Sedra 4, Re'eh: Deuteronomy 11:26 – 16:17
Deuteronomy 11 (cont)
11:26 RE'EH ANOCHI NOTEN LIPHNEYCHEM HAYOM BERACHAH U KELALAH
רְאֵה אָנֹכִי נֹתֵן לִפְנֵיכֶם הַיּוֹם בְּרָכָה וּקְלָלָה
KJ: Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
BN (BibleNet translation): Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.
Strange, because he told us, about ten and a half chapters ago, that he was going to "set before you" the law on "this day", and from the length of the speech so far it must already be at least two tomorrows after that. And still no law, because now he is going to present "a blessing" and "a curse" instead - not that he hasn't done plenty of both of them already, the latter in particular, through these ten and a half chapters. And as to "this day"; they will turn out to be a full set of blessings and curses, and not developed today at all, but days and days later, through the closing chapters of this book.
BN (BibleNet translation): Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.
Strange, because he told us, about ten and a half chapters ago, that he was going to "set before you" the law on "this day", and from the length of the speech so far it must already be at least two tomorrows after that. And still no law, because now he is going to present "a blessing" and "a curse" instead - not that he hasn't done plenty of both of them already, the latter in particular, through these ten and a half chapters. And as to "this day"; they will turn out to be a full set of blessings and curses, and not developed today at all, but days and days later, through the closing chapters of this book.
11:27 ET HA BERACHAH ASHER TISHME'U EL MITSVOT YHVH ELOHEYCHEM ASHER ANOCHI METSAVEH ET'CHEM HAYOM
אֶת הַבְּרָכָה אֲשֶׁר תִּשְׁמְעוּ אֶל מִצְוֹת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוֶּה אֶתְכֶם הַיּוֹם
BN: The blessing: if you will hearken to the instructions of YHVH your god, which I am giving you today...
11:28 VE HA KLALAH IM LO TISHME'U EL MITSVOT YHVH ELOHEYCHEM VE SARTEM MIN HA DERECH ASHER ANOCHI METSAVEH ET'CHEM HAYOM LALECHET ACHAREY ELOHIM ACHERIM ASHER LO YEDATEM
וְהַקְּלָלָה אִם לֹא תִשְׁמְעוּ אֶל מִצְוֹת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם וְסַרְתֶּם מִן הַדֶּרֶךְ אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוֶּה אֶתְכֶם הַיּוֹם לָלֶכֶת אַחֲרֵי אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים אֲשֶׁר לֹא יְדַעְתֶּם
KJ: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
BN: And the curse, if you will not obey the instructions of YHVH your god, but turn aside from the way that I am instructing you today, to go after other gods, whom you have not known.
ELOHIM ACHERIM: see my note at Deuteronomy 11:16.
samech break
11:29 VE HAYAH KI YEVIY'ACHA YHVH ELOHEYCHA EL HA ARETS ASHER ATAH VAH SHAMAH LE RISHTAH VE NATATAH ET HA BERACHAH AL HAR GERIZIM VE ET HA KLALAL AL HA EYVAL
KJ: And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.
BN: And it shall come to pass, when YHVH your god brings you into the land to which you are going to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Eyval.
GERIZIM: Gerizim looms above the city of Shechem, today's Nablus, and is a place which Egyptian Mosheh would not have known from any personal experience; it is also the best part of a hundred miles north of Chevron (Hebron), which was the most northerly point reached by the spies (Numbers 13). So we can assume that this must have been a later text, attributed to, but not actually by, Mosheh.
11:29 VE HAYAH KI YEVIY'ACHA YHVH ELOHEYCHA EL HA ARETS ASHER ATAH VAH SHAMAH LE RISHTAH VE NATATAH ET HA BERACHAH AL HAR GERIZIM VE ET HA KLALAL AL HA EYVAL
וְהָיָה כִּי יְבִיאֲךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בָא שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ וְנָתַתָּה אֶת הַבְּרָכָה עַל הַר גְּרִזִים וְאֶת הַקְּלָלָה עַל הַר עֵיבָל
BN: And it shall come to pass, when YHVH your god brings you into the land to which you are going to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Eyval.
GERIZIM: Gerizim looms above the city of Shechem, today's Nablus, and is a place which Egyptian Mosheh would not have known from any personal experience; it is also the best part of a hundred miles north of Chevron (Hebron), which was the most northerly point reached by the spies (Numbers 13). So we can assume that this must have been a later text, attributed to, but not actually by, Mosheh.
And given the physical location of these mountains, the political changes in the meanwhile (Shechem was in the northern kingdom, after the civil war that followed Shelomoh's death), the significance of the two mountains in the cult of the Samaritans later on, and the nature of the ritual, can we deduce that this must have been a Samaritan custom, and not a Yehudan one; and that, perhaps, this is the starting-point for evidence that Deuteronomy was the Samaritan version of the law, and this is why it differs from the Exodus-Numbers-Leviticus version? And if it was, then we can set an earliest possible date for it at around 700 BCE, if it was those who came with Salman-Ezer or Sennacherib, or 580 BCE, if it was those who were forced to move here by Nebuchadnezzar.
EYVAL: click on the name for a map showing the location of both mountains. It may also be worth pursuing the possibility that the Samaritans did not bring it with them from Padan Aram, but took it over from people already living there; and if so, look again at the Mo-Avi myth of Bil'am, which likewise involved curses and blessings, and took place in much the same geographical area - see Numbers 22.
