(Deuteronomy 3:12 - 3:29)
"When, at that time, we occupied these lands, I gave to the tribes of Reuben and Gad the territory north of Aroer on the border of the Arnon River gorges, as well as half of the hill country of Gilead along with its towns. The rest of Gilead and all of Bashan, the former kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (The entire region of Argob in Bashan was known to have been a land inhabited by Rephaim. Jair, a leader from the tribe of Manasseh, conquered all of the Argob region of Bashan to the border of Geshurite and Maacathite lands. Thereafter the land was named after him and is to this day called Havvoth Jair.)
"I gave Gilead to the clan of Machir. But I also gave to the Reubenites and Gadites an area of Gilead extending from the middle of the gorges of the Arnon south to the Jabbok River, the border of Ammon. They also were given the Jordan River Valley, Arabah, from the Sea of Galilee all the way down to the Dead Sea, with the Jordan forming the western boundary of their territory and the slopes of the Pisgah mountains, the eastern boundary.
"But I commanded you at that time, 'Jehovah your god has given you this land so that you may occupy it. However, your fighting men, armed for battle, must cross the River Jordan ahead of your fellow Israelites. Your wives and children and the numerous livestock I know you have may stay behind in the towns I have given you. When Jehovah securely settles the rest of the Israelites as he has you, and when they have occupied the land across the Jordan I have given them, then each of you may return to the property of his I have given you.'
"And I then assured Joshua, 'You have witnessed how Jehovah your god has dealt with these two kings. He will deal with the kingdoms where you are going in a similar fashion. Have no fear of the nations there, for Jehovah your god will fight for you himself.'
"Also at that time, I pleaded with Jehovah, 'O Jehovah, my master, you have only begun to reveal your greatness and power to me, your servant. Is there any god in heaven or on earth who can perform the mighty deeds and great acts that you do? Please, allow me to cross the Jordan and view the good land over there, the fine hill country and Lebanon.' But Jehovah was so angry with me because of you he wouldn't listen to what I had to say. 'That's enough from you!' he declared, 'Don't speak to me about this matter again. Go up the summit of Mount Nebo and survey the land, west, north, south, and east. Take it all in with your eyes, for you're not going to cross the Jordan. But give authority to Joshua, encourage and empower him, for it is he who will lead the people across and make them a possession of the land you now see before you.' --- And so we remained in the valley near Beth Peor."
Notes
1. Pisgah is used ambiguously. It simply means peak, but refers here to the mountains east of the Jordan where the Israelites are encamped. The highest peak there is Mount Nebo, 2600 feet above sea level, and it is Nebo that is obviously meant when Jehovah bids Moses to climb a mountain to view the Promised Land. Beth Peor is where the Israelites have been long encamped, opposite Jericho.
2. The Geshurites and the Macaathites lived in the desert to the south of the Promised Land. Machir was a son of Manasseh, grandson of Joseph. His descendants were given territory in Gilead. Obviously Machir could not have been alive to have personally conducted its conquest, as some translations assert. (He would have been way too old -- and we must remember that all but three of the adult men who had participated in the Exodus were now dead.) Jair was a great grandson of Machir. He and the 30 cities he ruled (Havvoth Jair) figure in later Hebrew history.
3. The author seems obsessed with making references to the Rephaim with little reason for doing so, save that the Israelite victory over King Og seems more glorious if achieved over a giant and not a normal man.
4. In Numbers the Reubenites and Gadites had to twist Moses' arm and plead with him before he would grant them the lands conquered from Sihon and Og. Initially, Moses was enraged that they would make such a suggestion, regarding it as treasonous and blasphemous. Deuteronomy presents a different take on the story; here it is all Moses' idea and there is no reference to his objections.
5. Moses butters up Jehovah and pleads with him to let him cross the River Jordan and set foot on the Promised Land. Jehovah angrily rejects his plea and even tells him to shut up about it. What a jerk! Jehovah certainly sets no example of forgiveness or mercy. Moses was his most devoted follower, his mouthpiece, his number one fan, his BFF -- how can Jehovah treat him so shabbily?
6. Moses flatteringly proclaims that no other god can do what Jehovah can. This certainly implies that there are other gods, that Jehovah is not the one and only. Sometimes Jehovah is portrayed as the omnipotent, omniscient Creator God, but most of the time he is just a national god, whose powers may be superhuman, but far from God-like. Jehovah is merely one of many gods, but he is touted as the best -- which suggests what a scurvy lot the "gods" must have been.
7. Most of Deuteronomy consists of speeches Moses makes to his people. In Exodus he is such a poor speaker that he must rely upon his brother Aaron to do his talking for him. Apparently during those 40 years in the desert Moses was able to hone his oratorical skills.
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Victories Over King Sihon and King Og
(Deuteronomy 2:26 - 3:11)
Moses continued, "Then Jehovah urged us, 'Resume your journey and cross the Arnon Gorge. I am delivering to you the Amorite, King Sihon of Heshbon, and his country. Commence your invasion and engage his forces in battle. From this day I will put the fear of you into the hearts of all the nations under the sun. They will hear reports of you that will make them tremble with dread terror.'
"From the desert of Kedemoth I dispatched ambassadors to present King Sihon with a message of peace. It said, 'Grant us passage through your country. We will stay on the main route, wandering off neither to the right nor to the left. You may sell us food to eat and water to drink, and we will pay for it. All we ask is safe passage through your land, as was granted to us by the descendants of Esau of Seir and the Moabites of Ar. We wish passage through your land only until we can cross the River Jordan to the land that Jehovah our god is giving to us.'
