Kings of Israel

(Deuteronomy 17:14 - 17:20)

"After you have entered the land that Jehovah your god has given to you, have occupied and settled it, you may say, "Let's have a king to rule over us like all the neighboring countries do."  Be sure to accept as your a king only he who has been selected by Jehovah your god.  He must be a fellow countryman; do not pick a foreigner, one who is not of your people, to rule over you.  The king should not breed a large stable of horses for himself or bid his people to go to Egypt to acquire more for him, because Jehovah has told you, "Do not go back that way again!”  He must not take too many wives, for they are apt turn his mind from the way of Jehovah.  Nor should he amass for himself an excessive amount of silver and gold.

"When he assumes the throne as king, he must keep a record of these instructions for himself in a book, copied from that of the Levitical priests.  He is have it with him always and read it every day of his life so that he may learn to revere Jehovah his god, to keep all the words of his laws, and to execute these statutes.  He must not come to feel himself superior to his fellow Israelites or alter the law in any way, so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel." 

Notes

1. Jehovah demands that Israelite kings do not seek to acquire too much personal wealth, horses, wives, gold and silver.  Good luck with that.  Ironically, King Solomon of Israel, who built the Jehovan Temple, was famed for his wealth and the size of his harem.  He seemed to get on OK, but later, King Herod was not totally accepted by the people of Israel because he was regarded as a foreigner.

2. The king is not supposed to have too many horses and must on no account go to Egypt to stock his stables.  At this time the Israelites had cattle and sheep, goats and donkeys, but there has been no reference to horses.  The breeds of horses existent at that time were not used as beasts of burden.  Donkeys pulled carts, oxen pulled plows, and everybody walked.  In the 16th Century BC the Hyksos introduced the horse-drawn war chariot to Egypt.  Outside of the steppes of Eurasian, horses were never used as mounts until about 800 BC -- and it would be hundreds of years before effective bridles were invented.  It seems unlikely that an Israelite king would want horses for himself, unless the reference here is to war horses.

3. The king is suppose to have a written copy of Jehovah's laws to refer to on a daily basis.  Great, only at this time, as has been oft noted, the Hebrews lived in a preliterate culture.  There were no alphabets, no writing, save Egyptian hieroglyphics and Babylonian cuneiform.  Even if Moses probably knew the latter, it is unlikely that the Israelites would have used either.  It had been centuries since the Israelites had been in contact with Mesopotamia, and considering the animosity Jehovah harbored against the Egyptians, it is improbable that he would have sanctioned the use of their writing.  It is assumed, of course, that the writing would be in Hebrew, but that was a language that would not be developed for hundreds of years.  This is another indication that the writers of the Bible were entirely clueless about conditions in former times and were woefully deluded about the true history of their own people.    

Justice in Israel

(Deuteronomy 16:18 - 17:13)

"In all the towns that Jehovah your god is giving you, you should appoint judges and officials for each of the tribes.  They must pass judgment fairly, and not pervert justice by showing partiality or by taking a bribe (for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and twist the words of the righteous).  Pursue justice and justice alone so that you may prosper when you take possession of the land Jehovah your god is giving you. 

"You must not plant any kind of tree to be worshiped as an Asherah or erect a stone image for worship beside the altar you have built for Jehovah your god, for such things are detested by him. 

"Do not sacrifice to Jehovah your god cattle or sheep that possess any flaw or defect, for that would be offensive to Jehovah.

"When you have settled in the towns Jehovah your god is giving you, it may happen that a man or woman does evil in the sight of Jehovah your god and violates his pact by serving and bowing down to other gods, or by worshiping the sun or the moon or other heavenly bodies -- which I have forbidden.  If there is such a report and you come to hear of it, you must investigate the matter thoroughly.  If it is established that such an abominable act has been committed in Israel, then the man or woman who has committed it must be taken to the town gates and stoned to death.  Evidence must always be presented by 2 or 3 witnesses. No one should be sentenced to death on the testimony of a single witness.  The first stones must be hurled by the hands of the witnesses, after which the rest of the populace join in.  The evil in your midst is thusly purged.

"If a case arises in your towns that proves difficult to decide, whether it be a determination of what sort of homicide or assault may have been committed or some matter involving conflicting legal rights, then take it to a place of worship chosen by Jehovah your god and present it to the Levite priests or to whatever judge is currently in office.  Consult with them and they will render a verdict for you.  You must carry out the decisions they give you at a place of worship chosen by Jehovah your god.  Carefully take note of all the instructions they tell you.  Abide by their interpretation of the law and follow their directions in regard to carrying out the verdict.  Do not alter their judgment in any way, by making it either harsher or more lenient.  Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or the priest that represents Jehovah your god and rejects their decision must be put to death to purge the evil from Israel.  All the people will hear of it, be afraid, and never again act with such contempt.”

Notes

1. There is a continued emphasis upon the exclusive worship of Jehovah, for that seems to be the common element, the glue that holds together the tribes of the nation of Israel.  To pursue, worship, and serve other gods is more than sacrilege and a betrayal of Jehovah, it is a repudiation of national identity, justifying heresy and apostasy as capital offenses.  In reality, though, the Hebrews were, through most of their history, not at all monotheistic nor was the worship of gods other than Jehovah an anomaly, even if it might have been an abomination to the Levite priests of Jehovah. 

2. Asherah were living trees or wooden poles set up near Canaanite shrines to honor Asherah, a fertility goddess.   

3. The reliance upon corroborated testimony and evidence resulting from an honest investigation, as well as insistence upon unbiased and incorruptible judges provide a sound basis for a justice system.  That they were espoused by the Israelites, a group of primitive nomads, is admirable.  But one wonders, though, whether these concepts were actually honored during the time of Moses or whether they were developed later when Hebrew civilization, no longer nomadic, had became more sophisticated.  The lapse in time from when the events in the Books of Moses took place to when they were first recorded and to when the records might have been compiled, edited, added to, and censured is many hundreds of years.  Therefore, we can never know what aspects of Hebrew law and custom are contemporary with the "historical" account and what are anachronistic.

4. The provision that the witnesses against a law breaker must be the primary executioners would seem a bit barbaric to us, but does make some rough sense.  And the idea that severity of punishment is necessary to prevent future crime is certainly something we understand.  However much as deterrent sentences have been and still are imposed, they do not constitute justice, which demands that the punishment be in proportion to the seriousness of the crime and that law breakers are punished only for their own crimes and not for future possible crimes committed by others.  There seems to be an assurance here that putting to death those who are guilty of heresy or of ignoring or altering the judgment of a priest will generate such fear that it will scotch any potential law breaker.  Experience and long history have shown, though, that draconian punishments, such as making minor crimes capital offenses, have rarely had the deterrent effect expected; more often than not they are counterproductive.       

Three Festivals

(Deuteronomy 16:1 - 16:17)

"To honor Jehovah your god celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the month of Abib [Nisan], for it was in the month of Abib that Jehovah your god brought you out of Egypt in the dead of night.  You should offer to Jehovah your god a sacrifice from the flock or the herd at a place of worship where Jehovah has chosen that his name should be honored.  You should eat with it no bread that is leavened.  For 7 days you should eat unleavened bread as you did when you departed Egypt in haste, for this is the bread of affliction, to remind you all the days of your life the time of your exodus from Egypt.  Throughout the land let there be no yeast in your possession for 7 days.  Let no meat you have sacrificed on the 1st day remain uneaten by the following morning.  You may not make the Passover sacrifice in the towns that Jehovah your god is giving to you: it must be offered only at a place of worship where Jehovah has chosen that his name should be honored.  Sacrifice it there at dusk when the sun is setting, the time when you began your exodus from Egypt.  You must cook it and eat it at the place that Jehovah your god will choose.  In the morning you may return home to your tents.  For the next 6 days you must not eat any leavened bread.  Then, on the 7th day, hold a sacred assembly and do no work on that day.

"Count off 7 weeks from the time you begin to harvest the standing grain.  Then you will celebrate the Harvest Festival to honor Jehovah your god.  You must bring to his altar voluntary offerings proportionate to the blessings you have received from him.  Celebrate before the altar at the place of worship where Jehovah has chosen that his name should be honored; celebrate with your children, your servants, the Levites who live in your towns, as well as the aliens, the widows, and orphans who live among you.  Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt and carefully observe these decrees. 

"When the grain has been threshed and the grapes have been pressed, you should celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for 7 days.  Celebrate with your children, your servants, the Levites who live in your towns, as well as the aliens, the widows, and orphans who live among you.  For 7 days you will observe this festival to honor Jehovah your god at the designated place of worship, for it is Jehovah who blesses you with bountiful harvests and grants you success in all you undertake, so that you know great rejoicing. 

“Three times a year, at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Harvest Festival, and the Festival of Tabernacles, each man must appear before the altar of Jehovah your god at a designated place of worship.  He must not come empty handed, but must bring gifts for Jehovah proportionate to the blessings he has received from him."

