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a Heb Salt Sea
b Syr: Heb lacks its
c Heb Salt Sea
34.1–15 The boundaries of the promised land given here are ideal and do not correspond to Israel’s actual boundaries at any time, especially in the case of the western border. They do, however, correspond to the territory “Canaan” as ruled by Egypt in the second half of the second millennium BCE. Cf. Josh 13–19; Ezek 47.13–20; 48.1–7, 23–29.
34.1–2 The “promised land” here is the land west of the Jordan only; see vv. 10–12; 32.22.
34.3 Wilderness of Zin. See 13.21, 26; 20.1.
34.4 Ascent of Akrabbim, “ascent of scorpions.” Site unknown. Kadesh-barnea. See 13.26. Hazar-addar. Cf. Hezron and Addar in Josh 15.3.
34.4–5 Azmon. Site unknown. The Wadi of Egypt is modern Wadi el-Arish, south of Gaza.
34.6–7 The Great Sea is the Mediterranean.
34.7–8 Mount Hor here cannot be the southern mountain where Aaron died (20.22–29). Lebo-hamath. See 13.21. Zedad, probably a site northeast of Damascus and east of Byblos.
34.9 Ziphron, Hazar-enan. Sites unknown.
34.10–11 Shepham, Riblah, Ain. Sites unknown. The sea of Chinnereth is the Sea of Galilee.
34.11–12 These verses exclude the Transjordanian holdings (see also vv. 13–15; 32.17, 22; 35.14).
34.13–15 See 32.33–42.
34.16–29 Other than Caleb and Joshua, these leaders have not been mentioned before. The tribes are listed south to north, except for Manasseh, which is listed before the more southern Ephraim because Manasseh was the firstborn (Gen 41.50–52).
34.17 Eleazar has replaced Aaron (20.22–29), and Joshua will replace Moses when the people cross over into Canaan (27.12–23).
NUMBERS 35
Cities for the Levites
1In the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance that they possess, towns for the Levites to live in; you shall also give to the Levites pasture lands surrounding the towns. 3The towns shall be theirs to live in, and their pasture lands shall be for their cattle, for their livestock, and for all their animals. 4The pasture lands of the towns, which you shall give to the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the town outward a thousand cubits all around. 5You shall measure, outside the town, for the east side two thousand cubits, for the south side two thousand cubits, for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, with the town in the middle; this shall belong to them as pasture land for their towns.
6The towns that you give to the Levites shall include the six cities of refuge, where you shall permit a slayer to flee, and in addition to them you shall give forty-two towns. 7The towns that you give to the Levites shall total forty-eight, with their pasture lands. 8And as for the towns that you shall give from the possession of the Israelites, from the larger tribes you shall take many, and from the smaller tribes you shall take few; each, in proportion to the inheritance that it obtains, shall give of its towns to the Levites.
Cities of Refuge
9The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 10Speak to the Israelites, and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 11then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, so that a slayer who kills a person without intent may flee there. 12The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, so that the slayer may not die until there is a trial before the congregation.
13The cities that you designate shall be six cities of refuge for you: 14you shall designate three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan, to be cities of refuge. 15These six cities shall serve as refuge for the Israelites, for the resident or transient alien among them, so that anyone who kills a person without intent may flee there.
Concerning Murder and Blood Revenge
16But anyone who strikes another with an iron object, and death ensues, is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death. 17Or anyone who strikes another with a stone in hand that could cause death, and death ensues, is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death. 18Or anyone who strikes another with a weapon of wood in hand that could cause death, and death ensues, is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death. 19The avenger of blood is the one who shall put the murderer to death; when they meet, the avenger of blood shall execute the sentence. 20Likewise, if someone pushes another from hatred, or hurls something at another, lying in wait, and death ensues,21or in enmity strikes another with the hand, and death ensues, then the one who struck the blow shall be put to death; that person is a murderer; the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death, when they meet.
22But if someone pushes another suddenly without enmity, or hurls any object without lying in wait, 23or, while handling any stone that could cause death, unintentionallya drops it on another and death ensues, though they were not enemies, and no harm was intended, 24then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood, in accordance with these ordinances; 25and the congregation shall rescue the slayer from the avenger of blood. Then the congregation shall send the slayer back to the original city of refuge. The slayer shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil. 26But if the slayer shall at any time go outside the bounds of the original city of refuge, 27and is found by the avenger of blood outside the bounds of the city of refuge, and is killed by the avenger, no bloodguilt shall be incurred. 28For the slayer must remain in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest; but after the death of the high priest the slayer may return home.
29These things shall be a statute and ordinance for you throughout your generations wherever you live.
30If anyone kills another, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses; but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of a single witness. 31Moreover you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer who is subject to the death penalty; a murderer must be put to death. 32Nor shall you accept ransom for one who has fled to a city of refuge, enabling the fugitive to return to live in the land before the death of the high priest. 33You shall not pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. 34You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the Israelites.
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a Heb without seeing
35.1–8 See also Josh 21; 1 Chr 6.54–81. The Levites were not allotted land as the other tribes were (see 18.20–24).
