MOSES

TH E RE V ELATION

AND THE CO VENANT

MOSES
T H E REVELATION

AND THE COVENANT

MARTIN BUBER

T
HA RPE R TORCHBOOKS

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS

NEW YORK
 MOSES
THE REVELATION AND THE COVENANT
First published in 1946
under the title: MOSES

Reprinted by arrangement with

Horovitz PubliJhing Co., Ltd., London

Printed in the United States of America

First HARPER TORCHBOOK edition published 1958

Library of Congreu catalog card number: 58-5216

 PREFACE
N the year 1906 Eduard Meyer, a well-known historian, ex
I pressed the view that Moses was not a historical personality.
He further remarked : " After all, with the exception of those
who accept tradition bag and baggage as historical truth, not one
of those who treat him as a historical reality has hitherto been
able to fill him with any kind of content whatever, to depict him
as a concrete historical figure, or to produce anything which he
could have created or which could be his historical work." It is
precisely this, the description of Moses as a concrete individuality
and the demonstration of what he created and what his historical
work was, that I have made my purpose in this book ; on the, to
me, obvious basis of unprejudiced critical investigation, dependent
neither on the religious tradition nor pn the theories of scholarly
turns of thought.
To the best of my knowledge, what has been essayed here is
the first comprehensive attempt of this kind. None had been
made indeed until the days of Eduard Meyer ; and of the two books
which have since appeared on Moses and which deserve scholarly
mention,1 namely, "Mose und seine Zeit", by Hugo Gressmann
and" Mose ", by Paul Volz completely revised new
edition, 1932), the former did not attempt the task at all, but
(1913), (1907,

exhausted itself in an analysis, which frequently led to entirely

erroneous results, of the various strata of saga-growth ; while the
second, which is valuable and stimulating but too general, and
which does not deal adequately with the basic problems of the
Biblical text, has conceived the task too narrowly. During the
past four decades important contributions have been made to
specific problems of research, which have certainly helped to
display the historical appearance of Moses and his teaching 2 ; I
refer to these in the notes.
Such an account as that attempted here must admittedly renounce
one thing. It cannot undertake to submit a consecutive record of
1 That a scholar of so much importance in his own field as Sigmund Freud could
permit himself to issue so unscientific a work, based on groundless hypotheses, as his
"Moses and Monotheism" (1939), is regrettable.
z Ernst Sellin's interesting works, which, following in the footsteps of Goethe,
support the untenable theory of Moses' " martyrdom " with an astounding com
binative skill, cannot, to my mind, be counted among these.
7
8 MOSES

the course of events ; for what is provided in its sole source, the
Biblical narrative, deals for the greater part with only two incidents:
the Exodus and the camping at Sinai. To these are added an intro
ductory legend regarding the previous history of Moses, and a
number of more or less fragmentary reports of post-Sinaitic events.
It is impossible to produce a historical continuity out ,1f these
disparate saga complexes. Nevertheless, and despite the question
ability of Biblical chronology, the following account could en
deavour to indicate a certain temporal sequence in connection with
Biblical composition. Though this may not afford any pragmatic
connection, it does offer the picture of a sequence of events, in which
a great process of the history of the spirit manifests itself as though
in visible members.
The introductory chapter, "Saga and History", deals with
some of the guiding lines of the method employed in us. :1g the
Biblical text for this purpose. Fuller information will be found
in my books, "Kingdom of God" (German, 2nd ed., 1936),
and " The Teaching of the Prophets" (Hebrew, It may
be enough to mention at this point that I regard the prevailing view
1942).

of the Biblical text, namely, as largely composed of "source

.
documents" ("Yahvtst", "Elohist", etc.), as mcorrect. Rather
.

do I believe of most of the Biblical narratives that, underlying

each single one, there was a reworking of tradition, which, in the
course of the ages, experienced various kinds of treatment under
the influence of differing tendencies. To separate the early from
the late here, and then to advance, far as possible, from the
reworking of tradition to what may be presumed to be tradition,
as

orally preserved for a longer or shorter period of time, is the

task of the Bible scholar as I see it. The first step towards this can
be carried out with relative assurance ; it is necessary to remove,
so to say, the supplementary strata which can be identified as such
through their language and style, content and tendency, by a
process of reduction ; in order to reach those last attainable forms
which are left available for a critical investigation of tradition.
The second part of this task can scarcely be fulfilled save ex hypothesi.
But the hypotheses support one another, and what they jointly
have to offer, namely, the homogeneous image of a man and his
work, confirms all of them together.
I have treated the Hebrew text in its formal constituents more
seriously than has become the general custom in modem exegesis.
In the course of dealing with this text over a period of many
 PREFACE 9
years, I have been ever more strongly reaching the conclusion that
the form frequently, as one might say, rounds off the content, i.e.,
that we are often shown something important by means of it.
The choice of words in a given section, and in this connection
the original meaning of the words and the changes in meaning, as
well as the sentence structure to be found on each occasion, have
to be carefully studied. In particular, however, a special funcion
is exercised, in my view, by the principle of repetition. By the
fact that the identical sounds, words, and sentences recur, whether in
the same passages or in other corresponding ones, our attention is
drawn in part to the specific meaning of single motifs, and in
part to common analogies and completions of meaning as between
them. A more detailed account of all this will be found in the
book "Die Schrift und ihre Verdeutschung" (1935 ), which
contains the essays written by my deceased friend Franz Rosenzweig
and myself with regard to Biblical problems on the occasion of our
translation into German of the Old Testament (of which the first
fifteen volumes out of a total of twenty have appeared under the
title "Die Schrift ).
"

