• Mothers would lock out daughters
bronze . . . iron. The depiction of a drought featuring a bronze sky and iron ground is matched in a canonical West Semitic inscription that may go back to the seventh century BC: “The earth was bronze, the heavens, of iron, the sod, in a bad/arid state.” Esarhaddon’s vassal treaty curses mention the soil being turned to iron and the sky to copper.
These verses encompass curses that result in Israel’s complete defeat and humiliation at the hands of her enemies, in addition to a terrifying buffeting by plagues from the Lord because Israel has broken the covenant (cf. ). Parallels exist in Aramaic and Akkadian with curses listed in the vassal treaties of Esarhaddon, but only partially and not in the same order. This is the situation with most of the curses found in ch. . Ugaritic, Aramaic and Akkadian texts speak of blindness as a curse because of murder. The epilogue in the Code of Hammurapi contains relatively close parallels concerning dispersion and exile and defeat by enemies (v. ); boils, tumors and itch (v. ), as well as blindness and mental confusion (vv. ).
eat the fruit of the womb. Ugaritic texts describe prayers offered on behalf of a city under siege. Sumerian texts record deaths from famine at the time of the destruction of Ur and Sumer. The horrors of siege warfare often resulted in unbelievable acts of human cannibalism. The ancient Atrahasis epic contains a description of cannibalism in a city oppressed with hunger.
These conditions were also set forth in the vassal treaties of Esarhaddon (c. 690 BC):
• Mothers would lock out daughters
• Flesh of children devoured by parents
• Dogs and pigs will devour you
• Spirit will be uncared for
• No libations poured out when you are dead
send you back in ships to Egypt. One way for this to happen would be for the Assyrians to press their Israelite captives/vassals into service in naval actions from the Phoenician coast. Another option is for them to fall victim to the Egyptian slave trade in Canaan, where slaves were transported by ship. Either way, this curse represents oppression from foreign enemies.
mind that understands . . . ears that hear. God created human beings with the ability to see and hear (see ), but spiritual, moral and intellectual perception is in mind in this verse. All these functions work together in the Egyptian Ennead of gods: “eyes see, the ears’ hearing . . . to the heart [which] causes every conclusion to emerge.” Ears and eyes that function properly inform the heart (Hebrew leb), which produces knowledge, speech and action that is also morally and ethically discerning. This is expressed in the action of the Egyptian god Ptah, creator of the world. The sight of the eyes, the hearing of the ears and the sense of smell are connected to Ptah’s heart, understanding and intelligence.
For Israel to truly “hear” with their whole being, they needed to keep the covenant, but they had not done so. Only faithful obedience to the Lord and his covenant could open the way for God to give them an understanding mind (Hebrew leb; cf. ).
I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way. The vassal treaty of Esarhaddon (690–669 BC), with the god Assur as witness, puts forth similar conditions: “If you, as you stand on the soil where this oath (is sworn), swear the oath with words and lips (only), do not swear with your entire heart, do not transmit it to your sons . . . if you take this curse upon yourselves but do not plan to keep the treaty of Esarhaddon.” Duplicity and deceit were not acceptable to Assur or to Esarhaddon—or to the Lord of Israel.
salt and sulfur. Burning, salting and weeds are mentioned in inscriptions from Sefire, in a treaty context, as curses on those who break the treaty or covenant. Salt and sulfur wither and dry up vegetation. The cities of Jericho and Shechem experienced this kind of devastation.
this people abandoned the covenant . . . Therefore the LORD’s anger burned . . . the LORD uprooted them. Ashurbanipal records that all of the kings he set up in his provinces rebelled and broke their covenant and oaths. Therefore, he proceeded to punish them with the curses contained in the treaties. Covenant rebels were given their due—the curses of their respective treaties or covenants. The gods involved were the covenant prosecutors and executioners through the legal and military machinery of the suzerain whom the vassals had betrayed.