And then a third thought, because the ritual that will take place at Gerizim and Eyval seems to have been commonplace in the Arab world. Is there something of the same order, for example, in the running between two mountains, very much in search of a blessing, but feeling they have been cursed, in the tale of Hagar, or Hajira as she is called there, in the Qu'ran, running between Safa and Marwa, desperately seeking food and drink for Ismail - click here for the story?
And if that is correct, can we then go to Yeru-Shala'im, and take another look at the two great pillars at the entrance to the Temple, which bear the names Bo'az and Yachin? Why those names? Bo'az was on the right and was understood to represent the waxing sun and growth; Yachin was on the left and symbolised decay and the waning sun. Bo'az was linked to Mount Gerizim, Yachin to Mount Eyval.
11:30 HA LO HEMAH BE EVER HA YARDEN ACHAREY DERECH MEVO HA SHEMESH BE ERETS HA KENA'ANI HA YOSHEV BA ARAVAH MUL HA GIL-GAL ETSEL ELONEY MOREH
הֲלֹא הֵמָּה בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן אַחֲרֵי דֶּרֶךְ מְבוֹא הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ בְּאֶרֶץ הַכְּנַעֲנִי הַיֹּשֵׁב בָּעֲרָבָה מוּל הַגִּלְגָּל אֵצֶל אֵלוֹנֵי מֹרֶה
KJ: Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh?
BN: Are they not beyond the Yarden, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Kena'ani who dwell in the Aravah, over against Gil-Gal, beside the terebinths of Moreh?
HA LO: Note the grammatical form, the equivalent of "Est-ce que" in French; almost never (is that an overstatement? I believe I really do mean "never"?) used in Torah, but much used in Ezra and Nechem-Yah, who were of course of the time when these books were written down.
GIL-GAL: Is this yet another map-reference to add to the growing list of places which are named as Gil-Gal, or was there only one, and the texts are conflicted? The essay at the link says everything that needs saying, so I will simply link you, in addition, to Joshua 4:19, where we will begin to be given a detailed description of Yehoshu'a erecting the shrine at Gil-Gal - the further references in Joshua, and elsewhere in the Tanach, can be found here.
Given the nature of the shrine - which was a set of twelve stones in a circle, with a central sun-pillar, and in the larger shrines either 70 or 150 smaller stones adding an additional circular layer - it is entirely likely that there were many such places, and all given the same generic name, usually with a local name then added. Kadesh appears to have operated in much the same manner, as do the water-shrines, bearing the name Be'er. There are also very similar sites in various parts of western Europe, most especially those around Carnac in Britanny, and Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain.
11:31 KI ATEM OVRIM ET HA YARDEN LAVO LARESHET ET HA ARETS ASHER YHVH ELOHEYCHEM NOTEN LACHEM VIYRISHTEM OTAH VIYSHAVTEM BAH
KJ: For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein.
BN: For you are to cross the Yarden, to go in and take possession of the land which YHVH your god is giving you, and you shall possess it, and dwell in it.
Once again we have to remind ourselves of this oddity, that they have come from Mitsrayim (Egypt), but are entering Yisra-El from the east, across the River Yarden - just as the returnees from Babylonian captivity did, and presumably the reason why the story of the Exodus needed to be told this way.
11:32 U SHEMARTEM LA'ASOT ET KOL HA CHUKIM VE ET HA MISHPATIM ASHER ANOCHI NOTEN LIPHNEYCHEM HA YOM
KJ: And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.
BN: And you shall make sure you carry out all the statutes and the ordinances which I am setting before you this day.
And we have come to the end of the eleventh chapter, and still Mosheh is doing prologue, introduction, promising to give the law but not yet a single law given, unless we count the tefillin and mezuzah in the Shema as such.
11:31 KI ATEM OVRIM ET HA YARDEN LAVO LARESHET ET HA ARETS ASHER YHVH ELOHEYCHEM NOTEN LACHEM VIYRISHTEM OTAH VIYSHAVTEM BAH
כִּי אַתֶּם עֹבְרִים אֶת הַיַּרְדֵּן לָבֹא לָרֶשֶׁת אֶת הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם נֹתֵן לָכֶם וִירִשְׁתֶּם אֹתָהּ וִישַׁבְתֶּם בָּהּ
BN: For you are to cross the Yarden, to go in and take possession of the land which YHVH your god is giving you, and you shall possess it, and dwell in it.
Once again we have to remind ourselves of this oddity, that they have come from Mitsrayim (Egypt), but are entering Yisra-El from the east, across the River Yarden - just as the returnees from Babylonian captivity did, and presumably the reason why the story of the Exodus needed to be told this way.
11:32 U SHEMARTEM LA'ASOT ET KOL HA CHUKIM VE ET HA MISHPATIM ASHER ANOCHI NOTEN LIPHNEYCHEM HA YOM
וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם לַעֲשׂוֹת אֵת כָּל הַחֻקִּים וְאֶת הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי נֹתֵן לִפְנֵיכֶם הַיּוֹם
KJ: And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.
BN: And you shall make sure you carry out all the statutes and the ordinances which I am setting before you this day.
And we have come to the end of the eleventh chapter, and still Mosheh is doing prologue, introduction, promising to give the law but not yet a single law given, unless we count the tefillin and mezuzah in the Shema as such.
Deuteronomy 1 2 3a 3b 4 5 6 7a 7b 8 9 10 11a 11b 12 13 14 15 16a 16b 17 18 19 20 21a 21b 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29a 29b 30 31 32 33 34
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