Sins That Forfeit the Right to the Promised Land
In all the biblical sources, the assertion is repeated that Israel will be expelled from the land for the violation of its religious and spiritual obligations—in other words, for breaking the covenant. We have seen above that the reduction of the territory of the promised land was explained as a punishment for making a covenant with the Canaanites and worshipping their gods. The priestly source, which emphasizes God's presence in the land of Israel and therefore obligates the observance of the laws of holiness and purity, speaks of fornication and incest as those acts which defile the land (Lev. 18:24 ff.). When defiled, the land "spews out" its inhabitants: " . . . thus the land became defiled; and I called it to account for its iniquity, and the land spewed out its inhabitants" (Lev. 18:25).
Blood that is shed in the land in which God abides also pollutes the land and defiles it:
You shall not pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and the land can have no expiation for blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I Myself abide, for I, the Lord, abide among the Israelite people." (Num. 35:33–34)
This view, which holds that bloodshed defiles the lands and leads to its desolation and the expulsion of its inhabitants, dates back to ancient times. We read, for example, in Gen. 4:11–12 that because of the blood of Abel the land is cursed and will not yield its produce: "Therefore you shall be banished from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. If you till the soil, it shall no longer yield its strength to you."[12] Similarly, we read in 2 Sam.
[12] Compare Deut. 21:4 in connection with the unknown murder and the "heifer" that is to be executed at a flowing wadi, a place "which is not worked or sown," that is, an uncultivated place. This symbolizesthe unproductive land caused by the pollution of bloodshed; see D. P. Wright, "Deuteronomy 21:1–9 as a Rite of Elimination," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 49 (1987), pp. 394–95.
21:1–14 that the land suffered a three-year famine because of the bloodguilt of Saul's killing of the Gibeonites.
The Gilboa mountains were also cursed by the blood that had been shed upon them; they received neither dew nor rain (2 Sam. 1:21–22). This example recalls Danel's curse concerning his son's murder in the Ugaritic epic Aqhat: "No dew, no rain, no upsurge of the deep."[13] In a Hittite source, too, the king declares that the gods have avenged the murdered king's blood, in that the murderer's land no longer yielded its produce,[14] and Greek literature provides the example of the land of Thebes, cursed because Oedipus had murdered his father.[15]
In Israel, the concept develops that land may be cursed and turned into a wasteland not only by bloodshed but also by adultery, theft, taking a false oath, and other sins. This concept is most fully expressed in the words of the prophets. Hosea states, "[False] swearing, dishonesty, and murder and theft are rife. . . . For that the earth is withered (t'bl h'rs[*] ), everything that dwells on it languished" (Hos. 4:2–3). The meaning of the Hebrew word 'bl[*] in this context is not "sorrow and mourn-
[13] A. Herdner, Corpus des tablettes en cunéiformes alphabétiques (= CTA ) (Paris, 1963), no. 19, 1, 44–45: bl tl bl rbb bl sr' thmt[*] . On the basis of this text H. L. Ginsberg proposed to read in 2 Sam. 1:21 sr'thmt[*] instead of sdy[*] trwmt ("An Ugaritic Parallel to 2 Sam. 1:21," JBL 57 [1938], pp. 209–13), and to translate it as "the upsurge of the deep." T. L. Fenton defended this reading convincingly, in "Comparative Evidence in Textual Study: M. Dahood on 2 Sam. 1:21 and CTA no. 19 (1 Aqht), 1, 44–45," VT 29 (1979), pp. 162–70. See however the discussion of K. McCarter, 2 Sam . 1:21, Anchor Bible (New York, 1986), pp. 70–71, where he proposes to read, with Gordis, sdy[*] thmt , based on the Aramaic verb sdy "pour, flow."
[14] H. E. Sturtevant and C. Bechtel, A Hittite Chrestomathy (Philadelphia, 1935), pp. 183–93 (1:69–71); cf., W. Eisele, "Der Telepinus-Erlass," diss. (Munich, 1970), p. 27.