In view of its subject-matter the present book must deal chiefly

with the history of faith. By this, however, something different
from the customary meaning of history of religion has to be under
stood. This latter, in the generally accepted sense, deals with
religious teachings, religious symbols and religious practices as such ;
here, however, all of them, the theological, the symbolical and the
institutional elements alike, have been submerged in the common
life-relations of a community. In shaping the common life of that
community, with all its social, political and spiritual functions, the
faith dealt with here undertook to become flesh in a people. And
that is the subject-matter of this book.
It is a fundamental error to register the faith with which I deal
as simple " Monotheism". Here may be applied what was
written half a century ago by Paul Yorck von Wartenberg to the
philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey, his friend and my master : " I
should consider it desirable for an attempt to be made to disregard
all these categories, Pantheism, Monotheism, Theism, Panentheism.
In themselves they have no religious value whatsoever, being only
formal and of quantitative character. They reflect views of the
world and not views of God, and constitute only the outline of an
intellectual attitude ; and only a formal projection even for tllis."
It is not so decisive whether the existence of a Unity exalted over
IO MOSES

all is assumed in one's consideration, but the way in which this

Unity is viewed and experienced, and whether one stands to it in
an exclusive relationship which shapes all other relations and
thereby the whole order of life. Within the so-called Monotheism
the concrete difference of the images of God and the vital relations
with God made incisions which are sometimes far more important
than the boundaries between a particular " Monotheism " and a
particular " Polytheism ". The universal sun-god of the imperialist
" Monotheism " of Amenhotep IV is incomparably more close to
the national sun-god of the ancient Egyptian Pantheon than to
the God of early Israel, which some have endeavoured to derive
from him.
What is important for us about this God of Moses is the associa
tion of qualities and activities which is peculiar to Him. He is
the One who brings His own out, He is their leader and advance
guard ; prince of the people, legislator and the sender of a great
message. He acts at the level of history on the peoples and
between the peoples. What He aims at and cares for is a people.
He makes His demand that the people shall be entirely " His"
people, a " holy" people ; that means, a people whose entire life
is hallowed by justice and loyalty, a people for God and for the
world. And He is and does all this as a manifesting, addressing
and revealing God. He is invisible and " lets Himself be seen",
whatever may be the natural phenomena or historical process in
which He may desire to let Himself be seen on any given occasion.
He makes His word known to the men He summons, in such a
fashion that it bursts forth in them and they become His " mouth ".
He lets His spirit possess the one whom He has chosen, and in this
and through this lets him mature the work divine. That Moses
experiences Him in this fashion and serves Him accordingly is
what has set that man apart as a living and effective force at all
times ; and that is what places him thus afresh in our own day,
which possibly requires him more than any earlier day has ever
done.
]erustllem, June 1944 MARTIN BUBER

AFTER this work had been fmished, in September 1944, Dr.

Elias Auerbach of Haifa had the kindness to send me the
manuscript of a book he has written on Moses. His work is largely
developed on the hypothesis, equally attractive and questionable
(and deriving from the viewpoint expressed in Eduard Meyer's
 PREFACE II

study "Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstaemme" referred to

above ) , that before the times of Moses there had been a settle
ment of the tribe of Levi in Kadesh, which had been driven
away by the Amalekites until Israel reconquered the oasis under
Moses. Auerbach seems more convincing to me when he dis
cusses historical processes, such as the departure from Kadesh to
Canaan. In any case all this deserves consideration and testing.
The book performs a special service in its attempt to clarify certain
fragmentary and obscure reports in the Bible which, for the greater
part, have not been taken into consideration in my account.
Auerbach has treated the specific elements which belong to the
history of religion in somewhat general fashion. With regard to
certain points he takes a stand against views which I have already
expressed in earlier works ; but it is enough to refer to the relevant
sections of the present work, which almost always deprive the
criticisms of their point.

I thank my friend Dr. Ernst Simon for reading my manuscript

with great attention and for his numerous and valuable remarks.

M . B.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE

PREFACE 5
SAGA AND HISTORY I3
ISRAEL IN EGYPT 20
LEGEND OF THE BEGINNING 33
THE BuRNING BusH 39
DIVINE DEMONISM 56
MOSES AND PHARAOH 60
THE PASSOVER 69
THE WONDER ON THE SEA 74
THE SABBATH So

THE MuRMURERS 86
THE BATTLE 90
JETHRO 94
" UPON EAGLEs' WINGS " IOI
THE COVENANT IIO
THE WORDS ON THE TABLETS 119
THE ZEALous Goo I4I
THE BULL AND THE ARK I47
THE SPmiT I62
THE LAND I72
THE CONTRADICTION I82
BAAL I9I
THE END I96
ADDENDUM : FROM " THE TEACHING OF THE PROPHETS " 202
OTES 207
INDEX 22I
 S AGA AND HIS TORY

I
N order to learn at first hand who Moses was and the kind of
life that was his, it is obviously necessary to study the Biblical
narrative. There are no other sources worthy of serious considera
tion ; comparison of reports, normally the chief means of ascer
taining historical truth, is not possible here. Whatever has been
preserved of Israel's traditions since ancient times is to be found
in this one book. Not so much as the vestige of a chronicle dating
from that period, or deriving from the nations with whom the
Children of Israel established contact on their j ourney from Egypt
to Canaan, has been preserved ; and not the vaguest indication of
the event in question is to be found in ancient Egyptian literature.
The Biblical narrative itself is basically different in character
from all that we usually classify as serviceable historical sources.
The happenings recorded there can never have come about, in the
historical world as we know it, after the fashion in which they are
described. The literary category within which our historical mode
of thinking must classify this narrative is the saga ; and a saga is
generally assumed to be incapable of producing within us any
conception of a factual sequence.
Further, it is customary to accept as a fundamental tenet of the
non-dogmatic Biblical scholarship of our day the view that the
tales in question belong to a far later epoch than the events related,
and that it is the spirit of that later epoch which finds expression
in them ; or, even more, the spirit of the stmdry and various later
periods to which are ascribed the " sources ", the different con
stituent parts of which the story is composed or compiled according
to the prevalent view. Thus Homer, for example, to take an
analogous case, provides us with a picture of the epoch in which he
himself lived rather than of the one in which his heroes did their
deeds.
Assuming that to be the case, just as little could be ascertained
regarding Moses' character and works as is to be ascertained of
Odysseus ; and we would perforce have to rest content with the
possession of a rare testimony to the art with which court writers
commissioned by the Kings of Israel, or the more popular (in the
original sense of the word) prophets of the nation, wrought the
image of its Founder out of material entirely inaccessible to us.
13
14 MOSES

