After the detour into the appointment of leaders to share Moses' burden of caring for the people, Moses picks up from where he left off at v8, and resumes his recall of the command to leave Horeb. The main thrust of his speech here is the reversal of GenA's fortune as a result of her unbelief in Yahweh. This is evident in the movement from the note of hope and anticipation that opens it—Israel is headed for the promised land (v19)—to its concluding note of reprimand—"you did not trust in Yahweh your God" (v32). This theme of reversal is, first, played out in the narrative in the concentric structure that binds the passage together:
A. As Yahweh our God commanded, we went (hlk) through that vast and dreadful wilderness that you have seen along the way (r' drk), v19
B. You have reached (b) the hill country of the Amorites, v20
C. See (r') Yahweh your God has set before you (lpny), v21a
D. Do not be afraid (tyr'). Do not be discouraged, v21c
E. . . . the route we will go up ('ilh) and the cities ('rym) we will come to, v22
F. the idea seemed good (twb) to me, v23
F'. . . . it is a good (twb) land, v25
E'. Where are we going to go up ('lh) to? . . . the cities ('rym) are large, v28
D'. Do not be terrified. Do not be afraid (tyr') of them, v29
C'. Yahweh your God is going before you (lpny) . . . there you saw (r') how . . . v30
B'. until you reached (b') this place, v31
A'. You did not trust in Yahweh your God—the one who is going (hlk) ahead of you . . . to show you the way (r' drk), v32f.
This section is additionally nuanced by a rich stock of verbs signifying motion—seventeen in fifteen verses. The dynamics of these verbs in the Hebrew text is difficult to render in English1. What can be said is that, in the unfolding of the events recalled in this section, their refusal to trust Yahweh meant that all the coming and going turned out to be nothing but futility and loss. Is that not so often the pattern of our life of faith as well?
If the structure above reveals anything that we need to take to heart, it is that we, like Israel, can come into the experiences of Yahweh's rich blessings (they, having been brought to the very lintel of the land He had promised, being shown the way into the land, with the riches of the land shown to them as witness of His truthfulness to His words, and yet, when it mattered most, for them turn disobedient) and still remain obstinate to our own ways, and miss out the best that God has for us.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, rev., 2021