Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Gabe Eisenstein <gabe AT cascadeaccess.com>]

Karl wrote

If Moses were brought up in the royal court as Exodus claims he was, then
would he not be familiar with the language of diplomacy and other
governmental processes? Since he repeatedly pictures God's relation between
God and Israel in the legal status as lord over vassal nation, is it any
surprise to see here another indication of such legalese?

So you're saying that the curses of Sin, Shamash, Ninurta, et.al. were 
known to Moses from the court, and he thought it appropriate to 
replicate them in a prophecy about Yahweh's punishment of Israel? Isn't 
this a strange theology? And isn't it odd that we have no other 
documents so closely matching it except from the 7th century?

But in any case, what about the internal structure of Deut.28? What 
would account for its jumbled state besides scribal reworking? Doesn't 
it look like verses 2-10  belong together with verses 15-20 (+25&37)? 
Then isn't it odd that the part leftover from this coherent subtext 
corresponds closely to part of another document? Can you explain this by 
sloppiness on the part of Moses? Or is it possible that Moses produced a 
more coherent text that has been mangled by subsequent transmission? 
(But that's a slippery slope...)


Gabe Eisenstein