It is a cliché that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Cliché it may be, but it is a hard truth we too often forget. Moses has led the Israelite for the last forty years. He knows what they are like; he has seen the best in them and the worst. Forty years earlier he had stood on the edge of the Promised Land at Kadesh Barnea with those whom he had led out of Egypt, on the eve of fulfilling God's gift of the land to them. Yet here he is, with GenB on the plains of Moab, on the edge of the Promised Land once again, on another eve of fulfilling God's gift of the land. Except for Caleb and Joshua, none of those who once stood with him at Kadesh Barnea are now with him. They have all died for their rebellion, for their refusal to trust Yahweh to do for them what was needed to conquer and possess the Promised Land. With only a few short months left to spend with this new generation of Israelites, GenB, he does not want them to forget the terrible peril of unbelief. So, in this first part of his speech, he walks them through that journey once more, the journey that their parents had walked into loss and death, hoping that they will understand and learn from their history.
The story is told through five vignettes:
1. The Call to Faith - to See as Yahweh Sees, 1:6-8.
2. The Call to Communal Responsibility - to Judge as Yahweh Judges, 1:9-18.
3. The Great Reversal at Kadesh-Barnea, 1:19-33.
4. Yahweh's Judgment on the Past Generation, 1:34-40.
5. Concluding Note on the Past Generation, 1:41-2:1.
The narrator highlights his central theme of loss—of the complete reversal of Israels fortune—in the several ways this section is framed and put together. This can be observed:
1) He frames this narrative in a parabola:
A. Israel is commanded to advance into the hill-country
of the Amorites, vv.6-8.
B. The good idea to appoint wise, perceptive, and
respected men as leaders, vv9-18.
C. The rebellion at Kadesh-Barnea, vv19-33.
B'. The evil generation who would not see the good land,
while Joshua will cause the children who do not yet
know good from evil to possess the land, vv34-40.
A'. Israel was routed from the hill-country by the
Amorites, and turned back in the direction they had
come, v41-2:1.
Clearly discernible in this portrayal is the rapid shift from the opening note of hope and anticipation (it was time to advance into the promised land, 1:6) to the cry of despair ("where can we go?" 1:28), to the concluding note of abject failure when Israel was turned back towards the desert in the direction of the Reed Sea from whence they had come (2:1).
2) He makes creative use of the adjective 'good' (tob) to move the narrative forward, leading from the good proposal to lighten Moses's burden to its dramatic pairing with the adjective "evil" (ra') at the critical point of divine decision about those who rebelled against him:
You answered me, "What you propose to do [to share in the burden of caring for the people] is good (v14)
The idea [to send scouts to reconnoiter the land]
seems good to me, so I selected . . . (v23)
It is a good land that Yahweh our God is giving us (v25)
Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land (v35)
your children who do not yet know good from evil — they shall enter the land (v39)
3) He also makes creative use of the verb "see" (ra'a) to move the narrative forward from hope and anticipation to doubt and, despite Moses' encouragement to trust, to censure and the final declaration of deprivement:
Hope & Anticipation
"See, I have given you this land. Go in
and take possession" (v8)>
"Then we set out . . . through all that vast
>and dreadful desert that you have seen" (v19)
"See, Yahweh your God has given you the
>land, Go up and take possession" (v21)
Doubt
"Where can we go? . . . 'we even saw
the Anakites there" (v28)
Encouragement
"Do not be terrified . . . you saw how
Yahweh your God carried you, as a father
carries his son" (v31)
Censure
"In spite of this you did not trust Yahweh
your God who went ahead of you . . . to
show (i.e., cause one to see) you the way
you should go" (v33)
Deprievement
"Not a man of this evil generation shall
see the good land I swore to give your
forefathers, except Caleb . . . he will
see it" (vv35-36)
4) He makes creative use of the parallel verb-pair pana . . . nasa, which is variously translated in English as "break camp and set out" or "turn around and set out":
Hope & Anticipation
"Break camp and set out for the hill-country
of the Amorites" (v7)
Rejection
"But as for you, turn around and set out
towards the desert along the route to the
Red Sea" (v40)
Deprivation
"Then we turn back and set out towards
the desert" (2:1)
This terse excursion into the history of the failure of the past generation, right at the beginning of his speech to GenB, sets the tenor and texture for the warning against disobedience that is such a passionate cause of concern that Moses has for his flock. Now the narrator has made it his concern and understanding of what it means to live as God's people in the Promised Land.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, rev., 2021