Notes

1. A more detailed description of Jehovan holidays is presented in Leviticus -- another suggestion that Deuteronomy was written first and the previous books ascribed to Moses were later elaborations.

2. Abib, later called Nissan, occurring in early spring, is the first month of the Jewish religious calendar.  (The secular calendar begins in the early autumn month of Tishri, Rosh Hashanah being New Year's day.)  The Feast of Unleavened Bread is, of course, better known as Passover.  Here no mention is made of the Jehovah's mass murder of the Egyptian first born and his Angel of Death "passing over" the homes of the Israelites.  Reference is made only to the hasty departure of the Israelite slaves in embarking upon their exodus into the desert.  Previous notes have commented upon the unlikelihood that any large number of Israelites were Egyptian slaves, that the Ten Plagues of Egypt probably occurred long before the age of Moses, and that any large exodus out of Egypt is not only unsubstantiated by history and archaeology, but is, in practical and logistical terms, impossible.

3. The Harvest Festival, literally the Festival of Weeks, was, by the time of Jesus, known as the Festival of Pentecost, and is now celebrated as Shavuot or Shabuoth.  The Festival of Tabernacles, or Festival of Booths, was referred to in Exodus as the Festival of Ingathering, but is now celebrated as Sukkot or Succoth.  It is ironic that Moses is lecturing his people on harvest festivals when up to this time they have only been nomads, wandering around Sinai with their flocks and herds.  Having previously been slaves for generations, what would they even know of crops and harvests?

Sabbatical Year

(Deuteronomy 15:1 - 15:23)
"At the end of every seventh year, you are required to forgive all debts.   The manner in which this is to be done is this: every creditor must cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite.  They must not demand payment from their neighbors and relations, because a cancellation of debts has been proclaimed by Jehovah.  You may demand payment from a foreigner, but you must excuse whatever is owed to you by your fellow Israelites.  Indeed, there need be no poor among you, for in the land Jehovah your god is giving you as an inheritance, he will bless you, provided you obey Jehovah your god and follow the commandments I am giving you today.  Jehovah will bless you as he has promised.  You will lend to many nations, but you will borrow from none.  You will rule over other nations, but you will not be ruled over by them.

"If there are any of your fellow Israelites who live in the towns of the land Jehovah your god is giving you and are poor, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward them.  Treat your poor brother with an open hand, lending him whatever he might need, regardless of what it might be.  Take care not to entertain the selfish thought, "The 7th year, the year of debt relief is near," and regard your poor brother stingily, denying him a loan, so that he complains to Jehovah about you.  If so, you will be guilty of a sin.  Give to him generously and do so without a grudging heart, for which Jehovah your god will reward you by blessing all your work and all you may undertake.  Since there will always be poor in the land, I therefore command you to be openhanded to your brother who lives in the land and is poor and needy.

"If any of your people, a Hebrew man (or woman), is indentured to you, he will serve you for six years, but in the seventh year you must grant him his freedom.  And when you release him, you must not send him away empty-handed, but generously supply him from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress, giving to him as Jehovah your god has given to you.  And you should keep in mind that your were once slaves in Egypt and Jehovah freed you.  That is the reason I give you this command today.  However, your servant may tell you he doesn't want to leave, because he loves you and your household and is satisfied in your service.  In such a case, you should push an awl through his earlobe into the door, marking him as your slave for life.  The same should be done for a female slave as for a male.  Do not consider it a hardship to free a slave, for his six-year service to you is worth twice the labor of a hired hand -- and, if you do so, Jehovah will bless you in all you undertake.

"Set aside the firstborn of your flocks and herds for Jehovah your god.  Do not use the firstborn of your herds to work in the fields; do not shear the firstborn of your flocks.  Each year you and your household are to eat the meat of the firstborn before altar of Jehovah your god in the place of worship he has chosen.  Although, if an animal has a blemish, if it is lame or blind, or has some other serious defect, you must not sacrifice it to Jehovah your god.  You should then eat it within your towns instead.  Those who are ritually pure and impure may partake of it, as if it were a gazelle or deer.  But you must not consume its blood, which you should pour out on the ground like water."

Notes
1. Introduced here is the concept of the Sabbatical Year, the 7th year when debts are forgiven and slaves are freed.  In regard to debts, one wonders whether this was anything more than an utopian idea, like many presented in the Books of Moses.  Could this have worked in practice?  Would a Hebrew, or anyone else for that matter, really offer a loan to someone in the 6th year just to be a good guy, knowing that in the 7th year he would be unable to collect it?  Are loans regularly tendered when there is a near certainty of a loss?  Basing an economy on ignoring self-serving financial incentives and relying upon altruism, charity and compassion, still a characteristic of the political philosophy of many on the social justice left, has, in the long run, never worked and doubtless never will, unless human nature, which is instinctually selfish, is somehow altered.  It is interesting that in the case of money lending, the Israelite is treated differently from the foreigner, who is not offered any debt relief.

2. It is first asserted that in Jehovah's utopian paradise there would be no necessity for anyone to be poor, but then, more realistically, it is acknowledged that poor will always be with us.  Generous loans and gifts are offered as the only solution to Israelite poverty.

3. Israel is urged to be a creditor but never a debtor -- nice, if things work out perfectly, as, of course, they will with Jehovah's favor.

4. Slavery in ancient times was quite different than slavery in the Old South, where there was instituted a permanent slave class based on race.  Some ancient slaves were captives of war or abducted and pressed into service (a practice condemned by Jehovah.)  However, most slaves were what we would call indentured servants.  The slave himself or his family sold him into service for a limited period of time, after which he would be freed, usually with some payment made to him, as is described here. This practice was not uncommon in 17th and 18th Century America.

5. Israelites are to eat their firstborn livestock before the altar of Jehovah.  Wouldn't all the firstborn livestock furnish a great deal more meat than one's household could consume?  How could a small family eat even one steer at a sitting?  That every family would bring all their firstborn livestock to the altar to be slaughtered, cooked, and consumed would surely present insuperable practical and logistical problems.  Indeed, it would present a ludicrous spectacle.  Does one picnic at the slaughterhouse?  Wouldn't it make more sense to save the firstborn for breeding purposes, to improve the stock.

 

Tithes

(Deuteronomy 14:22 - 14:29)
“Each year you must set aside as a tithe a tenth of the crops you harvest.  So that you may learn to always revere Jehovah your god, bring your tithes, the grain, new wine, and olive oil, and the first born of your flocks and herds, to the place designated by Jehovah your god as the habitation where his name is honored and eat there before the altar of Jehovah your god.  When you are blessed with a good harvest, but the designated place of worship is too far away for you to bring your tithe, then you may exchange your crops and livestock for silver, and carry the silver with you to place of worship that has been chosen by Jehovah your god.  There you may exchange the silver for whatever food and drink you may desire, beef or mutton, wine or liquor.  You and your household should eat and drink before the altar of Jehovah your god and rejoice.  (And don't neglect the Levites that live in your towns, for they have no allotment of land among you.)

"Every third year bring all of your produce constituting your tithe for that year to the nearest town where it can be stored, so that the Levites (who have no land or inheritance of their own), resident aliens, orphans and widows who live in the towns may eat their fill  -- for which Jehovah your god will bless you in all you may undertake."

Notes
1. The tithe, the one-tenth of produce, is not a tax to support the "church" as is the modern tithe. The tithe, though, is Jehovah's share, but his worshipers are the ones who consume it.  The impression here is that of people bringing food to the place of Jehovan worship and having a picnic.  It would seem, though, that one tenth of one's produce would furnish far more than a good family meal.  What happens to the rest of the tithe?  Every third year the tithe goes to the local Levites and to the poor, widows and orphans -- who every three years can have a good meal!

2. If one lives too far away from the nearest place of worship to transport the produce meant for the tithe, it can be exchanged for silver and the silver brought to the place of worship to buy food there.  One gets the impression the authors are speaking about silver coins used as currency.  This is highly anachronistic.  Coins would not be invented for more than a half a millennium after Moses and were only commonly used by the 6th Century BC, about the time when most of the Bible was actually written. Moses/Jehovah is way ahead of his time.

Ritually Pure and Impure Food

(Deuteronomy 14:1 - 14:21)
"As you are the people of Jehovah your god, do not cut yourself or shave your heads in mourning the dead.  You are a people sacred to Jehovah your god and Jehovah has chosen you to be his cherished possession from out of all the nations of the world.

"You must not eat any detestable animals that are ritually impure.  The animals that you may eat are: cattle, sheep, and goats, the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and mountain sheep.  You may eat animals that have completely cloven hooves and chew the cud, but if an animal does not have both, it must not be eaten.  Thus you may not eat the camel, the rabbit, or the hyrax, because, although they chew the cud, they do not have cloven hooves and, therefore, are ritually impure.  And you may not eat the pig, because, although it has cloven hooves, it does not chew the cud and as such is ritually impure.  You must not eat the meat of these animals or even have contact with their carcasses.

