Deuteronomy: Chapters 21 to 25

Last time we plowed through some of the Laws of Moses.  More of that here.

CHAPTER 21

You get a series of laws in this chapter. Most of them are things we’ve seen already, so yeah, it gets a bit old. 

A few things of note – apparently, polygamy is A-OK for the ancient Hebrew.  I knew it happened, but this Biblical verse includes laws for guys with more than one wife.  It says you give your main blessing to your first-born son, even if he wasn’t born to your favorite wife.  By those standards, the patriarchs don’t look so good, but oh well. 

           

Speaking of sons, if you have one that is a no-good malcontent, bring him to the elders so he can be stoned to death.  That’s some tough love right there.

CHAPTER 22

There is an entire section here just called “various precepts.”  It’s a grab bag of rules.  I get a kick out of that.  Let’s stop and think for a second.  Deuteronomy is essentially the last testament of Moses.  These are supposedly a series of speeches Moses himself is giving to the Israelis just before entering Canaan. 

The best modern analogy would be the farewell addresses of some of our leading presidents – Washington, Jackson, Eisenhower had among the more famous.  Those guys gave talks that found a few big points and stuck to them.  Beware the spirit of party and foreign entanglements.  Beware banks and big government.  Beware the military industrial complex.  That’s what they did.  Here?  Moses is so getting lost in the weeds with things.  (And wouldn’t you know? They were entirely statements that had resonance of some sort to the controversies of the reign of King Josiah!  It’s like it was written specifically with that time in mind!  Hence the "pious fraud" label).

Some of the laws are interesting.  Men should stick to men’s clothing and women should stick to women’s clothing.  Cross-dressing? “An abomination to the LORD, your God.” 

There’s a proto-version of homeowners insurance, or rather, responsibility.  When you build your roof, put a ledge so no one falls off.  If they do, you’re to blame.  So what happens in your house falls on your head, unless you’ve taken steps against it.

There is one part that reads like something allegorical: “If while walking along, you come across a bird’s nest with young birds or eggs in it, in any tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting on them, you shall not take away the mother bird along with her brood.”  This reads like one of those lines that could become the basis for entire sections of rabbinical law – heck, maybe it is for all I know. 

Speaking of allegorical laws, shortly after that, you’re told – for the second time in the Bible – not to mix.  Don’t plant two types of seed, don’t plow with an ox and donkey together, and don’t wear clothing made of wood and linen.  I don’t quite get it, but it sounds interesting. 

Right after that, the chapter veers into marriage.  Again, I’m trying to imagine this speech actually being given and people listening.  At a certain point, they had to wonder if he was ever going to shut up.  The constant rambling couldn’t have helped.  This speech begins at the end of Chapter 4 and goes through end of Chapter 28.  It clocks in at 25 pages in my Bible.  That’s about as long as the entire reign of King David.  So imagine this as the Bible claims it – a big long speech that covers all of these topics.  Man, it wouldn’t be very effective.  There’s too much detail and too little focus. 

CHAPTER 23

More random laws.  At this point, Moses has really lost whatever thread he had going.  Early on this chapter had a nice head of steam going for it, but somewhere in the late teens, it began devolving into a “and the kitchen sink” farewell address.  Moses has gone on this far, may as well say every little dang detail. 

But some of the laws are fun.  There are certain stipulations as to who can “come into the Assembly of God.”  OK – what does that phrase mean exactly?  Does it mean just the priesthood?  I think so, but if it means anything more, it’s rather excessive.  You see, this opening section bans people from joining in the Assembly of God.  Banned?  Guys whose balls have been crushed or penis cut off.  Yeah, this Bible uses the word “penis” – Deuteronomy, Chapter 23, verse 2.  Also, no bastard children.  In fact, anyone produced from an “illicit union” may join for 10 generations.  Yeah, like bookkeeping was really good enough to pay attention to that. 

Then you get rules for the army.  In order to keep things clean with the Lord, any soldier who has a “nocturnal emission” has to sty outside the camp until the next nightfall. You must be holy to fight in this army. It actually says “nocturnal emission” so do they just mean wet dream?  That’s what the phrase typically means nowadays. 

