crimes,
compensation for personal injuries and
property damage, moneylending and interest,
precepts on the administration of justice,
and further ritual ordinances. Scholars
generally date this code in the later
agricultural period of the settlement in
Canaan, but some hold that it is analogous
to more ancient Near Eastern law codes and
may go back to Moses or to his time. In any
case, it seems to be a compilation from
various sources, inserted into and breaking
the flow of the narrative.
Instructions on the Tabernacle
Also interspersed in the story (chapters
25–31) are God’s detailed instructions to
Moses for building and furnishing the
Tabernacle, the clothing and ordination of
priests, and other liturgical matters.
According to this segment (evidently P in
inspiration), an elaborate structure is to
be set up in the desert, in the centre of
the camp, taken apart, transported, and
assembled again, like the simple “Tent of
Meeting” outside the camp, where Moses
received oracular revelations from God.
Indeed, the two concepts seem to have fused
and the Tabernacle is also called the Tent
of Meeting. Its prime function is to serve
as a sanctuary in which sacrifices and
incense are offered on altars and bread
presented on a table; it is also equipped
with various other vessels and furnishings,
including a wooden ark, or cabinet, to
contain the two tablets of the Covenant—the
famous ark of the Covenant. It is, moreover,
to be the place of God’s occasional dwelling
and meeting with the people. Scholars
believe that the elaborate details and
materials described stem from a later,
Canaanite, period but that the essential
concept of a tent of meeting goes back to an
earlier desert time. An account of the
execution of the instructions for the
building of the Tabernacle is presented in
chapters 35–40 (following the apostasy,
tablet breaking, and Covenant-renewal
episodes), which duplicates to the letter
the instructions in chapters 25–31. After
the Tabernacle is completed and consecrated,
it is occupied by the “glory,” or presence,
of YHWH, symbolized by a cloud resting upon
it. It is on this note that the book of
Exodus ends.
Leviticus
The cultic and priestly laws presented
in Exodus are expanded to take up virtually
the whole of Leviticus, the Latin Vulgate
title for the third of the Five Books of
Moses, which may be translated the Book (or
Manual) of Priests. With one exception
(chapters 8–10), the narrative portions are
brief connective or introductory devices to
give an ostensibly narrative framework for
the detailed lists of precepts that provide
the book’s content. The source of Leviticus,
both for the legal and narrative passages,
is definitely identified as P; it is the
only book in the so-called Tetrateuch to
which a single source is attributed.
Apparently the book consists of materials
from various periods, some of them going
back to the time of Moses, which were put
together at a later date, possibly during or
after the Babylonian Exile. Recent
scholarship tends to emphasize the ancient
origin of much of the material, as opposed
to the previous tendency to ascribe a late,
even post-exilic date. Despite its content
and its dry, repetitive style, many
interpreters caution against taking
Leviticus as merely a dull, spiritless
manual of priestly ritual, holding that it
is strictly inseparable from the ethical
emphasis and spiritual fervour of the
religion of ancient Israel. It is in
Leviticus that the so-called law of love,
“You shall love your neighbour as yourself,”
first appears. The rituals set forth drily
here probably presuppose an inward state in
offering to God, as well as humanitarian and
compassionate ethics.
The book
may be divided thus: chapters 1–7, offerings
and sacrifices; chapters 8–10, inauguration
of priestly worship; chapters 11–16,
purification laws; chapters 17–26, holiness
code; chapter 27, commutation of vows and
tithes.
Offerings, sacrifices, and priestly worship
The first verse attributes these
regulations to YHWH, who speaks to Moses
from the Tent of Meeting, beginning with the
rules for offerings by the individual
layman. These include burnt, cereal, peace,
sin, and guilt offerings, all described in
precise details. The prescription for
priestly offerings is about the same, with
some slight differences in the order of
actions, and is presented much more briefly.
In chapters 8–10 the narrative that was
interrupted at the end of Exodus is resumed,
and the ordination of Aaron and his sons by
Moses, before the people assembled at the
door of the Tent of Meeting is described, as
are various animal sacrifices by Aaron and
his sons under Moses’ direction and the
subsequent appearance of God’s “glory” to
the people. Aaron’s two older sons are
burned to death by fire issuing forth from
God because they have offered “unholy fire.”
This story apparently emphasizes the
importance of adherence to the precise
cultic details, as does also the account (at
the end of the chapter) of Moses’ anger at
Aaron’s two remaining sons for not eating
the sin offering. These stories were
apparently used by the priestly authors to
buttress the authority of the Aaronic
priesthood.
Purification laws
With chapter 11 begin the regulations on
ritual cleanness and uncleanness, starting
with animals and other living things fit and
unfit to eat—the basis of the famous Jewish
dietary laws. Then come the uncleanness and
required purification of women after
childbirth, skin diseases, healed lepers,
infected houses, and genital discharges.
