4:19-20 - And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshipping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.
Next Moses warns Israel of the danger of being enticed into worshipping the heavenly hosts. Though the Old Testament contains no specific record of Israel's participation in astral cults until the time of the late monarchy,1 the allure posed naturally by the heavenly bodies is clearly hinted at by Job: "If I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendour, so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage, then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high" (Job 31:26-28).
The way the last part of v 19—"things that Yahweh your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven"—is phrased has suggest to some commentators that Yahweh had, by deliberate provision, apportioned the heavenly host to be worshipped by the nations.2 This is a indeed a theologically difficult idea if it is what is asserted. It is argued that an idea similar to this one occurs also in Moses' song in Deut.32:8-9, where Yahweh had assigned different "sons of God" over the different territories that he had allocated to the other nations. These "sons of God," it is contended, refers to different deities. The parallel, it is further argued, is strengthened by the fact that the words "apportioned" (chalaq) and "inheritance" (nachala ) found here and the next verse, occur also in Deut.32:8-9. These arguments, however, have their weaknesses, chief of which is that they require the adoption of a variant reading for the phrase, "sons of God" in 32:8, for which the manuscript support is weak. 3
The crux of the problem here has to do with the intent of the relative clause "which Yahweh your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven." The above interpretation assumes that the clause reads, "which Yahweh your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven for them to worship." That their veneration was Yahweh's intention in his allocation of the heavenly host, however, is not part of the text and has to be assumed, even if the context permits it.
Tigay has called attention to the symmetry between v19 and 20, and notes how, since v20 says Yahweh has assigned Israel to himself, we would expect v19 to say that he has assigned the other peoples to the heavenly bodies. Instead, it says the reverse, i.e., that the heavenly bodies are assigned to the peoples. This, he says, "suggests that the text has intentionally skewed the motif of 32:8-9 in order to emphasize that the heavenly bodies are merely creations of the Lord, not divine beings that own or govern the other peoples."4 Irregardless of any allusion to the motif in 32:8-9, the asymmetry resulting from the reversal noted by Tigay suggests that the text is intentionally skewed to highlight the created-ness of the heavenly bodies, so that, while the implied intention— "for them to worship"—is permissible by the context, it is improbable. The temptation Israel faces, and is here warned against, is to behave like the nations who do not know Yahweh and, therefore, are lured into venerating things created rather than the creator. In bowing down and worshipping these things they willing submit themselves to the very things that had been allocated to them—this is its folly! Yahweh never intended anyone, least of all Israel, that they should be fools! Fools are fools by their follies.
The emphatic opening of v 20—"but you"—asserts that Israel, however, is different; she has been 'taken' by Yahweh. The play on the two verbs 'apportioned' (chalaq) in v 19 and 'took' (laqach) in v 20 further accents this stress on Israel's unique status as the treasured people of Yahweh. Israel's experience in Egypt, from which Yahweh had delivered her, is likened to "a iron-smelting furnace." Though smelting is used as a metaphor of divine punishment,4 there is no hint anywhere in the Old Testament that Israel's time in Egypt was ever viewed as punitive. The metallurgical process is a recurring figure in the Old Testament of the refining process, and especially of divine testing.6 Thus comprehended, Israel's sojourn in Egypt is seen as a time of refining during which she was made ready for tempering into Yahweh's people. Nelson suggests that the figure of speech "communicates the brutality of Israel's experience of slavery by comparing it to the extreme heat of the procedure and the social subjugation and suffering of those enslaved unfortunates who mined and smelted iron."7 Out of this pit of hopeless tyranny Yahweh had delivered Israel, and made them "a people of his inheritance" or "a people that is his inheritance" ('am nachala). The use of this patrimony motif here underscores an important, though often underestimated, aspect of the 'father-son' relationship between Yahweh and Israel. E. Lipinski notes, significantly, that the Old Testament calls the people Yahweh's nachala more often than it designates the land by this term.8 Hebrew laws regarding inheritance dictates that no servants may receive any inheritance; only sons, and daughters in cases where there is no male heir, may do so. Furthermore, Israel's inheritance was inalienable; hence it cannot be sold but must be cared for, and every effort must be made to redeem it when it is jeopardized.9 Moses here reminds Israel that she is a people that are Yahweh's inheritance, members of his household, a treasure he cares for and cherishes. The concluding "as is the case today" emphasizes the reality of this fact. This, surely, is reason for hope and cause for watchfulness.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2017