CHAPTER 24

We go back to marriage in this chapter.  Apparently, divorce was acceptable under Hebrew law. 

Here’s an intriguing one – if you loan some money to a neighbor, you shall not enter his house to receive his pledge, but wait outside until the person comes out to you.  That’s an odd little one.  I wonder what the rationale is?  My best guess – it’s a show of respect.  Barging into someone’s house to make them give a pledge to you is too insulting, too demeaning.  A man should at least be the king of his own castle, so stay outside when this happens.  In fact, right after this little section, Moses admonishes people to not exploit the poor and needy. 

There are other likable laws in this chapter.  For example – you shouldn’t execute parents for the crimes of their children.  That sounds like a nice idea.  My hunch – this was put in here because sometimes people would do that as a form of rough street justice.  It’s just my hunch, but then again, if it wasn’t an issue, why include it in the first place?  There must’ve been some of this going on somewhere.

The chapter ends on a note of being nice to the unprotected – do that because you were slaves in Egypt and know what it’s like to be on bottom.  This concern for the poor and unprotected is a nice theme. 

Really, Chapter 24 of Deuteronomy is an easy chapter to root for.  Hurrah for Deuteronomy 24!

CHAPTER 25

This has some more interesting laws in the increasingly completely disorganized speech by Moses.  One bit apparently has served as the basis for much religious thought: “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out grain.” Far from being just about animal rights, this is taken as a sign that laborers have the right to live on the fruits of their own labor.  That’s the theory of no less an expert than St. Paul.  Hey, religion and the International Workers of the World come together in this passage!

Right after that, we come to a passage on marriage laws.  Man, if the D author is going to talk about marriage so much, could he – I dunno – maybe put them all in the same part together?  At least Leviticus was well organized.  This is at least the third time in the last 4-5 chapters marriage has come up, and it’s just spliced in randomly.  Just bizarre.

Anyhow, the marriage laws here on the face of it are just weird, but really are of note.  They not only look back to something that’s happened in the Bible, but forecast something coming up.  The rule – if a man dies and leaves a widow, it’s the responsibility of any younger brothers to marry her.  That way, you keep it in the family.  But if the younger brother refuses, then the elders shall strip him of his sandal and denounced.  And “his name shall be called in Israel `the house of the man stripped of his sandal.’”

Well, that’s an … odd one.  But here’s the thing – it relates back to the story of Judah.  Chapter 38 of Genesis is just character assassination on Judah, in which a woman marries his eldest son and dies, then she marries the second son and dies, and finally Judah doesn’t want her marrying the third son and so tells her to go home until the third son is old enough.  (Then Judah mistakes her for a prostitute, sleeps with her, and impregnates her – like I said, Judah comes off poorly there).  But there you see the notion that a younger brother should marry the widow of his late elder brother.

But more than that, this odd talk of the man stripped of his sandal comes up again.  It’s in the Book of Ruth.  So stay tuned – it’ll happen.

So why put this in Deuteronomy?  My take is simple – it was an actual social custom and the D author approved of it, so he put it in.  And there you go.  Why would he like it?  It keeps the women in the family. They’ll stick around, and preserve the racial integrity of the Hebrew people.

But I amuse myself imaging this as part of an actual, never ending, forever rambling speech by Moses.  Gee, now he’s talking about calling guys unshoed?  Will this speech ever end?  There’s some odd observational comedy if you think of this chapter from the point of view of an average Israeli bored to death by the ramblings and excessive detail of Moses giving his last speech.  People find it boring enough to read – can you image it as a long speech? 

There are a couple other rules after that and the theme is: act fairly.  We’re specifically told that if two guys are fighting, you are not to grab the other guy’s balls.  So that tactic of dirty fighting is officially an abomination.  In fact, if someone does that, his hand should be cut off.  Then we’re told you shouldn’t have two sets of weights.  So engage in fair business dealings with each other. 

A nice, if rambling, series of chapters ends on a dark note, though.  The Amalek people shall be blotting out.  They are cursed.  

EDITED to add: here is a link to the next item: Deuteronomy Chapters 26 to 30.