Why is the Song of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy?

Vetus Testamentum

Volumn 57, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 295-317

  Leuchter, Mark ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Deuteronomy; Jeremiah; Levites; Song of Moses

Indexed keywords

EID: 34547986925     PISSN: 00424935     EISSN: 15685330     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/1568533307X215518     Document Type: Article

References (146)

1. For an overview of scholarship, see P. Sanders, The Provenance of Deuteronomy 32 (Leiden, 1996), pp. 1-98.
2. Sanders, Deuteronomy 32, p. 432.
3. D. A. Robertson, Linguistic Evidence in Dating Early Hebrew Poetry (SBLD; Missoula, 1972), p. 155.
4. S. A. Nigosian, "Linguistic Patterns of Deuteronomy 32", Bib 78 (1997), pp. 223-224.
5. M. S. Smith, The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (2nd ed.; Grand Rapids, 2002), pp. 30-31 with references cited therein.
6. A. Ho, "Zephaniah and Deuteronomy 32", read at the Biblical Hebrew Poetry section of the 200,5 Annual Meeting for the Society of Biblical Literature (Philadelphia).
7. For a discussion, see Sanders, Deuteronomy 32, pp. 302-315.
8. M. Thiessen, "The Form and Function of the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:1-43)", JBL 123 (2004), pp. 401-424.
9. Thiessen, "Song of Moses", 423.
10. For a discussion of the pre-exilic provenance of the bulk of Deuteronomy and the DH, see F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Cambridge, MA, 1973), pp. 274-289;
11. R. E. Friedman, The Exile and Biblical Narrative (Chicho, 1981), pp. 1-26;
12. M. A. Sweeney, King Josiah of judah: The Lost Messiah of Israel (New York/Oxford, 2001), pp. 170-177;
13. J. C. Geoghegan, "Until This Day and the Preexilic Redaction of the Deuteronomistic History", JBL 122 (2003), pp. 201-227.
14. J. D. Levenson, "Who Inserted, The Book of theTorah?", HTR 68 (1975), pp. 203-33, esp. 221.
15. "The Book of the Torah", pp. 212-218.
16. Levenson, "The Book of the Torah", pp. 232-233.
17. J. R. Lundbom, "The Lawbook of the Josianic Reform", CBQ 38 (1976), pp. 293-302.
18. Lundbom, "Lawbook", pp. 296-297.
19. J. R. Lundbom, "The Inclusio and Other Framing Devices in Deuteronomy i-xxviii", VT46 (1996), p. 314.
20. Friedman, "From Egypt to Egypt: Dtrl and Dtr2", Traditions in Transformation: Turning Points in Biblical Faith (Fs. F. M. Cross, ed. B. Halpern and J. D. Levenson; Winona Lake, 1981), p. 187.
21. Friedman, "From Egypt to Egypt", pp. 171, 175, 185-186. P. K. McCarter also views Deut xxxii-xxxiii as entering Deuteronomy at the same time in relation to Moses' imminent death (II Samuel [AB; Garden City, 1984], p. 17).
22. Sanders notes that despite common references to The Song, Deut. iv 1-40 contains a different theological bent than the relevant passages in Deut. xxxi (Deuteronomy 32, pp. 350-52). This would point to different periods of composition, though the lexical parallels between the two chapters strongly suggest that one was constructed with an eye to the otlier.
23. B. Halpern and D. S. Vanderhooft, "The Editions of Kings in the 7th-6th Centuries B.C.E." HUCA 62 (1991), p. 237.
24. See Lundbom, "The Lawbook", 299-300.
25. Lundbom, "The Inclusio", 312-315.
26. Though Robertson notes that sections of The Blessing exhibit the features of standard poetry (Early Hebrew Poetry, pp. 49-50), substantial portions of the poem (notably the opening and closing sections) appear to date from an early period. See Z. Weisman, "A Connecting Link in an Old Hymn: Deuteronomy xxxiii 19A, 21B", VT28 (1978), pp. 365-367.
27. See, e.g., Friedman, "From Egypt to Egypt", pp. 171-173.
28. Pace W L. Holladay, "Elusive Deuteronomists, Jeremiah and Proto-Deuteronomy", CBQ 66 (2004), p. 74, who views the poem as part of the pre-exilic Deuteronomic corpus.