In the case of Ashurbanipal (668–633 BC) the treaty language, as in Deuteronomy, anticipates the questions of an astonished rebel vassal who asks, “On account of what have these calamities befallen Arabia?” He himself responds, “Because we did not keep the solemn oaths (sworn by) Assur, because we offended the friendliness of Assurbanipal, the king, beloved of Enlil.” The guilty vassals could not claim lack of knowledge, for the terms of the covenant or treaty and the will of the gods and suzerain stood in the publicly accessible document that had been sworn by all the parties involved (cf. v. ).
life . . . death. To live was to receive the blessings; to die was to encounter the divine displeasure through the curses. Thus, two ways are set before Israel—life or death. The “Noah” character of Babylonian legends, Utnapishtim, was encouraged to seek life by following the words of the gods, with the result that prosperity and health would follow. Pharaoh Akhenaten, who alone knew the Aten (sun-disk/god), believed that to follow him was to experience life. The king’s heart was to stay focused on his god.
The victory stele of Piye (c. 734 BC), king of Egypt, reports that as he approached a town, he sent messengers saying, “Look, two ways are before you; choose as you wish. Open, you live; close, you die.” Those who follow the word of their lord prolong their life, but shorten it if they rebel. Moral behavior was a key to a good and long life in Egyptian thinking.
Consistently across the ancient Near East, life is found in a god when one has found favor with that god. God is the source of life; he can give it and take it away. Even though different cultures had different ideas of what would gain divine favor, those became the pursuits of religious belief. For many peoples, that meant the faithful performance of rituals. For Israel, it meant faithful adherence to the covenant.
I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses. Calling out witnesses and writing down a list of divine witnesses to a covenant or treaty in the Late Bronze Age Hittite documents was tedious, but necessary in order to activate the covenant. In the treaty between the Hittite king Mursili and Duppi-Teshub, the list of deities and witnesses begins: “Let the thousand gods stand by for this oath! Let them observe and listen!” The list runs for 40 lines and concludes with “mountains, rivers, springs, great sea, heaven and earth, winds, clouds. Let these be witnesses to the treaty and to the oath!” For the king and country, but also for the king’s agents who were faithful, a blessing of long life was extended. In addition to life, health, multitudes of years and length of days were rewards for the faithful covenant keeper.
I am now a hundred and twenty years old. Old age was a blessing from the gods in the thinking of the ancient Near East. The kings before the flood in the Sumerian King List were attributed heroic lives of thousands of years. The age of 110 represented a fulfilled life in Egypt. Rameses II lived to be about 90 years old. Moses reached the Biblical ideal of 120 years (see ; cf. ).
Ptahhotep, one of Egypt’s ancient viziers and wise men, instructed his son concerning how to live and think in order to enjoy a successful and long life. He himself attained 110 years through the favor of the king and the god Horus. In more recent texts found at Emar the ideal age of 120 years has surfaced and was already known in Enlil and Namzitara. The average lifespan in the ancient Near East was, in fact, only about 45 years. Moses, Joshua, Job, and a high priest named Jehoiada were the only persons, besides persons in the patriarchal era, who lived to 100 years or more.
Various phrases used to describe old age, such as “length of days,” have been found outside the OT at Kuntillet Ajrud (ninth to eighth century BC). Ancient Near Eastern parallels in West Semitic and Akkadian occur. Nabonidus, a king of the Neo-Babylonian era, had a mother who was made famous for her old age by the god Sin, who extended her life and, more importantly, maintained her full mental capacity and reasoning powers. Nabonidus himself prayed to Sin for a “present life of long days.”
At the end of every seven years . . . you shall read this law. Hittite treaties provided for the deposition of treaty/covenant documents (of whatever material: iron, bronze, clay, stone, silver, etc.). It was desirable to have a copy of these documents on file, but also to make future public periodic reading possible. The document was deposited “before the god” and was read in the presence of the king and the “sons of the Hatti country.” Curses were declared against anyone who would be so bold as to remove, damage, destroy or deface the treaty or covenant document. Curses were set forth for the person who would change the document.