The scholarship of our own epoch, however, has prepared the

way for another and deeper insight into the relation between saga
or legend and history. For example, the philologist Hermann
Usencr indicated (in 1 897) 1 that what finds expression in the saga
is not a post-factum transfiguration of a historical recollection but a
process which follows on the events,"in their footsteps, so to say".
At a more recent date (in 1 93 3 ) 2 the Iranologist Ernst Herzfeld
observed that "saga and the writing of history start out from the
identical point, the event", and that it is the saga which in par
ticular preserves historical memories, "not of what the conse
quences show to be ' historical event ', but of that which roused the
emotions of the men undergoing the experience". It is possible
to formulate even more precisely the nature of the issue involved.
The man of early times met the unplanned unexpected events
which transformed the historical situation of his community at a
single stroke with a fundamental stirring of all the elements in his
being ; a state of affairs properly described by the great Germanist
Jacob Grimm (r8 1 3 ) 3 as"objective enthusiasm". It is a primeval
state of amazement which sets all the creative forces of the soul to
work. What happens is therefore not a mere recasting of the
event perceived by imagination become paramount ; the experi
ence itself is creative. "Periods of a more sensuous religious
emotion", says Usener, "see vast, bright, super-human figures
passing before the victorious troops and bringing death and defeat
to the ranks of the foe". Here the emphasis should be put on the
word "see". The historical wonder is no mere interpretation ;
it is something actually seen. Even the subsequent comprehension
of the flashing lightning-like visions within the consecutive report
of the saga is not arbitrary in character. An organic and organic
ally creative memory is here at work.
That this early saga, close as it is to the time of the event, tends
to assume rhythmical form, can well be understood. It is not due
solely to the fact that enthusiasm naturally expresses itself in
rhythm. Of greater importance is the basic idea characterising tllis
stage of human existence that historical wonder can be grasped by
no other form of speech save that which is rhythmically articulated,
of course in oral expression (a basic concept which is closely associ
ated with the time-old relation between rhythm and magic). This
is sustained by the wish to retain unchanged for all time the memory
of the awe-inspiring things that had come about ; to which end
a transmission in rhythmical form is the most favourable condition.
 SAGA AND HISTORY IS

Occasionally the saga assumes specifically lyrical form ; as in the

Song of Deborah, where the bard mocks and curses as from the
very battle.
Hence alongside the more registrative forms of historical record,
conditioned by the Court and its requirements, which constitute
a stage preliminary to the scientific writing of history, and which
develop from the Royal Lists of the Sumerians to the well-con
structed chronicles of the Biblical Books of Kings, the historical
song and the historical saga exist as spontaneous forms, not depen
dent upon instructions, of a popular preservation by word of
mouth of " historical " events ; such events, that is, as are vital in the
life of the tribe. It is of importance to investigate the sociological
character of these types.
The saga is the predominant method of preserving the memory
of what happens, as long as tribal life is stronger than state organisa
tion. As soon as the latter becomes more powerful, on the other
hand, the unofficial popular forms are overshadowed through the
development of an annalistic keeping of records by order of the
governing authority.
If a saga assumes poetic form in its early stage, it remains
virtually unchanged for a long time, even when it is transmitted
by word of mouth alone ; save that passages may be introduced
which describe the course of events subsequent to the initial incident
giving rise to the saga. Reminiscences not included in the poem
may under certain circumstances condense into a parallel account
so that, as in the case of the story of Deborah, prose is found side
by side with poetry ; or, more correctly speaking, a loosely cadenced
version accompanies the more strictly versified form. If the saga,
however, does not assume this strict form at about the time of the
event, but remains in its " mobile " state, it will be variously
treated by different narrators, without any need to assume a conscious
wish to introduce changes. Differing religious, political and familiar
tendencies, simultaneous and parallel to one another as well as
consecutive, find expression in the treatment, with the result that
a product already current in tl1e tradition is " rectified ", that is,
supplemented or actually transformed in one or another detail.
This continuous process of crystallisation is something entirely
different in character from compilation and welding of elements
from various sources.
Such a state of affairs invests research with the duty of establish
ing a critique of tradition. The student must attempt to penetrate
 16 MOSES

to that original nucleus of saga which was almost contemporary

with the initial event. The attempt is rendered difficult, inter alia,
by the fact that the literature of the ages saw fit to round off the
saga material by supplementary data ; as, for instance, where it
was felt that the unknown or only superficially known birth and
childhood story of the hero must not be left untold.
Here the procedure of investigation must necessarily be reduc
tive. It must remove layer after layer from the images as set
before it, in order to arrive at the earliest of all.
There can be no certainty of arriving by this method at" what
really happened". However, even if it is impossible to reconstitute
the course of events themselves, it is nevertheless possible to recover
much of the manner in which the participating people experienced
those events. We become acquainted with the meeting between
this people and a vast historical happening that overwhelmed it ;
we become conscious of the saga-creating ardour with which the
people received the tremendous event and transmitted it to a
moulding memory. This, however, should certainly not be
understood to mean that the only results we can expect to obtain
lie in the field of group psychology. The meeting of a people
with events so enormous that it cannot ascribe them to its own
plans and their realisation, but must perceive in them deeds per
formed by heavenly powers, is of the genuine substance of history.
In so far as the saga begins near the event, it is the outcome and
record of this meeting.
The critique of tradition involved in the interpretation of the
saga approximates us to the original meeting. At the sight of it
we have to stand without being able to educe an "objective state
of affairs ". We shall not regain a historical nucleus of the saga
by eliminating the function of enthusiasm from it. This fwKtion
is an inseparable element of the fragment of history entrusted
to our study. Yet in every case we can and should test whether
and how the narrative can be connected with and incorporated in
the historical circumstances. Here history cannot be dissevered
from the historical wonder ; but the experience which has been
transmitted to us, the experience of event as wonder, is itself great
history and must be understood out of the element of history ;
it has to be fitted within the frame of the historical. Whether
Sinai was a volcano cannot be determined historically, nor is it
historically relevant. But that the tribes gathered at the" burning
mountain" comprehended the words of their leader Moses as a
 SAGA AND HISTORY 17