29. Sanders, Deuteronomy 32, pp. 350-352.
30. M. Z. Brettler, "A 'Literary Sermon' in Deuteronomy 4", A Wise And Discerning Mind (Fs. B. O. Long, ed. S. M. Olyan and R. C. Culley; Providence, 2000), pp. 33-50, esp. 47;
31. Sanders, Deuteronomy 32, pp. 344, 350-352.
32. McCarter, II Samuel, p. 19;
33. M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11 (AB; New York, 1991), pp. 9-10.
34. See also R. Abba, "Priests and Levites in Deuteronomy", VT27 (1977), p. 260.
35. See R. D. Nelson, Deuteronomy (OTL; Louisville and London, 2002), p. 386.
36. See the succinct discussion by B. M. Levinson, "Deuteronomy" (annotated comments), The Jewish Study Bible (ed. A. Berlin and M. Z. Brettler; New York, 2003), pp. 437, 445-446.
37. So also Nelson, Deuteronomy, 386. For the exilic redaction of the Pentateuch by Zadokites,
38. see I. Knohl, The Sanctuary of Silence (Philadelphia, 1995), p. 95, who identifies these redactors with members of the Holiness School.
39. Knohl, Sanctuary of Silence, p. 95.
40. D. M. Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature (New York/Oxford, 2005), pp. 133-135.
41. For the roots of the rift between Deuteronomistic tradition and the Wisdom tradition that originated with Solomon, see M. Leuchter, Josiah's Reform and Jeremiah's Scroll: Historical Calamity and Prophetic Response (Sheffield, 2006), pp. 57-61.
42. M. A. Sweeney, "The Critique of Solomon in the Preexilic Edition of the Deuteronomistic History", JBL 114 (1995), pp. 607-622.
43. For a detailed analysis of this phenomenon, see B. Halpern, "Why Manasseh Is Blamed for the Exile: The Evolution of a Biblical Tradition", VT48 (1998), pp. 473-514.
44. See Thiessen, "Song of Moses", p. 421, who notes that The Song may possess features beyond that of a covenant lawsuit, but contains such a lawsuit at its heart.
45. As many scholars have noted, 1 Kgs xiii 1-10 is drawn from the Amos tradition; see, among others, W. B. Barrick, The King and the Cemeteries: Towards a New Understanding of Josiah's Reform (Boston/Leiden, 2003), pp. 217-219 and sources cited therein.
46. See also K. Bodner, "The Locution of 1 Kings 22:28: A New Proposal", JBL 122 (2003), p. 543 n. 37 for the intertextual connection between 1 Kgs xxii 28 and Mic. i 2. For the Josianic redaction of the prophetic corpus,
47. see Sweeney, King josiah, 311-313.
48. Thiessen, "Song of Moses", pp. 410-414.
49. G. E. Mendenhall, "Samuel's Broken Rib: Deuteronomy 32", A Song of Power and the Power of Song (ed. D. L. Christensen; Winona Lake, 1993), p. 179 (reprinted, from the original 197,5 article).
50. This would, not only explain the echoes of The Song in Huldah's oracle but also similar reflexes in Zephaniah's work (as discussed, by Ho) that can likewise be dated to the Josianic period.
51. Levinson, "Deuteronomy", p. 445. As Lundbom has shown, The Song is not simply inserted into an older account to which v. 47 belonged but is woven from the same fabric as the material surrounding it ("The Lawbook", pp. 299-300).
52. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School, pp. 57-157.
53. See, for example, J. Van Seters, A Lawbook for the Diaspora: Revision in the Study of the Covenant Code (New York/Oxford, 2004), who views the Covenant Code as arising from Mesopotamian legal influence on the Petateuchal writers.
54. See, among others, D. Rom-Shiloni, "Facing destruction and exile: Inner-Biblical exegesis in Jeremiah and Ezekiel", ZAW 117 (200,5), pp. 189-205;
55. S. L. Cook, "Innerbiblical Interpretation in Ezekiel 44 and the History of Israel's Priesthood, JBL 114 (199,5), pp. 193-208;
56. M. Z. Brettler, "Predestination in Deuteronomy 30.1-10", in Those Elusive Deuteronomists: The Phenomenon of Pan-Deuteronomism (ed. L. S. Schearing and S. L. McKenzie, JSOTSup 268; Sheffield, 1999), pp. 171-188. Mesopotamian prototypes are re-engaged widi the rise of Persia;
57. see S. M. Paul, "Deutero-Isaiah and Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions", Essays in Memory of E. A. Speiser (ed. W W Hallo; New Haven, 1968), pp. 180-186;
58. A. Laato, "Zechariah 4:6b-10a and the Akkadian Royal Building Inscriptions", ZAW106 (1994), pp. 53-69.
59. For the 8th century awareness of Assyrian literature, see P. Machinist, "The Image of Assyria in the First Isaiah" JAOS103 (1983), pp. 719-737.
