(1) (5) On the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this Teaching. He said: (6) The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying: You have stayed long enough at this mountain.
(2) (9) Thereupon I said to you, “I cannot bear the burden of you by myself. (10) The LORD your God has multiplied you until you are today as numerous as the stars in the sky.— (11) May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase your numbers a thousandfold, and bless you as He promised you.— (12) How can I bear unaided the trouble of you, and the burden, and the bickering! (13) Pick from each of your tribes men who are wise, discerning, and experienced, and I will appoint them as your heads.” (14) You answered me and said, “What you propose to do is good.” (15) So I took your tribal leaders, wise and experienced men, and appointed them heads over you: chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties, and chiefs of tens, and officials for your tribes.
(3) (22) Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead to reconnoiter the land for us and bring back word on the route we shall follow and the cities we shall come to.”
(4) (25) They took some of the fruit of the land with them and brought it down to us. And they gave us this report: “It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving to us.” (26) Yet you refused to go up, and flouted the command of the LORD your God.
(5) (36) none except Caleb son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his descendants will I give the land on which he set foot, because he remained loyal to the LORD.
(6) (37) Because of you the LORD was incensed with me too, and He said: You shall not enter it either.
(7) (4) And charge the people as follows: You will be passing through the territory of your kinsmen, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. Though they will be afraid of you, be very careful (5) not to provoke them. For I will not give you of their land so much as a foot can tread on; I have given the hill country of Seir as a possession to Esau. (6) What food you eat you shall obtain from them for money; even the water you drink you shall procure from them for money.
(8) (24) Up! Set out across the wadi Arnon! See, I give into your power Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin the occupation: engage him in battle. (25) This day I begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under heaven, so that they shall tremble and quake because of you whenever they hear you mentioned. (26) Then I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with an offer of peace, as follows, (27) “Let me pass through your country. I will keep strictly to the highway, turning off neither to the right nor to the left. (28) What food I eat you will supply for money, and what water I drink you will furnish for money; just let me pass through— (29) as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir did for me, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar—that I may cross the Jordan into the land that the LORD our God is giving us.” (30) But King Sihon of Heshbon refused to let us pass through, because the LORD had stiffened his will and hardened his heart in order to deliver him into your power—as is now the case.
(9) (18) At that time I charged you, saying, “The LORD your God has given you this country to possess. You must go as shock-troops, warriors all, at the head of your Israelite kinsmen. (19) Only your wives, children, and livestock—I know that you have much livestock—shall be left in the towns I have assigned to you, (20) until the LORD has granted your kinsmen a haven such as you have, and they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is assigning them, beyond the Jordan. Then you may return each to the homestead that I have assigned to him.”
(1) (11) Let them be ready for the third day; for on the third day the LORD will come down, in the sight of all the people, on Mount Sinai.
(2) (17) But Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing you are doing is not right; (18) you will surely wear yourself out, and these people as well. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone. (19) Now listen to me. I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You represent the people before God: you bring the disputes before God, (20) and enjoin upon them the laws and the teachings, and make known to them the way they are to go and the practices they are to follow. (21) You shall also seek out from among all the people capable men who fear God, trustworthy men who spurn ill-gotten gain. Set these over them as chiefs of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, (22) and let them judge the people at all times. Have them bring every major dispute to you, but let them decide every minor dispute themselves. Make it easier for yourself by letting them share the burden with you.
(3) (1) The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (2) “Send men to scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelite people; send one man from each of their ancestral tribes, each one a chieftain among them.”
(4) (1) The whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night. (2) All the Israelites railed against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in the land of Egypt,” the whole community shouted at them, “or if only we might die in this wilderness! (3) Why is the LORD taking us to that land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be carried off! It would be better for us to go back to Egypt!”
(5) (30) not one shall enter the land in which I swore to settle you—save Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
(6) (9) Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as He had commanded him. (10) Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation in front of the rock; and he said to them, “Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?” (11) And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Out came copious water, and the community and their beasts drank. (12) But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me enough to affirm My sanctity in the sight of the Israelite people, therefore you shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them.” (13) Those are the Waters of Meribah—meaning that the Israelites quarrelled with the LORD—through which He affirmed His sanctity.
(7) (17) Allow us, then, to cross your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, and we will not drink water from wells. We will follow the king’s highway, turning off neither to the right nor to the left until we have crossed your territory.” (18) But Edom answered him, “You shall not pass through us, else we will go out against you with the sword.” (19) “We will keep to the beaten track,” the Israelites said to them, “and if we or our cattle drink your water, we will pay for it. We ask only for passage on foot—it is but a small matter.” (20) But they replied, “You shall not pass through!” And Edom went out against them in heavy force, strongly armed. (21) So Edom would not let Israel cross their territory, and Israel turned away from them.