message from their God, a message that simultaneously established

a covenant between them and a covenant between Him and their
community, is essentially a historical process, historical in the
deepest sense ; it is historical because it derives from historical
connections and sets off fresh historical connections. When faced
by such tales it is wrong to talk of a " historization of myth " ;
it might be preferable to describe them as a mythisation of
history, while remembering that here, unlike the concept familiar
in the science of religion, myth means nothing other than the
report by ardent enthusiasts of that which has befallen them.
And it may very well be doubted whether, in the last resort,
the report of an unenthusiastic chronicler could have come closer
to the truth. There is no other way of understanding history
than the rational one ; but it must start off with the overcoming
of the restricted and restrictive ratio, substituting for it a higher,
more comprehensive one.
However, two factors should be emphasized as having contri
buted greatly to the strength of the historical content of the Moses
saga.
To begin with, the central figures of the Bible saga are not, as
in so many hero-tales, merged in or amalgamated with persons
belonging to mere mythology ; the data regarding their lives have
not been interwoven with stories of the gods. Here all the glori
fication is dedicated solely to the God who brings about the events.
The human being acting under the God's orders is portrayed
in all his untransfigured humanity. The wonder-working staff in
his hand does not transform him into a possessor of superhuman
powers ; when once he uses that staff unbidden, he is subject to
judgment. And when he descends from Sinai with radiant face,
the radiance is not a shining fortl1 from his own being, but only the
reflection of some higher light. This withdrawing of the human
being from the mythical element steeps the tale in an atmosphere of
august sobriety, a dry atmosphere, one might almost say, which
frequently permits a glimpse of a historical nucleus.
Besides, precise inspection goes to show that the early narrator
of the deeds of Moses aimed not at beautiful or instructive individual
sagas, but at a continuity of events. It is true that in the report of
the journey through the wilderness, for example, we meet repeatedly
with episodes ; but they are introduced in a connection which
obviously derives not from later harmonising literary tendencies
(like the Book of Joshua, for instance) but from a powerful
!8 MOSES

primitive emotion which is the passionate recollection of a sequence

of unheard-of events. Nor yet docs the relation found here appear
to show anything of the poetic composition of the epos ; it is the
practically related sequence of the itinerary. The latter may possibly
have been worked up from an inexact or mutilated tradition to a
state of questionable completeness ; maybe the associated temporal
sequence has been transformed by didactic aims and number
symbolism ; but the origin, the memory of a journey in the course
of which the Nation came into being, and the zealous purpose of
preserving on record the stations of that journey, has remained
unobliterated. In the literature of the world the specifically his
torical can undoubtedly be found only where the principle of
original connection is to be met with ; here it cannot be denied.
All this leads to a threefold critical task which, difficult as it
may be, nevertheless seems in some degree to be capable of accom
plishment. It is necessary to draw a distinction between saga
produced near the historical occurrences, the character of which is
enthusiastic report, and saga which is further away from the his
torical event, and which derives from the tendency to complete
and round off what is already given. Therefore it is necessary to
establish a further distinction, within the former, between the
original components and their subsequent treatment. Finally, it is
also necessary to penetrate to the historical nucleus of the saga as
far as possible. Naturally it is impossible to produce a coherent
historical picture in this way, which is the only one scientifically
permissible ; yet we are entitled to hope for the ascertaining of
genuine historical outlines. The distinction drawn should not be
understood in the sense of elimination ; as we have seen, the saga
element too, in so far as it is characterized by closeness to history, is
historically important, being a document of the reception of what
befell in the minds of those whom it befell. Yet we may go
further ; what was added later is also of importance for us. Even
the men who round off and supplement do what they do not
arbitrarily but under the sustained urge of the primeval impulse.
Tradition is by its nature an uninterrupted change in form ; change
and preservation function in the identical current. Even while the
hand makes its alterations, the ear hearkens to the deeps of the past ;
not only for the reader but also for the writer himself does the old
serve to legitimize the new. The Moses who had his being long
ago is properly expanded by the one who has come into being in
the course of long ages. It is our aim to come nearer to the former
 SAGA AND HISTORY 19

by our testing and selective work on the text ; the latter is given to
us directly. We must hold both in view without confusing them ;
we must comprehend the brightness of the foreground and gaze
into the dark deeps of history.
At the same time we must bear in mind that the forces which
formed the saga are in essence identical with those which reigned
supreme in history ; they are the forces of a faith. For this faith,
which is in character a history faith, a faith relating largely to
historical time as such, has not subsequently treated a transmitted
material ; it cannot be imagined as absent from this material. The
transmitted events are steeped in it ; the persons who furthered the
events believed in it, did in it what had to be done, and experienced
in it what had to be experienced. The research of our day has
reached the point, in the course of its radical doubts and queries, of
providing fresh ground for an old certainty : that the Biblical tales
of the early Israelitic days report an early Israelitic faith. Whatever
the mixture of fact and legend may be in the events related, the
indwelling story of faith which inheres in them is authentic in all
its main lines. What we learn of the faith determining the active
and the receptive life of those persons is not, as scholarship supposed
for some time, a " projection " of a later religious development
against the surface of the earlier epoch, but is, in essence, the
religious content of the latter. And it is this faith which shaped
the saga that was near to history and at subsequent stages also
shaped the more distant saga.
In its character this saga is " sacred legend ", since the relation
to God of tl1e men of whom it tells is a fundamental constituent.
But this history, too, is in its character " sacred" history,
because the people who work and suffer in it work and suffer as
they do in virtue of their relationship to their God.
 ISRAEL IN EGYPT
A CCORDING to the Biblical account the entry of the Children
.fl.of Israel into Egypt, and their departure 430 years later, were
brought about by two Egyptianized Israelites. These had both
been accepted in Pharaoh's court, one as Grand Vizier and the
other as the adopted son of a princess 4 ; and both had received
Egyptian names, one from a King, the other from a King's daughter.
The narrative stresses the cotmection between the two when it
relates how at the Exodus a Moses himself brought forth the bones
of Joseph, namely the mummy-coffin which is designated in the
Hebrew text, b assuredly not without intention, by a word bearing
the meaning of a coffin nowhere else, but used for that Holy Ark
which was the symbol of the covenant established between YHVH
and Israel by the words of Moses.
We know of Semites who, at the time when the Tell el Amarna
correspondence was being conducted, were high Egyptian officials.
One of them was Minister for Syrian affairs and responsible for the
granaries. We hear that in time of famine he provided Palestine
and Phcenicia with grain. Another, referred to in an inscription
on his rock-grave as the " highest mouth of the whole land " , is
shown on the wall-paintings in the royal grave, receiving the reward
of the golden chain d and driving through the streets of the residence
city in a two-horse carriage. Even at earlier periods we meet
with Semitic notables ; especially at the courts of the Semitic
Hyksos kings, certain of whom had themselves adopted Egyptian
names and, like the legitimate Pharaohs, called themselves sons of
the sun-god.
The analogies to motifs of the Biblical narrative are not in them
selves of importance, however ; what is important is the historical
relationship which finds expression in both sources.
As far as our knowledge goes, Ancient Egypt was not merely
the starting point of what we call civilization ; it was also the first
and, on such a scale at least, sole successful attempt to chill and
congeal, in the most precise sense of the word, the life and spirit of
Man, who had already started out on the journey of his history.
The remark made by the Egyptian priests to Herodotus, that
Egypt was a gift of the Nile, can be fully appreciated only when
a
Ex. x:ii.i, 19. Gen. I, 26. Cf. Ibid., xli, 40. d Cf. Ibid., .p. Cf. Ibid., 43
20
 ISRAEL IN EGYPT 21

