Deuteronomy/Davarim 3:23-29/4: "Surely this great nation is a wise and comprehending people."

[This is another lonnnggggg read but worth the time you spend on it; please read slowly and absorb not only the scriptural text but the valuable commentary by the Rabbis and Torah scholars.  If it took time and patience for me to painstakingly type every word and punctation mark from the vast commentary of one of our most valuable resources, I certainly hope one reader would bother to make all this effort worthwhile . . . although the effort itself has been worthwhile for me, even if no other person benefits from all this! I may be speaking to myself in saying this, for all I know . . . and so be it—readers’ loss, not mine.  I tried to cut it in shorter chewable pieces but such chop-ups get in the way of following the progress and continuity of thought. There is so much to absorb from this post so please take your time to chew and digest not only the words of Mosheh but more importantly, the words of YHWH.  

 

As I keep emphasizing in the reading of the Hebrew Scriptures—- in no other way are we so privileged to meet Israel’s God and begin to scratch the surface of KNOWLEDGE about Him, His Character and Attributes, what He requires of Israel compared to what He requires of the nations who were not privy to His Revelation and Covenant Relationship.  The privileged position of Israel and leaders like Moshe required responsibilities and duties not expected of the UNchosen.  This much, we learn from the interaction between YHWH and Israel, between YHWH and His leaders/tribes chosen for specific purposes.

 

The religion that was birthed out of this unique relationship — Judaism — has much to contribute to the understanding of their Scriptures and their God.  Interspersed in the usual running commentary from Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz, are perspectives of Judaism regarding ‘a jealous God’, Idolatry, and Religious Tolerance, original has been reformatted here.  Translation is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.

Read on!–Admin1.]

 

Deuteronomy/Davarim 3

CONTINUED FROM DABARIYM 3: 23-29.

MOSES’ PRAYER AND ITS REJECTION

The signs of God’s favour to His people, shown in the victories over the Amorite kings, stirred the personal hope of Moses that he too might see ‘the good land that is beyond the Jordan’.  But it was not to be.  He might view the land, but he would never cross there.  He was to commit the future to Joshua, his successor.

23 Now I pleaded with YHVH at that time, saying:

I besought.  He does not base his request on his life of service to Israel, but begs it as an act of grace on the part of God (Rashi).

24 My Lord YHVH, 

you yourself have started to let your servant see 

your greatness and your strong hand,

that who is a god in heaven and on earth

that can do according to your deeds and according to your power!

begun to show.  He yearned to see the consummation of the Divine promise.

25 Pray let me cross over 

that I may see the good land

that is in (the country) across the Jordan,

this good hill-country, and the Lebanon!

let me go over.  Not as a Leader, but as one in the ranks, to whom the Divine decree might not apply.  Hence, ‘I besought the LORD at that time’ (v.23); i.e. after he had appointed Joshua as his successor (Malbim).

beyond the Jordan.  Here, as in v. 20 above, referring to Western Palestine.

that goodly hill-country.  i.e. that goodly mountain-land.  From where Moses stood the whole of W. Palestine appeared as one compact mountain mass–a thing of surpassing beauty to his mind; XI,11.  The three great landmarks in his life were all connected with mountains.  Horeb, where he was called to be the Leader of his people; Sinai, whence issued forth the Divine Proclamation for all time of the Law of conduct; and Nebo, the peak from which he was to behold the Promised Land from afar.

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures we find a deep love of mountains and mountain scenery.  The Rabbis even introduced a special Blessing to be recited on beholding lofty mountains; Authorised Prayer Book p. 290.  All this is something quite exceptional in the Ancient World.  No Greek could have written Psalm CXVI, I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains; and no Roman could have exclaimed with the Prophet, Hear O ye mountains, the LORD’s controversy, and ye enduring rocks the foundations of the earth (Micah VI,2).  ‘The Greeks cared nothing for their native ranges; and the Romans were disgustingly practical, and regarded the Alps as an inconvenient barrier to conquest and commerce’ (A. Lunn).  Ruskin, who is supreme in modern times among the revealers of the glory and mystery of mountain landscape, largely drew his inspiration from the Hebrew Bible, which his mother taught him to read daily.

Lebanon. In the clear air of Palestine, the summit of Lebanon, the most prominent of all the mountains in Syria and Palestine, is visible from the plains of Moab.

26 But YHVH was cross with me on your account, 

and he would not hearken to me, 

YHVH said to me:

Enough for you!

Do not speak to me any more again about this matter!

for your sakes.  Heb. – the word is not the same as in I,37, and is understood by Hirsch to mean for your good.  ‘Had the unbelief of Moses gone unpunished, the people would have been hardened in their own transgression.  For their sakes, therefore, it was impossible to overlook it’ (Dummelow).