Chapter 16, which belongs in the narrative
flow immediately after chapter 10, describes
the priestly actions on the Day of
Atonement, the culmination of ritual
cleansing in Israel. It is a chapter rich in
details on Israelite ritual and bound up
with the salient religious theme of
atonement.
The
Holiness Code
Next (chapters 17–26) comes what has
been designated the “Holiness Code,” or “Law
of Holiness,” which scholars regard as a
separate, distinctive unit within the P
material (designated H). It calls upon the
people to be holy as God is holy by carrying
out his laws, both ritual and moral, and by
avoiding the polluting practices of
neighbouring peoples; and it proceeds to lay
down laws, interspersed with exhortations,
to attain this special holiness. Although
many scholars tend to date its compilation
in the exilic period, some see evidence that
it was compiled in pre-exilic times; in any
case, the consensus is that the laws
themselves come from a much earlier time.
These—a
most miscellaneous collection—begin with
injunctions on the proper (kosher)
slaughtering of animals for meat; go on to a
list of precepts against outlawed sexual
relations (incest, homosexuality) and an
injunction against defiling the (holy) land;
proceed to a list of ethical injunctions,
including the law of love and kindness to
resident aliens, all interspersed with
agronomic instructions and warnings against
witchcraft; and then, after an injunction
against sacrificing children, return to the
listing of illicit sexual relations and the
warning that the land will spew the people
out if they do not obey the divine norms and
laws. There follow special requirements for
preserving the special holiness of priests
and assuring that only unblemished animals
will be used in sacrifices; instructions on
the observance of the holy days—the sabbath,
feasts, and festivals; commands on the
proper making of oil for the holy lamp in
the Tent of Meeting and of the sacred
shewbread, to which are appended the
penalties for blasphemy and other crimes;
and finally, rules for observance of the
sabbatical (seventh) and jubilee (50th)
years, in which the land is to lie fallow,
followed by rules on the redemption of land
and the treatment of poor debtors and Hebrew
slaves.
This
miscellany, presented in chapters 17–25, is
followed by a final exhortation, in chapter
26, promising the people that if they follow
these laws and precepts all will go well
with them but warning that if they fail to
do so all kinds of evil will befall them,
including exile and the desolation of the
Promised Land. Yet, if they confess their
iniquity and atone for it, God will not
destroy them utterly but will remember his
Covenant with their forebears. Such a
passage points to a later time but not
necessarily to the exilic period, as some
commentators have assumed. The chapter
concludes: “These are the statutes and
ordinances and laws which the Lord made
between him and the people of Israel on Mt.
Sinai by Moses,” connecting these precepts
with the primal revelation in Exodus.
Commutation of vows and tithes
In the final chapter of Leviticus (27),
the P material is resumed with a
presentation of the rules for the
commutation of votive gifts and tithes. It
provides for the release from vows (of
offerings of persons, animals, or lands to
God) through specified money payments. Some
commentators understand the vow to offer
persons to refer originally to human
sacrifice, others as pledging their
liturgical employment in the sanctuary.
Special provisions are made for the poor to
relieve them from the stipulated payments.
Only grain and fruit tithes, not animal
tithes, are redeemable. This chapter and the
book of Leviticus end, like chapter 26, with
the verse, “These are the commandments which
the Lord commanded Moses for the people of
Israel on Mount Sinai.”
Numbers
In the Hebrew Bible this book is entitled
Bemidbar (In the Wilderness) after one of
its opening words, while in English versions
it is called Numbers, a translation of the
Greek Septuagint title Arithmoi. Each of the
titles gives an indication of the content of
the book: (1) the narrative of “40 Years” of
wanderings in the wilderness, or desert,
between Sinai and Canaan; and (2) the census
of the people and other numerical and
statistical matters, preceding and
interspersing that account. It is a
composite of various sources (J, E, and
predominantly P) and traditions, which as a
whole continue the story of God’s special
care and testing of his people in the events
of the archaic period that formed them.
Numbers continues the account of what many
modern scholars call the “salvation history”
of Israel, which apprehends and narrates
events (or the image and impact of events)
as involving divine action and direction.
The
conclusion of the Sinai sojourn
The book opens with a command from God
to Moses, early in the second year after the
Exodus, to take a census of the arms-bearing
men over 20 in each of the clans of Israel.
Moses and Aaron, aided by the clan chiefs,
take the count, clan by clan, and reach a
total of 603,550 men—according to critical
scholars, an unbelievably large total for
the time and conditions. The Levites, to
whom is entrusted the care of the Tabernacle
and its equipment, are exempted from this
secular census and are counted in a later
census, of males one month and over, along
with a census of firstborn males from other
tribes. The Lord had required that the
latter be consecrated to him when he slew
all the firstborn of the Egyptians but
spared those of the Israelites; now the bulk
of them were released by the Levites being
taken in their stead to minister to the
priests, while for the excess of firstborn
over Levites “redemption” payments were
collected. A further census of men 30–50
years old is taken among the Levite clans,
so as to assign them their various duties,
which are here stipulated. Also specified
are the positions of the tribes (separated
into four divisions of three tribes each) in
the camp and on the march, with an
assignment of specific portions of the
Tabernacle and its equipment to be carried
by the Levite clans. YHWH is to give the
signal to break camp by lifting the cloud by
day or the fire by night from above the
Tabernacle and then to advance it in the
direction the people are to march. YHWH’s
signal is to be followed by a blast by the
priests (Aaron’s sons) on two specially made
silver trumpets.