"Of all the marine creatures, you may eat anything that has both fins and scales.  However, those that do not have both you may not eat, for they are ritually impure.

"You may eat any bird that is ritually pure.  These are the kinds of birds you may not eat: eagles, hawks, vultures, buzzards, kites, ravens, seagulls, ostriches, owls, cormorants, storks, herons, hoopoes, and bats.  And you may not eat swarming, winged insects; they are ritually impure to you.  But you may eat any winged creature that is ritually pure.

"You must not eat any animal that has died naturally.  You may, however, give it to an alien that lives among you; he may eat it.  Or you may sell it to a foreigner.  You are a people sacred to Jehovah your god: do not boil a goat kid in its mother's milk."

Notes
1. Not relating it to the contents that follow, Moses touches briefly upon proper mourning customs.  To cut one's self or to shave the head (literally, “make baldness between the eyes”), are foreign customs, one assumes, and deemed unseemly for the children of Jehovah.  All the rules and regulations set down here are specifically targeted for the Israelites, the chosen people of Jehovah, and are not binding upon or even suggested for the rest of the world's people.  Jehovah gives laws to his chosen people, but gives nothing (save, on occasion, destruction) to the rest of the people he supposedly created.

2. The original reasons for prohibiting the consumption of certain types of meat was doubtless hygienic.  Since ancient peoples (and apparently Jehovah) had no knowledge of micro-organisms or of pathology, a cause had to be found why certain foods were healthy and others would make one sick.  The cloven hoof-chewing the cud maxim would have been an acceptable and understandable explanation for the ignorant.  That such provisions and prohibitions are still meticulously followed as a requisite of religiosity is a stunning example of the survival of primitivism.

3. The list of prohibited birds refers to specific species, but there is no agreement on translation, with each version of the Bible giving a different list.  There being no reason to favor one list as being more accurate than another, I have simplified it and merely listed the type of birds probably referred to.   --- Interesting the bat was thought of as a bird; one would think the most primitive naturalist would see that the fact that it does not lay eggs, has fur, and feeds on milk makes it an animal, a mammal, not a feathered, egg-laying bird.  But we have already seen that scientific knowledge is not the Israelites' strong point.

4. The birds whose meat is prohibited as food were mainly raptors and scavengers, meat eaters.  This suggests that the reason for the prohibition was perhaps this: if you eat the meat of a buzzard you are also eating the meat of some ritually impure animal the buzzard may have fed upon. ---  Also, these birds are not particularly good eating anyway.  When was the last time you had fried vulture, hawk wings, roast owl, eagle stew, or even seagull soup?

5. Not boiling a kid in his mother's milk is a wonderful proverb, repeated elsewhere, but its relevancy here escapes one.

Punishment for Apostasy

(Deuteronomy 13:1 - 13:18)
"A prophet or a diviner of dreams may appear among you and foretell wonders and miraculous events.  These wonders or miraculous events may come to pass.  But, if he will then urge you, 'Come, let us seek out other gods' (gods you have not known) 'and worship them,’ you must not heed the words of that prophet or diviner of dreams.  This is Jehovah your god testing you, to see if you really love him with all your heart and soul.  It is Jehovah your god that you must follow and him you must revere, keeping his commandments and obeying his words, worshiping him and remaining faithful to him.  Because he has incited rebellion against Jehovah your god, who brought you out of Egypt and released you bondage, and because he is seducing you away from the paths Jehovah has taught you to walk, that prophet or diviner of dreams should be put to death.  You must purge your community of such evil.

"Your brother, the son of your mother, your son or daughter, the wife you love, or your dearest friend may secretly entice you, 'Let us worship other gods,' (gods known neither to you nor to your ancestors, perhaps gods of neighboring peoples or those of far-flung folk who dwell on one end of the earth or the other.)  You must not heed them or be persuaded by them.  Nor should you show them any sympathy.  Do not spare them or shield them.  They must be put to death!  And you must throw the first stone.  Then, all the rest of the people should join in, stoning to death those who are guilty of trying to lure you away from the worship of Jehovah your god, who rescued you from the Egypt, the land where you were slaves.  All of Israel will then come to hear of it and be so fearful that no one among you will again perpetrate such wickedness.

"When you have begun to settle in the towns Jehovah your god is giving you to live in, you may hear of certain men among you, followers of evil, that have led the people of a town astray, declaring, "Let's go and worship other gods,' (gods that were unknown to you).  In such a case, you should inquire into the matter and conduct a thorough investigation.  If it is determined to be true that such an abomination has occurred among you, then you must put the town to the sword.  The town itself should be destroyed utterly as a divine sacrifice along with all its inhabitants, even the livestock. You should collect all the goods of the town in the main square, then burn the town and its goods as an offering to Jehovah your god.  It should remain forever a ruin and never be rebuilt.  Save for your own use none of the town's goods marked for destruction, so that Jehovah will quell the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and compassion.  And he will make you multiply, as he promised your forefathers, if you obey Jehovah your god, keep his commandments, which I am giving you here today, and do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah your god."

Notes
1. Condemnation of the false prophet does not depend upon the accuracy of his prophecies, but upon his divine allegiance.  A prophet who favors some god other than Jehovah can, it is implied, make accurate, even miraculous prophecies, but he is apparently not a legitimate prophet unless he has the sanction of Jehovah.  It is implied that Jehovah allows the false prophet to test his own adherents.  The Jehovan must not be swayed to worship other gods simply because their prophets and diviners have a good track record.  This is similar to the Christian belief that God allows Satan to tempt believers to sin, just so the strength of their belief can be tested.

2. Jehovah's insistence upon religious orthodoxy and uniformity and the draconian punishments for non-conformance and apostasy put to shame the harshest theocracies, which always find it necessary to impress a uniformity of belief and enforce an adherence to "right" thought.   Here, we are told a man must turn in his family member or friend if suspected of urging the worship of gods other than Jehovah.  A modern parallel would be Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia where one was obliged to inform on the family member or friend if any action or remark of his suggested a lack of dedication to the regime.  Among the Israelites -- to make matters worse -- the accuser must be the lead executioner in stoning to death his family member or friend.  (Don’t think even the Nazis thought of that one!)  Dedication to Jehovah must, of course, supersede devotion to family or loyalty to friends, but that it should be taken to such hideous extremes is appalling.  And one wonders what abuses this provision might have permitted and encouraged.  For example, if a man wanted to get rid of an enemy, an unwanted wife, or troublesome brother, all he had to do was to go to the priest and accuse the person of persuading him to worship some god other than Jehovah.  He could then head the stoning party and kill the person himself. --- Modern dictatorships cannot tolerate dissidents because they threaten the civil order and the stability of a government whose legitimacy is not derived from the consent of the government, but from power and often a personality cult that borders on religious worship.  It has been so throughout history: man, a rebellious and headstrong creature who is continually tempted to think for himself, can only be kept in line, herded into common allegiance and common thought, through the imposition of force and the threat of terror.  Those who rule by force know this.  And so does Jehovah, who is no different than the modern totalitarian dictator: " believe in me," he says, "obey me, and you will be rewarded; show one sign of disloyalty to me, one act of defiance, and you will punished with death and utter destruction."

3. The complete destruction the town that strays from the worship of Jehovah, like the punishment of individuals who proselytize for other gods, does not constitute an act of justice, but terrorism, to force obedience and conformity through fear.  Indeed Moses/Jehovah admits as much.       

Religious Practices

(Deuteronomy 12:1 - 12:32)
"These are the laws and decrees you must carefully follow when you settle in the land that Jehovah, the god of your forefathers, is giving you to possess for as long as you live.  When you expel the peoples that currently inhabit the land, you must obliterate all the places where they have worshiped their gods, whether they be on a high mountain, in the hills, or under a shade tree.  You must overturn their altars, smash their pillars, burn their Asherim poles, and chop to bits their carved idols so that the names of their gods is erased from these sites.

"You must not worship Jehovah you god in this manner.  Rather, you must go to a site that Jehovah himself has chosen to establish as his habitation, the place where his name is to be honored among the tribes of Israel.  It is there that you should go, bringing your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and sacred contributions, your votive and voluntary offerings, as well as the firstborn of your flocks and herds.  It is there before the altar of Jehovah your god that you and your families will feast and celebrate all the undertakings that Jehovah your god has blessed.