27 Go up to the top of the Pisga (Range) 

and lift up your eyes-toward the sea, toward the north, toward the south, and toward sunrise; 

see (it) with your eyes, 

for you will not cross this Jordan!
28 But command Yehoshua, 

make-him-strong, make-him-courageous,

for he will cross over before this people 

and he will cause them to inherit the land that you see.

charge.  lit. command’ him, to do what you may not do! He is to begin the carrying out of the instructions given in Num. XXVII,19.

he shall go over.  The he is emphatic.

29 And we stayed in the valley, 

opposite Bet Pe’or.

valley.  Glen or ravine.

Beth-peor.  This v. ends the historical review in the First Discourse that began in I,6.  Accordingly, the valley ‘over against Beth-peor’ must define more closely the location mentioned in I,5, ‘beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab.’

Deuteronomy/Davarim 4

The historical review in the preceding three chapters is now followed by an eloquent appeal not to forget what they and seen and heard at Horeb. The Divine Law, if obeyed, shall be their wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples. Let them remember the marvellous events at Horeb, and keep far from all idolatry.  Idolatry would inevitably be followed by exile.  Nevertheless, even in exile, if they sought God in contrition and repentance, they would find Him.  Moses concludes with an appeal to their experience of the uniqueness of their God and pleads for whole-hearted obedience to Him.

1-4.  An appeal to their experience, that should have taught them the disastrous consequences of disobedience.  As to the idea of reward and punishment which pervades this and the succeeding chapters, [here’s what Judaism says:.

Judaism teaches that obedience to the will of God is rewarded, and disobedience punished.  This doctrine is bound up with the fundamental belief of Judaism in a God of Justice.  Because God is just, He will not treat the righteous and the wicked in the same manner.  In some way it must be better with the former than with the latter, through the justice of God.  But such reward–whether conceived as material blessing or as in later ages, when it became more and more spiritualized—is not made the motive for virtue.  That must be love of God and His commandments, a free enthusiasm for doing His will.

Throughout his Farewell Discourses, Moses demands obedience to the Divine will out of pure and disinterested love of God.  His words in Deuteronomy breathe an ardent love and spiritual awe of the invisible God, a heart-religion such as we met in the greatest of the Psalms  and the highest portions of Prophecy.  Throughout these same Discourses, however, we find, as in no other Biblical book, the appeal to material reward for obedience, and material punishment for disobedience, repeatedly and urgently pressed. ‘This is due,’ it has been explained, ‘to the personal position of Moses.  In himself he is a lofty, spiritual nature, yearning with a parent’s love to a people incapable of rising to his spiritual plane; a people yet in the childhood of what we call real life, to be enticed with promises and frightened with threats.  And alternately he pours his spiritual fervour into their dull ears, and then falls back helplessly on to the material considerations which alone will move them’ (Moulton).  He boldly makes use of eery motive that actually influences men–gratitude to God, feeling of dependence on Him, and fear of God—in order to win them to the higher life.  ‘He does not ask men to serve God because it will be profitable to them, but because they love God: and he endeavours to make them love God by reciting all His love and friendliness and patience to His people, and by pointing out the evil which His love is seeking to ward off.  Having before his mind the results of evil conduct, he does urge men to escape from the wrath that may rest upon them.  But the only means so to escape is to yield to the love of god’ (Harper).

1 And now, O Israel, hearken to the laws and the regulations

that I am teaching you to observe,

in order that you may live 

and enter and take-possession of the land that YHVH, the God of your fathers, is giving to you.

hearken. Heb. understand, take to heart.

statutes.  lit. ‘engraved decrees’; originally referring to enactments passed by an authoritative body, engraven upon a stone tablet, and exposed in public for the information and guidance of the people.  According to the Traditional explanation, chukkim are the precepts the reason for observance of which is withheld from us; such as the prohibition of swine’s flesh.  One of their main objects is to inculcate discipline and obedience in the heart of every member of the Holy People, ‘To obey is better than sacrifice’ (I Sam.XV,220.

ordinances.  Judicial decisions arrived at in connection with a matter which had not previously been adjudicated upon, such decisions remaining precedents for the future.  The phrase is a standing one in Deuteronomy . . . in order to indicate the basic importance of unquestioning obedience to the Divine Will.

which I teach.  The Jewish people have selected this teaching role of their Lawgiver as the holiest of all his activities, and speak of him not as King Moses, or Moses the Prophet, but as Mosheh Rabbenu, ‘Moses our Teacher.”

to do them.  This is the main purpose of the teaching.  ‘Not learning, but doing is the principal thing’ (Ethics of the Fathers).

that ye may live.  ‘As a nation!  As a matter of fact Israel preserved its identity among the nations, and survived the influences which overwhelmed the religions of its neighbours, by its obedience.  The Law was a fence about the people’ (G.A. Smith).

the God of your fathers.  The God who had promised the Patriarchs that the Land would come into the possession of their descendants was now fulfilling that promise.  The same God was imposing His commandments upon them, and would reward their fidelity and punish their disobedience in the years to come.