[15] Sophocles, Oedipus 22–25: "for as you see yourself our ship of state . . . foundered beneath a weltering surge of blood, a blight is on our harvest."
ing," but rather, "dryness."[16] Desolation of the land ( = dryness) is due to breaking the covenant. This is uniquely expressed in Isa. 24:4 ff.:
The earth dries up and withers, the whole world withers and grows sick . . . because they have broken the laws, and violated the eternal covenant. For this a curse has devoured the earth and its inhabitants stand aghast. . . . The new vine dries up, the vines sicken and all the revelers turn to sorrow. Silent the merry beat of tambourines . . . the merry harp is silent.
In these verses, descriptions of desolation and drought appear in conjunction with the cessation of joy. We find the combination of these two motifs in political contracts regarding the violation of a covenant. For example, in the treaty from Sefire between the king of Katak and the king of Arpad (eighth century B.C.E. ), we read that if the king of Arpad should break the covenant, locusts and worms will consume the produce of the land, no grass or vegetation will be seen, the sound of the lyre will not be heard, and the land will become a wasteland, overrun by wild animals.[17]
We actually find a similar pattern in the list of curses appearing in Lev. 26. There, it is stated that if Israel violates the covenant with God, the land will not yield its produce, will
[16] abalu[*] in Akkadian means to be dry, and hence tabalu "dry land" in Akkadian and tbl in Hebrew, which is equivalent to yabasah[*] (dryland); cf. 'bl[*] , which parallels ybs[*] in Amos 1:2; Jer. 12:4; 23:10, and see G. R. Driver, "Confused Hebrew Roots," in M. Gaster Anniversary Volume (London, 1936), pp. 73–83. One has to take in account the double entendre of 'bl : "to mourn," on the one hand and "be dry," on the other.
[17] See J. A. Fitzmyer, The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire (Rome, 1967), 1 A 27f (p. 14): "For seven years may the locust devour (Arpad), and for seven years may the worms eat . . . may the grass not come forth so that no green may be seen . . . nor may the sound of the lyre be heard in Arpad . . . may the mouth of Scorpion, the mouth of a bear . . . eat . . . may its vegetation be destroyed unto desolation"; cf. my book Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford, 1972), pp. 123–26, 140–41.
become overrun by wild animals, and will turn into a wasteland (Lev. 26:20–22). Similar forms of retribution for breaking the covenant can be found in Isa. 33:8 ff.: "Highways are desolate, wayfarers have ceased, a covenant has been renounced. . . . the land is wilted and withered . . ." In Jeremiah, perhaps through the influence of Hosea, we also find that adultery and taking a false oath cause the land to dry up: "For the land is full of adulterers, the earth lies parched because of a curse, the pastures of the wilderness are dried up" (Jer. 23:10).[18] It appears, therefore, that the expression "to dry up" ('blh h'rs[*] ) is a fixed motif in Israelite prophecy, which describes the punishment for the terrible sins that the land cannot bear, such as murder, adultery, taking a false oath, and breaking the covenant. The land does not respond to those who commit such sins; it becomes a wasteland.
The idea that exile and desolation are the punishment for failing to observe God's commandments is based, therefore, in the typology of violating a covenant. One who violates a covenant with his sovereign can anticipate exile and the desolation of his land.[19] This is the case with Israel, the vassal, who breaks the covenant with its sovereign, the God of Israel. The same pattern can also be seen in the Assyrian treaty between Esarhaddon and his vassals:[20]
[If you break the covenant] . . . may Zarpanitu . . . destroy your name and your seed from off the land
[18] Cf. Jer. 3:1 in connection with adultery: "would not such a land be defiled" (hnp thnp[*] ) 3:2: "you defiled (wthnypy[*] ) the land with your fornication"; cf. v. 9. It seems that Jeremiah is influenced here by priestly literature, i.e., Num. 35:33. For other priestly expressions in Jeremiah see 'or[*] , as opposed to thw wbhw (4:23) (as in Gen. 1:2–3);qr' drwr[*] ("proclaim freedom") in Jer. 34:8, 15 compared with Lev. 25:10; kbs[ *] ("subdue") in Jer. 34:16 compared with Gen. 1:28.