"But King Sihon of Heshbon would not grant us passage, for your god Jehovah made his spirit stubborn and his heart defiant so that he would fall into your hands, as he has now done. Jehovah told me, 'See, I have already begun to deliver King Sihon and his country into your hands! Now invade and start occupying his land!'
"King Sihon and his entire army came out to do battle with us at Jahaz. But our god Jehovah delivered him into our hands and we defeated him, his sons, and his army. At that time we also captured all his cities and, as a divine offering, consigned to destruction every city, as well as every man, woman, and child. No survivors were spared. But we took for ourselves as spoils of war their livestock and anything of value that we could plunder from their towns. From Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon Gorge, from the city within the gorge all the way to Gilead, not one town could prevail against us. Our god Jehovah delivered them all into our hands. But you did not invade any of the lands belonging to the Ammonites, neither the territory along the Jabbok River nor the towns of the hill country, that which was forbidden to us by Jehovah our god.
"Next we changed direction and marched up to Bashan. King Og and his entire army came out against us and engaged us in battle at Edrei. But Jehovah said to me, 'Don't be afraid of him, for I am delivering him, his people, and his country into your hands. And will do to him what you did to the Amorite King Sihon who ruled from Heshbon.’
"And Jehovah our god delivered into our hands Og, the King of Bashan, and his people. We killed them all, leaving not a man left alive. At the same time we captured all his cities. Not one of the 60 cities in the region of Argob (part of the kingdom of Og of Bashan) did we fail to take from them. All of these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, and there were a great many unwalled villages as well. We consigned them to complete destruction as a divine offering, as we did with those of King Sihon of Heshbon, every city -- and every man, woman, and child. But all their livestock and the loot plundered from their cities we kept for ourselves. At that time we acquired from these two kings all the Amorite territory east of the Jordan, from the Arnon gorges to Mount Hermon." (Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians and Senir by the Amorites.)
"We had now conquered all the cities of the plain, the entirety of Gilead and Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities that were part of the kingdom ruled by Og of Bashan." (Og, the king of Bashan, was the last surviving member of the Rephaim. His bed, the frame of which was decorated with iron, was 9 cubits long by 4 cubits wide, according to the generally accepted value of the cubit. It still can be viewed in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.)
Notes
1. Moses, in recounting the Israelite victories over the kings Sihon and Og, is revisiting recent history well known to his audience. He is not above bragging quite a bit and takes delight in extolling what we would regard as genocidal atrocities. I should again be mentioned that the rapid conquest of Transjordan by a tribe of nomads who have been wandering about the Sinai for 40 years is spectacular, but not supported at all by history.
2. Moses' promise to King Sihon that his people want only to peaceably pass through the country is nothing if not false and dishonest. He has already been ordered by his god to make war upon Sihon and wrest his country from him, so Moses has no intention of honoring any promise he might make to Sihon. Jehovah incites war between the Israelites and Sihon's kingdom by inducing Sihon to turn down the Israelite request. (Does Jehovah get into people's minds and compel them to make decisions against their best interests?) Then he helps the Israelites win on the battlefield against Sihon and, later, against Og. What he actually does is not described. Is his help on the battlefield merely psychological? Does he put courage into the hearts of one side and cowardly thoughts into the minds of the other? Or does he personally kill members of the opposing army and intervene in personal combats? The Israelites must be indifferent and ineffectual warriors since they can't ever win a battle without Jehovah's aid. In a fair fight, exempt from "divine" intervention, the Israelites are never anything but losers.
3. Og, always portrayed as a giant, was a mythic figure who had a colorful life outside the Bible. Here the author claims that Og is the last surviving member of the Rephaim, a race of giants. This is contradicted by other books of the Bible where giants such as Goliath appear hundreds of years later. A bed used by Og apparently existed and was on display at Rabbah at the time Deuteronomy was written. (One would think this would be any time during the 8th to 6th Centuries BC.) This sounds like one of those dubious tourist attractions like Merlin's Cave or the Spear of Longinus. It should be kept in mind that the reference to Og's stature does not appear in Moses' speech, but in the author's commentary upon it.
4. Some have translated the "bed of Og" as a sarcophagus. That few sarcophagi are decorated with iron militates against this interpretation. The only reason for mentioning the bed is to illustrate the giant stature of Og. The size of a sarcophagus would not necessarily indicate the size of its occupant. One would conclude that only a bed of iron could support him. While bedsteads, even ones of bronze, were not unknown at that time, one could not have been made of iron, for it was impossible in ancient times to cast such a large object in that metal. Besides, the Iron Age had not yet begun, and the forging and casting of iron was unknown before 1200 BC. (Iron bedsteads weren't made until the 18th Century, and by the 1840's had become quite popular.) Accepting that the bed existed and constructed centuries after Og, small decorations in worked iron might have been appliqued to a bed frame of wood. This, as well as its size, would have made it worthy of note. Otherwise, the account is merely fanciful.
5. The bed of Og at 9 by 4 cubits would be 13 1/2 by 6 feet, a cubit being a foot and a half. This would furnish quite a lot of leg room even for the tallest man who ever lived, Robert Wadlow, the Alton Giant, who was just under 9 feet tall. Giants rarely live a normal life span -- and the Israelites made sure that Og didn't either, if he indeed was a giant. (Unless you accept the myth that Og was a survivor of the Flood.) But the Bible asserts that Og was from a race of giants and that, therefore, his great stature was, for him and his race, normal. The Watusi of central Africa might be considered a race of giants, but the average height of adult males is only 6 feet, 6 inches. There is no anthropological evidence that any race of humans achieved the stature attributed to Og and the Rephaim. The largest species of Gigantopithicus may have stood 10 feet tall, but it was an ape and not a man, and it went extinct 100,000 years ago. --- Of course maybe Og was only 7 feet or so, but made a gigantic bed to delude people into believing he was even taller. Self-aggrandizement was certainly not uncommon among the ancients, for we have seen a great deal of it in the biblical accounts of the Israelites.