the tremendous burden which this gift imposed upon those who
settled in that country is realized. In order that the risen river
might perform its fructifying work in adequate measure, without
either harmful deficiency or even more harmful excess, the powers
of nature had to be checked and regulated by a comprehensive
system of dams, sluices, dykes and water-basins; a system which
could be established and maintained only by dint of nothing less
than the uttermost energy of the ages. Homo Jaber, Man as pro
ducer of useful objects, was already an ancient when Egyptian
history began; here, however, he for the first time became familiar
with the character of a perfectly organized duty of collective work,
which ascribed no greater value to the foot of the living human being
than to the water-wheel which that foot turned. It is worthy of
remark that even the demons, which night by night draw the bark
of the sun-god through the underworld, are organized in " troops".
The taskmaster with the whip, whom we meet in the Biblical
account of the slave-period of Israel in Egypt and whom, when we
now wander down the bank of the Nile, we can still observe above
his toiling troop, is only a symbol of this collective duty ; without
which the very pyramids would never have come into being. No
less a symbol was the Pharaoh himself, who in his own person, as
it says in a pyramid text, incorporates "the first wave of the high
water". "Scorpion", a king of hoary antiquity, is already shown
digging an irrigation ditch with his own hands. And just as the
King "conducts the supply of all living", so he exercises a strict,
unremittent supervision over all landed property, so that all
landed property merges in that of the King. "The land", as
the Bible expresses it in full accordance with the historical reality,
" became Pharaoh's a ; and every worker-family was left with
"

just as much of the yield of the soil as was required for bare sub
sistence. As the pyramid culminates in its apex, so the Egyptian
state culminates of almost mathematical necessity in the Crown,
the "red flame", which is addressed in the pyramid texts as living
Godhead. In the last resort everybody received from the King
the function which made him a man. All customs were bound up
with the strictly regulated rites conducted daily by the King,
through which the life of the country was maintained; it was
therefore vitally important to preserve the customs unaltered.
Here, unlike the no less conservative China, State did not stand
vis-a-vis village community with its own customs and institutions.
Gen. xlvii, 20.
22 MOSES

The State tolerated here the family, to be sure, since the latter
submitted and adapted itself entirely to the State and its needs ;
but it did not tolerate society by the side of the State. The perfect
economic and political centralization which characterized Ancient
Egypt has led certain students to speak of it in terms of State
socialism. In his fine book, " The Dawn of Conscience ", Breasted
has shown how the first ideas of social justice developed in Egypt.
This, however, was also a centralized justice, which took up the
whole field for itself and left no room for individual freedom.
The tendency to persist was operative in Egypt with a degree of
exclusiveness which has been achieved by no other civilization. In
its double expression-the wisdom of knowing what should persist,
and the art of ensuring that it should persist-it produced a grue
somely consistent world in which there was every kind of ghost ;
but in which each ghost carried out the function assigned to it.
Stupendous as the technical achievement is in economy and
politics, this civilization creates most where it errs most ; where,
reaching beyond the limits of the human, it aspires even to the
conquest of Death. The most precious spoil of decay has to be
won back. In order that the genius of the dead King might be
retained for the benefit of the land instead of roaming about and
producing evil, the people fashion him his never-decaying abode,
the mummy ; and in order to shelter it from any body-snatcher,
hundreds of thousands of toilers raise the pyramids in the course of
decades of effort. The pyramid, so to say, links the royal soul with
the heaven-world into which it of all souls is taken up. This,
however, is not sufficient assurance either. Since the genius. in its
new horne may still feel itself threatened, a statue is carved for it
out of the granite and diorite as a second dwelling ; and there it
enters. Of these statues the seated figures are far and away the
most striking ; these persons clearly sit never to rise again ; nowhere
else has Art ever achieved such a sitting. Anybody who sees it
learns the greatest effort made by human beings to give secular
duration to a spiritual substance by introducing form into a material
substance.
Yet even this is not everything. The soul must face certain
dangers in the spheres of the gods ; and in order to do so success
fully it is armed with magic. But in the history of Mankind there
are two differing kinds of magic to be found. By this I do not
mean " white " or " black " magic ; that is a distinction which
docs not touch the root of the matter. On the one hand there is a
 ISRAEL IN EGYPT 23
magic of spontaneity, where a person goes out to meet the chaotic
element with his full collected being, and overpowers it by doing
what is unforeseen and unforeseeable to himself, even though he
may use transmitted utterances for the purpose and with sovereign
freedom. On the other hand, there is a magic of formula ; fixed
formulas, fixed rhythms, fixed gestures are all prepared, and nothing
more is necessary than their correct application. This second kind
can be described as technical magic. It was the kind which, in
Egypt, was given to the dead to accompany his journey to the
heaven world or the underworld. Obviously no spontaneous
behaviour, no improvisation could be expected of him. All he
had to do was to recite the requisite incantations, and he was secure ;
in fact it was enough to write the formulas on the mummy-coffm
or, at a later date, to insert a copy of the " Book of the Dead", and
the deceased in the Beyond was protected from the Powers that
might menace him there. The texts read themselves, as it were,
thus providing the dead with what is desired therein on his behalf
or reported about him.5 Sometimes they demand nothing less
than that the King equipped with them should supplement the
sun-god himself, and rule the world in his stead. That this can be
required by one King after the other, without their interfering one
with the other, is an important feature in this logic of the absurd.
Here all contradictions continue : yet the completeness of a teclmique
which fixes every detail takes the sting from the contradiction,
and everything is compatible with everything else.
It would be incorrect to contrast this civilization, based as it is
on the maintenance of fixed forms, with the Semitic element as
such. The latter obviously played a part in the origins of the
Egyptian nation during the prehistoric period after a fashion
unknown to us but, as can be concluded from the Semitic com
ponents of the Egyptian language, to no small degree ; and the
civilization of Babylon, Egypt's great rival, a civilization little less
conservative though pointing in quite a different direction, de
veloped largely through the combination of Sumerians and Semites.
The factor, with whose singular contact, now attractive, now repel
lent, yet in the last resort antithetical, with Egypt we are concerned
here, comprehended only part of the Semites on the one hand,
and on the other shows not irrelevant non-Semitic constituents.
This factor is found in those hordes known by the designation
Habiri or Khapiru, whom we fmd mentioned in numerous docu
ments between the middle of the Third and the end of the Second
 MOSES