In a covenant between the Hittites and King Kurtiwaza in Mitanni, the covenantal documents were deposited before the gods or goddesses for periodic reading. An inscribed public monument could serve the same function. A copy was placed before the goddess Arinna in Hatti and one was placed before Teshub in Mitanni mainly done for safekeeping by both parties. But the ancients also considered the words of the text and their reading to aid in keeping the agreement in force.
At Emar in Syria, a Zukru festival reflects a number of significant features of the covenant in Deuteronomy. A covenant renewal ceremony was held every seven years, which parallels the seven-year cycle of covenant reading and covenant renewal laid out in these two verses at the Festival of Tabernacles. The ritual calendar of this religious festival began on the first full moon of the year. This Zukru festival included all those who functioned as the essential parties in the festival. The king was there, though he was not the key participant. The seventh year was also special in Ugarit.
Seven-year cycles with a preparatory period in the sixth year are also found. In the sixth year preparations were made for the seventh year. The Zukru festival was directed to the gods, a total of 70, and involved a treaty or covenant bond between Emar and its god Dagan (grain-god).
tent of meeting. See note on ; see also the article “
rest with your ancestors. See notes on ; .
Now write down this song . . . that it may be a witness. The flexibility of ancient Near Eastern treaty/covenant forms permitted additional sections to be added. Here the Biblical author places witnesses following the blessings and curses, a feature found in Hittite treaties, especially those between Tudhaliya IV and Kurunta. There the required deposition of the treaty documents is located between stipulations, and other stipulations are added after the curses and blessings as well as a list of sanctions. The Hittites, Syrians and Assyrians adjusted treaties depending on whether they were dealing with individuals, peoples or kingdoms. Terminology, structure and tone could vary with the purpose of the treaty.
The interplay between writing and literacy is well illustrated here. Ancient Israel was not a modern literate nation, but the Israelites were acquainted with writing (see the article “
This oral-literate interplay is reflected here and in v. , as the written words of Moses are to be repeated and spoken. Ancient Near Eastern materials—e.g., some letters of Arad, a Deir Alla inscription, the Gezer Calendar, an Izbet Sartah inscription, inscriptions at Kuntillet Ajrud, Lachish ostraca (broken pottery fragments used as writing material), the Mesha Stele, etc.—all reflect the interesting interaction of oral and written words.
The only objects inside the ark were the tablets; the Book of the Law is placed before the ark along with Aaron’s rod and a jar of manna. In Egypt, important documents confirmed by oath, such as international treaties, were deposited beneath the feet of the deity. The ark is the footstool of God, so that is where the book is being placed.
Moses recited the words. See note on v. .
Is he not your Father . . . ? The fatherhood of the gods was a common theological feature of the peoples of the ancient Near East and contributed to the idea, e.g., that Enlil (Sumer) “was a friendly, fatherly deity who watches over the safety and well-being of all humans, particularly the inhabitants of Sumer.” However, the overall concept is somewhat jumbled because of the seemingly contradictory way the material is presented and the strangeness of the worldview being propounded. your Creator. Many “father gods”—e.g., in Sumer (e.g., An, Enlil, Utu), Egypt (Atum, Ptah, Re, Geb) and Ugarit (El, Baal)—were involved in the production and creation not only of the cosmos but of other gods as well. As an example, in the Ugaritic myths (c. 1350 BC), Baal, the Bull, is described as the creator of the gods. In Egypt, Amun was the ultimate source and cause of gods and the cosmos. This language is echoed in the designation of even a subordinate ruler such as Azatiwata, “mother and father” of the Danua people. In the Emar Zukru festival, Dagan (grain-god; storm-god) is referred to as the “lord of creation.”