6. The Arnon River, now known as Wadi Mujib, flows from the east into the Dead Sea at about its mid point north and south. Its banks form spectacular gorges. Also east of the middle of the Dead Sea was Kedemoth, which would become the easternmost city of Reubenite territory. It was just east of Sihon’s kingdom and Heshbon and just north of the Arnon. Jahaz is south of Heshbon. Aroer, a Moabite city, was on the north bank of the Arnon River, 10 miles from its mouth. The Jabbok River, now called the Zarqua, flows southwest into the River Jordan 20 miles north of the Dead Sea. It forms a significant watershed with a wide river valley. (Sadly it is now horribly polluted.) Gilead is the northern region east of the Jordan, south of Bashan, the Golan Heights. Edrei is in the eastern part of Bashan. Argob, also called Lajat and Trachonitis, is an area of raised, craggy rock 20 by 30 miles in eastern Bashan. It is noted for its 60 walled cities. The massive construction of the architecture gave raise to the belief that it was built by giants. Mount Hermon, actually consisting of three peaks and rising as high as 9000 feet, is situated in the northernmost part of the Golan Heights in territory still occupied by modern Syria, but on the Lebanese border. Rabbah, the Ammonite capital, was located well to the east, near the border of the Arabian desert but also near the Jabbok River. It was destroyed in the 6th Century BC, but was later rebuilt in Hellenistic times and renamed Philadelphia.
Moses continued, "Then Jehovah urged us, 'Resume your journey and cross the Arnon Gorge. I am delivering to you the Amorite, King Sihon of Heshbon, and his country. Commence your invasion and engage his forces in battle. From this day I will put the fear of you into the hearts of all the nations under the sun. They will hear reports of you that will make them tremble with dread terror.'
"From the desert of Kedemoth I dispatched ambassadors to present King Sihon with a message of peace. It said, 'Grant us passage through your country. We will stay on the main route, wandering off neither to the right nor to the left. You may sell us food to eat and water to drink, and we will pay for it. All we ask is safe passage through your land, as was granted to us by the descendants of Esau of Seir and the Moabites of Ar. We wish passage through your land only until we can cross the River Jordan to the land that Jehovah our god is giving to us.'
"But King Sihon of Heshbon would not grant us passage, for your god Jehovah made his spirit stubborn and his heart defiant so that he would fall into your hands, as he has now done. Jehovah told me, 'See, I have already begun to deliver King Sihon and his country into your hands! Now invade and start occupying his land!'
"King Sihon and his entire army came out to do battle with us at Jahaz. But our god Jehovah delivered him into our hands and we defeated him, his sons, and his army. At that time we also captured all his cities and, as a divine offering, consigned to destruction every city, as well as every man, woman, and child. No survivors were spared. But we took for ourselves as spoils of war their livestock and anything of value that we could plunder from their towns. From Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon Gorge, from the city within the gorge all the way to Gilead, not one town could prevail against us. Our god Jehovah delivered them all into our hands. But you did not invade any of the lands belonging to the Ammonites, neither the territory along the Jabbok River nor the towns of the hill country, that which was forbidden to us by Jehovah our god.
"Next we changed direction and marched up to Bashan. King Og and his entire army came out against us and engaged us in battle at Edrei. But Jehovah said to me, 'Don't be afraid of him, for I am delivering him, his people, and his country into your hands. And will do to him what you did to the Amorite King Sihon who ruled from Heshbon.’
"And Jehovah our god delivered into our hands Og, the King of Bashan, and his people. We killed them all, leaving not a man left alive. At the same time we captured all his cities. Not one of the 60 cities in the region of Argob (part of the kingdom of Og of Bashan) did we fail to take from them. All of these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, and there were a great many unwalled villages as well. We consigned them to complete destruction as a divine offering, as we did with those of King Sihon of Heshbon, every city -- and every man, woman, and child. But all their livestock and the loot plundered from their cities we kept for ourselves. At that time we acquired from these two kings all the Amorite territory east of the Jordan, from the Arnon gorges to Mount Hermon." (Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians and Senir by the Amorites.)
"We had now conquered all the cities of the plain, the entirety of Gilead and Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities that were part of the kingdom ruled by Og of Bashan." (Og, the king of Bashan, was the last surviving member of the Rephaim. His bed, the frame of which was decorated with iron, was 9 cubits long by 4 cubits wide, according to the generally accepted value of the cubit. It still can be viewed in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.)
Notes
1. Moses, in recounting the Israelite victories over the kings Sihon and Og, is revisiting recent history well known to his audience. He is not above bragging quite a bit and takes delight in extolling what we would regard as genocidal atrocities. I should again be mentioned that the rapid conquest of Transjordan by a tribe of nomads who have been wandering about the Sinai for 40 years is spectacular, but not supported at all by history.
2. Moses' promise to King Sihon that his people want only to peaceably pass through the country is nothing if not false and dishonest. He has already been ordered by his god to make war upon Sihon and wrest his country from him, so Moses has no intention of honoring any promise he might make to Sihon. Jehovah incites war between the Israelites and Sihon's kingdom by inducing Sihon to turn down the Israelite request. (Does Jehovah get into people's minds and compel them to make decisions against their best interests?) Then he helps the Israelites win on the battlefield against Sihon and, later, against Og. What he actually does is not described. Is his help on the battlefield merely psychological? Does he put courage into the hearts of one side and cowardly thoughts into the minds of the other? Or does he personally kill members of the opposing army and intervene in personal combats? The Israelites must be indifferent and ineffectual warriors since they can't ever win a battle without Jehovah's aid. In a fair fight, exempt from "divine" intervention, the Israelites are never anything but losers.
