An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 35. My Axe Just Slipped Officer, or How To Hold An Eco-Friendly Siege (Deuteronomy 16-20)

Deuteronomy 16-20

My Axe Just Slipped Officer, or How To Hold An Eco-Friendly Siege.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology. 

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Deuteronomy 16

“Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.”

This chapter lays down the several feast days, including passover and the feast of the tabernacles, and the correct sacrifices to make. We’ve seen this in Leviticus, but what’s of interest here is that the meat from the sacrifices and the unleavened bread should be shared gladly with the household, strangers, widows and orphans; the emphasis of this chapter is more on charity than on the niceties of sacrificial rites. Finally the chapter ends with the appointment of judges, and again here the emphasis is on impartiality and avoidance of bribery.

Deuteronomy 17

“Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.”

A continuing grab-bag of laws, with three main categories in this chapter. The stoning mentioned above is in punishment for worshipping the sun, the moon and other heavenly bodies (i.e. other gods), but also requires two or three witnesses to corroborate; no-one is to be killed on the say-so of one witness alone. An interesting facet of this is that the accuser is the one to throw the first stone at the stoning, which is subverted nicely later on by Jesus and his “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”.

There then follows guidance for taking disputes to the judges, and to abide by the decision of the judges under pain of death. Which to me is perhaps taking the power of the judges a little too far and is liable to abuse, particularly as it is said that the authority of the judges derives from God.

Finally there are some guidelines for the behaviour of kings, which the Israelites haven’t got yet but may well set up once they settle in the promised land. A king is not to multiply horses, gold or wives to himself (which I assume means take more than his fair share), and is also required to copy out the book of Deuteronomy and contemplate it every day to ensure that he understands his duties. Which is quite a nice idea.

Deuteronomy 18

“But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.”

This chapter starts with some familiar discussion about the Levites, and how they are to survive on tithes and be treated with respect, but cannot inherit, and other stuff that sets them apart. This is pretty familiar stuff from Leviticus. Of more interest are the next couple of sections. The first is an expansion of the “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” part of Leviticus, which expands on the types of magician “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,

Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.”

That’s still quite vague, really, in terms of what those mean; perhaps at the time anyone reading that would know exactly how you could tell a wizard from an enchanter, but time has made them meaningless terms unless you’re playing First Edition Dungeons and Dragons (11^th level vs. 7^th level Magic-User *cough* nerd alert).

Of more interest is the next section, which talks about prophets, and predicts that God will produce a prophet that will speak His words, and a true prophet can be determined from a false one because, well obviously, the things that he says will come true. Now, I know there are some books to come that are named after prophets (Isaiah etc.), but presumably also this title will be conferred on Jesus as well, although he doesn’t predict the future as such but is supposed to be speaking the words of God. I shall be reading the future books with this chapter in mind.

Deuteronomy 19

“As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live”

Another repeat of the order to create three cities of sanctuary where anyone who has killed someone may hide from retribution. However, they can only use them if the death was accidental, as with the example given in the quote (which strikes me as something that TV Tropes calls the “Suspiciously Specific Denial”); if the murder was premeditated then the cities provide no sanctuary, but (although it’s not explicit here) I think the idea is it gives them a temporary respite until the truth can be determined by at least two witnesses and the judges. A prohibition against giving false witness is given here, and then a reiteration of the “eye for an eye” list of punishments in the case of guilt. A mix of some half-way decent jurisprudence and harsh punishments.

Deuteronomy 20

“When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”

The rules of war are set out in this chapter. It starts with some fairly typical “be not afraid, God is on your side” exhortations, but then also tells the army officers to ask any man who has not yet dedicated his house, planted vines and not yet eaten them or married and not yet “taken” his wife, or is faint-hearted, to go home. Which seems like a cheap and easy way to escape fighting if you ask me. “Er, sorry Captain, I’ve just planted an olive tree, won’t be ready for about five years, otherwise I’d love to fight, oh, except I’m also a dreadful coward and would make my brethren afraid as well. Have a nice battle.” (see also http://bit.ly/2E8gtLC)

When fighting the list of tribes previously given (Hittites, Jebusites etc.) then the Israelites are told to leave no-one and nothing alive, because of their “abominations”, but anyone not on the list should be given a chance to surrender, and be treated fairly if they do. If they chose to fight, and lose (which, obviously, they will because, you know, God and all that) then only men are to be killed. I still think there’s some insidious “othering” of the Hittites, Jebusites etc. going on here, I wonder historically if they were any worse than anyone else.

The last few verses are an interesting little nugget – if you are besieging a city, don’t cut down trees that provide produce to build siege engines, only trees that don’t produce anything you can eat. Nice to have a little bit of eco-friendliness written into your rules of engagement, I always think.