The above
directions are set forth in chapters 1–4 and
9–10 (through verse 10). There are
intervening chapters containing various
materials: expelling leprous or other
unclean persons from the camp, the ordeal
for a woman suspected of adultery,
regulations for Nazirites (those who take
special ascetic vows), the offerings brought
at the dedication of the Tabernacle, and the
purification of the Levites preparatory to
taking up their special sacred functions.
The priestly emphasis of the materials in
chapters 1–10 is evident, and it is also
clear that there are various strands of
priestly interpretation involved.
Wanderings in the desert of Paran
This section apparently combines various
traditions of how the Israelites came into
Palestine, and J, E (or JE), and P sources
have been discerned in these chapters. The
traditional “40 years” in the wilderness (38
or 39, according to critical calculations)
were spent mostly in the wilderness of Paran,
with a short stay in the oasis of Kadesh,
according to P; while, according to J, they
spent most of their time in Kadesh; and
chapter 13, verse 26, puts Kadesh in the
wilderness of Paran, thus encapsulating both
traditions. The discrepancy may stem from
two separate traditions of how the tribes
entered Canaan: from the south or from the
north through Transjordan.
The P
narrative begins (chapter 10, verse 11) with
the lifting of the cloud from the Tabernacle
and the setting out of the Israelites for
the Promised Land, with their holy
Tabernacle and ark, in the order prescribed
in chapter 2. According to the P account
(verses 11–28), the cloud settles down over
the wilderness of Paran, the signal to make
camp; whereas in the JE account (verses
29–36) it is the ark of the Covenant that
goes ahead to seek out a stopping place, and
where it stops the Israelites rest, the
cloud simply accompanying them overhead
(perhaps to shield them from the blazing
desert sun). Chapters 11–12 (JE) deal with
the complaints of the people about their
hardships and the rebellion of Miriam and
Aaron against their brother Moses. When the
people express their longing for the good
food they had in Egypt and their disgust
with the unvarying manna, God sends them a
storm of quail, which remain uneaten because
he also sends them a plague. This is a
somewhat different account from that in
Exodus, but the point is the same: the
mighty, infinite power of God (chapter 11,
verse 23). (Also inserted here is the story
of God visiting his spirit on 70 selected
elders so that they may share Moses’
burdens.) When Miriam and Aaron question
God’s speaking only through Moses, God
proclaims his unique relation with Moses,
who alone receives direct revelations from
God, not indirectly through dreams and
visions, like the prophets.
Chapters
13–14 tell of the despatch of spies from
Paran to reconnoiter Canaan and of the
despair, rebellion, and unsuccessful foray
of the people in response to the spies’
reports. Scholars discern two separate
accounts of the spying incident artfully
woven together. According to the JE account,
the spies go only as far as Hebron in the
south and return with a glowing report of a
fertile land, which is, however, they warn,
too strongly defended to be taken from that
quarter: only one spy, Caleb, advocates
attacking it. In the P account the spies
reconnoiter the whole country and give a
pessimistic report of it as a land that
“devours its inhabitants,” who are,
moreover, giants compared to the Israelites.
The people cry out in despair at this report
and want to go back to Egypt, while Caleb
and Joshua (added by P) plead with them to
trust in God and go forward to take the
land. God, disgusted with the people,
condemns them to wander in the wilderness
for 40 years and decrees that only their
children, along with Caleb and Joshua, shall
enter into the land of promise. Ruefully,
the people now decide to attack and go
forth, against Moses’ warning, to a
resounding defeat.
Chapter 15
is a P document or addition, setting forth
various ritual regulations. Chapters 16–18
deal with the comparative rights and duties
of priests and Levites. Chapter 16 is a
composite document dealing with revolts
against Moses and Aaron by certain Levites
who question their special authority in a
community where all are holy, as also by
certain Reubenites who resent Moses’
leadership. The dispute is settled when 250
revolting Levites attempt to offer incense
(a priestly Aaronic function) and are
consumed by fire sent by God, while the
leaders of the revolt are swallowed up in
the earth. Yet the stubborn people continue
their complaint against Moses and Aaron,
bringing forth the Lord’s anger and a
plague, from which they are saved by Aaron’s
(proper and effective) offering of incense.