These examples demonstrate that Israel talked about Yahweh in much the same ways that other peoples in the ancient world talked about their own gods. Even though the God of Israel was very different in nature, many of his attributes could be expressed using similar metaphors to those used throughout the ancient world.
according to the number of the sons of Israel. The NIV follows the Hebrew text here. Many scholars prefer the reading of the Septuagint, the pre-Christian translation of the OT, and some Dead Sea Scrolls, which read “according to the sons of God” (see ). This text is closely connected to , where 70 nations are listed, but Israel is not included among them. It is possible that, according to the Septuagint, God “divided” (Hebrew prd, in both and this verse) the nations among 70 subordinate, created, divine beings (see the article “
A Ugaritic text refers to the “seventy sons of Athirat,” sired by El, which comprised his council of divine beings. Seventy gods are also mentioned at Emar. A divine council of gods was common in the ancient Near East. A Phoenician inscription also refers to the whole “group of the children of the gods.” In other Babylonian literature, we generally read of the gods distributing the cosmos among themselves, but not the nations, as here.
This is part of the broader context, but these verses are intended to contrast the fact that the Lord has set Israel apart unto himself from among all the nations, and Israel is not numbered with them, for the Israelites are “his people,” his “allotted inheritance” (v. )”.
apple of his eye. This is an English idiom, not a Hebrew one. The Hebrew means “pupil” and refers to a sensitive, protected and significant part of the body.
Cylinder seal shows Etana ascending on an eagle’s back, twenty-third century BC. There is a parallel of Etana’s story and the Biblical text. Note on explains parallel between Etana’s story and the biblical text.
© Baker Publishing Group and Dr. James C. Martin. Courtesy of the British Museum, London, England.
Return to
like an eagle . . . spreads its wings . . . and carries them aloft. The story of Etana, a quasi-historical king of Kish mentioned in the Sumerian King List, rode upon an eagle that cared for him as it carried Etana on his back. Etana is pictured ascending on an eagle’s back on a cylinder seal of the twenty-third century BC.
The story line in the Etana myth is helpful. It depicts an eagle as the instrument through whom Etana successfully gets a son. The eagle imagery here and in is tied to the Lord’s rescue of his son Israel on eagles’ wings. Etana beseeches the eagle to “change my destiny”; the eagle obliges, but only after giving Etana a magnificent but dangerous ride toward heaven and back down to earth. The eagle drops but retrieves Etana at three miles (4.8 kilometers), two miles (3.2 kilometers), one mile (1.6 kilometers), and three feet (1 meter) above the ground.
The parallel with the Biblical text is not dependent on naturalists observing certain behavior patterns of eagles with their young, but on the story line of the Etana text. It took an eagles’ wings for Etana’s goal to be met: his acquisition of a son. God brought Israel to the mountain of God, Sinai, and births/nurtures his only son (cf. v. ).
Some believe that the “eagles’ wings” protective imagery originated in Egypt and moved throughout the ancient Near East. The actual bird in the Egyptian iconography is considered to be the griffon vulture. The Hebrew word translated “eagle” can also be translated “vulture.”
A misconception refuted by naturalist observations of birds in the wild is that eagles/vultures teach their young to fly by nudging them out of the nests and then catching them when they fail to fly. In fact, however, these birds do not take their first flight until they are three to four months old and nearly full grown.
It is more likely that the picture painted here makes use of political imagery. In Egypt, the goddess Nekhbet is portrayed in the shape of a vulture and is notably maternal in her protection of the pharaoh. She is often seen protecting him with her wings. This vulture deity cared for its young and protected the pharaoh.
ride on the heights. Cities were built on hills, because hills boasted natural defensibility and strategic value. This metaphor refers to victory and security.
gods. The Hebrew word here is the plural shedim (singular shed). Israel had rebelled by sacrificing to a god(s) shdym (cf. ; cf. Akkadian shedu). The Hebrew word could be related to either the cognate Akkadian shedu or to the Aramaic shdyn, found in the Deir Alla Balaam inscription. The Akkadian word (shedu) describes only minor deities, if deities at all (cf. ), and it is connected to spirits of the dead. The shedu would not have been the recipients of sacrifices. In contrast, the Aramaic shdyn were gods, members of the divine council, who were worshiped in Transjordan and Canaan, and therefore could have been the same gods referred to in the Biblical texts. In the Deir Allah Balaam inscription, these “gods” sit in the divine assembly with other gods and decree a catastrophe on the earth, but then inform Balaam of this by a dream or vision (cf. , , ). It is therefore possible that they could be involved in Israel’s illegitimate cultic practice. No evidence concerning their moral nature or relationship to Israel’s God can be determined; Yahweh is occasionally depicted as holding assembly with other divine beings (; ) which may be comparable to the shdyn. Whether the Bible’s term is related to the Akkadian or Aramaic, these shedim were forbidden in Israelite religion. In neither case, however, would they have been considered demons.