2 You are not to add to the word that I am commanding you,

 and you are not to subtract from it, 

 in keeping the commandments of YHVH your God that I am commanding you.

ye shall not add.  ‘A warning against weakening the force of the Divine commandment by additions, omissions, or explanations that would dilute its original meaning, or make it more palatable to human seflshness and desire (Dillmann). That, however, does not imply that the enactments of the Mosaic code could never be added to or modified as new conditions warranted the change, provided all such modifications were not proclaimed as new revelations from on High (Joseph Karo).  ‘Israel was not to invent additions to the laws, nor arbitrarily diminish them; e.g. using five species, instead of four, in observing the command of the Lulav, or placing five fringes on a Tallis’ (Rashi).

3-4.  These verses are to be linked on to v. 1 as providing evidence that faithfulness to the Torah spells life, whereas rebellion brings death in its train.

3 Your eyes (it is) that have seen what YHVH did at Baal Pe’or:

indeed, every man that walked after Baal Pe’or- 

YHVH your God destroyed him from among you!

Baal of Peor.  The heathen deity worshipped in Peor with loathsome rites.

4 But you, the ones clinging to YHVH your God, 

are alive, all of you, today!

ye that did cleave.  The Heb is used in connection with whole-souled, disinterested love; e.g. to describe Jonathan’s loyal affection for David.  This v. is recited in the synagogue immediately before the Reading of the Law.

5-8.  Israel’s greatness and wisdom will be manifest in obedience to the Divine Commandment.

5 See, 

I am teaching you laws and regulations

as YHVH my God has commanded me, to do thus,

amid the land that you are entering to possess.

I have taught you. The past is somewhat strange after the participle used in v.1.  However, this was not the first occasion on which Moses had proclaimed the Divine enactments.  He is now merely recapitulating.  “When you reach the goal of your wanderings, remember that I have taught you statutes and judgments for you to observe in the midst of the land’ (Nachmanides).

as the LORD my God commanded me.  The Jewish teacher is commanded to teach the statutes and judgments to young and old in Israel (Hirsch).  For many centuries it was held that teaching had to be free, without taint of pecuniary remuneration.  Hence the astounding phenomenon that the greatest Doctors of the Talmudic Academies were artisans and handicraftsmen, who eked out their living from these occupations.  It was only under the stress of persecution and economic necessity that at last, in the 15th century, some rabbis were compelled to take salaries in compensation for the time which they otherwise might have devoted to find their sustenance.

6 You are to keep (them), you are to observe (them),

for that (will be) wisdom-for-you and understanding-for-you in the eyes of the peoples

who, when they hear all these laws, will say:

Only a wise and understanding people is this great nation!

observe therefore and do them.  Better, take ye heed to do them (Koenig).

this. i.e. your faithful observance of the Divine commandments.

in the sight of the peoples.  In the estimation of the peoples.  After Alexander’s conquest of Asia, enlightened Greeks looked upon the Jews as ‘philosophers of the East’, because of their unique monotheism (G.A. Smith).  But the aggrandizement of Israel was not an end in itself: it was to demonstrate to the children of men the Divine in Human History.  The sudden rise to power of a horde of slaves, their well-government, prosperity and security, would attract attention.  The peoples would ask, What is the secret of Israel’s greatness?  And, discovering that it rested upon fidelity to the Will of God, they might be induced to pay allegiance to the God of Israel.  ‘We have here in substance the idea of the missionary purpose of Israel’s existence’ (Oettli); I Kings X,1-3; Isa.II,1-3.  This idea was developed and frequently emphasized, in Prophetic and Rabbinic literature.

7 For who (else) is (such) a great nation 

that has gods so near to it

as YHVH our God 

in all our calling on him?

so nigh unto them.  Israel’s religion is unique because of the nearness of man to his Maker that it teaches.  It proclaims, No intermediary of any sort is required for the worshipper to approach his God in prayer.  ‘The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth,’ is the teaching of the Psalmist.  The Rabbis only deepened the teaching of the Prophets and Psalmists on this head.  The charge often brought against Judaism that it knows only a ‘distant God’ is thus without any foundation.

