(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?
Thursday, October 29, 2015
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.
"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.
Friday, October 16, 2015
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.
"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.
"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.
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