1:43-45 - So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the Lord's command and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country. The Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you; they chased you like a swarm of bees and beat you down1 from Seir all the way to Hormah. You came back and wept before the Lord, but he paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you.

Moses' report, "So I told you," was unnecessary. But the chain of expressions, "But Yahweh said to me, 'Tell them . . .'" and "So I told you" highlights the point of obedience that is the theme of this unit. Unlike them, Moses obeyed. Moses' courage in telling them, even if he had Yahweh's imprimateur, should not be under-estimated. A mob on the edge of hysteria has never made an understanding and reasonable audience. "Tell them . . . so I told you" serves also pleonastically to underline the recalcitrance of GenA's subsequent behaviour, which is expressed in four short consecutive clauses:

1. "You did not listen,"

2. "You rebelled against Yahweh's command,"

3. "You acted in arrogance," [see notes below]

4. "You went up into the hill country."

Even for the Hebrews, for whom repetition in speech is a way of life, this is an ear-ful.

Echoing its use in vv19-33, the verb "go up" ('ala) is now re-employed four times to narrate the final lapse of GenA's slide into bereavement:

GenA : "we will go up . . ." v41a

Moses : "You thought it easy (wattahinu) to go up
into the hill country," v41b

Yahweh : "Do not go up, for I will not be with you," v42

Moses : "You would not listen . . . you acted in
arrogance (wattazidu). You went up into the
hill country," v43.

The clause wattazidu, "you acted in arrogance," is difficult on translators since the Hebrew verb has no equivalent in English.2 As a result it is always translated either by an adjective, adverb, or an adjectival or adverbial phrase (e.g., NIV: "in your arrogance," or NRS: "presumptuously"). We might translate it, un-grammatically, "you hubriated" or "you arroganced." Here it is employed in a word-play with wattahinu, "you thought it easy" (v41b), together with the repetition of "go/went up into the hill country," to underscore Moses' contempt for GenA's insolence:

You wattahinu (you arroganced) to go up into the hill country, v41.

You wattazidu (you shallow-minded) . . . and you went up into the hill country, v43.

The result of GenA's vastly misguided adventure into the hill country was total humiliation at the hands of the Amorites, a grand fulfilment of Yahweh's warning that they would be defeated, the depth of its tragedy captured in the scene of fully-armed men being pursued by a swamp of bees and crushed like wheat in a mortar.1 The course of the route, from the hill country of the Promised Land through to Seir and Hormah, is highly compressed; anyone not already familiar with the event will find it impossible to retrace it. The task is not helped by the notoriously broad semantic range of the prepositions used.

They came back and wept before Yahweh. Yahweh's disregard for their grief, expressed by the pleonastic parallelism "He paid not attention . . . He turned a deaf ear" (v45) seals Yahweh's resolve about them. They ignored Yahweh when He, in His love for them, most cared to be listened to. Now He ignores them when they care most to be listened to. They had driven Yahweh over the edge of pardon.

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