8 And who (else) is (such) a great nation

that has laws and regulations so equitable 

as all this Instruction

that I put before you today?

what great nation is there, that hath statutes and ordinances so righteous?  Israel’s religion is likewise unique through the ethical character and righteousness of its laws for the government of human society.  Cardinal Faulhaber, after reviewing the poor laws, the rights of labour, and the administration of justice found in the Pentateuch, placed the following alternative before the Nazi detractors of the Hebrew Scriptures:  either such laws are Divinely inspired, or they are the product of a people endowed above all other peoples with positive genius for ethical and social values! ‘The cradle of humanity,’ he declared, ‘is not in Greece; it is in Palestine.  Those who do not regard these books as the word of God and as Divine revelation, must admit that Israel is the super-people in the history of the world!’  For the tribute to Israel paid a generation before Faulhaber by Leo Tolstoy: “The Jew is that sacred being who has brought down from heaven the everlasting fire, and has illumined with it the entire world.  He is the religious source, spring, and fountain out of which all the rest of the peoples have drawn their beliefs and their religions.’

9 Only: take you care, take exceeding care for your self,

lest you forget the things that your eyes saw, 

lest you turn-aside in your heart

all the days of your life;

make-them-known to your children, and to your children’s children:

keep thy soul diligently.  lit. guard well thy life.’ The survival of the nation depends on Israel’s memory of and loyalty to the Law of Sinai.

from thy heart.  From thy memory; the ‘heart’ being conceived as the seat of memory.

make them known unto thy children. A second command:  These things must also be kept alive in the memory of posterity, so that future generations do not lose their spiritual identity and sink back into heathenism.  This transcendent duty towards children and children’s children is repeated with the utmost emphasis throughout Deuteronomy.  Eventually such insistence on the sacred obligation of religious education led to the first efforts in the world’s history to provide elementary instruction to all the children of the community. all thy children shall be taught of the LORD: or, ‘all thy children shall be disciples of the LORD.’  Zion’s peace will be based not on armed force, but on the God-fearing lives of all its inhabitants.  . . every Jewish child must be reared to become such a builder of his People’s better future. This verse is an important landmark in the history of civilization.  In obedience to it, Israel led in universal education.  In his History of the World, H.G. Wells records:  ‘The Jewish religion, because it was a literature-sustained religion, led to the first efforts to provide elementary instruction for all the children of the community.’

10 The day that you stood before the presence of YHVH your God at Horev, 

when YHVH said to me: 

Assemble the people to me,

that I may have them hear my words 

that they may learn to hold me in awe

all the days that they are alive on the soil, 

-and their children, they are to teach!-

the day . . . in Horeb.  When Israel was consecrated as a ‘kingdom of priests’.  The two-fold obligation is insisted upon:  first, they are to learn God’s Will and shape their lives in accordance therewith; secondly, to teach their children the Divine Will, so that they too may shape their lives in the light of that Will.

11 you came-near, you stood beneath the mountain:

now the mountain was burning with fire, 

up to the (very) heart of the heavens, 

(in) darkness, cloud and fog.

under.  At the foot of (Onkelos, Biur).

with darkness. Better, amid darkness, that surrounded the mountain below (Mendelssohn, Driver).

12 And YHVH spoke to you from the midst of the fire: 

a voice of words you heard,

a form you did not see, 

only a voice!

ye saw no form.  Nothing to indicate a material body. He who was heard at Horeb was not seen.

13 He announced to you his covenant

which he commanded you to observe,

the Ten Words, 

and he wrote them down on two tablets of stone.

covenant. Heb. berith;  a compact of any kind between man and man, and between God and man.  Here the word is used for the conditions of the Covenant, the terms of the agreement made at Sinai, as binding on Israel; viz. the Ten Commandments.

14 And me, YHVH commanded at that time

to teach you laws and regulations

for you to observe them 

in the land that you are crossing into to possess.

and the LORD commanded me. lit. ‘and me the LORD commanded’; i.e. to you He spake the Ten Commandments and these alone; but me He gave during those forty days on the Mount additional instruction for guidance of the Israelite’s life throughout all time.

15 Now you are to take exceeding care for your selves-

for you did not see any form 

on the day that YHVH spoke to you at Horev from the midst of the fire-

for ye saw.  These words till the end of the v. are parenthetical.  As no form of God was seen at the Revelation on Mt. Sinai, it follows that representing Him under any image is forbidden, as He is a spiritual Being who cannot be pictured under any image.

16 lest you wreak-ruin 

by making yourselves a carved form of any figure,

deal corruptly.  Act perniciously.

figure.  The Heb is found in old Phoenician and Cypriote inscriptions in the sense of ‘statue’.

female.  How blasphemous and unnatural such a representation is to the Israelite mind can be gathered from the fact that the Heb. language does not even possess a word for ‘goddess’; i Kings XI,5, where the Heb. for goddess is ‘god’.

17 (in the) pattern of male or female, 

 the pattern of any animal that is on earth,

 the pattern of any winged bird that flies in the heavens,

likeness of any beast. ‘All the great deities of the Northern Semites had their sacred animals, and were themselves worshipped in animal form, or in association with animal symbols, down to a late date’ (W. Robertson Smith).