[19] Cf. my book Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (n. 17), pp. 109 ff.
[20] Cf., recently, S. Parpola and K. Watanabe, Neo Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths (Helsinki, 1988), p. 46.
(ll. 435–36). May Adad . . . deprive your fields of [grain], may he [submerge] your land with a great flood, may the locust . . . devour your harvest; may the sound of mill and oven be lacking from your houses. (ll. 440–44)[21]
However, besides elaborating the violation of covenant as an all-inclusive sin, the biblical sources differ in their characterization of and emphasis on specific sins.
1—
Transgressing the Laws of the Sabbatical and Jubilee Years
The priestly source, which connects the laws of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years with the covenant at Sinai and the declaration of freedom therein ("for all Israelites are My servants . . ."),[22] views the transgression of these laws as the primary reason for the exile of Israel from its land. There is a direct correlation between the crime and its punishment: the nation that does not allow the land to rest in the Sabbatical and Jubilee years will be cast out, leaving the land to lie fallow so as to compensate for those years in which the laws of the Sabbatical years had not been observed: "Then shall the land make up for its Sabbath years throughout the time that it is desolate . . . it shall observe the rest that it did not observe in your Sabbath years while you were dwelling upon it" (Lev. 26:34–35). Thus, the seventy years of Babylonian exile are explained in the book of Chronicles as punishment for seventy years in which the land should have lain fallow while the Israelites were dwelling in it (2 Chron. 36:21). Observing the laws of resting the land is, according to the priestly sources, a necessary condition for dwelling in the land.
2—
Idolatry
According to the Deuteronomic sources, the
[21] For the latter curse, cf. Jer. 25:10, and see my book Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (n. 17), pp. 141–42.
[22] For the freedom declaration (derôr ) at Sinai, cf. my book Justice and Righteousness (Jerusalem, 1985), pp. 138–42.
sin of idol worship is the determining factor which will cause Israel to perish from its land. Such is the case in Deut. 11:16–17:
Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them. For YHWH's anger will flare up against you, and He will shut up the skies so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce, and you will soon perish from the good land which YHWH is giving you.
Traces of the land-oriented view found in the priestly source are also preserved here. Exile appears in conjunction with the description of a land which, because of the sin of idolatry, withholds its produce. But in the Deuteronomic source, the image of exile is generally free of references to desolation and barrenness, and there is no evidence of the kind of personification that describes the land as "spewing forth its inhabitants" or "resting."[23]
The expression "perish from the land" ('bd mn h'rs[*] ), which is used to denote exile, is also found in Hittite and Assyrian covenant texts.[24] In Deut. 28:63, we find the verb "nsh[*] ," which is the Assyrian verb par excellence for "exile" (nasahu[*] ). The expressions "to perish" ('bd[*] ) or "to be wiped out" (hsmd[*] ) from the land also appear in Deut. 4:25–27, 6:14–15, 28:63, 30:18. Sections of Former Prophets, which are dependent on Deuter-
[23] According to the view of the priestly source the land fulfills its duty, as it were, toward God every seventh year ("and the land shall observe a Sabbath to the Lord"; Lev. 25:2), as the Israelite does every seventh day, cf. my Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (n. 17), p. 223. For the demythologization of the law in Deuteronomy, see ibid., pp. 190 ff.