60. See also B. M. Levinson, "Is The Covenant Code an Exilic Composition? A Response to John Van Seters", In Search ofPreExilic Israel: Proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar (ed,]. Day; Edinburgh, 2004), pp. 294-97, for the Neo-Assyrian period as the better background to the redaction of the Covenant Code and the immediate antecedent for Deuteronomy.
61. See the detailed discussion by B. M. Levinson, "Textual Criticism, Assyriology, and the History of Interpretation: Deuteronomy 13:7a as a Test Case in Method", JBL 120 (2001) 236-241.
62. See S. Weitzman, "A Lesson from the Dying: The Role of Deuteronomy 32 in Its Narrative Setting", HTR 87 (1994), pp. 377-393;
63. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11, pp. 4-5.
64. For epigraphic evidence regarding Josiah's northern ambitions, see M. Heltzer, "Some Questions Concerning the Economic Policy of Josiah", IEJ 50 (2000), pp. 105-108.
65. See also Leuchter, Josiah's Reform and Jeremiah's Scroll, pp. 64-69.
66. Assyria persisted, (alongside Egypt as a coalition partner) as a threat to Judah until its dissolution between 612 and 609. For an historical overview, see B. Oded, "Judah and the Exile", Israelite and Juddean History (ed. J. H. Hayes and J. M. Miller; Philadelphia, 1977), pp. 463-469;
67. A. Malamat, The History of Biblical Israel (Leiden, 2004), pp. 290-291.
68. Pace Friedman, "Egypt to Egypt", p. 183, who views the passage as exilic.
69. W L. Holladay, "Jeremiah and Moses: Further Observations", JBL 85 (1966), pp. 17-27; idem, "Elusive Deuteronomists", pp. 63-66.
70. For a discussion of Jer. ii-iv as initially addressed to the north, see Sweeney, King Josiah, pp. 221-22,5;
71. Leuchter, Josiah's Reform and Jeremiah's Scroll, pp. 91-102.
72. Most of the parallels listed are discussed by Holladay in "Jeremiah and Moses", pp. 19-20.
73. See also his "Elusive Deuteronomists", pp. 63-66, for additional parallels from elsewhere in the Jeremianic corpus.
74. Holladay, "Elusive Deuteronomists", pp. 73-74.
75. Leuchter, Josiah's Reform and Jeremiah's Scroll, pp. 91-102.
76. See J. R. Lundbom, Jeremiah 37-52 (AB; New York, 2004), pp. 130, 134, for a discussion.
77. The sequence of lexemes in Jer. lxiii 1 is the sequence in Deut. xxxii 45 is The shift from to DUPI may be explained via the Jeremianic author's attempt to establish continuity with the narrative of the contentious crowd in Jer. xxvi (w. 7, 11-12, 16-18, 24), but the citation is otherwise nearly exact. It is notable that despite the inversion of lexemes, the terminology characterizing the conclusion of both Jeremiah's and Moses' speeches is identical, suggesting typological equivalency between the two. For a discussion of Seidels Law,
78. see Levinson, Deuteronomy, pp. 18-20.
79. Nelson offers a similar view, commenting that the in Deut. xxxii 45 refers to both The Song and the law code proper (Deuteronomy, p. 378). See below for additional discussion.
80. Pace Lundbom, "The Indusio", pp. 314-315; Abba, "Priests and Levites", p. 260.
81. Friedman, "From Egypt to Egypt", p. 187.
82. Friedman, "From Egypt to Egypt", p. 179.
83. For the Hezekian redaction of Amos and Hosea, see Halpern, "Jerusalem and the Lineages", pp. 79-80.
84. Carr notes the shift during chis time from a Wisdom-centered education-enculturation system to one dominated by prophetic thought (Writing on the Tablet of the Heart, p. 167).