This latter incident occurs in chapter 17 in
the Hebrew text and Jewish translations but
concludes chapter 16 in some Christian
versions. Chapter 17 in both arrangements,
with its story of Aaron’s rod, associates
Levitical with Aaronic authority; Aaron’s
name is inscribed on the staff of Levi,
which alone among the staffs of the chiefs
of the tribes of Israel blossoms and bears
fruit, thus authenticating Aaron’s, and
thereby the Levites’, special claims. The
relative functions and payments (tithes) of
priests and Levites are prescribed in
chapter 18. Chapter 19, inserted here, has
to do with purification from uncleanness
incurred through touching the dead,
accomplished through washing in water mixed
with the ashes of a red heifer.
Events
in Edom and Moab
Chapter 20, verse 14, resumes the
narrative of Israel’s onward march, starting
with their arrival in the wilderness of Zin
and stay at Kadesh, marked by Miriam’s death
and God’s exclusion of Moses and Aaron from
entering the Promised Land because of their
ascribed lack of confidence in God when
Moses drew forth water from a rock in
response to still more Israelite complaints,
but did so in anger and impatience, striking
the rock twice with his rod, instead of
telling it to give forth water, as the Lord
had instructed (the incident of the waters
of Meribah). Refused permission by the King
of Edom to pass through that land, over the
much-used King’s Highway, they proceed from
Kadesh to Mt. Hor, where Aaron dies and is
succeeded by his son Eleazar, and from which
they proceed (chapter 21) to bypass Edom in
an attempt to approach Canaan from the east.
Arrived at the border of what was
geographically part of Moab but politically
the Amorite kingdom of Sihon, they are
refused passage and proceed to defeat the
Amorites and take possession of their land.
This is from the JE strand of the composite
narrative; the P strand does not recognize
the existence of settled and politically
organized populations between Kadesh and the
plains of Moab.
At this
point, in chapters 22–24, apparently a very
mixed composite of various J and E strands,
is presented the fascinating story (or
collection of stories) of the non-Israelite
seer, or prophet, Balaam, from the region of
the Middle Euphrates. Alarmed at the
Israelite host encamped at his border, the
King of Moab commissions the seer Balaam to
put a curse on them, but Balaam refuses, at
the order of YHWH, who is also the God of
Balaam. On three occasions at the King’s
request Balaam seeks an oracle from God
against Israel, but each time, to the King’s
rage, he is told by the Lord that Israel is
graced with the divine blessing and cannot
be cursed. The seer, who is ordered back to
his own country, without payment by the
disgruntled King, offers a final,
unsolicited oracle prophesying the
destruction of Moab and other nations by
Israel’s might: “I will let you know what
this people will do to your people in the
latter days.”
Chapter 25
(combining JE and P strands) provides a
lurid interlude in which the Israelites go
whoring after Moabite women and offer
sacrifices and worship to their god, Baal of
Peor. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, is so
incensed at the sight of an Israelite
consorting with a Midianite woman that he
kills them both, thus ending a plague that
has broken out and earning God’s special
favour: a covenant of perpetual priesthood
with him and his descendants (a forward
reference to the Zadokite priesthood of
post-exilic times). This account is
connected by the last two verses with God’s
call for Israel to harass and smite the
Midianites (see below). After the plague
ends, in the account (P) in chapter 26, a
second census of arms-bearing men and of the
Levites is taken, and again a fantastically
large total, 601,730, is given, perhaps
referring to a much later time. It is noted
at the end that all of the previous 603,730
had died in the wilderness, as prophesied,
except for Caleb and Joshua, who have been
especially picked out by God. This census,
coming at the end of the 40-year period of
wilderness wanderings, is for the purpose of
allotting lands to the various tribes and
families. Hence the logical positioning of
the passage (P) in the first 11 verses of
chapter 27 assuring that a family may
inherit through a daughter when there is no
son and through a brother when there are no
children and through the closest relative
when there are neither.
At this
point (chapter 27, verse 12) comes the
impressive and poignant passage (also P) in
which Moses ascends the heights, at God’s
bidding, to look over the Promised Land,
which he is not to enter, and calls on God
to appoint a leader to succeed him. At God’s
command, Moses selects Joshua, and before
the priest Eleazar and the whole community
he lays his hands on him and commissions him
to lead Israel. It is noteworthy that Joshua
is invested only with some of Moses’
authority and is to learn God’s will through
Eleazar and the sacred lot (Urim), not
directly, as did Moses.
Again, the
narrative is interrupted by three chapters
(P) dealing with various religious
regulations. Chapters 28–29 stipulate the
sacrifices to be made by the whole community
daily, on the sabbath, at the new moon, and
on these holidays: the Feast of Unleavened
Bread (Passover), the Feast of Weeks
(Shavuot), The Feast of Trumpets, i.e., New
Year (Rosh Hashana), the Day of Atonement
(Yom Kippur), and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot).