I will hide my face from them. When God hides his face, he is displeased with his people, and catastrophe strikes them. In a famous Egyptian theological treatise, a deceased person expresses despair that he can no longer see the face of Atum: “It is too much for me, my Lord, not to see your face.” When the great god Erra (Nirgal) was enthroned, the other gods “began to look at his face.” Telipinu, a weather- or storm-god of sorts at Hatti, turned his face away and left his people because of their insolence toward him. When he left, he took with him all kinds of blessings, especially fertility. People could not conceive, nor could they, if pregnant, give birth. The hills dried up, trees withered, and the grass died. Hunger set in. An incantation finally resulted in the god’s return, and subsequent blessings at his return ensued when he was again with his people. The royal house prospered.
The abandonment of a people by its god occurred several times during Babylon’s history. In the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic, the gods abandon the Kassite Babylonian king because he had broken his covenant with Assyria. The third-century BC priest-historian Manetho reported that the Hyksos invasion of Egypt (seventeenth century BC) was a result of “God’s displeasure upon us.” Cyrus the Great (538 BC) proclaimed that Marduk, Babylon’s chief god, gave Babylon into his power because the last king, Nabonidus, forsook the worship of Marduk and worshiped other gods.
I will heap calamities on them. Curses are found in various texts in the ancient Near East. At Ugarit, the god Resheph, a storm-god, was a god of war and a god of pestilence. These threats became realities in warfare. The support of a national god was crucial for a king, such as Hadad of northern Syria. In this case, Panammuwa, son of a king named Qarli, claimed support from many gods: Hadad, for whom a statue was erected, but also El, Rashap, Rakib-El and Shamash. Fulfilled curses include vivid descriptions of besieged cities, such as Sumer and Ur. In several ancient treaties, a specific stipulation was followed by a specific curse administered by a particular god.
Abarim Range to Mount Nebo. The Abarim mountain range sits northeast of the Dead Sea. Mount Nebo (c. 1,435 feet or 440 meters) is a part of this range (cf. ; ). It is located near the city Nebo (), and the area forms a northwestern rim of the tableland of Moab. Mount Nebo (cf. ) is closely connected to Mount Pisgah, which is tied to descriptions of southern Gilead. The Spring of Moses on the north and the Wadi Afirt help frame the mountain.
The view from Nebo is panoramic, including the Dead Sea, the Jordan Valley, and the Jordan Desert from Tekoa to Jerusalem. Even the mountains of Samaria are visible from it. In the Mesha Stele of Moab (c. 830 BC), Nebo is considered an Israelite city conquered by the Moabites.
Compare the blessings of Isaac () and the blessings of Jacob (). Outside of the OT, there are similar final blessings recorded in the second millennium BC, especially in texts at Nuzi. Many features of Yahweh presented in this chapter are paralleled by descriptions of the great storm-god in the ancient Near East, especially under his name Baal. In general, the Canaanite setting of several tribes is depicted just before Moses’ death. There are close connections with Canaanite mythology, as evidenced in the literary style, language and vocabulary of the poem. Language reminiscent of the storm-gods of the ancient Near East depicts the Lord’s kingship and his theophany (see especially vv. , , ).
Mount Paran is clearly a Hebrew poetic parallel with Sinai and Seir (Edom area). Sinai is the primary referent, which is near or possibly in the Desert of Paran.