85. Sanders, Deuteronomy 32, pp. 344-345.
86. This possibility is also explored by Sanders (Deuteronomy 32, p. 345).
87. See Leuchter, "A King Like All the Nations", pp. 555-556.
88. Halpern, "Why Manasseh", pp. 505-514.
89. See, for example, Brettler, "Predestination in Deuteronomy 30.1-10".
90. Friedman, "From Egypt to Egypt", pp. 171-173.
91. See also Sweeney, King Josiah, pp. 40-51.
92. C. M. McCormick, Palace and Temple: A Study of 'Architectural and VerbalIcons (BZAW; Berlin, 2002), pp. 42-43, 168.
93. For a discussion of a close antecedent use of foundation inscriptions, see B. N. Porter, Images, Power, Politics: Figurative Aspects of Esarhaddon's Babylonian Policy (Philadelphia 1993), pp. 105-16.
94. See also Laato, "Zechariah 4:6b-10a", pp. 53-69.
95. Pace Friedman (The Exile and Biblical Narrative [HSM; Chico, 1981], p. 24), who views this passage as exilic in origin.
96. See also Cross, CMHE, p. 287, for this same position.
97. Leuchter, "A King Like All the Nations", pp. 556-557,
98. pace S. Frolov's position that 1 Sam. viii is a late-exilic or post-exilic rejection of kingship (The Turn of The Cycle: 1 Samuel 1-8 in Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective [BZAW; Berlin, 2004], pp. 191-194).
99. For a full discussion of the nature of the early priestly response to the founding of the monarchy, see B. Halpern, "The Uneasy Compromise: Israel between League and Monarchy", Traditions in Transformation, pp. 77-85.
100. Leuchter, "A King Like All The Nations", pp. 556-557.
101. See, for example, P. E. Dion, "Deuteronomy 13: The Suppression of Alien Religious Propaganda in Israel During the Late Monarchic Era", Law and Ideology in Monarchic Israel, pp. 147-210.
102. See Levinson, Deuteronomy, pp. 107-137.
103. See, e.g., W M. Schniedewind, How the Bible Became a Book: The Textualization of Ancient Israel (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 110-111;
104. G. N. Knoppers, "The Deuteronomist and the Deuteronomic Law of the King: A Reexamination of a Relationship", ZAW 108 (1996), pp. 329-346;
105. Levinson, Deuteronomy, pp. 138-143;
106. idem, "The Reconceptualization of Kingship in Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History's Transformation of Torah", VT 51 (2001), pp. 520-534.
107. Sweeney notes that Deut. xvii 14-20 does not proscribe monarchic initiatives but legislates that the Deuteronomic Torah be preserved, observed and implemented by the king. Given the Josianic agenda of the Deuteronomic Torah, this ensured that royal initiatives would in fact prevail (King Josiah, pp. 160-163).
108. See Weinfeld, "Emergence", pp. 96-97, for the ancient Near Eastern background to this literary feature.
109. B. M. Levinson, "The Hermeneutics of Tradition: A Response to J. G. McConville", JBL 119 (2000), pp. 279-282.
110. The interest in antiquarianism that emerged in the late 8th through late 7th centuries is discussed by B. Halpern, "Jerusalem and the Lineages in the 7th Century: Kinship and the Rise of Individual Moral Liability", Law and Ideology in Monarchic Israel, pp. 86-88.
111. For the reworking of the Covenant Code, see Levinson, Deuteronomy, pp. 6-17;
112. Sweeney, King Josiah, pp. 149-150, 154-159, 169.
113. For the antiquity of the Decalogue (in some form) see Nelson, Deuteronomy, pp. 78-79, who notes that the Horeb/Sinai Decalogue tradition is deployed as an etiology (and thus already perceived as ancient in the late 7th century) for the ensuing Deuteronomic exhortation.
114. Geoghegan, "Until This Day", pp. 224-227.
115. Geoghegan, "Until This Day", p. 226.
116. For an overview of Deuteronomy's northern influences, see Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11, pp. 44-50;
117. Leuchter, Josiah's Reform and Jeremiah's Scroll, pp. 53-60.
118. Pace N. Lohfink, who views substantial sections of Deuteronomy as Utopian visions constructed during the exile ("Die Sicherung der Wirksamkeit des Gotteswortes durch das Prinzip der Schriftlichkeit der Tora und durch das Prinzip der Gewaltenteilung nach den Ämtergesetzen des Buches Deuteronomium (Dt. 16,18-18,22)", Studien zum Deuteronomium und zur deuteronomistischen Literatur I [SBAB; Stuttgart, 1990], pp. 305-323).