The last two verses of chapter 29 specify
that these public offerings are in addition
to individual offerings, such as those
specified in chapter 15. Critical scholars
hold that these elaborate regulations stem
from a much later (post-exilic) period,
though they may go back to very ancient
practices. Some see them as a liturgical
commentary on chapter 23 of Leviticus, which
presents the cycle of feasts and festivals
(see above Leviticus). Chapter 30 gives
women special exemption from keeping vows
(presumably of offerings or abstinence) when
countermanded by a father or husband; only
widows or divorcees are bound, like men,
unconditionally to keep their vows.
Chapter 31,
likewise from P, deals with the annihilation
of the Midianites following God’s command at
the end of chapter 25. The Israelites, a
thousand from each tribe, go forth to battle
led by the priest Eleazar, who carries the
sacred vessels and the trumpets. They kill
every man and seize all the movable property
but spare the women and children. Moses,
however, orders every male child and all
nonvirgin women killed. There follow
instructions for purification for the stain
caused by killing a person or touching a
dead body and for the distribution of the
booty, which includes sheep, cattle, asses,
and 32,000 virgins. The rules are that half
of the spoils go to the fighting men, half
to the rest of the people; in addition, the
Lord’s share is allotted thus: one
five-hundredth of the fighting men’s portion
goes to the priest, and one-fiftieth of the
people’s portion goes to the Levites.
Scholars are inclined to treat this chapter
as a piece of fiction intended really to set
forth the rules for purification and
dividing the spoils through an invented
story. The seer-diviner Balaam is here
(verse 16) blamed for the whoring and
apostasy incidents in chapter 25; but texts
providing his connection with these events
are lacking.
Chapter 32,
dealing with the settlement east of the
Jordan, concludes the narrative portion of
Numbers and thus of the Tetrateuch (a story
that is continued in chapter 34 of
Deuteronomy and in the Book of Joshua). This
very composite account (JEP) tells how the
tribes of Reuben and Gad, after an initial
angry remonstrance from Moses, are granted
permission to settle in the rich
pasturelands east of the Jordan on the
assurance that after they erect sheepfolds
and fortified towns for their flocks and
families, they will provide the shock troops
spearheading the advance of the Israelites
into Canaan, and will not return to their
homes until their brethren hold the land.
Thereupon Moses allots the various conquered
kingdoms and towns east of Jordan to the
Gadites and Reubenites. The various Gadite,
Reubenite, and Manassite towns are listed.
The rest of
the book of Numbers (P in its final form)
consists of an itemized summary of the route
from Egypt to the plains of Moab outside
Canaan (chapter 33) and various additional
materials (chapters 34–36). Verses 50–56 of
chapter 33 present the divine command to
dispossess the people of Canaan, destroy
their idols and cultic places, and apportion
the land to each clan by lot. In chapter 34
the Lord specifies the boundaries of the
whole land of Canaan that is to be Israel’s
inheritance and names the tribal leaders
who, along with Eleazar and Joshua, are to
oversee the division of the land by lot. In
chapter 35, the Lord orders 48 towns with
extensive pasturelands to be set aside for
the Levites; six of these are to be cities
of refuge for manslayers whose guilt of
intentional murder has not yet been
determined and who are provided sanctuary
from the traditional blood vengeance.
Although these settlements do not constitute
an independent tribal territory but are
scattered through the territories of the
other tribes, the contradiction with chapter
18, verse 24, of Leviticus, commanding that
the Levites are to have no share of the land
but are to subsist solely on tithes, is
obvious and raises critical questions.
Finally, chapter 36 concludes the book of
Numbers with a supplement to the law of
inheritance through daughters laid down in
chapter 27, enjoining daughters from
marrying outside the tribe, so that the
tribe will hold its portion of the land,
which was given from God, in perpetuity. As
before, the general injunction is laid down
in a story dealing with a particular case
(the daughter of Zelophehad).
Deuteronomy: Introductory discourse
Special nature and problems
The English title of this work, meaning
“second law,” is derived from a faulty Greek
translation of chapter 17, verse 18,
referring to “a copy of this law”: the
implication being that the book is a second
law or an expanded version of the original
law for the new generation of Israelites
about to enter Canaan. Hebrew texts take the
opening words of the book as title, Ele ha-Devarim
(These Are The Words), or simply Devarim
(Words). As noted in Composition and
authorship, above, the book is in a class by
itself in the Pentateuch, so much so that
modern scholars tend to consider it apart
from the other four books, and some see it
in style, content, and concerns more closely
related to the succeeding books of Joshua,
Judges, Samuel, and Kings, constituting a
“Deuteronomic history.” In spite of its
homogeneous style and tone—it is assigned
for the most part to a single source, D—the
content indicates to critical scholars very
composite traditions, ages, and situations
behind the finished form. This book has
elicited a library of scholarship going back
to the early 19th century, not only because
of the complicated critical and historical
problems calling for solution but also
because of its spiritual and theological
message, which gives it a special place
among Old Testament writings.