Millenium B.C.E. They are found in varying social structures and

political constellations, first in Southern Mesopotamia, thereafter
amid the peoples of Anatolia, then in Syria and Palestine, and
fmally in Egypt.8 It has justly been pointed out that the migration
-which took place assuredly not as a direct mass-migration but as
one of numerous advances and withdrawals, and certainly not in one
defmite mass movement after the other, but more frequently in an
uncertain and wavering groping and adaptation of large and small
groups--corresponds geographically in some measure to the route
of that clan whose history is related in the Book of Genesis as the
story of the " Fathers" oflsrael. The suggestion that the Hebrews,
to whom this clan belonged, are more or less identical with the
Habiru, has come to be regarded as highly probable by the over
whelming majority of students; it has even become for them a
virtual certainty. It also seems likely that an association between
the two names may be assumed, no matter whether Habiru-in this
regard opinions differ-means unsettled, rovers, or (less probably)
comrades, confederates (both of which would apply to the hordes
equally well), or something else ; nor whether Ivrim, Hebrews,
means wanderers or yondermen, those who come from beyond the
Euphrates or the Jordan; nor yet whether the relation between
the two names derives from actual relationship or only from a
Hebrew or Canaanite folk etymology which adapted the foreign
names to the local language. It is more important to compare the
report of Archa:ology during recent decades on the Habiru with
the Bible narrative of "Abraham the Hebrew" a and his immediate
descendants. Certain essential characteristics are found to be
common to both; but we must never forget the high level of
civilization represented by the " Fathers" of Israel within the
development of semi-nomadism.
Habiru means not a tribe or a people but a human type, in
accordance with its particular way of life and peculiar relation with
the surrounding world ; yet the name has a decided tendency to
evolve into an ethnic designation. 7 This human type is composed
of members of various groups of nations, among which the Semites
(who presumably gave the first urge to the migrations) are for the
greater part dominant. They are people without a country, who
have dissociated themselves from their national connections and
unite in common journeys for pasture and plunder ; semi-nomadic
herdsmen they are, or freebooters if opportunity offers. They
Gen. xiv. 13.
 ISRAEL IN EGYPT 25

seemingly (we have to use analogy in order to complete what is

known to us) wander to and fro in the wildemess with their flocks
of sheep and goats, they hunt wherever they can do so ; they con
duct a fleeting form of cultivation with primitive tools wherever
they find suitable sites ; they pitch their tents near towns with
which they exchange their produce ; but they also endeavour to
establish themselves more securely. If they succeed in any enter
prise of this kind, the leaders of the band may quite conceivably
rise to ducal rank ; or they may temporarily become so powerful
that the Egyptian administrative officials in the province of Syria
and Palestine, for example, have to consider whether to make
common cause with them against the Canaanite city-states or
vice versa. If a warrior band cannot advance on its own, it tem
porarily becomes a mercenary body for some party waging war.
If it is broken up, the individual members gladly accept service in
public works as overseers, scribes, etc. ; they are given preference
on account of their qualifications and achievements, and rise to
leading positions. What this type of life requires is a " particular
combination of the pastoral with the military virtues 8 ; but it
"

also calls for a peculiar mixture of adaptability and the urge to

independence. The civilizations into which they penetrate are
their opportunity ; they are also their danger.
The view the great civilizations held of the nomads, whom
they apparently did not differentiate from the semi-nomads, can be
seen, for instance, in a Sumerian hymn (dating from about 2000
B.C.E. ) to the god of the West, wherein reference is made to the
Amorite of the Western hills , " who knows no submission, who eats
raw flesh, who has no house in his lifetime, who does not bury his
dead kinsfolk ". In an Egyptian document, presumably centuries
older, we read " Here is the miserable stranger . ... He does not
dwell in the same spot, his feet are always wandering. From the
days of Horus (i.e. since time immemorial) he battles, he does not
conquer, and is not conquered " . Here can be heard the deep
animosity of the settled State form of life towards the unstable
elements of the wilderness, yet also the knowledge of their indomit
ability. And soon after the period of the king with whom this
record deals, we read in the " Admonitions of a Sage ", that
describe the troubles of a period of decline (meaning the middle of
the Third Millenium B.C.E. ) : " The alien people from without
are entered into Egypt ; the aliens are skilled in the works of the
land of the marshes (the delta)." The sense of antithesis can
26 MOSES

develop to a metaphysical dualism among the settled population,

as in ancient Iran, where they saw the Powers of Light on their
side, and the Powers of Darkness on the side of the Turanians
(which, like Habiru, is no ethnic term); and who believed that
the war which had flamed from the first progenitors of both would
end in the complete victory of the good principle over the evil
one. Unhappily we do not know how the Turanians regarded
the situation. Still, we do know tlnt the nomads are accustomed
to look down upon "the peasant tied to his clods, and the cowardly
townsfolk, who seek to protect themselves behind walls and who
serve a lord as slaves 9
"