3. Og, always portrayed as a giant, was a mythic figure who had a colorful life outside the Bible. Here the author claims that Og is the last surviving member of the Rephaim, a race of giants. This is contradicted by other books of the Bible where giants such as Goliath appear hundreds of years later. A bed used by Og apparently existed and was on display at Rabbah at the time Deuteronomy was written. (One would think this would be any time during the 8th to 6th Centuries BC.) This sounds like one of those dubious tourist attractions like Merlin's Cave or the Spear of Longinus. It should be kept in mind that the reference to Og's stature does not appear in Moses' speech, but in the author's commentary upon it.
4. Some have translated the "bed of Og" as a sarcophagus. That few sarcophagi are decorated with iron militates against this interpretation. The only reason for mentioning the bed is to illustrate the giant stature of Og. The size of a sarcophagus would not necessarily indicate the size of its occupant. One would conclude that only a bed of iron could support him. While bedsteads, even ones of bronze, were not unknown at that time, one could not have been made of iron, for it was impossible in ancient times to cast such a large object in that metal. Besides, the Iron Age had not yet begun, and the forging and casting of iron was unknown before 1200 BC. (Iron bedsteads weren't made until the 18th Century, and by the 1840's had become quite popular.) Accepting that the bed existed and constructed centuries after Og, small decorations in worked iron might have been appliqued to a bed frame of wood. This, as well as its size, would have made it worthy of note. Otherwise, the account is merely fanciful.
5. The bed of Og at 9 by 4 cubits would be 13 1/2 by 6 feet, a cubit being a foot and a half. This would furnish quite a lot of leg room even for the tallest man who ever lived, Robert Wadlow, the Alton Giant, who was just under 9 feet tall. Giants rarely live a normal life span -- and the Israelites made sure that Og didn't either, if he indeed was a giant. (Unless you accept the myth that Og was a survivor of the Flood.) But the Bible asserts that Og was from a race of giants and that, therefore, his great stature was, for him and his race, normal. The Watusi of central Africa might be considered a race of giants, but the average height of adult males is only 6 feet, 6 inches. There is no anthropological evidence that any race of humans achieved the stature attributed to Og and the Rephaim. The largest species of Gigantopithicus may have stood 10 feet tall, but it was an ape and not a man, and it went extinct 100,000 years ago. --- Of course maybe Og was only 7 feet or so, but made a gigantic bed to delude people into believing he was even taller. Self-aggrandizement was certainly not uncommon among the ancients, for we have seen a great deal of it in the biblical accounts of the Israelites.
6. The Arnon River, now known as Wadi Mujib, flows from the east into the Dead Sea at about its mid point north and south. Its banks form spectacular gorges. Also east of the middle of the Dead Sea was Kedemoth, which would become the easternmost city of Reubenite territory. It was just east of Sihon’s kingdom and Heshbon and just north of the Arnon. Jahaz is south of Heshbon. Aroer, a Moabite city, was on the north bank of the Arnon River, 10 miles from its mouth. The Jabbok River, now called the Zarqua, flows southwest into the River Jordan 20 miles north of the Dead Sea. It forms a significant watershed with a wide river valley. (Sadly it is now horribly polluted.) Gilead is the northern region east of the Jordan, south of Bashan, the Golan Heights. Edrei is in the eastern part of Bashan. Argob, also called Lajat and Trachonitis, is an area of raised, craggy rock 20 by 30 miles in eastern Bashan. It is noted for its 60 walled cities. The massive construction of the architecture gave raise to the belief that it was built by giants. Mount Hermon, actually consisting of three peaks and rising as high as 9000 feet, is situated in the northernmost part of the Golan Heights in territory still occupied by modern Syria, but on the Lebanese border. Rabbah, the Ammonite capital, was located well to the east, near the border of the Arabian desert but also near the Jabbok River. It was destroyed in the 6th Century BC, but was later rebuilt in Hellenistic times and renamed Philadelphia.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Moses Recalls the Journeys of the Israelites
(Deuteronomy 1:19 - 2:23)
'Then, as Jehovah commanded us, we set out from Horeb and journeyed toward the hill country of the Amorites through the desert, which was vast and terrible, as you well know. When we at last reached Kadesh Barnea, I said to you, 'You have now arrived at the hill country of the Amorites, which Jehovah, our god, is giving to us. Look, he has laid the land at your feet. Go and take it, for Jehovah, the god of your fathers, has told you not to be afraid or discouraged.' Then all of you approached me and suggested, 'Let's send ahead scouts who will survey the land for us. They will be able to tell us what routes to take and what towns we may encounter.' As this seemed like a sound idea to me, I selected from among you 12 men, one from each tribe. They headed for the hill country and arrived at the Valley of Eshcol, which they explored. Collecting samples of the produce of the land, they returned to us and reported, 'It's a good land indeed that Jehovah is giving us!'
"But you defied the command of Jehovah your god and would not enter the land. In your tents, you grumbled, 'Jehovah hates us: he brought us out of Egypt only to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to be slaughtered. Where are we supposed to go? Our fellow Israelites have made our hearts weak with fear. They reported that the people there are taller and stronger than we are, that their cities are gargantuan, with walls that rise right up to the sky, even that they saw giants there, the descendants of Anak.' But I assured them, 'Don't be alarmed. Have no fear of them. Jehovah, your god, will go before you. He will fight for you, as you witnessed him do in Egypt and in the desert. There you saw how, like a father carrying his son, he supported you during your entire journey until you could reach this place.' Yet, in spite of this, you did not have faith in Jehovah your god, though he traveled ahead of you on your journey, (in an airship that was visible by day and lighted by night) searching out places for you to camp and showing you the route to take.