[24] Cf., e.g., istu[*]erseti[*]zerka[*]lihalliqu[*] = "they will make perish your seed from the earth," E. F. Weidner, Politische Dokumente aus Kleinasien , (Leipzig, 1923), p. 34 ll. 65–66; cf. also VTE ll. 537–39 ( = Parpola and Watanabe, Neo Assyrian Treaties [n. 20], p. 51): "may your name, your seed and the seed of your sons and your daughters disappear from the earth" (cf. ll. 542–44).
onomy, speak of "perishing from" ('bd mn[*] ), "cutting off from" (hkrt mn ), and "uprooting from" (nts mn[ *] ) the good land (Josh. 23:15, 16; 1 Kings 9:7; 14:15; cf. Jer. 12:14).[25]
3—
Intermarriage
Because the pursuit of idolatry was linked to contact with pagans who worshipped idols, we find that in Deuteronomistic literature the threat of exile appears not only in the context of idolatry but also in conjunction with marriage to the non-Israelites who had remained in the land:
For should you turn away and attach yourself to the remnant of those nations . . . and intermarry with them . . . know for certain that your God will not continue to drive them out before you; they shall become a snare and a trap for you . . . until you perish from the good land . . . (Josh. 23:12)
The view that intermarriage will lead to annihilation is most clearly expressed in the words of Ezra, who quotes from the prophets:
Which you commanded us through Your servants the prophets when You said, the land which you are about to possess is unclean through the uncleanness of the people of the land,[26] like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman, through their abhorrent practices with which they, in their impurity, have filled it from one end to the other. Now then do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or let their daughters marry your sons . . . you shall not seek their welfare or their good forever, then you will be strong and enjoy the bounty of the land and bequeath it to your children forever.[27] (Ezra 9:11–12)
[25] Cf. my Deuteronomy (n. 17), pp. 346–47.
[26] Read with H. L. Ginsberg, The Israelian Heritage of Judaism (New York, 1982), p. 16: 'my h'rs[*] .
[27] We find here a jigsaw of scriptures from Pentateuchal and prophetic texts, e.g.: "the land which you are about to possess" is a Deuteronomic stock phrase (Deut. 4:5; 7:1; 11:10, 29; 23:21); "the uncleannessof the people of land like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman" (kndt 'my h'rs[ *] ) is taken from Ezek. 36:17: "their land . . . as the uncleanness of a menstruous woman"; "from end to end" (mph 'l ph[*] , literally "from mouth to mouth") taken from 2 Kings 21:16; "do not give your daughters in marriage . . ." taken from Deut. 7:3 (cf. Exod. 34:16); "you shall not seek their welfare or their good forever" (l' tdrs slmm wtwbtm 'd 'wlm[*] ) is taken from Deut. 23:4; "then you will be strong" (lm'n thzqw[*] ) taken from Deut. 11:8; "and eat/enjoy the bounty of the land" (w'kltm 't tub h'rs[*] ) is taken from Isa. 1:19. The words of Moses and the scriptures in the former and latter Prophets are all ascribed to "the words of your servants the prophets" (dbry 'bdyk hnby'ym[*] ).
Later, Ezra explicitly states that marriage to daughters of the idolatrous nations is a great sin, which will bring about the annihilation of the people:
Shall we once again violate Your commandments by intermarrying with these peoples who follow such abhorrent practices? Will you not rage against us till we are destroyed without remnant or survivor? (Ezra 9:14)
It is obvious that Ezra's decision to establish the prohibition of intermarriage as the first and foremost condition for national existence was in keeping with his lifework: the expulsion of foreign wives from the society and the separation of the community of the Israelites from foreign nations (cf. Neh. 9:2).[28]
4—
Justice and Righteousness
The notion that the promise made to Abraham was contingent upon the pursuit of justice and righteousness appears in the Pentateuch:[29]
For I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the Lord by establishing righteousness and justice, in order that the
[28] For Ezra's expulsion of the foreign wives, in the light of a similar phenomenon in the Greek poleis , cf. M. Heltzer, "A New Approach to the Question of the 'Alien Wives' in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah," Shnaton 10 (1986–89), pp. 83–92.
[29] For the concrete and real meaning of mspt wsdqh[*] , cf. my book Justice (n. 22).