In form,
the book is ostensibly a discourse by Moses
“to all Israel” in the final month in Moab
before they go over the Jordan into Canaan.
Actually it comprises three separate
discourses, a set of laws, two poems, and
various other matters, all ascribed to Moses
directly—here it is Moses who sets forth the
laws, not God through him. These materials
are centred on the presentation of the rules
of life and worship for the coming stay in
the Promised Land, along with exhortations
and explanations pointing to YHWH, the
marvellous liberator from Egypt and guide in
the wilderness, as the divine source and
reason for the commands. The traditional
view was that, with the possible exception
of the account of Moses’ death, the whole
book was written by Moses, based on the
phrase “And Moses wrote this song” in
chapter 31, verse 22.
Some early
Church Fathers identified the book with “the
book of the law” (II Kings, chapter 22,
verse 8), found in the 18th year of King
Josiah’s reign (c. 621 bce), and made the
basis of his great religious reform the
following year. Wilhelm M.L. de Wette, a
German biblical scholar, in 1805 established
the predominant modern view that Deuteronomy
(or its nucleus, or main portion) was found
in Josiah’s time and was a distinctive book,
separate from the Tetrateuch. He also held
that it was composed shortly before its
discovery; other, more recent, scholars
would put it as much as a century earlier
and connect it with earlier reforms, while
some associate it with the writings and
teachings of the 8th-century-bce prophet
Hosea and with the E source. Furthermore,
the references to localities near Shechem as
cultic places, taken with certain passages
in Joshua, indicate a northern provenance
for the book and not the southern source
connected with a cultic centre at Jerusalem,
as had been previously supposed from the
associated material in II Kings. Some
scholars see the form and occasion of
Deuteronomy as a Covenant renewal ceremony
in which the whole law is read, as in
Joshua, chapter 8, verses 30–35, and thus
view it as a liturgical document, as well as
a lawbook. In any case, the tendency is to
see various layers of materials and lines of
transmission, perhaps going back to quite
early preliterary sources, before its final
formation in the 8th or 7th century bce.
The book
may be divided as follows:
(1) introductory discourse to the whole book
(chapter 1 to chapter 4, verse 43);
(2) introductory discourse to the lawbook
(chapter 4, verse 44, through chapter 11);
(3) the lawbook (chapters 12–28);
(4) concluding exhortation and traditions
about the last days and death of Moses
(chapters 29–34).
First
introductory discourse of Moses
The first introductory discourse, spoken
by Moses, traces the journey of the
Israelites from Mt. Horeb to Moab, with some
noticeable differences in detail from the
account in Exodus and Numbers and an
emphasis on Moses being banned from entrance
into the Promised Land because the Lord was
angry at the Israelites. To this historical
retrospect is appended an exhortation to the
people to obey God’s laws and norms,
recalling the imageless God of the
revelation and Covenant at Horeb as a
warning against making images and serving
man-made gods. The uniqueness and soleness
of the God of the Exodus and Covenant, his
power and presence in his marvellous acts of
redemption and revelation, and his gracious
selection of Israel are proclaimed in
rhetorical questions; moreover, it is
emphasized that the God of Israel (“YHWH
your God”) “is God in heaven above and on
the earth beneath; there is no other.” The
injunctions against idolatry appear to come
from later experience and religious crisis
in Canaan. The fact that other nations have
their own gods and objects of worship is
recognized elsewhere in Deuteronomy.
Second
introductory discourse
The second discourse, also ascribed to
Moses, again refers to the Covenant at Horeb
and sets forth the Ten Commandments, which
the people are admonished to obey
rigorously, emphasizing the mediating
function of Moses at Horeb between the
awesome divine presence and the awestruck
people. Israel is further admonished to obey
the law through wholehearted love of God,
expressed in what became the central
liturgical expression of Israel’s faith,
beginning, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our
God, the Lord Alone. You must love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your might.” If they
obey God’s laws, avoid other gods, and do
what is right and good, they will possess
the land promised by God—him who rescued
them from Egypt and has brought them thus
far. They are to avoid marriage and all
other intercourse with the peoples of the
land, utterly destroying them and their
idolatrous altars and cultic places, for
they are a special, holy people chosen by
God out of all the peoples because of his
love, not because of their greatness or
power. This marvellous love will continue to
be exercised, and the people will be blessed
with all good things—prosperity, fertility,
health, and success in battle—if they obey
God’s ordinances. They are urged to remember
the 40-year period of wilderness wandering,
in which they were tested (disciplined) by
God through hardship and hunger (to find out
whether or not they would keep his commands)
and saved by him: man does not live by bread
alone but, rather, by whatever God provides
(e.g., manna from heaven). Another time of
testing will come when they live in the
rich, fertile land of Canaan and eat their
fill and perhaps forget the Lord and his
laws, ascribing their wealth to their own
power and might and even venturing into
idolatrous worship of the gods of the land.
If they do so they shall perish, just as the
idolatrous nations of the land shall.