"When Jehovah heard what you said, he was angry and made a solemn vow, 'Not a single man from this wicked generation will see the fine land I promised to give your ancestors -- none save Caleb son of Jephenneh. He will see it and I will give him and his descendants the land he sets foot upon, for he has been a true follower of Jehovah.'
"Because of you Jehovah was angry at me as well. 'You will not enter it either!’ he declared. ‘But your assistant Joshua son of Nun will. Encourage him, for he will lead the people when they take possession of it. The little children, the ones that you said would be taken captive, who are too young to know right from wrong, it is they who will possess the land. I will give it to them and they will occupy it. But as for you, you must turn back and travel through the desert on the route that goes to the Red Sea.'
"But you admitted, "We have sinned against Jehovah. We will enter the land and fight as our god Jehovah commanded us.' And so each of you armed yourself for battle, thinking it would be easy to take the hill country. But Jehovah told me, 'Tell them not to mount this invasion, for I will not be helping them. If they go ahead on your own, they will be crushed by their enemies.' I told you this, but you wouldn't listen. You defied Jehovah's will and rashly marched into the hill country. But the Amorites who lived there came out after you like a swarm of bees. They pursued and harassed you from Seir all the way to Hormah. You came back and wept before Jehovah's altar, but Jehovah heard you not, paying no attention to you. And that is why you remained at Kardesh for so long a time.
"We turned back and journeyed through the desert along the Red Sea, as Jehovah told me. We traveled for a long time in the vicinity of Mount Seir. Finally Jehovah told me, 'You've been wandering around this hill country long enough. Turn northward and command the people, "You are going to pass through the territory belonging to your brethren, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir. They will be fearful of you, so be cautious. Do not goad them into fighting you, for I will not give any of their land to you, not even a foothold, for I have given Mount Seir to Esau's descendants as their property. And you must pay them silver for the food you eat and for the water you drink. Jehovah your god has blessed you in all you have done. He has watched you every step of the way through this great desert. In these 40 years Jehovah your god has been with you, you have lacked nothing.’
“And so we avoided the land of our brethren, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir. We bypassed the route through Arabah, from Elath to Ezion Geber, and instead took the desert route to Moab. But when we turned north along the desert route to Moab, Jehovah warned us, 'Do not molest the Moabites, the descendants of Lot, or make war upon them, for I will not give you any of their land, as I have given them Ar as their property.'
(The Emites formerly lived in Ar, a race as tall and strong and as numerous as the Anakites. Like the Anakites, they were considered to be Rephaim, giants, but the Moabites called them Emites. In earlier times the Horites lived in Seir, but the descendants of Esau succeeded them, in fact, wiping them out and displacing them, just as the descendants of Israel did to the people living in the land that Jehovah gave them.)
"And Jehovah told us, 'Now move out and cross the Brook of Zered.' and we crossed the Brook of Zered. From the time we had left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Brook of Zered 38 years had elapsed. During this time every man in camp of fighting age had passed away, as Jehovah vowed would happen. (Jehovah used his power to work against them and cause their deaths, so as to rid them from the community.)
"When the last of the fighting men had perished, Jehovah told me, 'Today you are to cross the border into Moab at Ar and enter land belonging to the Ammonites, descendants of Lot. Do not molest them or make war upon them. I will not give you any of their land, for I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their property.'"
(Ammon may also be considered a land of the Rephaim, for they formerly inhabited it, although the Ammonites called them Zamzummites. They were as tall and strong and as numerous as the Anakites. Jehovah caused their destruction so that the Ammonites could displace them and occupy their land, just as he had caused the destruction of the Horites so that the descendants of Esau living in Seir could displace them and settle in the land they occupy to this day. Similarly the Avvites, who lived in villages as far west as Gaza, were destroyed and displaced when the Caphtorites poured out of Caphtor.
Notes
1. The account, summarizing the events of the Israelite's 40 years of wandering in the desert, is presented as a speech Moses gives to the Israelites. At the end of Numbers Moses is about ready to draw his last breath, but, for purposes of the story, he has to be kept alive for a little longer, for he still has some reminiscing to do. Deuteronomy, though, seems less a continuation of the narrative of Numbers than an alternative account written by a different author.
2. Several times in the Books of Moses it is recounted that Jehovah accompanied the Israelites on their wanderings by flying above them in what is usually translated as "a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night." Accepting the likelihood that Jehovah is an extraterrestrial being or a member of an advanced society of earthly origins and not God or even a spirit being, it becomes obvious that what is meant is that he is a passenger in or the pilot of an airship of cylindrical shape that is lighted at night. (Except maybe lightning and fireflies, the ancients had no experience with light coming from any source that was not aflame.)
3. In Numbers it is recounted that none of the men of an age to bear arms, that is, over 20 years old, were still alive after the 40 years in the desert. (The generation that defied Jehovah had to die out before the people could enter the Promised Land.) It seemed odd that those who were 20 years old would not live past 60, especially considering that advanced years ascribed to most early biblical figures. Here, it is made clear that Jehovah caused them to die out by that time, even if it does not specify how.
