(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.
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