18 the pattern of any crawling-thing on the soil,

the pattern of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth-
19 or lest you lift up your eyes toward the heavens

and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the forces of the heavens,

and be lured-away to prostrate yourselves to them 

and serve them,

whom YHVH has apportioned for all the (other) peoples beneath all the heavens.

and lest.  Still the continuation of take ye therefore good heed in v. 15.

lift up thine eyes unto heaven. The heavenly luminaries exercised a great fascination upon early man.  ‘Astronomy and adoration entered the world together’ (Martineau).  The ‘host of heaven’ was the dominant influence in Babylonian religion.  The Egyptians also reverenced the sun, the moon, and the stars as symbols of deities.  Associated with this worship was also the superstition that the heavenly bodies influenced the lives of mortals, a superstition which is not yet altogether extinct.

thou be drawn away.  lit. ‘Thou sufferest thyself to be drawn away,’ by their wonderful beauty, their inexplicable movements, and their varied effects upon the world, to worship them.

hath allotted (Onkelos)

unto all the peoples.  To be worshipped by them (some Talmud teachers, Rashbam and Mendelssohn).

—————————————-

RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE

God had suffered the heathens to worship the sun, moon, and stars as a stepping-stone to a higher stage of religious belief.  That worship of the heathen nations thus forms part of God’s guidance to humanity.

• But as for the Israelites, God had given them first-hand knowledge of Him through the medium of Revelation.
•  It is for this reason that idolatry was for them an unpardonable offence; and everything that might seduce them from that Divine Revelation was to be ruthlessly destroyed.  
• Hence the amazing tolerance shown by Judaism of all ages towards the followers of other cults, so long as these were not steeped in immorality and crime.  

Thus the Prophet Malachi declares even the sacrificial offering of heathens to be a glorification of God

• (see on Mal. I,11: great among the nations. i.e. even the heathen nations that worship the heavenly hosts pay tribute to a Supreme Being, and in this way honour My Name; and the offerings which they thus present (indirectly) unto Me are animated by a pure spirit, God looking to the heart of the worshipper.  
• This wonderful thought was further developed by the Rabbis, and is characteristic of the universalism of Judaism.)

 Equally striking is the attitude of the Rabbis toward the heathen world.

• War had been declared against Canaanites not because of matters of dogma or ritual, but because of the savage cruelty and foul licentiousness of their lives and cult.  
  

  Image from en.wikipedia.org

• But the Rabbis never regarded the heathens of their own day as on the same moral level with the Canaanites.  
• Their contemporary heathens in the Roman and Persian Empires obeyed the laws of conduct which the Rabbis deemed vital to the existence of human society, the so-called ‘seven commandments given to the children of Noah’ (Rabbinical interpretation of Genesis IX:7 “And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; swarm in the earth and multiply therein.” viz.  
  • (1) the establishment of courts of justice;
  • (2) the prohibition of blasphemy;
  • (3) of idolatry;
  • (4) of incest;
  • (5) of bloodshed;
  • (6) of robbery;
  • (7) of eating flesh cut from a living animal.  
• The Rabbis called these seven laws the ‘Seven Commandments given to the descendants of Noah’.  

These constituted what we might call Natural Religion, as they are vital to the existence of human society.  Whereas an Israelite was to carry out all the precepts of the Torah, obedience to these Seven Commandments.)  

They wisely held that in their religious life these heathens merely followed the traditional worship which they had inherited from their fathers before them, and they could not therefore be held responsible for failure to reach a true notion of the Unity of God.  Such followers of other faiths—they taught—were judged by God, purely by their moral life.  ‘The righteous of all nations have a share in the world to come,’ and are heirs of immortality, alongside the righteous of Israel.

A later Midrash proclaimed:  ‘I call heaven and earth to witness that, whether it be Jew or heathen, man or woman, freeman or bondman—only according to their acts does the Divine spirit rest upon them.’ And in the darkest days of the Middle Ages, Solomon Ibn Babirol, the great philosopher and Synagogue hymn-writer, sang:

‘Thou art the LORD

And all beings are Thy servants, Thy domain;

And through those who serve idols vain

Thine honour is not detracted from, 

For they all aim to Thee to come.’

This is probably the earliest enunciation of religious tolerance in Western Europe.

—————————————————

20 But you, YHVH took 

and brought you out of the Iron Furnace, out of Egypt,

to be for him a people of inheritance, 

as (is) this (very) day.

iron furnace. One whose fire is fierce enough to melt iron—a symbol of intense suffering and bitter bondage.

a people of inheritance.  Involving a relationship that is doubly inalienable.  It cannot be renounced by Israel; ‘and that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all; in that ye say: We shall be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.  As I live, saith the LORD God, surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, will I be king over you’ (Ezekiel XX,32-33).  Nor will God ever forsake Israel; ‘for the LORD will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake; because it hath pleased the LORD to make you a people unto Himself’ (I Sam. XII,22).]