4. The scouts return and, for some reason, conspire to discourage the Israelites from settling in the land promised to them by Jehovah. They spread rumors that giants inhabit the land. In reading Numbers one might conclude that the reports were fictitious, that the giants were just part of a scare story. Here the reports are put into an historical context by the author. (The paragraphs in parenthesis are obviously not part of Moses' speech, but commentary upon it.) The Rephaim were of a race of giants. In addition to the Anakites who, according to the scouts, were inhabiting parts of Canaan, there were two other populations of Rephaim, the Emites, who lived in Ar and who were expelled by the Moabites, and the Zamzummites, who were displaced by the Ammonites. How giant the giants were is not vouchsafed. It is possible that they were the aboriginal inhabitants of Canaan, even that they might be survivors of a now extinct sub-species of homo sapiens or another hominid species larger than modern man.
5. The Israelites are told not to mess with the Moabites and Ammonites, who are both descended from Lot (according to Genesis, through incestuous relations with his daughters). This is the first we have heard of Jehovah making grants of land to people other than the Israelites. These are Hebrew people, though not descendants of Abraham. Similarly, the Israelites are not to molest or make war upon the descendants of Esau (the Edomites) who was the brother of Israel/Jacob. We assume that Jehovah made no such arrangements with non-Hebrew people, who apparently have no "divine" claim to the lands they inhabit and must give way to Hebrew people whenever Jehovah ordains it.
6. The Caphtorites almost certainly lived in an area of Egypt east of the delta and, therefore, adjacent to Gaza. Some biblical translators have, inexplicably, identified Caphtor with Crete or Cappadocia in Anatolia.
'Then, as Jehovah commanded us, we set out from Horeb and journeyed toward the hill country of the Amorites through the desert, which was vast and terrible, as you well know. When we at last reached Kadesh Barnea, I said to you, 'You have now arrived at the hill country of the Amorites, which Jehovah, our god, is giving to us. Look, he has laid the land at your feet. Go and take it, for Jehovah, the god of your fathers, has told you not to be afraid or discouraged.' Then all of you approached me and suggested, 'Let's send ahead scouts who will survey the land for us. They will be able to tell us what routes to take and what towns we may encounter.' As this seemed like a sound idea to me, I selected from among you 12 men, one from each tribe. They headed for the hill country and arrived at the Valley of Eshcol, which they explored. Collecting samples of the produce of the land, they returned to us and reported, 'It's a good land indeed that Jehovah is giving us!'
"But you defied the command of Jehovah your god and would not enter the land. In your tents, you grumbled, 'Jehovah hates us: he brought us out of Egypt only to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to be slaughtered. Where are we supposed to go? Our fellow Israelites have made our hearts weak with fear. They reported that the people there are taller and stronger than we are, that their cities are gargantuan, with walls that rise right up to the sky, even that they saw giants there, the descendants of Anak.' But I assured them, 'Don't be alarmed. Have no fear of them. Jehovah, your god, will go before you. He will fight for you, as you witnessed him do in Egypt and in the desert. There you saw how, like a father carrying his son, he supported you during your entire journey until you could reach this place.' Yet, in spite of this, you did not have faith in Jehovah your god, though he traveled ahead of you on your journey, (in an airship that was visible by day and lighted by night) searching out places for you to camp and showing you the route to take.
"When Jehovah heard what you said, he was angry and made a solemn vow, 'Not a single man from this wicked generation will see the fine land I promised to give your ancestors -- none save Caleb son of Jephenneh. He will see it and I will give him and his descendants the land he sets foot upon, for he has been a true follower of Jehovah.'
"Because of you Jehovah was angry at me as well. 'You will not enter it either!’ he declared. ‘But your assistant Joshua son of Nun will. Encourage him, for he will lead the people when they take possession of it. The little children, the ones that you said would be taken captive, who are too young to know right from wrong, it is they who will possess the land. I will give it to them and they will occupy it. But as for you, you must turn back and travel through the desert on the route that goes to the Red Sea.'
"But you admitted, "We have sinned against Jehovah. We will enter the land and fight as our god Jehovah commanded us.' And so each of you armed yourself for battle, thinking it would be easy to take the hill country. But Jehovah told me, 'Tell them not to mount this invasion, for I will not be helping them. If they go ahead on your own, they will be crushed by their enemies.' I told you this, but you wouldn't listen. You defied Jehovah's will and rashly marched into the hill country. But the Amorites who lived there came out after you like a swarm of bees. They pursued and harassed you from Seir all the way to Hormah. You came back and wept before Jehovah's altar, but Jehovah heard you not, paying no attention to you. And that is why you remained at Kardesh for so long a time.
"We turned back and journeyed through the desert along the Red Sea, as Jehovah told me. We traveled for a long time in the vicinity of Mount Seir. Finally Jehovah told me, 'You've been wandering around this hill country long enough. Turn northward and command the people, "You are going to pass through the territory belonging to your brethren, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir. They will be fearful of you, so be cautious. Do not goad them into fighting you, for I will not give any of their land to you, not even a foothold, for I have given Mount Seir to Esau's descendants as their property. And you must pay them silver for the food you eat and for the water you drink. Jehovah your god has blessed you in all you have done. He has watched you every step of the way through this great desert. In these 40 years Jehovah your god has been with you, you have lacked nothing.’
“And so we avoided the land of our brethren, the descendants of Esau who live in Seir. We bypassed the route through Arabah, from Elath to Ezion Geber, and instead took the desert route to Moab. But when we turned north along the desert route to Moab, Jehovah warned us, 'Do not molest the Moabites, the descendants of Lot, or make war upon them, for I will not give you any of their land, as I have given them Ar as their property.'
(The Emites formerly lived in Ar, a race as tall and strong and as numerous as the Anakites. Like the Anakites, they were considered to be Rephaim, giants, but the Moabites called them Emites. In earlier times the Horites lived in Seir, but the descendants of Esau succeeded them, in fact, wiping them out and displacing them, just as the descendants of Israel did to the people living in the land that Jehovah gave them.)