"You will abandon the current practice, with each man worshiping in the way that seems fitting in his own eyes.  You have not yet ended your wanderings and arrived at the destination where you will receive the inheritance Jehovah your god is giving you.  But after you have crossed the Jordan to settle in the land Jehovah your god is giving you as an inheritance, he will give you a respite from fighting all your enemies so that you can live in security.  Then you must bring everything I command you, your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and sacred contributions, and choice votive offerings dedicated to Jehovah to the site that Jehovah your god has established as the habitation where his name will be honored.  You must celebrate there before the altar of Jehovah your god -- you, your families and slaves, and Levites who have inherited no portion of your land, but live in your towns.  Be careful not to present your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see, but offer them in the way I will instruct you and only at the places Jehovah has chosen within the territory of each tribe.

"Even so you may butcher your livestock in any of your town and eat your fill of the meat that Jehovah your god has blessed you with.   All of you, whether ritually pure or impure, may partake freely of the meat, as you would a gazelle or a deer.  But drink not the blood; instead pour it out on the ground like water.  Within your towns you must not eat the grain, drink the new wine, or use the olive oil set aside as a tithe.  And you must not eat the firstborn of your flocks and herds, any of the votive offering you are making, or any voluntary offering or sacred contribution.  You must eat them only before the altar of Jehovah at the place that Jehovah your god has designated -- you, your families, your slaves, and the Levites who dwell in your towns.  And it is before the altar of Jehovah your god that you should celebrate all you have accomplished.  (Take care, as long as you live in the land, not to neglect the Levites!)

"When Jehovah your god has enlarged your territory as he has promised, you may exclaim, "I want meat!" because you crave it.  Well, you may eat meat whenever you wish.  If a place designated by Jehovah your god to honor his name is too far away, you may butcher any of the flocks or herds Jehovah has given you and eat the meat in your own town, as I have instructed you.  Anyone, regardless of whether they are ritually pure or not, may consume the meat, as one would that of a gazelle or deer.  But do not drink the blood, for the life force is contained in the blood and the life force must not be consumed with the meat.  Instead pour the blood onto the ground like water.  Do not consume the blood, for all will go well with you and with your children after you when you do what is pleasing in the eyes of Jehovah. 

“Take your sacred contributions and votive offerings to the place chosen by Jehovah.  You must offer the meat and the blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of Jehovah your god.  The blood must be poured out on the altar, but the meat you may eat.  Be careful to obey the regulations I am giving you; all will thus go well with you and with your children after you when you do what is good and right in the eyes of Jehovah.

"When Jehovah your god goes ahead of you and expels the nations you will displace, when you have driven them out and settled in their land, do not be tempted to inquire about their gods and ask, 'How did these nations worship their god, for I want to do the same?’  You must not worship Jehovah your god in their way, because they have done for their gods abominable things that Jehovah detests.  Why they even burn their children as sacrifices to their gods!

"All the commands I give you, you must do, neither adding anything to them nor subtracting anything from them.”

Notes
1. Moses not only orders the destruction of all holy places of foreign gods, but advocates something quite significant, the institutionalization of Jehovan worship and the regulation of religious practice.  This is an advancement of social order and national development.  But it is also a major assertion of the collective over the individual, of the ceremonial over the mystical, of the religious establishment over the individual adherent.  Laymen, private persons, will no longer have the freedom to worship Jehovah in their own way.  (They were long since denied the freedom to worship any other deity.)  Indeed, every dictate of Moses (Jehovah) results in the abrogation of personal rights.  However, it must be remembered that personal rights were scarcely thought of at this early time.  And, on the face of it, it does seem fitting that Jehovah himself should dictate the terms of his own worship!  Ancient civil governments were nearly all theocratic to some extent, but that being set up by the Israelites promises to be extremely so -- and with a degree of religious intolerance that is total.

2. Throughout history it has been very common for a new religion to appropriate and make its own the sacred sites of the religion it has displaced.  Christian churches were built on the sites of pagan shrines.  Christian churches were made over into Islamic mosques.  A holy site is a holy site.  This practice, though, is condemned by Moses, for he wants nothing pertaining to foreign religions corrupting the exclusive worship of Jehovah.

3. The Israelites who, the texts suggest, have been subsisting solely on manna for the past 40 years are about to come off their diet and eat meat again.  Whether or not their digestive systems will readily adapt to this, Jehovah sanctions it.  Now that the Israelites are no longer in the desert, meat and other types of regular food will be readily available to them.  And it would be no longer practical for Jehovah to feed his people with daily drops of manna.  He was able to do so when their population was concentrated in a single camp, but not now they are to be spread across an entire country.  That the Israelites were on a manna-only diet, though, is inconsistent with other parts of the narrative, which refer to the Israelites having vast flocks and herds.  Were they not eating their livestock?  The reference here to gazelles and deer certainly suggests that they were being hunted and eaten, but that the livestock would only now serve as food.  The inconsistencies here are considerable.

4. The annoyingly frequent references to the Levites certainly suggests what class was behind putting together the biblical narrative.  The Israelites are continually exhorted to honor the rights of the Levites, who, as a priestly caste, is more a privileged than a deprived tribe.

5. The prohibition against consuming blood is unclear.  Does it mean only the drinking of blood or does it preclude having a rare beefsteak?  It was reasonable for the ancients to conclude that blood contains the life force, since they could see that when a person loses too much blood he dies.  They could have had no true understanding of the importance and nature of blood and circulation -- and Jehovah, who has a vested interest in keeping his worshipers ignorant, did not see fit to enlighten them on the matter -- or on any other scientific or practical matter.

6. Jehovah disparages the religious practices of his fellow gods, citing the sacrifice of children.  Granted he eventually changed his mind about it, but didn't Jehovah, or some entity claiming to be Jehovah, demand that Abraham burn his son Isaac on an altar as a sacrifice to him?

Obedience to Jehovah's Laws

(Deuteronomy 10:12 - 11:32)
"And now, Israel, what does Jehovah your god demand of you, but to revere Jehovah your god, to live according to his ways, to love him, to worship Jehovah your god with all your heart and soul, and to keep the commandments and decrees that he gives you for your own benefit.  Look, to Jehovah your god belong the heights of the heavens and the earth with all that is on it.  Yet, Jehovah chose your ancestors as the object of his love, and he chose you, their descendants, in preference to all other nations, as we have seen today.  Therefore, purify your mind that you may no longer be so headstrong.  For Jehovah your god is the god of gods, the master of masters, the great and mighty and magnificent god.  He shows no partiality to any person and he accepts no bribes.  He delivers justice to the orphan and the widow.  He is compassionate to the resident alien and provides him with food and clothing.  (So you, too, must show compassion for the resident alien, for you yourself were foreigners in Egypt.)  Revere Jehovah your god and worship him.  Be faithful to him and, when you take an oath, use his name.  He is your glory and he is your god, the one who has performed the marvelous miracles you saw with your own eyes.  When your forefathers emigrated to Egypt, they were but 70 individuals; now Jehovah your god has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

"You should therefore love Jehovah your god and always do what he requires of you, following his laws, decrees, and commandments.  Keep in mind that today I am not speaking to your children, who did not feel the effect of the discipline dispensed by Jehovah your god or witness his greatness, his might and power.  They did not see the miracles and the acts he performed in Egypt against the Pharaoh and his entire country.  They did not see what Jehovah did to the armies of Egypt, to their horses and chariots, how he made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them when they were pursuing you, and how he destroyed them forever.  Nor did your children see what Jehovah did for you when you were in the desert, before you arrived at this place.  And they didn't see what he did to Dathan and Abiram (sons of Eliab and descendants of Reuben), when the earth opened up in the middle of the Israelite camp and swallowed them, along with their households, tents, and every living thing that was theirs.  But you have seen with your own eyes all these mighty deeds that Jehovah did perform.

"Therefore take care to obey all the commands I am giving you this day so that you will have the strength to invade and conquer the land you are crossing the River Jordan to possess and that you may live long and prosper in the land Jehovah promised your ancestors he would give to them and to their descendants -- a land flowing with milk and honey.  The land you are entering to take possession of is not like the land from which you came, Egypt, where you planted seeds and irrigated them by hand like in a vegetable garden.  But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that soak up the water that falls as rain from the heavens.  It is a land nurtured by Jehovah your god, who watches over it from the beginning of the year till its end.

"And if you will faithfully obey the commands I am giving you here today, to revere Jehovah your god and to worship him with all your heart and soul, then he will send rain for the land in season, the first rain of autumn and later rain in the spring so that you may harvest your grain, new wine, and olive oil.  And he will provide ample pasturage for your livestock.  You will eat and be satisfied.  But take care that your mind be not deceived; don’t be led astray to worship other gods, for then the anger of Jehovah will be aroused; he will close the firmament so that the rain will not fall.  The land then will produce no crops, and you will quickly perish in the good land that Jehovah is giving you.

"Let them be ingrained in your hearts and minds, these words of mine.  Wear them like an armband round your wrist or a headband round your forehead.  Teach them to your children.  Discuss them when you’re sitting at home and when you are walking along the road, before you go to bed and when you get up.  Inscribe them on the door frames of your house and on your gates so that you and your children may live in the land that Jehovah vowed to give to your forefathers as long as the heavens will exist above the earth.