35.4–5 A thousand cubits, two thousand cubits, about 500 yards, 1, 000 yards.
35.6 Cities of refuge. See 35.9–15.
35.8 See 26.52–56.
35.9–15 Cities of refuge were necessary to protect a killer from blood vengeance before a trial could be held; see Ex 21.12–14; Deut 4.41–43; 19.1–13; Josh 20.
35.12 On the avenger, see the order of those who “redeem” (the same Hebrew verb) in Lev 25.25, 47–49 (“uncle” here is father’s brother); see also Num 5.8.
35.14 The area beyond the Jordan is Transjordan, the term beyond betraying the point of view of a narrator from the west.
35.16–34 The distinction is made between murder (including negligence resulting in death) and unintentional killing; see also Ex 21.13–14, but cf. Ex 21.20–21; Deut 4.42; 19.4–6.
35.19, 21 The execution of the murderer is by the avenger; see v. 12.
35.20–23 The concern with whether there was hatred or enmity between the killer and victim helps to establish intention; see also Deut 4.42; 19.4; Josh 20.3–5.
35.25–28 The blood of the victim pollutes the land (v. 33), and that pollution, in the case of unintentional killing, is only masked by the exile of the killer to a city of refuge until the high priest’s death atones for the victim’s blood; see also Josh 20.6. If the killer steps outside the city of
refuge, the pollution is released again and the avenger is justified in destroying the cause of pollution; cf. 2 Sam 19.18–23; 1 Kings 2.36–46.
35.33 Pollutes the land. See 35.25–28; Gen 4.10–11.
35.34 The land is holy because the Lord dwells there. See 5.1–4.
NUMBERS 36
Marriage of Female Heirs
1The heads of the ancestral houses of the clans of the descendants of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, of the Josephite clans, came forward and spoke in the presence of Moses and the leaders, the heads of the ancestral houses of the Israelites; 2they said, “The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the Israelites; and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. 3But if they are married into another Israelite tribe, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our ancestors and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so it will be taken away from the allotted portion of our inheritance. 4And when the jubilee of the Israelites comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they have married; and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe.”
5Then Moses commanded the Israelites according to the word of the LORD, saying, “The descendants of the tribe of Joseph are right in what they are saying. 6This is what the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, ‘Let them marry whom they think best; only it must be into a clan of their father’s tribe that they are married, 7so that no inheritance of the Israelites shall be transferred from one tribe to another; for all Israelites shall retain the inheritance of their ancestral tribes. 8Every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the Israelites shall marry one from the clan of her father’s tribe, so that all Israelites may continue to possess their ancestral inheritance. 9No inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another; for each of the tribes of the Israelites shall retain its own inheritance.’”
10The daughters of Zelophehad did as the LORD had commanded Moses. 11Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, married sons of their father’s brothers. 12They were married into the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s clan.
13These are the commandments and the ordinances that the LORD commanded through Moses to the Israelites in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
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36.1–12 See 27.1–11.
36.1 See 27.1.
36.2 Brother. See 25.6; 27.4.
36.3 The complaint in this verse assumes that a wife’s property became her husband’s upon marriage. In such a case, the solution in 27.7–8 that daughters could inherit might mean that ancestral land would be moved from one tribe to another, a possibility not considered in framing that earlier solution and one to be avoided (see 27.1–11).
36.4 On the jubilee of the Israelites, see Lev 25.8–55; 27.16–25. Since the land was not sold, even the jubilee regulations would not bring it back to its original owners; cf. Lev 25.13–17, 28, 31, 33.
36.6–9 A regulation that women who inherit must marry within a specific family group (or else forfeit their property) is common among societies with patrilineal inheritance laws, including other ancient Near Eastern societies.
36.13 See 22.1; 26.3, 63; 33.48–50; 35.1; Deut 34.1, 8.
DEUTERONOMY
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | d | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 |
Name and Canonical Significance
DEUTERONOMY IS THE FIFTH BOOK of the Bible and the last of those traditionally ascribed to Moses comprising the canonical division Torah, or Pentateuch. The name, which reflects the Greek designation deuteronomion (meaning “second law–giving”), understands the book to be an account of Moses’ work as legislator, supplementing and completing the revelation of covenantal law that began at Mount Horeb a generation before (see 1.3; 4.13–14; 5:22–6.3). A similar understanding of the book as an authoritative reprise and amplification of divine legislation is represented by the Hebrew name Mishneh Torah. In Jewish tradition the book is also and more generally known by its opening phrase, ’elleh haddevarim (“These are the words”), frequently shortened to devarim (“[Book of] Words”).
Deuteronomy is the only part of the Pentateuch to identify itself explicitly and repeatedly as a record of Mosaic torah (usually translated “law” in the NRSV): 1.5; 4.8, 44; 17.18–19; 27.3, 8, 26; 28.58, 61; 29.21; 30.10; 31.9, 11, 12, 24, 26; 32.46. Torah in these contexts may be characterized as the inspired, comprehensive “polity” (or “constitution”) that Moses, unable himself to lead Israel across the Jordan, enacts for the people as a normative guide to their corporate existence in the national homeland they are about to occupy. In short, this authoritative torah is a virtual surrogate for Moses himself as the preeminent mediator of the divine word to Israel (see 5.4–5, 23–31; 34.10; cf. Num 12.6–8). From this perspective Deuteronomy is not merely a homiletical appendix to the pentateuchal narrative of Israel’s prehistory and political formation under the leadership of Moses. Rather, as Moses’ legacy par excellence Deuteronomy is the interpretative key to the Pentateuch understood as a whole to preserve the abiding revelation of God’s will for the ongoing life of the covenant people.