(8) (23) But Sihon would not let Israel pass through his territory. Sihon gathered all his people and went out against Israel in the wilderness. He came to Jahaz and engaged Israel in battle.
(9) (16) Then they stepped up to him and said, “We will build here sheepfolds for our flocks and towns for our children. (17) And we will hasten as shock-troops in the van of the Israelites until we have established them in their home, while our children stay in the fortified towns because of the inhabitants of the land. (18) We will not return to our homes until every one of the Israelites is in possession of his portion. (19) But we will not have a share with them in the territory beyond the Jordan, for we have received our share on the east side of the Jordan.”
(5) Moses brought their case before the LORD. (6) And the LORD said to Moses...(8) “Further, speak to the Israelite people as follows:... This shall be the law of procedure for the Israelites, in accordance with the LORD’s command to Moses.”
From Rabbi Shoshana Cohen, Senior Faculty, Conservative Yeshiva (thetorah.com)
I. The Divine
According to the biblical material originating in Priestly circles, the Divine is a constant presence amidst the People of Israel. For example, the point of the sacrificial system is to actually bring God’s physical presence into the world and it is possible to do so (see Exod. 40:34 for example). For D, however, God’s physical presence is never in the world, rather in heaven, and only God’s name is on the earth (see esp. Deut. 12). The place where worship is to take place is called the place that God has chosen for his name to reside (see, for example, Deut. 12:5,12).[4] While one group saw God’s physical presence in the world and in the sanctuary (which was imagined to be movable before it was established in Jerusalem), another was careful to treat God as transcendent, only mentioning the resting of God’s name, rather than His presence in a very specific place He had chosen (or would choose).
This otherworldly, transcendent view of the divine is also reflected in the fact that the phrase וידבר ה אל משה לאמר “God spoke to Moses saying” so popular in other biblical sources is virtually absent in Deuteronomy. A God who is removed from the world does not often speak directly to people, even Moses. In our case of the judges, it is therefore not surprising that God is not physically present to give Moses an answer to difficult questions. The story remains the same, with an important omission that makes it consistent with and supports the worldview of the author.
II. Wisdom
As mentioned, the judges here are primarily meant to be “wise” and indeed the root ח-כ-מ is used many times in D and through Deuteronomic literature. Numerous statements place an emphasis on wisdom and understanding, and view these traits as accessible to people. For example Deut. 6:4, casts both the laws and the people of Israel who maintain them as wise, and insightful, using the roots, ח.כ.מ, נ.ב.נ and ב.נ.ה. As mentioned in the introduction here, Moses says he will “explain” the Torah in verse 1:5. He also says that when he came up with an idea, the people thought it was a good one (1:14.) The logical, accessible aspect of wisdom and Torah is stated poetically in 30:14, “this thing is not far from you, it is very close.”
The Deuteronomic concept of the Divine and its emphasis on wisdom are related. What emerges is a very human ‘this-worldly’ religious outlook. In fact it is just these aspects that may have made the book so appealing to contemporary biblical scholars engaged in Judaism on a practical as well as an academic level. Unlike the Priestly tradition, Deuteronomy presents a religion and a worldview that can operate in essence, without the immediate presence of God.[5] This world is not devoid of values and goodness, in fact the opposite is true. In this literature, we repeatedly see that laws are framed by an assertion that they are the right thing to do, that they apply in a universal way to everyone, at least to all Israelites.
In the absence of a Divine Presence to order the world into good and evil, we must rely on the intellect and wisdom of both our leaders and ourselves, to ensure that the right and just is done. However, this is not only about the ability of human beings to discover the truth and thereby to do what is good. The unique hermeneutic of Deuteronomy provides a model in which human intellect can in fact reinterpret, sometimes radically, earlier truths found in earlier sources.
Conclusion
We live in a world where it is not just God’s presence in the world that is called into question but God’s very existence. Most people today do not see miracles, and do not experience sin and impurity in the very tactile way they must have been felt by the Priests. However, we, or perhaps I should speak only for myself, do want to believe in the truth and power of the Torah. We can look to D as a first step towards our own, more inherently secular worldview. By secular I do not mean one where no God exists, but rather a world in which the manifestation of God is in the behavior of people, and the playing out of God’s will is seemingly in our own hands. Deuteronomy provides us the with a powerful precedent for the belief that what is discernable as right and just to us is also what God wants, and that what God wants is righteousness and justice.
For those of us with doubts about our own ability to determine God’s will–doubts unlikely to have been shared by the authors of D –we can look to the book, to the testament of Moses, as a support for our own striving to do what is right and good in the world in the hope that it is what God wants. When D speaks about Torah being “not far but very near,” this resonates with our own feeling that the Divine can feel very far away but that the words of Torah and the values it contains can feel very close indeed.