"If you are careful to follow the commandments I am giving to you, to love Jehovah your god, to live according to his laws, and to remain faithful to him, Jehovah will drive out all the nations before you, even though they be stronger and mightier than you; you will then be able to take over their land.  Wherever you set foot, that land will belong to you.  The boundaries of your country will extend from the southern desert north to Lebanon, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.  No one will be able to stand against you, for wherever you may go throughout the land, Jehovah your god will make the people fear and dread you; so is his promise.

"Take note that I am bringing you a blessing and a curse -- a blessing, if you will obey the commandments of Jehovah your god that I am giving you here today, a curse, if you disobey the commandments of Jehovah your god and reject him by worshiping foreign gods formerly unknown to you.  When Jehovah your god brings you into the land and helps you to occupy it, you must pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal.  (These two mountains are west of the River Jordan in the land of the Canaanites that dwell in the Jordan River Valley, near the town of Gilgal and the oak grove of Moreh.)  You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and occupy the land Jehovah your god is giving you.  When you have conquered it and are settled there, be sure to obey all the decrees and laws I am giving you today."

Notes
1. Again, Moses is speaking to the generation of the Exodus and not to their children. But Jehovah caused that generation to pass away so that no member of it (save Joshua and Caleb) would set foot on the Promised Land -- at least according to Numbers.  There seems to be a gross incompatibility between the narrative of Numbers and that of Deuteronomy, where most of this generation is still alive to hear Moses' sermon.

2. The multiplication of Israel's population during their time in bondage in Israel that is cited here is not even remotely plausible.  Even if every man has ten children, the resultant population after five generations is well under a million.  Jehovah, while bragging about how he has spurred the Israelites growth rate, concedes that the enemy nations are more populous.  He extols the strength of Israel and then portrays them as underdogs, thus having it both ways.

3. Jehovah professes compassion for the resident alien, yet he orders the extermination of every foreign country Israel is to come into contact with.  Where are these foreign residents to come from when the population of foreign countries is to be exterminated?

4. Jehovah, who claims to be the Creator, the universal God, makes the Israelites his Chosen People, from among all the peoples in the world, yet he never says why.  Indeed, he never refers to any Israelite virtues, only their faults, mostly their obstinacy and disobedience.  A list of ancient peoples who believed they were divine favorites would be a long one.

5. The Promised Land is praised as being more fertile than Egypt, which must rely upon irrigation from the Nile.  Palestine is in fact quite arid and today only 17% of land in modern Israel is arable (although this would included the Negev desert.)   In ancient times it was probably more fertile and was in fact famous for its olive groves and fruit trees.  Save for rare occasions when the Nile floods did not come, Egypt, though, could boast of a tremendous agricultural output supporting a large population.  Advanced methods of basin irrigation and horticulture, which Jehovah belittles, contributed to that output.  During Roman times Egypt was not only the richest province, it was the breadbasket of the empire.  Few would have regarded Canaan as preferable from an agrarian standpoint.

6. One presumes the command to write Jehovah's commandments on doorposts and gates is figurative.  Who among the population would actually be literate?  And, at that time, literate in what language, when Hebrew had not yet been developed and there were no alphabets?

7. The boundaries given for the Promised Land are those given to Abraham.  However, they would seem to include land Jehovah had earlier conceded to Moab and Ammon.  The extension of the eastern border all the way to the Euphrates River is not consistent with the eastern boundary given in Numbers and includes land that would never be occupied by the Israelites (save perhaps during the days of King Solomon) or considered by later generations to be part of the Promised Land.

8. Jehovah's gifts always come with strings attached, his blessings, conditional.  Obedience is always coerced with threats.  The Israelites are not only blessed by Jehovah, but also cursed.  If the Israelites are disobedient, then he will stop the rain from falling.  He will do this by closing the firmament, the dome the encloses the flat earth and separates it and the sky from the ocean above that is the source of rain water.  (Jehovah hasn’t figured out evaporation and condensation and is ignorant as to the origin of rainfall.)  Therefore, if there is a drought, the ancient Israelite would naturally conclude it to be an act of Jehovah intended to punish sin.  Thus everything in the natural world becomes, at least potentially, not only an act of God, but an expression of divine pleasure or displeasure. 

Moses Remembers Receiving the Ten Commandments

(Deuteronomy (9:1 -10:11)
"Listen, O Israel: today you will be crossing the River Jordan to conquer nations stronger and more populous than you, great cities with fortifications that reach to the sky, and people who are giants, descendants of Anak, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, 'Who can stand up against the Anakites?'  Rest assured that Jehovah your god will go before you like a consuming fire to destroy them.  He will subdue them so that you will be able to expel and annihilate them quickly, as Jehovah has promised you would.

"After Jehovah your god has expelled these people in advance of your entering the land, don't be thinking, 'Jehovah has brought us in to take over this land because of our righteousness.'  No, it is because of the wickedness of other peoples that Jehovah is driving them out before you.  It is not because of your righteous actions or upright character that are you are going to take possession of their land, but because of these nations' wickedness that Jehovah will drive them out before you and fulfill the promise he made to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

"Therefore, keep in mind that Jehovah is not giving you this good land to occupy because you are righteous, for you are not: you're a willful people.  Remember and never forget how in the desert you aroused the ire of Jehovah your god.  From the time you left Egypt until this day, you have been rebellious against Jehovah.  Even at Horeb you made Jehovah angry, in fact he was so incensed he would have destroyed you.  This occurred when I was on the mountain receiving the stone tablets, inscribed with the terms of the pact Jehovah had made with you.  I was there on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights; I ate no food and drank no water.  Jehovah presented me with two stone tablets inscribed by the hand of God.  On them were written all the words that Jehovah had spoken to you from out of the fire on the day of the assembly. 

"At the end of the 40 days and 40 nights Jehovah gave me the two stone tablets that were the record of the pact.  But Jehovah then told me, ‘Leave here at once and go back down, for the people you brought out of Egypt are corrupting themselves.  They have quickly deserted the path I commanded them to follow.  They’ve made for themselves an idol cast of metal!’  And he also confided to me, 'I have seen these people and they’re surely a pigheaded lot.  Leave me alone so that I can exterminate them and erase their name from the memory of man.  Then I will make from your descendants a nation that will be far stronger and larger than they are.'

"While it was blazing with fire, I left and came down the mountain, holding in my own two hands the two tablets inscribed with the terms of the pact.  When I looked down I could see that you had sinned against Jehovah.  You had cast an metal idol in the shape of a calf.  How quickly had you deserted the path that Jehovah had commanded you to follow!  So I took the two tablets and hurled them down, smashing them to bits before your eyes.

"Then, once again, I prostrated myself before Jehovah for another 40 days and 40 nights, neither eating food nor drinking water, because of the sin you had committed, doing what was wrong in Jehovah's eyes and arousing his anger.  I was afraid of the ire and the outrage of Jehovah against you, for he seemed irate enough to destroy you.  But again Jehovah listened to me.  And Jehovah was angry enough to destroy Aaron, but at the same time I prayed for him, too.  I took what you had made in sin, the calf, and burned it.  I crushed it and pulverized it into powder as fine as dust and dumped it into a stream that flowed down the mountain.

"And you aroused Jehovah's ire at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth Hattaavah.  At Kadesh Barnea Jehovah sent you out, telling you, 'Go up and occupy the land I have given you.’  But you defied the authority of Jehovah your god.  You wouldn't trust him or heed his commands.  Indeed, you've been defiant of Jehovah for as long as I've known you.

"That is why I prostrated myself before Jehovah for 40 days and 40 nights, because Jehovah had said he would destroy you.  I prayed to Jehovah and pleaded with him, ‘O my god Jehovah, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance that you saved and brought out of Egypt with your might and power.  Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Please excuse the defiance of these people, their wickedness and sin, lest the country from which they were freed will declare, "Because Jehovah was incapable of bringing them into the land he had promised them, and because he hates them, he led them into the desert in order to put them to death.”  But remember they are your people and your inheritance that you freed with your might and power.'

"At that time Jehovah told me, 'Cut two tablets of stone just like the first ones and make a chest of wood for them.  Then come up to me on the mountain.  I will inscribe on the tablets the same writing that were on the first set that you broke.  You may then place them in the wooden chest.'  And so I made a chest of acacia wood, cut two tablets just like the first set, and went up on the mountain with the tablets in my hands.  Jehovah wrote on the tablets in the same words as before, the Ten Commandments that Jehovah spoke to you from out of the fire on that day when you were assembled at the foot of the mountain.  And Jehovah gave them to me.  Then I left, came down from the mountain, and put the tablets into the chest I had made, as Jehovah had commanded me.  And there they remain."