In similar fashion Deuteronomy provides the crucial point of reference for an understanding of the canonical unity of the following collection of the Prophets (Hebrew Nevi’im) in Jew ish scripture. Significantly, affirmations of the Mosaic torah in its characteristically Deuteronomic form bracket the collection as a whole (see Josh 1.7–8; Mal 3.22). Deuteronomic influence and perspectives are especially evident in the Former Prophets, consisting of the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings (see, e.g., Josh 1.1–9; 23–24; Judg 2.11–
23; 1 Sam 7.3–14; 12.1–25; 2 Sam 7.1–29; 1 Kings 9.1–9; 11.1–13, 29–39; 14.1–16; 2 Kings 17.7–23; 21.1–23.27). For this reason these books are also known as the Deuteronomistic History in contemporary biblical scholarship. Many believe that Deuteronomy at one stage during its literary formation was an integral part of this national history, before it was detached and incorporated into the Pentateuch. In its dual character, both remembering Israel’s past and preparing for its future, the book occupies a pivotal position, both literarily and theologically, in the canons of Jewish and Christian scriptures (see, e.g., “the law of Moses and the prophets,” Acts 28.23).
Literary Character, Structure, and Principal Contents
DEUTERONOMY IS CAST in the form of a series of testamentary speeches and acts of Moses. Four editorial prefaces or superscriptions (1.1–5; 4.44–49; 29.1; 33.1) announce the coordinated segments of the work and describe the particular character and content of each major part. The first part (1.1–4.43) consists chiefly of Mosaic memoirs on Israel’s prolonged journey from Horeb/Sinai to the plains of Moab in Transjordan (1.6–3.29), followed by a hortatory discourse on Israel’s destiny as God’s people (4.1–40) and a brief narrative appendix (4.41–43). The second and central part of the book (4.44–28.68) publishes the covenantal torah, introducing and systematically articulating the divinely authorized “polity” that Israel must implement in order to secure its collective political existence as the people of God. This central section has three major subdivisions: a review and exposition of the basic terms of the Horeb covenant (5.1–11.30); promulgation of the complementary statutory rulings (11.31–26.15); and a collection of rites of covenantal ratification and sanction (26.16–28.68). The third part of the book (29.1–32.52) describes another, supplementary covenant that the Lord charged Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab. This covenant stresses the social and multigenerational inclusiveness of Israel as well as responsibilities of its individual citizens. It includes reports of the commissioning of Joshua as Moses’ successor and of the written consignment of the torah, and it end
s with the recitation of Moses’ eloquent “song” of witness to Israel’s future generations. The fourth and final part of the book (33.1–34.12) contains Moses’ testamentary blessings of the Israelite tribes and an account of his death and burial, with a concluding epitaph. Maintenance of the covenant relationship between Israel and its divine sovereign through the rule of faith and law within the community is thus the principal concern of Deuteronomy.
Sources and History of Composition
ALTHOUGH DEUTERONOMY EXHIBITS a remarkable coherence in comparison with the preceding books of the Pentateuch, it cannot be considered a unitary literary product. The internal evidence of the book indicates several stages of growth and editing. Among the sources used in composition are earlier pentateuchal narrative traditions, the Decalogue (which appears in a form different from that of Ex 20), legislation in the “Book of the Covenant” (Ex 20–23) together with the supplement in Ex 33–34, collections of blessings and curses, and the poems in chs. 32–33. Although some of the antecedent traditions may be older, the major stages in the compositional history of the book can with some confidence be dated to the two centuries between the fall of Samaria (721 BCE) and the beginning of the Judean restoration (ca. 535 BCE) after the exile to Babylonia. Since the early nineteenth century, critical scholarship has built a convincing case for relating at least the central portion of the book to the document recovered from the Jerusalem temple archives during the reign of King Josiah (621 BCE). Some of the characteristic provisions of the polity bear a close correspondence to reforms attributed to that king (see 2 Kings 22–23), who seems to have renewed the efforts of King Hezekiah a century earlier (see 2 Kings 18.1–7; 2 Chr 29–31). Yet the received form of book points to an exilic set ting—when the older Mosaic polity may have been set within an expanded frame of Moses’ valedictory addresses to Israel. Authors must be sought among those who bore particular responsibility for the transmission, interpretation, and implementation of the Mosaic legacy of covenantal torah. Although reasonable arguments have been set forth on behalf of royal scribes, prophets, and tribal elders, most likely are those identified in the book itself as “levitical priests,” whose functions included judicial decision making and instruction as well as officiating in worship (see esp. 7.8–13; 27.9–10; 31.9–13; 33.8–11). [S. DEAN MCBRIDE JR.]
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