21 Now YHVH was incensed with me because of your words 

and he swore not to let me cross the Jordan, 

not to enter the good land that YHVH is giving you as an inheritance.

22 For I am going to die in this land, 

I will not cross the Jordan!

But you (are the ones who) will cross over and take-possession of this good land. 

in this land. He is not to participate in the inheritance! The words tremble with suppressed emotion, and his soul is full of that thought.

I must not go over Jordan.  lit.  ‘I am not to go over Jordan.’  This clause seems unnecessary after, I must die in this land.  Hence Rashi’s comment, Not even my bones will be carried over Jordan to be laid to rest in the sacred soil, as will happen with the bones of Joseph.  LORD of the Universe—Moses prayed—the bones of Joseph shall rest in the Holy Land, why then shall I not enter it?  The Divine answer was, ‘Joseph always acknowledged himself a Hebrew, as it is said, “I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews.”  Whereas thou, Moses, didst not always act thus.  When the daughters of Jethro told their father, “An Egyptian helped us,” thou wast silent and didst not contradict them.  Therefore thou shalt not be buried in the Holy Land’ (Midrash).

23 Take you care,

lest you forget the covenant of YHVH your God which he cut with you, 

and you make yourselves a carved-image, the form of anything 

about which YHVH your God commanded you!

take heed.  This v. is not a mere repetition of v. 15.  The fate meted out to Moses should make Israel the more grateful for God’s goodness, and at the same time more heedful not to incur God’s wrath.

hath forbidden thee.  lit. ‘hath commanded thee’, not to do (Rashi).

24 For YHVH your God-he is a consuming fire,

a jealous God!

a devouring fire.  Consuming whatever rouses His indignation.

——————————————-

A ‘JEALOUS’ GOD

a jealous God.  The Heb. el kanna  means, ‘a zealous God’, full of zeal for holiness and justice, to whom man’s doings and dealings are not a matter of indifference, but Who renders strict retribution for all idolatry and iniquity.  It also means, ‘a jealous God.’  It signifies that God claims the exclusive love of His children, their entire sincerity—and complete self-surrender.  He will not allow the veneration and loyalty due to Him alone to be shared with other objects of worship . . .

(Exodus XX,5: a jealous God.  The Heb. root for ‘jealous’, kanna, designates the just indignation of one injured; used here of the all-requiting righteousness of God.  God desires to be all in all to His children, and claims an exclusive right to their love and obedience.  He hates cruelty and unrighteousness, and loathes impurity and vice; and, even as a mother is jealous of all evil influences that rule her children. He is jealous when, instead of purity and righteousness, it is idolatry and unholiness that command their heart-allegiance.  It is, of course, evident that terms like ‘jealousy’ or ‘zeal’ are applied to God in an anthropomorphic sense.  It is also evident that this jealousy of God is of the very essence of His holiness.  Outside Israel, the ancients believed that the more gods the better; the richer the pantheon of a people, the greater its power.  It is because the heathen deities were free from ‘jealousy’ and, therefore, tolerant of one another and all their abominations, that heathenism was spiritually so degrading and morality so devastating.)

This conception of ‘a jealous God’ saved Israel from going under in the days of ancient heathendom, as well as in the days of Greece and Rome.  ‘None of the founders of the great heathen religions had any inkling of this idea of a jealous God, a God who would have “none other gods,” a God of terrible Truth who would not tolerate any lurking belief in magic witchcraft, or old customs, or any sacrificing to the god-king, or any trifling with the stern unity of things’ (H.G. Wells).  Our fathers’ realization that truth can make no concession to untruth, nor enter into compromise with it, without self-surrender, is responsible for the religious stand they took up in the days of Greece and Rome.  ‘When Jerusalem fell, Rome was quite prepared to give the God of Israel a place in her Pantheon. Israel absolutely refused such religious annexation: the one, unique and universal God of Israel alone was the living God; Jupiter and his like were things of naught, figments of the imagination.  And the same reasons that would not permit the Jews to bend the knee to the gods of pagan Rome, prevented them in later generations from allowing themselves to be absorbed by the two great Religions that issued from Israel’s bosom.  Here too they found, both in dogma and morality, novelties and concessions that were repugnant to the austere simplicity of their absolute monotheism (T. Reinach).

And the blessed doctrine of ‘a jealous God’ is of vital importance for the Jew’s attitude towards the neo-paganism of today and tomorrow.  ‘Judaism’s mission is just as much to teach the world that there are false gods and false ideals, as it is to bring it nearer to the true one.  Abraham, the friend of god, began his career according to the legend, with breaking idols; and it is his particular glory to have been in opposition to the whole world’ (Schechter).