Lord may bring about for Abraham what He has promised him. (Gen. 18:19)
Sodom and Gomorrah, cities that did not practice justice and righteousness and "did not support the poor and the needy" (Ezek. 16:49), were destroyed by divine decree, and the descendants of Abraham were commanded to follow the path of justice and righteousness, so that God could fulfill his promises.
However, it is in the words of the classical prophets that this outlook is fully crystalized. The classical prophets, reacting to the exile and liquidation of nations, a practice the Assyrian empire introduced, predict that oppression and violations of justice will lead to destruction and exile. As. Y. Kaufmann has demonstrated, the classical prophets put special emphasis on this idea.[30] According to Amos and Isaiah, the punishment for violation of social justice is exile: "But let justice well up like water and righteousness like an unfailing stream . . ., I will drive you into exile (whglyty ) beyond Damascus" (Amos 5:24–27);[31] "They drink [straight] from the wine-bowls. . . . Assuredly, right soon they shall head the column of exiles (yglw br's gwlym[*] ) . . ." (Amos 6:6–7); "Who at their banquets have lyre and lute . . . and wine . . . therefore my people will suffer exile for not giving heed . . ." (Isa. 5:12–13). Other prophets predict barrenness and destruction for violation of social justice:
[30] Cf. Y. Kaufmann, The History of the Israelite Religion 3 (Tel Aviv, 1948), pp. 76 ff. But we cannot agree with Kaufmann that the classical Israelite prophets were the first to raise the idea of social morality as a condition for national survival; see my remarks, "Recent Publications," Shnaton 5–6 (1981–82), pp. 233–34.
[31] It should be noted that Amos was the first to use the term glh for exile; in the Pentateuch this term does not occur. Indeed, Amos prophesied during the period when the Assyrians started to exile peoples. Cf. B. Oded, Mass Deportations and Deportees in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (Wiesbaden, 1979).
Listen to this . . . who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight. . . . Her rulers judge for gifts. . . . Assuredly because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the Temple Mount a shrine in the woods. (Mic. 3:9–12)
Jeremiah states the terms explicitly:
No, if you really mend your ways . . . if you execute justice between one man and another . . . then only will I let you dwell in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers. . . . And now because you do all these things . . . I will cast you out of my presence as I cast out your brothers and the whole brood of Ephraim. (Jer. 7:5–15)
Render just verdicts morning by morning; rescue him who is robbed from him who defrauded him. Else my wrath will break forth like fire and burn with none to quench it. . . . I shall set fire to its forest; it shall consume all that is around it. (Jer. 21:12–14)
Do what is just and right; rescue the robbed from his oppressors; do not wrong the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; commit no lawless act. . . . But if you do not heed these commands . . . this house shall become a ruin. (Jer. 22:3–5)
It should be noted that although these prophets emphasize justice and righteousness, they do not ignore other heinous sins. Thus, in a prophecy in which Jeremiah warns that the breach of social justice will lead to destruction, he also mentions the sins of murder, adultery, and idolatry (Jer. 7:9; cf. 22:3). What is unique about classical prophecy is that it elevated social morality to the level of one of the basic conditions for the survival of the nation in its land, contrary to the popular view, which held that what God most required was cultic worship (cf. Jer. 7:21–22).
5—
Sabbath Observance
During the time of the destruction
and exile, there was apparently a slackening in Sabbath observance; consequently, in this period Sabbath observance was held up as a central factor in Israel's existence. We learn from Amos that, during the days of the First Temple, even unscrupulous merchants had refrained from selling grain and wheat on the Sabbath (Amos 8:5);[32] it appears, therefore, that only in the period of the exile did the nation become negligent about observing this commandment.[33]
In Jer. 17:21–27, we read that if the people of Judea observe the Sabbath, Jerusalem will remain forever; if they do not, the city will be destroyed:
If you obey Me—declares YHWH—and do not bring in burdens through the gates of the city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day . . . this city shall be inhabited for all time . . . but if you do not obey my commandment to hallow the Sabbath day and carry in burdens through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will set fire to its gates; it shall consume the fortress of Jerusalem and it shall not be extinguished.