"And Jehovah told us, 'Now move out and cross the Brook of Zered.' and we crossed the Brook of Zered. From the time we had left Kadesh Barnea until we crossed the Brook of Zered 38 years had elapsed. During this time every man in camp of fighting age had passed away, as Jehovah vowed would happen. (Jehovah used his power to work against them and cause their deaths, so as to rid them from the community.)
"When the last of the fighting men had perished, Jehovah told me, 'Today you are to cross the border into Moab at Ar and enter land belonging to the Ammonites, descendants of Lot. Do not molest them or make war upon them. I will not give you any of their land, for I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their property.'"
(Ammon may also be considered a land of the Rephaim, for they formerly inhabited it, although the Ammonites called them Zamzummites. They were as tall and strong and as numerous as the Anakites. Jehovah caused their destruction so that the Ammonites could displace them and occupy their land, just as he had caused the destruction of the Horites so that the descendants of Esau living in Seir could displace them and settle in the land they occupy to this day. Similarly the Avvites, who lived in villages as far west as Gaza, were destroyed and displaced when the Caphtorites poured out of Caphtor.
Notes
1. The account, summarizing the events of the Israelite's 40 years of wandering in the desert, is presented as a speech Moses gives to the Israelites. At the end of Numbers Moses is about ready to draw his last breath, but, for purposes of the story, he has to be kept alive for a little longer, for he still has some reminiscing to do. Deuteronomy, though, seems less a continuation of the narrative of Numbers than an alternative account written by a different author.
2. Several times in the Books of Moses it is recounted that Jehovah accompanied the Israelites on their wanderings by flying above them in what is usually translated as "a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night." Accepting the likelihood that Jehovah is an extraterrestrial being or a member of an advanced society of earthly origins and not God or even a spirit being, it becomes obvious that what is meant is that he is a passenger in or the pilot of an airship of cylindrical shape that is lighted at night. (Except maybe lightning and fireflies, the ancients had no experience with light coming from any source that was not aflame.)
3. In Numbers it is recounted that none of the men of an age to bear arms, that is, over 20 years old, were still alive after the 40 years in the desert. (The generation that defied Jehovah had to die out before the people could enter the Promised Land.) It seemed odd that those who were 20 years old would not live past 60, especially considering that advanced years ascribed to most early biblical figures. Here, it is made clear that Jehovah caused them to die out by that time, even if it does not specify how.
4. The scouts return and, for some reason, conspire to discourage the Israelites from settling in the land promised to them by Jehovah. They spread rumors that giants inhabit the land. In reading Numbers one might conclude that the reports were fictitious, that the giants were just part of a scare story. Here the reports are put into an historical context by the author. (The paragraphs in parenthesis are obviously not part of Moses' speech, but commentary upon it.) The Rephaim were of a race of giants. In addition to the Anakites who, according to the scouts, were inhabiting parts of Canaan, there were two other populations of Rephaim, the Emites, who lived in Ar and who were expelled by the Moabites, and the Zamzummites, who were displaced by the Ammonites. How giant the giants were is not vouchsafed. It is possible that they were the aboriginal inhabitants of Canaan, even that they might be survivors of a now extinct sub-species of homo sapiens or another hominid species larger than modern man.
5. The Israelites are told not to mess with the Moabites and Ammonites, who are both descended from Lot (according to Genesis, through incestuous relations with his daughters). This is the first we have heard of Jehovah making grants of land to people other than the Israelites. These are Hebrew people, though not descendants of Abraham. Similarly, the Israelites are not to molest or make war upon the descendants of Esau (the Edomites) who was the brother of Israel/Jacob. We assume that Jehovah made no such arrangements with non-Hebrew people, who apparently have no "divine" claim to the lands they inhabit and must give way to Hebrew people whenever Jehovah ordains it.
6. The Caphtorites almost certainly lived in an area of Egypt east of the delta and, therefore, adjacent to Gaza. Some biblical translators have, inexplicably, identified Caphtor with Crete or Cappadocia in Anatolia.
Moses Addresses His People
(Deuteronomy 1:1 - 1:18)
These are the words Moses said to the people of Israel while they were encamped in the desert wastelands beyond the River Jordan in Arabah opposite Suph, between the towns of Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. It is an 11 day journey from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by way of Mount Seir. But it had been 40 years since the Israelites had left Egypt, and it was on the 1st day of the 11th month [Shevat] that Moses addressed the people of Israel to tell them all that Jehovah had commanded him to say. (This took place after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled from Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who ruled from Ashtaroth near Edrei.) While the Israelites were still in Moab, east of the River Jordan, Moses began to explain the commandments. He began thusly:
"Our god Jehovah told us when we were in Horeb, 'You have tarried long enough at this mountain! Break camp and resume your journey. Advance into the hill country inhabited by the Amorites and the neighboring peoples, into Arabah, the uplands and the lowlands, into the Negev, the coastlands, the lands of the Canaanites, and Lebanon as far as the Euphrates River. See, I am offering this land to you. Invade it and take possession of the land I, Jehovah, promised to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants after them.'
"At that time I told you, ‘I’m not able to bear the burden of leading you alone. Your god Jehovah has so increased your population that you are now as numerous as the stars in the sky. --- And may Jehovah, the god of your fathers, multiply you a thousand times more and bless you, as he has promised to do. --- But how can I assume the responsibilities you place upon me and deal with all your problems and disputes by myself? So choose from each tribe men who are respected for their wisdom and judgment; I will make them your leaders.' And you responded, 'What you propose is good for us.’ And so I took the wise and respected men selected by each of your tribes and appointed them to positions of authority over you, some responsible for a 1000 men, some 100, some 50, and others 10. I charged the judges at that time, 'Hear cases of your fellow Israelites and resident aliens with equal fairness and render your decisions justly. Show no impartiality between the great and the lowly. Do not be intimidated by men, for the justice you administer is from God. But any cases that are too difficult for you to decide, you may bring to me and I will handle them.' At that time I instructed you in all that you were required to do."
