CHAPTER 6
Really, this largely reads like the preface to a bigger
point coming up. People are told to
always love the Lord with all their heard and recite the commandments and tell
them to your children and write them on your doorposts. Keep the word of the Lord. (Sounds like there are some problems with
people doing this at the time D is writing, given how much he emphasizes this.
There is one intriguing portion. Moses tells the Hebrew that they’re going to a land with cities
that they didn’t build, with wells they didn’t dig, with vineyards they didn’t
plant, with wealth they didn’t create.
The point is – remember to pay homage to the Lord for giving you all of
this, but reading it, the Hebrew came off look a bunch of moochers. I kept thinking of the Romney campaign’s
favorite line from the 2012 campaign, “You didn’t build that.” Well, here people are being specifically
told they didn’t build that.
CHAPTER 7
This is a nasty, violent, and ruthless chapter. They’re going to take land from the
Canaanites and Moses is very clear throughout what that means. “Do not be gracious to them.” “You are not to look on them with
pity.” Kill them, keep killing them,
and don’t stop killing them until there is nothing left to kill. This is a much uglier and nastier version
of Moses. This is open genocide. I kept thinking back to reading Mein Kampf
and how Hitler keeps using words like merciless and ruthlessness and positive
things. You get the same thing here –
and with the same goal of genocide.
So what justifies this ruthless genocide?
Well, it’s because “You are a people holy to the Lord, your
God, the Lord your God, has chosen from all peoples on the face of the earth to
be a people specially his own.” I know
the concept of being a chosen people is implied throughout much of the previous
Torah, but I do believe this is the first time it’s explicitly laid out. They
are right to do this because they’re God’s people. As long as they act in the name of the Lord, they’re
awesome. This completely cuts against
the point of the 10 Commandment that the D author just had Moses extol. In the commandments, there are clear right
and wrong actions. Here? Seemingly any action is allowable, as long
as it’s the name of the Lord.
Wait – check that.
Not all actions are allowable.
You have to follow the Lord and not say his name in vain and observe the
Sabbath. The actions that reflect on
the Lord are the sacred ones. The ones
focusing on other people – like thou shalt not murder – those are the less
important ones. If you violate the
Sixth Commandment in the name of the First, it’s all good, apparently.
So why did God choose these people? Because he made a pact with their ancestors
– Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I must
say, this is looking like a really bad deal for the Lord at this point. He makes a pact with a few guys and is stuck
delivering their complaining, rebellious brood the land he said he’d given
them. Lucky him. But this is all the more reason why people
should worship God and all that.
Also, there is some memorable imagery here. I found the part about “God will send
hornets among them, until those who are left and those who are hiding from you
are destroyed.” That sounds painful. Hornet stung to death.
CHAPTER 8
Hey – there’s a famous phrase here! “It is not by bread alone that people
live.” Huh. It’s in reference to God giving them food in their 40 years
wandering.
Moses says they’ll be given really good land – he’s really
selling this point here, it’s like he’s a real estate agent for the Almighty –
but then cautions them. Look, when you
get there, don’t forget the Lord. Make
sure you always pay him homage.
And it’s things like this that make me think that this is a
created religion, not a received religion.
Which is to say, I’m a non-believer, not a believer. It just makes more sense that way. Look, if all the preceding really happened,
then why do the Hebrew struggle so much to observe the Lord properly for the
next several centuries? Seems like it
should’ve made a bigger impression on them.
But – there’s another way of looking at it. Maybe it started
off with a few details (like having unleavened bread and sacrificing their
first born animals) and a belief in a deity that oversaw them. Over time, as the past receded beyond memory
and into mist, the stories of what had once been were amplified into something
bigger – 10 plagues! A pillar of
fire! But the people would hear the
stories and maybe not be that observant, because the stories they heard cut
against lived practice. I don’t mean that they didn’t believe the stories, but
again, if you grow up in a culture where people occasionally peak at idols,
it’s easier to do it yourself than if no one did it.
By the time of Deuteronomy being written, folk belief and
priestly belief were really at loggerheads.
So the priests wrote this to bolster them. Eventually, the priests won out, because their version was
written down and as how Deuteronomy was written faded into mist, it gained an
extra aura that it didn’t have when it was the “lost” book just
“discovered.”
Upshot: the Hebrew became much more observant in the
centuries AFTER miracles happened. Or
supposedly happened.
At any rate, getting back to this chapter, the writer
clearly has problems with the way people act and doesn’t seem to think they
deserve the land, but it’s their land.
Like I said, there was a big disconnect between priestly and popular
belief. So it ends with a threat – do
as your told or you’ll be destroyed by God.
That’s one of those things likely added in after the exile began.
CHAPTER 9
Now we get a big reason why God wants the Hebrew to have the
Promised Land. It’s not that they are
so great. It’s not that they are so
pure and perfect. We’ve already seen
far too much evidence of that not being true.
No, they’re getting the land not because of their goodness
but because of the badness of the current occupants. It’s a negative achievement.
Man, they suck – so give it to those complainers following Moses around.
Much of the rest of the chapter is just recapping the back
half of Exodus. We get the mountain
(again, called Horeb, not Sinai), the calf, the broken commandments, the new
ones. We get it all again. We’re told Moses didn’t eat or drink his 40
days up there. Really? Is this new or did I miss it last time?
Also, Moses says after turning the calf to powder, it was
thrown down a hill. No – you mixed the
powder with water and made people drink it.
D author isn’t fully straight on his story here.
CHAPTER 10
More recapping. The tablets are put in the ark. God doesn’t kill everyone because of Moses. (Thanks, Moses!) There is some talk about the need to circumcise your heart –
follow the word of the Lord inside, not just outside. That will come in handy for Christianity, when they decide to do
away with ritual circumcision.
Also, a few chapters after some vigorously nasty and harsh
sections, you get the kindler, gentler side of God. Moses says that everyone should take care of orphans, give
justice to widows, and be kind to resident aliens. All these points have been said before, but the last one strikes
me differently in the context of Deuteronomy.
OK, so right after calling for genocide you’re calling for kindness to
others? Well, there is a distinction.
Kill ‘em all to take the land, but once it’s your land, treat others
well – just as you wished you’d been treated in Egypt.
EDITED to add link to the next part: Deuteronomy Chapters 11 to 15.
EDITED to add link to the next part: Deuteronomy Chapters 11 to 15.
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