The relationship between the nomad and the settled civilizations

is a recurrent one in human history. In the Babylonian kingdom
in the last quarter of the Third Millenium B.C.E., the "Wall of the
West " was erected as protection against the nomad Amorites.
In Egypt the "Wall of the Ruler" was erected at the beginning of
the Second Millenium B.C.E., "in order not to permit the foreign
hordes to come down again to Egypt, so that they should beg
after their fashion for their cattle to drink" (clearly an ironical
description, implying that they might begin in that way but would
afterwards expand). So in China during the Third Century B.C.E.,
the Great Wall was erected to protect the Central Empire from the
irruption of the nomads. The name Hiung-Nu (Htms) applied to
the latter resembles the terms Habiru and Tura in having no
ethnic character. It is extended to the nomadic bands of the north
in general. Related to them are those Khirgis Kazaks whose
original structure shows a particular resemblance to that of the
Habiru, as appears to be indicated by their name. "Khirgis "
means apparently something like " wandering, roaming ", while
Kazak means, according to an etymology that seems convincing
to me,10 "separated from the tribe, from the horde, outlier" ; it
is the name given to both human beings and animals who have left
their community. The union of such freebooters produced the
clans one of which founded the Ottoman Empire. They are
condottieri, who, as we know of the Habiru, may become con
querors and kings or else have to negotiate and submit to some
State system as vassals, wardens of the marches or mercenaries.
We find a striking analogy to the name Khirgis Kazak in the
Bible. The prayer 11 to be recited on the occasion of offering first
fruits begins a with a formula which appears to me even older than
Deut. xxvi, s.
 ISRAEL IN EGYPT 27

the remaining archaic constituents of the prayer. Its alliterative form

is clearly intended to impress it on the generations of the Nation as
particularly important : arami obed abi, "a straying Aramean (was)
my father ". This, like the word Kazak, is "stock-raising " language.
The same word "obed " is used fbr describing the sheep which
has wandered from the flock ; in which connection it must be
borne in mind that when it is desired to vilify a Habiru he is called
a runaway dog. 12 In a corresponding fashion Abraham, using
what appears to be an ancient formula, tells the Philistine king in
the Genesis narrative a that the Elohim, the Divine Powers, had
" made him stray from his father's house ", that is, had made an
obed, a Kazak, out of him ; though his cultural type stood incom
parably higher than that of the average Khirgis. In the same
fashion, although in a different sense, might have spoken the grand
father of a North Syrian King of the middle of the Second Mil
lenium B.C.E., who had apparently raised himself from freebooter
leader to town lord and whose name " Tettish the Habiru " has
justly been compared to the Biblical " Abraham the Hebrew " ;
which is found, characteristically enough, in a chapter retaining
wellnigh chronicle style, where Abraham appears as the leader of
a band trained in war and battle. It seems that the Habiru also
had their ilani, their gods. To be sure, it is probable that the term
!ani IJabiri, which is met with in Hittite documentary sources,
means not " Gods of the Habiru " but " Habiru gods " ; that is, a
special category of gods 13 who constitute in the divine world of
the gods exactly what the Habiru constitute on earth, namely,
nomadic gods, a wandering god-host. Yet since tl1e express
designation " gods of th..e Habiru folk " also occurs, it may be
assumed that the gods which were so designated in the Hittite
cultural world into which the Habiru penetrated were the ones
which the latter honoured in tl1eir ilani : gods who themselves
wandered, and who led the wanderings of the human bands
dependent on them. The Biblical Abraham certainly had no
plurality of gods in mind when, in order to make himself quite
understandable to the Philistines, he used the word Elohim in the
plural sense, which the form of the word retains. In the religion
of Israel the term Elohim, as expressed in our own range of concepts,
means the totality of divine forces or the divine substance, regarded
as a single person. Abraham's god, however, is a wanderer like
himsel He has no fixed spot, no " house " ; he wanders hither
Gen. xx, IJ.
 MOSES