119. For a brief discussion of this strategy, see Leuchter, Josiah's Reform and Jeremiah's Scroll, pp. 42-44.
120. See also idem, "The Levite in Your Gates: The Deuteronomic Redefinition of Levitical Authority", JBL (forthcoming).
121. Extra-biblical evidence further supports Mesopotamian imperial sponsorship of regional cults. See G. Frame, "The 'First Families' of Borsippa during the Early Neo-Babylonian Period", JCS 36 (1984), pp. 67-80.
122. So also Geoghegan, "Until This Day", pp. 225-227 (though Geoghegan is reticent to view the DH primarily as Josianic propaganda).
123. For Moses as a prototypical Levite, see Sweeney, King Josiah, p. 143. For the northern origins of 1 Sam. ii 27-28,
124. see M. Leuchter, "Something Old, Something Older: Reconsidering 1 Samuel 2:27-36", Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 4 (2003), 6.1.1-6.3.1 (purl://www. jhsonline.org). For the northern origins of 1 Kgs xix,
125. see M. White, The Elijah Legends and Jehu's Coup (BJS; Atlanta, 1997), pp. 36-43, 47.
126. Geoghegan, "Until This Day", pp. 225-227.
127. For the Shilonites' connection to Moses, see Cross, CMHE, pp. 195-215.
128. For Jer. ii-iv as directed in part to the Shilonites, see Leuchter, Josiah's Reform and Jeremiah's Scroll, pp. 91-109.
129. Leuchter, ibid.
130. Thiessen, "Song of Moses", pp. 407-10, 418-419.
131. See again Sanders, Deuteronomy 32, p. 413, for the northern language in The Song.
132. See also G. A. Rendsburg, Linguistic Evidence for the Northern Origin of Selected Psalms (SBLM; Atlanta, 1990), pp. 73-75, 78-81.
133. J. W Watts makes a similar observation: "... when Deuteronomy was completed, most likely in the seventh or sixth centuries BCE, the song of Moses may already have been widely known... If that was the case, by equating the song with the law, Deuteronomy 31 was enlisting the song's popularity to support the promulgation of deuteronomic law." (""This Song': Conspicuous Poetry in Hebrew Prose", Verse in Ancient Near Eastern Prose [AOAT; ed. J. C. de Moor and W G. E. Watson; Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1993], p. 358). Watts, however, does not discussion the connection to Levitical interests.
134. See especially S. L. Richter, "The Place of the Name in Deuteronomy", VT 57 (2007), 342-366, for a discussion of the pre-monarchic Shechemite Levitical Torah tradition represented in Deut. xxvii. Thiessen also suggests a connection between The Song and the Levitical ceremony in Deut. xxvii ("Song of Moses", p. 419).
135. So also Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart, pp. 134-136;
136. Leuchter, Josiah's Reform and Jeremiah's Scroll, pp. 57-60.
137. Halpern, "The Uneasy Compromise", p. 77.
138. Sweeney notes such a strategy in the book of Judges, which implicitly ties Saul to the Bethel shrine (a major target of Josianic derision) and inveighs against both (King Josiah, pp. 123-124).
139. Thiessen himself notes the lack of discussion concerning the temple cult within The Song, and considers the possibility that it was composed before the temple was constructed ("Song of Moses", p. 419).
140. See Robertson, Early Hebrew Poetry, pp. 36-38, 60, 146, for a tabulation of early vs. standard, Hebrew forms within the poem. Robertson suggests a date between the late 11th and mid 10th centuries BCE due to the limited presence of standard Hebrew (p. 155).
141. See Sanders, Deuteronomy 32, p. 426;
142. Leuchter, Josiah's Reform and Jeremiah's Scroll, pp. 55-56;
143. R. Bergey, "The Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32.1-43) and Isaianic Prophecies: A Case of Early Intertextuality?"JSOT 28 (2003), pp. 33-54;
144. Mendenhall, "Samuel's Broken Rib", p. 171.
145. Nigosian, "Linguistic Patterns", pp. 223-224.
146. For a discussion of the Deuteronomistic redaction of Ahijah's oracle to Jeroboam, see M. Leuchter, "Jeroboam The Ephratite", JBL 125 (2006), pp. 53-59.