(The Israelites journeyed from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah.  There Aaron died and was buried and was succeeded as high priest by his son Eleazar.  From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, then to Jotbathah, a land of many streams.  At that time Jehovah designated the tribe of Levi to carry the Jehovah's Chest of Sacred Records, to minister and worship before Jehovah's altar, and pronounce blessings in his name, as they do now.  This is why the Levites have no share of the property or land given to the other tribes of Israel.  Jehovah himself remains their particular inheritance, as Jehovah their god told them.)

"I myself remained on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, as I did the first time.  And, as before, Jehovah listened to me and agreed not to destroy you.  Then Jehovah said to me, "Get up and resume your journey and lead the people to the land I promised to give to their ancestors so they can enter and take possession of it."

Notes
1. Moses and the biblical authors are frustratingly non-specific about how Jehovah will aid the Israelites militarily.  It is made to seem that, with Jehovah's help, the Israelites will able to totally conquer the Promised Land in a week or two, and yet it is also made clear that the expulsion and/or extermination of the native inhabitants will take place over a considerable period of time.  The vagueness and the contradictions do not lend credibility to any claim that the invasion and occupation is historical; indeed, few historians believe that it is.

2. Moses goes up on the mountain and is without food and water for 40 days, on two occasions.  Why was it necessary and how was it possible?  Was he nourished in some other way?  Or did, when he visited Jehovah, enter into another dimension during which a short period of time elapsed for Moses, but a long period (40 days) elapsed for the Israelites.  (Such temporal discrepancies are common with those today who encounter or are abducted by supposed extraterrestrials and were also noted in the past by those who claimed to have visited fairyland.)  Since no man can live for 40 days without water (twice!), the other alternative is that Moses, the Moses presented in the Bible, is an egregious liar.

3. Moses does not make too much of his prolonged fasting, although he blames the Israelites for having to do it twice.  He makes no mention of the hardship it must have been for a man reportedly 80 years old to hike up and down a mountain so many times.  He does not say how he wiled away his 40 days, although he seems to suggest that he spent it prostrated before Jehovah, who did not seem to tire of Moses' company.

4. Moses makes a pair of Ten Commandment stone tablets that are apparently identical to those made by Jehovah.  (Considering their importance, why didn't Jehovah provide the hot-tempered Moses with an unbreakable set?)  One would have thought that a god could have made superior tablets, but perhaps Moses was really good with his hands.  How large, though, might the tablets have been to contain the full text of the Ten Commandments?  Would they have been light enough for this old man to carry?  And, the question asked many times before, how were they written, since the earliest Hebrew and the first alphabets were hundreds of years in the future?  Did Jehovah write in Egyptian hieroglyphics, in the language of his enemy?  The implausibilities and improbabilities, the historical inaccuracies and anachronisms must lead any reasonable person to come to the inevitable conclusion that the Ten Commandment story is not factual, but either a highly embellished yarn or a mere fairy tale.

5. There are several discrepancies between the story told here by Moses and that set down in Exodus, although the accounts are not substantially different.  Here Moses fails to mention Joshua, who waited for Moses when he came down from the mountain and called his attention to racket made by the Golden Calf-adoring Israelites, thinking it was the clamor of war.  In Exodus Moses inscribes the second set of tablets himself, but here Jehovah does the inscribing himself.  A major contradiction involves the chest made for the Ten Commandment tablets.  Here Moses makes a simple wooden box for them before he even receives the second set.  (A handy man is the Moses of Deuteronomy.)  In Exodus they are housed in the Chest of Sacred Records (Ark of the Covenant), elaborately crafted, lined with gold, with a lid adorned with the gold statues of winged figures and rings fitted for carrying staves.  (Interesting that Moses was able to carry the tablets himself, while, once they were in the chest, it took at least four men to do so.)   Here Moses brags about how he repeatedly spares the Israelites from Jehovah's destructive wrath, but conveniently fails to mention the indiscriminate slaughter he ordered after the Golden Calf incident. --- It should be mentioned that most scholars believe that Deuteronomy, or a draft of it, may have been written as early as the 10th Century BC, well before Exodus, which was probably composed in the 6th Century BC, after the Babylonian Captivity.  Deuteronomy, therefore, may be presumed to be the more authentic account, but of what -- historical fact or sacred legend?

6. Jehovah excuses his championing of the people of Israel by saying they are not good at all, but merely less evil than the rest of the nations.  And, rubbing it in, Moses reminds them of Jehovah’s intention to wipe them out and create a better nation out of Moses’ descendants.  (How long would that have taken?)  In the end he convinces Jehovah to spare the Israelites with the irresistible argument, “What would the Egyptians think?”  Hearing all this must have been a great morale booster for the Israelites!  Jehovah's jaundiced view of the character of his Chosen People may have been justified, but his own character, bordering on demonic and sociopathic, hardly qualified him as a judge of goodness.

7. As has been pointed out before, Moses speaks to his audience as if they had all participated in the Exodus from the beginning and had experienced the events he speaks of.  All the men who had left Egypt, save Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, were now dead.  None remaining can bear any personal responsibility for the instances of defiance and disobedience that Moses cites.  Yet, he rails against them, when he should be addressing the dead.  These sermons by Moses have the tinge of senior moment reminiscences.

8. At Taberah the Israelites became restive and Jehovah responded by burning those at the outskirts of the camp. At Massah the Israelites expressed their discontent over not having any water to drink.  At Kibroth Hattaavah the Israelites griped about having to eat manna and lusted after some real meat.  Jehovah then sent them a gazillion quails that caused a plague that killed many.  Kadesh Barnea was the place from which Moses sent out scouts into the Promised Land.  Distorted accounts made by most of the scouts caused the Israelites to balk at mounting the invasion of the Promised Land Jehovah demanded.

9. In what seem to be the author’s notes, it is stated that Aaron died and was buried at Moserah.  In Numbers it is recorded that Aaron died on Mount Hor.  The accounts are incompatible, for there is a great deal of distance between the two locations.  One would think the Bible authors would get their stories straight, or that someone in 2500 years might have succumbed to the temptation of altering the text to make the narrative consistent.
 

Forsake Not Jehovah

(Deuteronomy 8:1 - 8:20)
"Take care to follow every commandment I am giving you here today in order that you may prosper and multiply when you enter and occupy the land Jehovah swore to give your forefathers.  Remember how Jehovah your god guided you through the desert for 40 years, humbling you and testing your mettle, finding out whether or not you would obey his commands.  He humbled you and caused you to go hungry.  But he fed you with manna, something the neither you nor your ancestors had ever heard of before.  He did this to show you that man does not exist on food alone, but also on every word spoken by Jehovah.  Your clothes did not wear out nor did your feet swell during those 40 years.  And so bear in mind that Jehovah was disciplining you as a man might discipline his son.

"So you must observe the commandments of Jehovah your god, live according to his principles, and revere him.  For Jehovah your god is bringing you into a bountiful land, a land with brooks and streams and springs that gush water onto the hills and valleys, a land of wheat and barley, of grape vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey.  There will be plentiful food; it will be a land without want, and a land where there are iron ore deposits in the rocks and where copper can be mined in the mountains.  And when you have eaten your fill, thank Jehovah your god for the bountiful land he has given you.

"Take care that you do not forget Jehovah your god or fail to observe the commandments, laws, and decrees I am giving you today.  Otherwise, when you have eaten your fill, when you have built fine homes and settled in them, when your flocks and herds have grown large and you have accumulated much gold and silver, when all you have has increased, you may become arrogant and shun Jehovah your god who brought you out of Egypt, where you were held in slavery.  Do not forget that he guided you through the vast and dread desert, a land arid and waterless, with its poisonous snakes and scorpions.  He produced water from solid rock!  He fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your ancestors.  He did this to humble you and test you -- eventually for your own good.  You may say to yourself, 'My ability and the strength of my hands produced this wealth for me.'  But remember it was Jehovah your god who gave you the ability to acquire that wealth, so as to fulfill the pact that he made with your ancestors and which he swore to honor -- as he is doing today.  And if you forsake Jehovah your god to pursue other gods, to worship and adore them, I gravely caution you here and now: you will surely be destroyed.  Like the nations that Jehovah will destroy ahead of your entering the land he has given you, he will destroy you, should you not obey Jehovah your god."

Notes
1. Moses continues to speak as if his entire audience has endured the 40 years of the Exodus and he is reminiscing with them.  It must be remembered that no male (save Joshua, Caleb, and Moses himself) remained alive who was an adult when the Israelites left Egypt.  That would leave a relatively small number who had known the complete experience of the Exodus.  (Unless the authors of Deuteronomy do not subscribe to the narrative set down in Numbers.)

2. All the trials and deprivations of the Exodus were merely Jehovah testing the Israelites, according to Moses.  Hadn't they had it tough enough as slaves in Egypt?  Wasn't the purpose of leaving there a quest for a better life?  Did Jehovah punish the Israelites because, like a reproving parent, he was disciplining them for their own good?  Or did Jehovah punish and inflict hardship upon the Israelites because of personal pique, wounded pride, vanity, and petty vindictiveness?

