Temple Beth-El, Torah Study Deuteronomy 29:13-19, July 16th, 2016

Verse 14

Alter: but with him who is here standing with us this day...and with him who is not here with us this day. This idea is paramount for the whole theological-historical project of the Book of Deuteronomy. The awesome covenant, evoked through Moses's strong rhetoric, whereby Israel binds itself to God, is a timeless model, to be reenacted scrupulously by all future generations. The force of the idea is nicely caught by the rabbinic notion that all unborn generations were already standing here at Sinai.

Fox: our God. Some ancient versions read "your God" here.

JPS:

13-14: The covenant binds even future generations; consequently, the punishment for infraction of its terms extends to the third and fourth generation.

those who are not with us here this day. That is, future generations. The reference cannot be to absentees, since verses 9-10 indicate that all are present. According to Midrash Tanchuma, the phrase refers to those who were spiritually present: the souls of all future generations of Jews were present and bound themselves to God by this covenant. In any case, the point of the text is that the mutual commitments made here by God and Israel are binding for all future generations. Ancient Near Eastern treaties likewise stipulate that they are binding on the parties' descendants.

JPS: 15-20 Moses warns those who may harbor secret reservations about the covenant. Because Israel has not been sealed off from foreign influence, it has been exposed to other nations and their idolatry, and this may lead some to harbor thoughts of worshiping idols.

Verse 15

JPS: various other nations. Literally, "the other nations through which you passed." The reference is to the nations of Transjordan, particularly Moab, which exposed Israel to the cult of Baal Peor.

Alter: we passed...you passed. The Hebrew exercises considerable freedom in slipping from first person to second person, just as it does from Moses's discourse (the beginning of this entire speech) to God's discourse (e.g., verse 5, "so that you might know that I am the LORD your God").

Verse 16

JPS

--you have seen. Perhaps this is a veiled allusion to the Israelites having worshiped foreign gods in Egypt and at Peor. Or perhaps it means: you have seen how detestable and lifeless their idols are.

--detestable things. Hebrew shikkutsim, a disparaging term regularly used in the Bible for idols. It comes from the verb shakkets, "spurn," "reject as abominable" (7:26), which is commonly employed in connection with rejecting impure foods.

--fetishes. Hebrew gillulim is another derisory term for idols. It may be based on a noun gelal. An Aramaic form of this word is translated as "stela" in a bilingual Aramaic-Greek inscription from Syria. The vocalization gillulim, which seems to echo shikkutsim, gives the term its disparaging connotation. So, perhaps, does its similarity to gelalim, "pieces of excrement," which medieval Hebraists think is the source of the term.

Alter

--their abominations and their foulnesses. Deuteronomy, with its antipagan polemic, is rich in terms of invective for idols. The second word here, gilgulim, may derive from a term that means "stele," but Rashi and others, with some plausibility, link it to gelalim, "turds," and it is vocalized in the Masoretic text to mirror the vowels of shiqutsim, "abominations."

--wood and stone, silver and gold. As elsewhere, the Deuteronomist reduces the idols to their sheer materiality, turning them into fetishes.

Fox -- idol-clods. A derogatory term for pagan gods.

Verse 17

JPS

--Perchance there is. Hebrew pen yesh is better translated both times in the verse as "Beware in case there is..."

--some man or woman, or some clan or tribe. The concern to make the warning as comprehensive as possible is also found in other ancient treaties and oaths, such as a Greek oath that curses the violator "whether city, private man, or tribe." No violator(s) of any number can hope to escape punishment. Here the list begins with individuals because every single Israelite is entering the covenant individually.

--the gods of those nations. The fetishes mentioned in verse 16. In the Bible's view there is no substance to foreign gods beyond their images; hence, pagans worship the images themselves, which they wrongly think have power. Moses fears, however, that Israel's exposure to those images may have left some people with a temptation to worship them, as happened.

--a stock sprouting poison weed and wormwood. A person, clan, or tribe whose delusions would have bitter, deadly consequences. Hebrew ro'sh is poison, here a poisonous plant, often identified with hemlock, by which Socrates was put to death. La'anah is probably wormwood, a very bitter but nonpoisonous plant. These two plants serve as a metaphor for punishment.

Alter -- a root bearing fruit of hemlock and wormseed. The image may correspond to the idea in the next verse of an act of idolatry committed in the secrecy of the heart: buried roots bear poisonous fruit; the secret idolator will end by having a pernicious effect on all around him. The metaphor of poison and wormwood will come back in the Song of Moses.

Verse 18

JPS

--such a one. Such a man or woman, clan or tribe. In the rest of the chapter Moses refers to the culprit, variously, as one or the other of these, or as the entire land.