We do not know if this prophecy, in its present form, constitutes the ipsisimma verba of Jeremiah or, as many believe, reflects editing undertaken during the exile.[34] In any event, it is a product of the exilic prophets, who view Sabbath observance as a condition for Israel's existence. Ezekiel, too, views
[32] Cf. my "God the Creator in Gen. 1 and in the Prophecy of Second Isaiah," Tarbiz 37 (1968), pp. 127–28 (Hebrew).
[33] See M. Greenberg, "Prst[*] hsbt[*] in Jeremiah," in B. Z. Luria, ed., Studies in the Book of Jeremiah 2 (Jerusalem, n. d.), pp. 23–52 (Hebrew). According to Greenberg, the slackening in Sabbath observance started at the time of Manasseh, king of Judah.
[34] Cf. my article "Jeremiah and the Spiritual Metamorphosis of Israel," ZAW 88 (1976), pp. 17 ff. The stress on "the city" in this pericope may allude to the time of restoration because, as we will see below, after the destruction the focus shifted from the land to the city . Indeed, Nehemiah, when speaking of the sin of desecration of the Sabbath refers to the city (13:18) rather than to the land.
the desecration of the Sabbath as a decisive factor in the people's history (Ezek. 20:12–13, 20–21), while the anonymous prophet of the exilic period encourages the people, especially those non-Jews who "attached themselves to YHWH," to observe the Sabbath (Isa. 56:1–8). In another instance he conditions the new settlement of the nation on observing the Sabbath:
If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your affairs on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath 'delight,' YHWH's holy day 'honored,' and if you honor it and go not on expeditions [commercial enterprise], nor look to your affairs nor strike bargains (dbr dbr ), then you can seek favor in the sight of the Lord. I will set you astride the heights of the earth, and let you enjoy the heritage of your father Jacob—for the mouth of YHWH has spoken. (Isa. 58:13–14)
As I have indicated elsewhere, the expressions "doing business" ('swt hps[*] , ms' hps[*] ), "bargaining" (dbr dbr ), and "undertaking a business journey" ('swt drk[*] ) are all acts pertaining to trade.[35] These verses, therefore, refer to the same type of Sabbath violation that is found in Jer. 17:21, "Don't carry burdens on the Sabbath day, bringing them through the gates of Jerusalem," and in Neh. 10:32, "The people of the land who bring their wares and all sorts of foodstuffs for sale on the Sabbath day." Nehemiah goes even further, and places the blame for the first destruction of Jerusalem on Sabbath viola-
[35] See my "The Counsel of the 'Elders' to Rehoboam and Its Implications," Ma'arav[*] , A Journal for the Study of the Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures 3:1 (1982), pp. 43 ff., nn. 81–82. Although we followed here the translation of the Jewish Publication Society, "trampling in the Sabbath" (compare NEB translation: "to tread the Sabbath underfoot"), which goes well with my observations about the semantics of "desecration" (cf. my: "hlwl[*] , kbysh[*] wmrms rgl," in Hebrew Language Studies Presented to Zeev Ben Hayyim , [Jerusalem, 1983], pp. 195–200), the interpretation of hsbt[*] rgl as abstaining from commercial expedition should not be excluded.
tion: "What evil thing is this that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day. This is just what your ancestors did, and for it God brought all this misfortune on the city . . ." (Neh. 13:17–18). These verses recall the words of the Rabbis, based on Isa. 56:1–8: "If Israel would observe two Sabbaths as prescribed, they would im mediately be redeemed" (BT Sabbath 118b).
As we have seen, it is clear that in each generation, the Israelites have attempted careful examination of their ways and deeds in order to discover which sin had caused or would cause exile and destruction. So, too, each generation defined the essence of the sin according to its own beliefs, values and historical circumstances.