3. Moses boasts how Jehovah produced water from a rock, fed the hungry Israelites with manna that fell from the sky, and kept their clothes from wearing out.  Jehovah could have had knowledge of the springs in the area and therefore was able to engineer the water-from-the-rock miracle.  The manna that fell from the sky might have been synthetic food manufactured by Jehovah's people and dropped from their airship.  But how did Jehovah prevent the clothes of the Israelites from wearing out?  He did not give them any special clothes; they were wearing the same garments of wool (and possibly linen) that they had worn when they were slaves.  Surely the rocky desert terrain would not have been easy on them.  This is a miracle indeed!

4. In extolling the virtues of the Promised Land, Moses mentions deposits of iron and copper.  Copper, an important resource, would have been mined to produce bronze.  This was the Bronze Age, but it was not the Iron Age.  Iron would have meant nothing to the people of Moses' time, for the means of smelting it and forging iron weapons, tools, and implements had not yet been discovered.  Such anachronisms in the text betray the later, Iron Age, origins of the Books of Moses.  The authors were writing of times hundreds, even many hundreds of years in the past; they seem to possess little awareness of the technological, cultural, and social changes that had taken place during those hundreds of years.

4. Moses reiterates the threat of destruction to those who do not obey Jehovah.  Apparently the worship of Jehovah is so patently distasteful, the temptation to worship other gods so irresistible, that the rewards of fidelity, even the bounty of the Promised Land is not enough to keep Jehovah's followers faithful.  Moses is correct in his reading of human psychology; gratitude is an emotion of short duration, easily set aside in good times.  And it is oft that the just recipients of gratitude are facilely forgotten.  History bears this out.  It was not during the time of Moses, or the time of David and Solomon, or even the time of the Babylonian Captivity, but perhaps not until the 2nd Century BC that the bulk of the Israelite/Hebrew population became truly monotheistic, worshiping Jehovah exclusively.  In the Jehovist propaganda that is known as the Bible, this is not evident, for the worship of other gods is there portrayed as an anomalous perversion.

5. Moses and Jehovah are continually putting down, emasculating the Israelites by telling them they are nothing without their god, can achieve naught, can win no battles, can acquire no wealth without his necessary help.  Everything is owed to Jehovah and they must be continually reminded of this.  Any success they might have is not due to their hard work, talent, brains, ambition, or enterprise; all must be attributed to Jehovah who makes everything possible.  It is true that personal pride can often degenerate into a selfish arrogance, but how stifling, how dismal, how inhuman is a philosophy that does not permit a man to take pride in -- and credit for the things he has accomplished.

Destruction of Israel's Enemies

(Deuteronomy 7:1 - 7:26)
"When Jehovah your god brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, ahead of your arrival he will clear out many nations, the Hethites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven peoples that are more numerous and more powerful than you are.  When Jehovah your god delivers these nations into your hands and you have defeated them, you must, as a divine sacrifice, utterly destroy them.  Make no treaties with them.  Show no mercy to them.  You must not intermarry with them, giving your daughters in marriage to their sons, or taking their daughters for your sons’ brides, for their children would lead your children away from me to worship other gods.  The anger of Jehovah then would flare up and he would immediately destroy you.  This is how you should treat them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved idols.

"For you are a people sacred to Jehovah your god.  Of all the people on earth, Jehovah has chosen you to be his cherished possession.  He did not chose you and single you out as the object of his favor because you were the most populous nation, for indeed you are the least.  It is because he loved you and to keep the oath he swore to your forefathers that Jehovah used his might to bring you out of the land of slavery and free you from the power of the Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt.  Know, therefore, that Jehovah your god is the only god, a faithful god who keeps his pact and shows his favor to the thousandth generation of those who love him and keep his commandments.  But he exacts retribution upon those who reject him by destroying them.  He will not be lenient to those who oppose him, but will pay them back -- personally.  Therefore, take care to follow the commandments, the laws, and decrees I am giving you here today.

"If you listen to these laws, follow and obey them, then Jehovah your god will keep the pact he made with you and show you his favor, as he swore to your forefathers.  He will love you, bless you, and grant you many children.  In the land he swore to your forefathers he would give you, he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your fields, your grain, wine, and olive oil, and increase your herds with calves and your flocks with lambs and kids.  You will be blessed above all peoples.  Among your people or among your livestock there will no male who is impotent or female who is infertile.  And Jehovah will protect you from all sickness.  He will not allow you to suffer from any of the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but instead he will inflict them upon those who hate you.

"You must destroy all the nations Jehovah your god delivers into your hands.  Show them no mercy.  Worship not their gods, for they will lead you to destruction.  If, in your mind, you say to yourself, 'How can we drive out these nations, for they are more powerful than we are?'  you must remember what Jehovah your god did to the Pharaoh and to all Egypt.  Then you won't be afraid.  For you personally witnessed the terrors Jehovah your god inflicted upon them, the miracles and the wonders, and the power and the might by which Jehovah your god brought you out of Egypt.  Jehovah your god will do the same to all the people you now fear.  He will even dispatch his aerial warships to harass and root out those survivors who have hidden themselves from you, and he will destroy them as well.  Therefore, do not look in dread upon these nations, for Jehovah your god is here with you, and he is a mighty and a fearsome god.

"Jehovah your god will drive out those nations before you -- but gradually.  You must not expel them all at once, for that would allow the wild animals to propagate too quickly for you to handle.  But Jehovah your god will deliver them your hands.  He will wage war upon them vigorously until they are completely destroyed.  He will hand over to you their kings, whose names you will erase from the memory of man.  No one will be able to oppose you; you will destroy them all.  You must burn their idols.  Don't desire to possess the gold and silver that adorns them.  Don't take any of it for yourselves, for it will lead to your ruin.  It is an abomination to Jehovah your god!  Do not bring it into your homes, or else you, like it, will be marked for sacrificial destruction.  You must totally abhor and reject such things, for they are devoted to utter destruction as a divine sacrifice."

Notes
1. The Hethites (definitely not the Hittites as most translations refer to them) were a tribe of Canaanites, presumably the descendants of Canaan’s son Heth.  The Girgashites were also Canaanites and inhabited lands near the Sea of Galilee.  The Amorites, probably not Canaanites, have been discussed, they inhabiting lands east of the Jordan.  Their kingdoms, those of Og and Sihon, have already been destroyed by the Israelites.   The Canaanites referred to are probably those who lived south of Phoenicia, in the northwest portion of the Promised Land.  The  Perizzites lived in the hill country west and north of the Dead Sea.  The term was also used to describe anyone who was villager, rather than a nomad.  The Hivites, probably Canaanites, lived mostly in the north. but had settlements as far south as Jerusalem.  The Jebusites, who were either Canaanite or related to the Amorites, inhabited land around Jerusalem, and their original capital, Jebus, may have been Jerusalem.  It cannot escape notice that the ethnic composition of pre-Israelite Holy Land was exceedingly complex.  It is also very ambiguous, with nearly every people or tribe mentioned in the Bible the subject of conflicting theories as to their origin and racial derivation and to their identification with historically established nations.

2. Jehovah demands not only the destruction of Israel's enemies, but total genocide -- no half measures, no diplomatic solution permitting coexistence, no quarter, no mercy given.   Those inhabiting the territory granted to the Israelites are not to be merely expelled, but wiped out.  They are not allowed to have freedom of religion or the right to intermarry with the Israelites -- more than that, they are not allowed to exist or even to be remembered after their death.  (Jehovah's human rights record makes Hitler and Stalin look like choir boys.  Even the Nazis tried to expel the Jews before resorting to their extermination by gas chamber.) 

3. Since Jehovah demands that Israel's enemies be completely wiped out, it is odd that he also insists that they not intermarry with the Israelites.  How could they have the opportunity to do so, since the enemy peoples are to be all dead by the time Israel settles in their land?  And why should Jehovah be worried that the Israelites would worship their enemies' gods when they will have already destroyed all their places of worship?

4. The Asherah is a Semitic mother goddess also known as Ashtaroth.  She was a very important goddess, widely worshiped in the ancient Middle East.  The wooden poles mentioned were phallic, fertility symbols connected with her worship.  (Maypoles come to mind.) 

5. Jehovah can fulfill his commitment to settle the Israelites on the land he has promised them, but how can he make good on his promise that no Israelite man will be impotent, no Israelite woman will be infertile, nor will any of their livestock and, moreover, that no one will ever become sick -- if they are faithful to him?  This spawns the most dangerous and destructive fallacy of the ignorant, that illness or physical infirmity is a punishment for sins.  Anything bad happening to a person is caused by his immorality or the insufficiency of his worship.  Anyone who becomes ill or is incapable of having children is suspected of being a sinner or else remiss in fulfilling his religious duties.  Every misfortune that befalls a person is a punishment from God.  This irrational belief has been astonishingly persistent and pervasive, and the evil resulting from it can hardly be underestimated.