--fancy himself immune. Literally, "fancy himself blessed" instead of cursed as the sanction-imprecations provide. The culprit may delude himself, thinking that by remaining silent while others swear allegiance to the covenant he will be exempted from its consequences. This and the following clause could also be translated "bless himself in his heart, saying 'May I be safe...,'" meaning that he silently pronounces a blessing on himself as an antidote to the imprecations.

--be safe. Literally "have shalom," "safety, well-being." Shalom here has the sense of shalem, "complete, unimpaired," hence "well, safe."

--willful heart. The general meaning of "sherirut of the heart" is clear from the fact that it is sometimes parallel to "counsels" and "plans." More precise explanations have been suggested: "secret thought"; "sight," meaning, "I'll follow my own sights, do as I see fit", or "affirmation," or "stubbornness," of the heart. In the latter case, this clause represents Moses' unfavorable view of the culprit's intentions.

Friedman: oath. The word can mean either "oath" or "curse." Here it can refer to the covenant oath mentioned in verse 11 or to the covenant curses; or it can mean the two together, since the covenant oath implicitly invokes the curses on the one who takes it.

Alter: It will be well with me. Or: I shall have peace. That is, nothing will happen to me, despite my betrayal of the cult of YHWH.

...sweep away/annihilate the moist/wet/watered with the dry/parched...

--JPS: This difficult clause may reflect a lost idiom. It has called forth a host of interpretations. Most likely, the verb sefot (ruin) is from the root s-f-h, "sweep away." Many commentators consider "moist and dry" a merism denoting "everything" and take the clause as Moses' comment on the consequences of the sinner's delusion: it will sweep away everything, either of the sinner or of the entire nation. The terms could refer specifically to land, plants, or animals, meaning that the sinner's delusions will bring about a natural calamity that will sweep away not only what was parched or thirsty but even what was well watered. Others take "moist and dry" as referring to innocent and guilty people, perhaps inspired by Genesis 18:23 ("Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty?") and by Jeremiah's comparison of the righteous with a tree planted by water and the sinner with a bush in the desert. Another approach holds that this clause expresses the sinner's intention. To Saadia, for example, the sinner means, "I'll sweep away my thirst with moisture," that is, "I'll indulge my cravings."

--Friedman: Commentators and translators struggle with this phrase, which may have been an idiomatic expression whose context is no longer known. The answer may lie in the phenomenon that we have seen a number of times whereby expressions from Genesis recur here in Deuteronomy. The verb here ("annihilate" or "sweep away") occurs four times in the matter of Sodom and Gomorrah and in one other place in the Torah, the destruction of Korah and his group. In all five occurrences there is an issue of whether good people will be annihilated along with the bad. And they all involve fire coming from God and destroying the offenders. The meaning of this expression here, therefore, may be that as a strong fire burns up what is dry and evaporates what is wet (or as a forest fire destroys both the dry and fresh trees), so the obstinate person, or group in this case, may bring down the community with them. This understanding is reinforced by the fact that Sodom and Gomorrah are referred to just four verses later (29:22).

--Alter: This sounds very much like the citation of a proverbial saying, but lacking the original colloquial context, later readers have not been able to determine the precise reference. One often-repeated guess, citing the use of the same verb, "sweep away," in Abraham's bargaining with God over the survival of Sodom (Genesis 18), is that "the moist" are the innocent and "the parched" the wicked. The idea would then be that the behavior of the clandestine idolators will bring down destruction on others as well, good and bad alike. This interpretation, however, is by no means certain.

--Fox: This seems to be an idiom denoting total destruction.

Verse 19

JPS

--The LORD will never forgive him. Literally, "the LORD will never agree to forgive him," nothing he does will assuage God's anger.

--passion Hebrew kin'ah. This verse illustrates the Decalogue's warning the the LORD is an "impassioned God" in His reaction to the worship of other gods.

--every sanction recorded in this book. Such as those in Chapter 28.

--comes down upon him. Literally, "crouches, or reclines, upon him." Hebrew ravtsah refers to the stretching out of an animal and practically personifies the curse (28:2). A variant reading davkah, "clings to him" (used of diseases in 28:60), is reflected in the Septuagint, Targum Onkelos, and some of the Dead Sea scrolls. That reading may be due either to a scribal error or to an attempt at softening the animal imagery.

--blots out his name from under heaven. His fate will be the same as that which God threatened to impose on the worshipers of the golden calf (9:14) and which He commands Israel to impose on the Canaanites and the Amalekites (7:24; 25:19).

Alter: oath. The Hebrew term 'alah can mean either "solemn oath" or "imprecation." In this case, the first sense leads to the second: if Israel takes upon itself this oath and then betrays the conditions to which it has committed itself, it will be the target of a terrible imprecation.

Fox

--anger. Here, as usually in the Bible, the word literally means "nostrils."

--crouch upon him. That is, be an unshakable burden.