Notes
1. In an address to his people, Moses recaps the history of the Israelites since they left Egypt. This is rather like an old movie serial when, about two-thirds of the way through, a chapter is devoted to retelling the story so far, for the sake of viewers who missed earlier chapters or had lost the thread of the story. One wonders how Moses could have addressed the entirety of his people, but perhaps he only spoke to the elders. This is one of the few times when Moses expresses his own thoughts, tells his own story, and is not merely a mouthpiece of Jehovah. Recounting what is now history, he speaks to those who, if they experienced the Exodus and subsequent events at all, were children at the time.
2. Moses spoke to his people on the 30th day of Shevat, about late January or February.
2. The Amorites in the Bible were Canaanites who occupied the uplands east of the River Jordan. They are often described as giants. They are probably not synonymous with the Amorites that figure in the history of Mesopotamia and Syria. Bashan is now referred to as the Golan Heights, an area formerly in Syria, but most of which has been occupied since 1967 by Israel. Heshbon, in modern Jordan, is northeast of the Dead Sea. Horeb is another name of the Sinai. Arabah refers to the Jordan Valley.
3. The decision that Moses made to delegate authority was suggested by his father-in-law Jethro, the Midianite. Perhaps because the Israelites have already totally exterminated the Midianites, a virtual genocide, Moses prefers to forget this fact.
4. Moses chooses to mention at the beginning of his remarks the appointment of judges. Although their concepts of law would have been inherited from the Babylonians or acquired from the Egyptians, it is nevertheless admirable that the early Israelites, whose society and lifestyle was far more primitive, retained and fully embraced a fairly sophisticated and civilized legal system.
These are the words Moses said to the people of Israel while they were encamped in the desert wastelands beyond the River Jordan in Arabah opposite Suph, between the towns of Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. It is an 11 day journey from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by way of Mount Seir. But it had been 40 years since the Israelites had left Egypt, and it was on the 1st day of the 11th month [Shevat] that Moses addressed the people of Israel to tell them all that Jehovah had commanded him to say. (This took place after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled from Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who ruled from Ashtaroth near Edrei.) While the Israelites were still in Moab, east of the River Jordan, Moses began to explain the commandments. He began thusly:
"Our god Jehovah told us when we were in Horeb, 'You have tarried long enough at this mountain! Break camp and resume your journey. Advance into the hill country inhabited by the Amorites and the neighboring peoples, into Arabah, the uplands and the lowlands, into the Negev, the coastlands, the lands of the Canaanites, and Lebanon as far as the Euphrates River. See, I am offering this land to you. Invade it and take possession of the land I, Jehovah, promised to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants after them.'
"At that time I told you, ‘I’m not able to bear the burden of leading you alone. Your god Jehovah has so increased your population that you are now as numerous as the stars in the sky. --- And may Jehovah, the god of your fathers, multiply you a thousand times more and bless you, as he has promised to do. --- But how can I assume the responsibilities you place upon me and deal with all your problems and disputes by myself? So choose from each tribe men who are respected for their wisdom and judgment; I will make them your leaders.' And you responded, 'What you propose is good for us.’ And so I took the wise and respected men selected by each of your tribes and appointed them to positions of authority over you, some responsible for a 1000 men, some 100, some 50, and others 10. I charged the judges at that time, 'Hear cases of your fellow Israelites and resident aliens with equal fairness and render your decisions justly. Show no impartiality between the great and the lowly. Do not be intimidated by men, for the justice you administer is from God. But any cases that are too difficult for you to decide, you may bring to me and I will handle them.' At that time I instructed you in all that you were required to do."
Notes
1. In an address to his people, Moses recaps the history of the Israelites since they left Egypt. This is rather like an old movie serial when, about two-thirds of the way through, a chapter is devoted to retelling the story so far, for the sake of viewers who missed earlier chapters or had lost the thread of the story. One wonders how Moses could have addressed the entirety of his people, but perhaps he only spoke to the elders. This is one of the few times when Moses expresses his own thoughts, tells his own story, and is not merely a mouthpiece of Jehovah. Recounting what is now history, he speaks to those who, if they experienced the Exodus and subsequent events at all, were children at the time.
2. Moses spoke to his people on the 30th day of Shevat, about late January or February.
2. The Amorites in the Bible were Canaanites who occupied the uplands east of the River Jordan. They are often described as giants. They are probably not synonymous with the Amorites that figure in the history of Mesopotamia and Syria. Bashan is now referred to as the Golan Heights, an area formerly in Syria, but most of which has been occupied since 1967 by Israel. Heshbon, in modern Jordan, is northeast of the Dead Sea. Horeb is another name of the Sinai. Arabah refers to the Jordan Valley.
3. The decision that Moses made to delegate authority was suggested by his father-in-law Jethro, the Midianite. Perhaps because the Israelites have already totally exterminated the Midianites, a virtual genocide, Moses prefers to forget this fact.
4. Moses chooses to mention at the beginning of his remarks the appointment of judges. Although their concepts of law would have been inherited from the Babylonians or acquired from the Egyptians, it is nevertheless admirable that the early Israelites, whose society and lifestyle was far more primitive, retained and fully embraced a fairly sophisticated and civilized legal system.
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