6. Jehovah assures Moses that he will destroy even the enemies who have gone into hiding with what is literally translated as "hornets" (the Hebrew word tsirah).  Some have rendered this literally, other translators have reasoned it is meant figuratively and have used the word "terror" or “panic” or something similar.  Neither makes sense.  That God, after destroying enemy armies, would hunt down the stragglers with swarms of hornets is more than unlikely, it's positively silly, even granted that Middle Eastern hornets are pretty nasty.  If Jehovah were God and had the power to control the minds of the insects and make them attack Israel's enemies (and stop them from attacking Israelites), why would he bother to use so crude and ineffective a weapon?   Why not send down fire from the sky or open up the earth to swallow his enemies, or, for that matter, simply uncreate what he wants to destroy?  As we have seen, Jehovah is more likely a humanoid from an advanced civilization, probably extraterrestrial, and his means and methods of conducting war, though puzzling to those of the 2nd Millennium BC, are perhaps not beyond the comprehension of us in the 3rd Millennium AD.  What the Bible authors call "hornets" could be combat aircraft rather than insects.  To the ancient or the primitive wouldn't a helicopter resemble a hornet, with a tail and a sting?  It is possible that the airship that guided the Israelites and hovered over their camp day and night was large enough to contain other, smaller craft, such as those used for warfare, such as those that might resemble hornets.  Modern sightings of UFOs have frequently described large, even massively large, "mother" ships that are cigar shaped.  (The "cloud" hovering above the Israelites was always referred to as a "pillar.")  Since Jehovah is seen as fighting alongside the Israelites, it seems likely his contribution involved providing what we would call air support.

7. Jehovah qualifies his "absolute destruction to Israel's enemies," by saying it will be done gradually and not in one fell swoop.  The reason given is that the resultant, empty land will be taken over by wild animals.  Surely the Middle East, even the ancient Middle East, is not a part of the world customarily overrun by wild animals.  What would the animals be that would hinder humans from occupying empty territory?  And what would be the delay on the part of the Israelites in taking over the land once it was vacated?  This makes no sense.  Jehovah makes a lot of boasts and promises he can't really fulfill, and then offers lame alibis to excuse the limitation of his powers.

8. The Israelites, in burning the idols of their enemies, are forbidden to plunder the gold and silver from them.  Why wouldn't the gold and silver be melted down and used for some other purpose; surely precious metals are fungible.  But perhaps Jehovah is correct in discouraging in his people the lust for gold and silver.

9. Jehovah explains how he has chosen the Israelites to be his people.  This was not because they were strong or populous, but he does not tell us why it is he has chosen them -- or why he freed them from their bondage in Egypt.  Jehovah constantly deplores their faithlessness and castigates their character.  He has little trust in them.  He conducted or ordered several purges of the disobedient.  He has been tempted to wipe them out more than once and did indeed cause all the adults to die out at the end of their 40-year exodus.  He continually has to threaten them so that they will do what he wants of them.  So what it is about the Israelites that makes him love them? Perhaps Jehovah became the god of an obscure people such as the Israelites because all the jobs for “gods” were taken.  He chose them because beggars can't be choosers.  Egypt didn't need another god and every people the Israelites come in contact with have their own national gods.  No positions as a national god for an important people available!  And Jehovah seems to be an outcast among the gods.  He hates them all and is in fierce competition with them.  (There is probably some back story here.) Jehovah, the Jehovah of Moses, insinuated the role of Israel's god by claiming to be the Jehovah known to Abraham, but who had not been seen for generations.  That the Jehovah of Moses is so insistent and so defensive about his position confirms the suspicion, the likelihood, that he is in fact an impostor -- but an acceptable one who fulfills his role as a god.  (And he may have had an advantage over other gods that were absentee deities.)    
  

Dedication to the Law

(Deuteronomy 6:1 - 6:25)
"These are the commands, the laws and decrees, that Jehovah your god told me to teach you.  You must obey them in the land you about to enter and occupy, and you, as well as your children and grandchildren, must revere Jehovah your god for as long as you live.  If you do obey these laws and commandments, you will enjoy a long life.  So therefore listen, O Israel, and take care to observe them, so that you may prosper and greatly multiply in that land flowing with milk and honey, just as Jehovah, the god of your forefathers, promised you.

"Hear, O Israel, Jehovah is our god, our only god.  You must love Jehovah your god with all your heart and soul and with all your strength.  And you must keep in mind the commandments I am giving you today.  Drill them into the heads of your children: discuss them when you are sitting at home and when you are walking along the road, when you go to bed and when you rise.  As a remembrance, wear them you as would an armband tied round your wrist or a headband wrapped round your forehead.  Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

"When Jehovah your god brings you into the land he promised your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give you -- a vast land with large, prosperous cities you did not build, with houses filled with all sorts of fine furnishings you did not acquire, wells that you did not dig, vineyards and olive groves you did not plant -- and when you have eaten and had your fill, do not forget Jehovah who brought you out of Egypt where you were held in slavery.  You must revere Jehovah your god and worship him.   And when you swear an oath it must be only in his name.  You  must not pursue other gods, the gods of peoples around you.  For Jehovah your god, who lives among you, is a jealous god: his ire will be aroused and he will wipe you off the face of the earth.

"You must not subject Jehovah your god to any test, as you did at Massah.  Take care that you obey the commandments of Jehovah your god and observe the rituals and regulations he has imparted to you.  Do what is right and good in the eyes of Jehovah, so that you may prosper when you enter and settle upon the fine land that he swore to give to your forefathers -- driving out all your enemies before you, as Jehovah said that he would.

"In the future your children will ask you, 'What is the meaning of these laws and decrees and statutes that Jehovah our god has commanded us to obey?'  Tell them, 'We were slaves of the Pharaoh in Egypt, but Jehovah by his might brought us out of Egypt.  Right before our very eyes, Jehovah worked wonders and miracles, awesome and horrific, against Egypt, the Pharaoh, and his entire court.  He brought us out of there that he might bring us here, the land he swore to give to our forefathers.  Jehovah commanded us to obey his laws and to revere him as our god so that he would preserve us and make us prosper, as we do today.  If we are careful to obey these laws in his sight, as Jehovah our god has commanded us to do, we will be accounted as righteous.'"

Notes
1. Moses, with trying redundancy, impresses upon his people the necessity of obeying all the laws and commandments given to the Israelites by Jehovah.   The obligation to obey them is based upon gratitude for Jehovah's freeing them from bondage in Egypt.  The laws, it must be said, are not intended for any other people, only the Israelites.  If they obey them and if they indoctrinate their children to obey them, they will be rewarded with prosperity and long life; if they do not, they will be punished, even destroyed.  There is no promise of rewards in the afterlife, in fact, no mention is made at all of an afterlife.  There is no assurance that the laws will make one a better person in a moral sense.  The benefits of obedience are purely material, but obedience does permit one to be considered righteous.

2. The Israelites are commanded to do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah, that is, they must surrender their own ethical judgments and free moral will to Jehovah.  He tells them how they must live.  Instead of being slaves to the Pharaoh, they are now slaves to Jehovah, who, in his mind, has purchased them with the miracles that made their freedom possible.

3. Interesting that Moses asks Jehovah’s followers to write his commandments on their door posts and gates.  It is unlikely that any of those listening to him would have known how to write, even the Egyptian hieroglyphics which, save for Mesopotamian cuneiform, were the only existent forms of writing.

4.  Jehovah emphasizes that he not helping the Israelites to create themselves the material elements of a country -- cities, houses, orchards, wells, etc.   An alternative to working, building and making things, is simply to steal what others have built and made.  This is what Jehovah advocates.  He promises to give the Israelites the fruits of other people’s labor.  He robs his people of the satisfaction of achievement and pride in their own accomplishments, replacing it with an obligation of gratitude to a gift-giver.  Gratitude is exactly what Jehovah wishes to nourish, for this is the only way he can maintain the faithful worship of his followers.

5. Massah is apparently one the stations, the stops the Israelites made during the Exodus.  It is not mentioned, though, in the list of stations named in Numbers.  Massah (which means “testing”) seems be the same place as Meribah (which means “quarreling”), even though in other references they are mentioned together as two, obviously distinct locales.  It was at Meribah that the people rebelled against Moses because they had no water.  Moses, at Jehovah’s behest, produced water by striking a rock with the staff of Aaron.  It was here that Moses somehow angered Jehovah so much that he would be denied entry into the Promised Land.  The accounts of this incidents are muddled.  Deuteronomy consistently takes Moses’ side and blames others for his shortcomings.  In other words, it was the conduct of the Israelites and not Moses himself that precipitated the displeasure of Jehovah at Massah (or Meribah.)