This entire theophany of God’s awesome appearance shares features with texts from Ugarit (Baal) and Mesopotamia (e.g., Assur), among others. El “shines forth” in a text in Hebrew (Phoenician script) from Kuntillet Ajrud. In Ugaritic texts Baal marches forth. The divine allies of Baal and ancient Near Eastern storm-gods parallel Yahweh’s “myriads.” A divine assembly to perform the bidding of the chief god is present in Canaanite and similar mythological texts in Assyrian, Assyrian-Babylonian and Hittite texts.
Thummim and Urim. See the article “
In essence, Yahweh fulfills the functions performed by the chief fertility god, Baal, in Canaan. The “deep waters” (v. ) are tied to the “abyss” in both Ugaritic liturgical texts and mythological texts. The bull imagery applied to Joseph in v. has similarities with Ugaritic metaphoric descriptions of gods in which Mot and Baal “gore like wild oxen,” and El is called “the bull.” A Hittite document describes the strength of the bull that moved a mountain. Even Horus in Egypt is pictured as a young, strong bull.
who rides across the heavens . . . on the clouds. This language closely resembles language used to depict Baal. He is presented as a warrior-god who prepares to smash his enemies and to take his everlasting kingdom and dominion (cf. ). However, Baal was also the bringer of rain. A bit less striking, but still helpful, is the depiction in a Sumerian myth of the weather-god Ishkur in “Enki and the Ordering of the World.” In this case Ishkur is put in charge of the entire weather system. In the case of Yahweh, Israel’s God shows that he is in control of all of this, such that he can destroy Israel’s enemies (v. ).
heights. Exactly what the Hebrew word (bamotemo) refers to is still debated. Several high places (Hebrew bamot) have recently been uncovered. These were possibly places where local shrines were situated and pagan religious rites were practiced. To Israel’s detriment, these places fostered syncretism and enticed Israel to become involved in forbidden worship. Asherahs (Hebrew matstsebot, sacred poles or trees) and altars were featured. These high places often had a lishka, a room for sacred meals, connected to them.
It is not unusual for an ancient document to be updated in various ways as it is copied by later generations of scribes. Moses’ responsibility for at least parts of Deuteronomy was to have them written down. Other parts, such as his sermons, song () and blessing (), are said to have been delivered orally and were likely preserved orally for some time before being written down.
Moses well could have had scribal training himself, but more likely would have employed scribes to do the writing. The resulting documents would be stored in an archive and would eventually be used to compile the book that we now call Deuteronomy. Moses is appropriately attributed as the authoritative source for the material in the book, though we do not know when it took its final literary shape. In the ancient world, the oral form was often more important than the written form, though some formal documents (e.g., treaties) were preserved in writing and periodically read. As scribes copied the documents of this archive generation after generation, details could be updated (such as the location of Dan in the north in , even though Dan did not move north until the period of the judges). ◆
Go to
This description of the promised land mentions only key points of focus. The view given here surveys the scene by looking straight ahead (north) and then to the left (west).
Dan. The city and tribe of Dan were located just south of Mount Hermon, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) distant.
Zoar. Probably located at the southern tip of the Dead Sea (cf. ).
the servant of the LORD. This description of Moses has connotations of intimacy and of obedience. The legendary King Keret in the Ugaritic literature is depicted as “the beloved, Lad of El,” “the Servant of El” (3x), with the context of each occurrence implying the care and concern of El for his chosen servant.
a hundred and twenty years old. Moses’ eyesight and vigor are still not gone at 120 years of age. No wonder! In the ancient Near East “the face of a god radiated light and life to those fortunate enough to gaze upon it.” Only kings could, however, claim this blessing. Moses had lived in the presence of God 40 days and nights and then conversed with the Lord without his veil for an indefinite period of time. In some ancient Near Eastern traditions, the radiant faces of the gods (e.g., Enlil, Assur, Ninlil) strengthened the kings they looked upon. The faces of the gods were both radiant and life-giving, a belief recorded in an inscription of Samsu-iluna (c. 1749–1712 BC), grandson of Hammurapi.