———————————————–

25-31.  RENEWED WARNING OF IDOLATRY:  THREAT OF EXILE, WITH PROMISE OF GRACE ON REPENTANCE

They would be scattered among the peoples, if they fell away from the LORD.  But even in those days of tribulation God’s mercy would not forsake His people, if they turned to Him in true penitence.

25 When you beget children and children’s children

and you grow old in the land:

should you wreak-ruin by making a carved-image in the form of anything, 

thus doing what is ill in the eyes of YHVH your God, vexing him:

ye shall have been long in the land. And your long continuance results in a loss of vigour, due to unbroken peace and prosperity.  “Prosperity sometimes acts like a narcotic, and sends the soul to sleep’ (Dummelow).  The Hebrew word is not ‘to grow old and increase in wisdom’ but lit. ‘to grow stale.’  They must not imagine that having dwelt for many centuries in Canaan, their tenure was now fixed, and they could neglect the conditions of the Covenant with impunity.  (Benjamin Suzold makes the opening words ‘when thou shall beget’, equivalent to ‘even when thou shalt beget’).

do that which is evil. These words are explanatory of what precedes; viz. the making of images.  Ibn Ezra explains them as signifying other offences–e.g. murder, impurity—which would provoke God.]

26 I call-as-witness against you today the heavens and the earth,

that you will perish, yes, perish quickly 

from off the land that you are crossing the Jordan thither to possess;

you will not prolong days upon it, 

but you will be destroyed, yes, destroyed!

heaven and earth.  As abiding and outlasting the changes of human life.

ye shall soon utterly perish.  Not every individual would be destroyed, but the national life would be brought to an end.

27 YHVH will scatter you among the peoples, 

you will be left as menfolk few-in-number 

among the nations whither YHVH will lead you.

scatter you.  The consequences of idolatry are exile from their native land, dispersion to the four winds of heaven, and diminution in numbers.

28 You will serve there gods made by human hands, of wood and of stone,

which cannot see and cannot hear, and cannot eat and cannot smell.

wood and stone. In their own land, they served images as symbols of something higher.  But in exile the Israelite would sink to the level of fetish-worshippers and grovel to the idols of wood and stone (Hoffmann).  Such things cannot, however, permanently satisfy human souls that have known higher things.  This very lowering of moral standards called forth a spiritual reaction among the religiously-minded ‘remnant’ in the Exile.

smell.  Or ‘breathe’.]

29 But when you seek YHVH your God from there 

you will find (him),

if you search for him with all your heart and with all your being.

ye will seek the LORD.  This is a great pronouncement of Scripture, proclaiming the omnipotence of (God), Repentance.  But the sinner must seek God, i.e. he must feel the ‘loss’ of God, and take active measures to ‘find’ Him and regain His favour.  And that search must be with the sinner’s whole heart and soul.  Sincere repentance always and everywhere secures the Divine Mercy.  It would be so in the Exile, if they sought God with a radical change of heart, and the devotion of the whole being.  And indeed it was in the Exile that repentant Israel found God, rediscovered the Torah, rediscovered itself.

30 When you are in distress 

because there befall you all these things, in future days, 

you shall return to YHVH your God and hearken to his voice.

in the end of days.  Here equivalent to the phrase, ‘later on’ (Koenig).

31 For a compassionate God is YHVH your God;

he will not weaken you, he will not bring-ruin on you,

he will not forget the covenant (with) your fathers that he swore to them.

a merciful God.  Although He is ‘a devouring fire’ to those who are perversely wicked, He is merciful and gracious to the sincerely penitent; and His hand is outstretched to receive the sinner returning unto Him.

fail thee.  He will not give thee up (Hoffmann); or, He will not withdraw His hand from upholding thee (Rashi).

neither destroy thee.  Nor permit thee to go to destruction.

nor forget the covenant. With the Fathers of Israel.  This is the basis of Israel’s selection and eternal preservation.]

32-40.  THE UNIQUENESS OF THE GOD OF ISRAEL

Again there is an appeal to history to justify the Divine claims.  From the beginning of time, from one end of heaven to the other, no nation had experienced the paralleled redemption and revelation that were vouchsafed unto Israel.  ‘He hath not dealt so with any nation’ (Psalm CXLVII,20).

32 For inquire, pray, of past days, which were before you:

from the day that God created humankind on the earth, and from one edge of the heavens to the (other) edge of the heavens: 

has there ever been such a great thing,

or anything heard like it?
33 Has a people ever heard the voice of a god speaking from the midst of the fire

as you have heard, yourself,

and remained-alive?

and live. The idea often finds expression in Scripture that man cannot have direct communication with God and survive; Exod. XXXIII,20.