A long list
of the apostasies of Israel is presented in
chapter 9 to demonstrate the point that
Israel is going in to possess the land of
Canaan not through any virtue of their own
but because of God’s promise to the
patriarchs. This is followed in chapter 10
by a moving declaration of what God requires
of Israel—fear (reverence), walking in his
ways, love, wholehearted service, and
keeping his commandments—and an extolling of
the wondrous, unique, powerful God who
liberated them from Egypt. Chapter 11 extols
the richness of the land of Canaan and
describes how it will bloom for them if they
are observant of God’s commandments and
promises that they will hold the territory
from the wilderness to Lebanon and from the
Euphrates to the western sea
(Mediterranean). It closes with the choice
set before them by Moses of “a blessing and
a curse”—the former if they obey the
commandments, the latter if they do not.
This choice is posed to them immediately
before the presentation of the laws and
norms beginning in chapter 12.
Deuteronomy: the lawbook and the conclusion
The lawbook
The laws are the central core and
purport of the book of Deuteronomy. They are
couched in a hortatory, sermonic style that
has led to their being categorized as
preached law. Emphatic statements of what
must or must not be done are connected with
exhortations to fulfill these injunctions,
pointing to the motivations and spirit in
which they should be carried out. There is a
wide variety of laws here—ritual, criminal,
social—but they are all set within this
preaching context and aimed at the service
of God. This is no dry legal code but,
rather, a book written in fluent and moving
prose. Scholars have seen duplications and
parallels between the laws presented here
and those in the Covenant Code in chapters
21–23 of Exodus; but to this a common source
may be ascribed, and Deuteronomy may be
considered a work in its own right and not a
mere expansion of the Covenant Code.
The lawbook
comprises chapters 12–26, supplemented by
chapters 27–28. After an initial order to
destroy the pagan cultic places and idols,
the lawbook goes to its basic injunction: to
set up a single central sanctuary in Canaan,
where all Israel is to make their offerings,
as distinct from the present unregulated
practice, “every man doing whatever is right
in his own eyes.” The spot is designated
only “the place which the Lord your God will
choose,” which some interpreters, following
King Josiah, have understood to be Jerusalem
and which others understand to be Shechem.
(The blessing and curse passage immediately
preceding in chapter 11 specifies Mts.
Gerizim and Ebal, on either side of Shechem,
as the places of blessing and curse,
respectively; and an even more elaborate
ritual is prescribed for the same locality
in chapter 27.) Instructions are given for
the proper killing of animals for food,
previously connected with the sacrificial
cult, and the people are admonished when
they settle in Canaan not to inquire about
how other nations serve their gods, possibly
to follow their abominable practices.
Inserted at this point is the striking
exhortation, “Everything that I command you
you shall be careful to do; you shall not
add to it or take from it.”
Chapter 13
warns the people to beware of the
temptations to apostasy arising from the
urging or example of prophet-diviners,
kinfolk or friends, or a whole town; they
are to kill the tempters and destroy the
towns. Chapter 14 is devoted mainly to a
list of living things that may or may not be
eaten, the “clean” and “unclean,” similar to
the list in Leviticus, chapter 11; and to
laws for tithes and first fruits to be
brought annually to the central sanctuary
and triennially to the Levites in the towns,
who are specified as having no “portion” of
their own (two years to the centre, the
third year to the town Levites). Chapter 15
deals mainly with the releases to be granted
every seventh year to debtors of their debts
and Hebrew slaves of their bondage; lenders
are exhorted and commanded not to refuse
loans to the poor in the sabbatical year of
release, and God’s redemption of Israel from
Egypt is given as the reason for freeing
one’s Hebrew slaves in the sabbatical
release. The first section of chapter 16,
verses 1–17, gives the rules for celebrating
the three main festivals of the religious
year: Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Booths,
which are to be observed at the central
sanctuary (hence later called the three
pilgrim festivals).
Beginning
with verse 18 of chapter 16 there is a
discussion of the appointment and character
of judges, and of judicial procedures and
punishments for apostasy, homicide, and
other crimes; similarly, beginning with
verse 14 of chapter 17 there are rules on
the selection of a king and for his conduct,
and the injunction that he read from “a copy
of this law,” so that he may be edified and
chastened. The first portion of chapter 18
deals with the office and support of
priests, referred to here as “the Levitical
priests . . . all the tribe of Levi,” not
distinguishing the Aaronic priests from the
lesser Levites. This is followed—after a
passage inveighing against abominable cultic
and divinatory practices of the nations of
the land—by a promise that God will raise up
prophets among the people and instructions
on how to tell true from false prophets.
Thus the offices of judge, king, priest, and
prophet are considered in chapters 16–18.
Chapter 19
deals again with crime and punishment. It
distinguishes between unintentional
manslaughter and murder, setting up cities
of refuge for the manslayer and ordering the
murderer to be killed by the blood avengers.