34 Or has a god ever essayed to come and take himself a nation from within a nation,

with trials, signs, portents and deeds-of-war, 

with a strong hand and an outstretched arm 

and with great awe-inspiring (acts),

according as all that YHVH your God did in Egypt before your eyes?

assayed . . . to take Him a nation.  Or, ‘adventured’ or, ‘attempted,’ to select a nation for His special service.  A bold anthropomorphism that gives striking expression to the profound thought that Israel is, so to speak, ‘a Divine experiment in history’ (M. Lazarus).

trials. e.g. testing the character of Pharaoh by the manifestation of His might; or testing Israel in the iron furnace of suffering, v. 20.

signs.  Events, either ordinary or extraordinary, having for their purpose the fulfillment of a Divine aim.

wonders.  Portents, supernatural phenomena.

war.  The overthrew of the Egyptian host.

a mighty hand.  The Biblical term to denote any Divine intervention in history (Koenig).

great terrors. e.g. the heaping of the waters at the Red Sea.  An old Jewish interpretation found in the Septuagint and the Passover Haggadah, understands this phrase to refer to God’s self-manifestation.

35 You yourself have been made-to-see, to know

that YHVH-he is God, 

there is none else beside him!

it was shown.  The experience of god’s unique power was first-hand with them, and not derived from speculation or hearsay.  Yehudah Hallevi bases on this circumstance the supreme credibility of the Revelation at Sinai:  it took place before an entire people.

there is none else beside Him.  A clear expression of absolute monotheism; repeated in v. 39; VI,4; VII,9′ X,17; and XXXII,39.  A Talmudical note on these words is, ‘not even magical powers’; i.e. the Israelites were to put no faith in witchcraft.

36 From the heavens he had you hear his voice, to discipline you;

on earth he had you see his great fire,

and his words you heard from the midst of the fire.

instruct.  Better, discipline. What Israel had seen and heard was not merely to impress the mind, but to affect their course of life, and check any tendency to stray after idolatry.]

37 Now since he loved your fathers, 

he chose their seed after them

and brought you out with his presence with great power from Egypt,

loved thy fathers.  The Patriarchs.

with His presence.  In His own person; not through an intermediary.

38 to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you from before you, 

by bringing you out, by giving you their land as an inheritance, as (is) this (very) day-

as it is this day. i.e. as thou hast already made conquests in the territory east of Jordan, the lands of Sihon and Og.

39 know today and lay it up in your heart,

that YHVH-he is God 

in the heavens above and on the earth beneath,

(there is) none else!

know this day.  This v. and the one following from the peroration of the First Discourse, and summarize the lesson to be learnt from all that has gone before.  According to most expositors, this First Discourse gives the historical framework and instruction for the new legislation.  The aged Lawgiver exhorts the people to gratitude toward God (I,6-III,29), and closes with solemn warnings of the dangers of idolatry that threaten them on entering the Promised Land (IV,1-40). v.39 has been introduced into the Oleynoo, the closing prayer of every Synagogue Service.

40 You are to keep his laws and his commandments that I command you today, 

that it may go-well with you and with your children after you,

in order that you may prolong days on the soil

that YHVH your God is giving you, 

all the days (to come).

41-43.  MOSES ASSIGNS THREE CITIES OF REFUGE EAST OF JORDAN

The presence of these verses between the First and Second Discourses of Moses offers considerable difficulty, except on the interpretation of Luzzatto; I,5.  Having finished the exposition of the words, it is eleven day’s journey from Horeb unto Kadesh-barnea by the way of Mount Seir (I,2), Moses records that he thereupon set aside the three Cities of Refuge, thus completing the establishment of a portion of Israel on the east of Jordan.

41 Then Moshe set apart three towns in (the country) across the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun,

separated.  Set apart.

three Cities.  There were to be six Cities of Refuge (see Num. XXXV,9), three on each side of the Jordan.  The purpose of these cities is expounded in Chap. XIX.

42 for fleeing to (for) the (accidental) murderer who murders his neighbor with no forethought, where he did not bear-hatred toward him from yesterday and the day-before, 

and so can flee to one of these towns and stay-alive:

unawares.  Better, unintentionally.

43 Betzer in the wilderness of the plateau land, belonging to the Re’uvenites,

Ra’mot in Gil’ad, belonging to the Gadites, 

and Golan in Bashan, belonging to the Menashites.

Bezer. Mentioned in Josh. XX,8.

Ramoth in Gilead. Usually identified with the modern es-Salt; Josh. I,38.

Golan.  Josephus mentions a district called Gaulanitis east of Lake Tiberias, now named Jaulan, 17 miles east of the Lake.