It also lays down the rules for witnesses
and the punishment for perjury. It closes
with the famous lex talionis: “Life for
life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for
hand, foot for foot,” which in context may
spell out what is to happen to the false
witness and even could be interpreted as a
moderating, rather than an inhumane, precept
(no more than an eye for an eye, etc.).
Chapter 20 gives the rules for holy war,
listing the situations that exempt men from
military service (e.g., a newly married man)
and distinguishing the treatment of
non-Canaanite and Canaanite cities; the
latter are to be utterly destroyed, yet it
is forbidden to destroy fruit-bearing trees.
There are also rules on holy war in
21:10–14; 23:9–14; 24:5; and 25:17–19.
Chapters 20–25 contain a great variety of
laws; the just treatment of women captives,
sexual offenses, exclusions from the
religious community, public hygiene in
campgrounds, and many other things.
The last of
the laws are set forth in chapter 26,
dealing with the first fruits offering and
tithes. At the annual offering (or soon
after entering Canaan), in the central
sanctuary, the worshipper is to recite a
piece beginning, “A wandering Aramaean was
my father,” affirming his link with the
patriarchs and extolling God’s wondrous
deeds on behalf of Israel. And every third
year he is to set aside his tithe “to the
Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and
the widow” and make an affirmation “before
the Lord” that he has complied and avoided
any ritual stain.
The final
passage in chapter 26 proclaims that “this
day” God has proclaimed his law, Israel has
affirmed its commitment to God and his law,
and God has affirmed his choice of Israel as
his special, holy people, to be set up high
above all the nations. This is the hortatory
conclusion to chapters 12–26 and to the
“second law,” or Covenant, contained
therein.
The
emphasis on the laws given on “this day” is
continued in the supplementary chapters
27–28, which deal with Covenant ratification
and renewal ceremonies, apparently a
reference to an original ceremony in Moab,
one in Canaan on the first day in the land,
and subsequent, possibly annual, renewal
ceremonies. Blessings and curses are to be
pronounced from Mts. Gerizim and Ebal for
respectively fulfilling or disobeying the
Covenant: all good things or all bad things
will befall the people, as they keep or fail
to keep the Covenant. Some of the curse
consequences in chapter 28, referring to
siege, subjugation, and exile, are believed
by some scholars to reflect late pre-exilic
or exilic situations. The curse consequences
fill up the bulk of these chapters and are
recounted in powerful, moving language,
ending with a threat to return the people to
Egypt.
Concluding exhortation and traditions about
the last days of Moses
Chapters 29–31 comprise the third and
last address of Moses to the people of
Israel. They are preceded by an introductory
verse referring to “these words” as a
covenant made in Moab, in addition to the
one made at Horeb (Sinai). After reminding
them of all that God has done for them,
Moses calls on the whole people to enter
into the sworn Covenant made this day that
they may be his people and he may be their
God, warning the secret apostate of the
calamities that will befall him. Yet the
possibility of a return to God and the land
is held out to those who will suffer exile
and persecution as punishment for their
apostasy, again presumably a reflection of
the exilic situation (chapter 30 verses 1–10
seems clearly to be an interpolation
inspired by the actual experience of exile).
This law, it is emphasized, is no recondite,
remote thing up in the sky but is, rather,
very close to men, “in your mouth and in
your heart”; what is revealed is made plain,
it is not the secret things of God. Moses
sets before them the classic Deuteronomic
choice: “life and good” over “death and
evil.” The people are given that choice and
told the consequences of loving the Lord and
keeping the Covenant or of going the other
way.
The final
chapters are concerned with the last words
and acts of Moses: directing Joshua to lead
Israel after his death, writing down “this
law,” calling for a sabbatical renewal
ceremony of it on the Feast of Booths,
ordering that it be put beside the ark of
the Covenant, and uttering two poems. The
first, “The Song of Moses” (chapter 32),
praises the faithfulness and power of the
Lord, decries the faithlessness and
wickedness of Israel, and predicts the
consequent divine punishment; it adds,
however, that in the end the Lord will
relent and will vindicate his people. The
second poem, “The Blessing of Moses”
(chapter 33), blesses each of the tribes of
Israel, one by one, and the blessings are
associated with God’s love, the law
commanded by Moses, and the kingship of God
over his people. There are indications in
both poems of a considerably later date
(after Joshua’s time, perhaps in the period
of the Judges); Moses is spoken of in the
third person in “The Blessing” poem.
The
narrative of Deuteronomy, and thus of the
Pentateuch, ends with Moses’ ascent to the
top of Mt. Pisgah, his being shown the
Promised Land by God, and his death there in
the land of Moab, buried by God in an
unknown grave. It is emphasized in the
closing words that Moses was a unique
prophet “whom the Lord knew face to face”
and through whom the Lord wrought unique
“signs and wonders” and “great and terrible
deeds.” Thus end the Five Books of Moses.
Seymour Cain
Encyclopaedia Britannica