and thither; he takes his folk and leads them wherever he will ;
he moves on with them from one place to another 14.
Certain geographers view the countries in which the early
civilizations developed as vast oases; and this certainly applies to
Egypt. That the wanderers of the wildernesses or steppes should
yearn to penetrate thither at the sight of such an oasis is as under
standable as the fact that the settled populations endeavour to repulse
them. But the emotion of the peasants is simple, while that of
the nomads is ambivalent. They desire to settle here ; yet some
thing within them feels that their freedom, their independence, the
social forms suited to them, their highest values, arc all threatened.
Historically considered this is not a struggle, as one tends lightly to
assume, between a higher and a lower stage of development; for
as compared with hoe cultivation and as an iudirect exploitation of
the products of the soil, the domestication of animals is a no less
important advance than the economy of the plough. The stable
oasis society, however, with its State trends and closed culture,
fights against a fluctuating cultural element which, its small units
linked by a strong collective soli'darity, organizes itself in closer
tribal association solely for war or cult activities, and recognizes
personal authority solely in so far as the bearer of the latter evinces
it by his direct effect. It has correctly been said 15 that this "fluid"
character of the social constitution is the main prerequisite for the
well-being of a nomad people, and that it is this " which leads
them to an inevitable conflict at every contact with a settled people".
Here the dynastic principle faces the charismatic one; a thoroughly
centralist principle faces one of primitive federalism. State law
faces tribal law; and beyond this a civilization established in rigid
forms faces a fluid element which rarely condenses into a compre:..
hensive structural form of life and work. The tradition of the
pyramid faces that of the camp fire. It is precisely when the
nomads or semi-nomads receive the alien State form in their power,
and take possession of leadership, that they fall most rapidly under
its sway. A daring student 16 has endeavoured to identify the great
Egyptian queen Hatshepsut with the princess who, according to
the Biblical account, saved and brought up the infant Moses.
Long after the driving out of the Hyksos (who, again like the Habiru,
were composed of varying ethnic clements, though in this case
partly non-Semitic, and containing strongly nomadic constituents)
she praises herself for having restored what they destroyed, and
.tccuses them of having overthrown what had been established.
 ISRAEL IN EGYPT 29
Such a charge is assuredly not based on arbitrary deeds of destruc
tion, but on the heavy battles which ended with the retreat of the
invaders to Palestine and Syria. To all appearances the Hyksos
had in general adapted themselves to the Egyptian civilization,
and proceeded with its development. But after the foundering of
their undertaking they were not in a position to renew their own
form of existence, and obviously collapsed into their component
units.
Where the nomad peoples persist in their independence and
their separate manner of life, they constitute a singular and im
portant cultural element, which exercises a reviving and renewing
effect on the surroundings. It has been justly remarked already of
the cattle-raisers of ancient times 17 that their historical function
can scarcely be over-estimated. Likewise where part of a nomad
people becomes settled and thus establishes stable forms, as in the
great South Arabian city civilizations, the fluid element seems to
continue to lave them with a force that preserves their vitality.
Nomadism has the effect of producing culture in the precise sense
where it neither needs to fit itself into a dominant civilization nor
overruns one after the other, but gains room and time enough to
establish one of its own. Under such conditions they, the nomads,
continue to develop traditional elements, deriving from their
period of wandering, in notable fashion. The descendants of the
Berbers, it is true, raised Spanish agriculture to a high level ; but
in their art they developed motifs which they had already been
employing in the carpet weaving of their nomad days. The
essential inner cultural development of the nomad peoples some
times falls 1 8 during the specific period before they enter history.
The tradition is expanded to a great cultural series only after the
decisive conquests and, as is demonstrated by the Saracenic civiliza
tion, the greatest example during the Christian era, with an exten
sive co-operation of the defeated indigenous inhabitants. Yet the
elemental forces fmding expression therein derive from the nomads
who, after the conquest in this as in analogous cases, continue to
maintain an inner nucleus at least of the hereditary forms of life
and society. The Greeks, whose forefathers came to Hellas " as
a nomad or semi-nomadic shepherd people ",19 should not be taken
as an example to the contrary. The particularism of the small
States, which was the weakness of the Greek commonwealth and
the strength of the Greek culture, permitted no small proportion
of the essence and structure of the original clans to persist.
30 MOSES

A renowned sociologist has justly pointed out 20 that in all these

peoples their way of life is more than a form of livelihood ; it is
a kind of faith. This makes it possible to understand the problems
they must face when they penetrate into lands of stable civilizations.
We must regard Israel's sojourn in Egypt against this background
in order to comprehend the special importance of the events.
Though they were already something more than the typical
nomads, the Israel of the period of growth, viewed from the view
point of world history, nevertheless shared the structure and fate of
the nomadic element.
In the remarkable fourteenth chapter of Genesis, which was
long regarded as a late product of fantasy but in which the strong
nucleus of tradition is again beginning to be recognized, Abraham,
hitherto a peaceful semi-nomad, takes the field against invaders or
marauders at the head of a band of warriors. 21 The band which
he commands consists in part of allies and in part of " initiated " 22
who have grown up in the community led by him, and who were
trained for peace and war alike. They are called " bondsmen "
too, but also appear to bear to Abraham, who in other tales is
regarded by the natives a as one " exalted by God " or a " godly
leader ", the relation of a cult community to their chief. Certain
students tend to regard the Abraham of this chapter as a different
person, because he appears in so different a fashion here. Yet this
unit of livestock raisers and condottieri, this band who journey to
and fro with their tents and herds but are always capable and ready
for battle, clearly correspond to the type of the f.Iabiru. The
Biblical report, however, lays special stress on two particular char
acteristics, assuredly with the purpose of contrasting Abraham and
his folk with the normal type. Abraham finds it important not to
be regarded as a mercenary b ; and he finds it important to identify
the God of his community, who leads their wanderings, with that
particular one among the gods of the settled people who is recog
nized by them as the " Most High God c . There, as here, this
"

God is the " founder " or " procreator 2 3 of Heaven and Earth ;
"

and both here and there he is likewise the one who places the foes
of his faithful ones in their hands, who remains present to them in
their campaigns. Both of these facts, the warlike co-operation
with the natives without mercenary submission and the effort to

Gen. xxiii, 6. b Gen. xiv, 23.
Ibid., verse 22, which repeats the name of God given in verse 19, but extends it
emphatically.
 ISRAEL IN EGPYT 31

induce the natives to recognize the God accompanying him as the

one they themselves mean, while simultaneously, by giving Him
the name unknown to them, preserving his own superiority-these
two facts together produce that singular maintenance of distance
which we also meet in the other tales of Abraham. It is in this
identical manner that he negotiates 0 with the Hittites to purchase
the grave, which should under no conditions be acquired otherwise
than at the full value of the land ; while naturally not forgetting
even for a single instant that " this land ", the whole of it, has been
promised him by his God.
The same is indicated by the thrice-repeated account b of the
abduction of the tribal mother. It derives from the conception
that the particular blessing power or blessing substance, 24 which had
descended from Heaven to Earth, rests not only on the heads of
the fathers but also in the wombs of the mothers. The fathers
must transfer the blessing specifically to the sons ere they die,
whereas the mothers transmit it naturally to those born of them.
It is this that the alien rulers, Egyptian and Philistine, vainly en
deavour to make their own. And for this reason it is so strongly
insisted on here c that women of one's own tribe must be espoused
in order to concentrate the blessing power and enhance its potency ;
whereas during the ensuing period Judah marries a Canaanite
woman, Joseph an Egyptian and Moses a Midianite without
Scripture fmding any cause for censure in their doing so. The
sacral distance maintained in ancient times, a tradition of which has
been preserved in the stories of the patriarchs, grew less and less
rigid.
What such tales preserve is the memory of a phenomenon which
has played an important part in the peculiar existence of Israel.
The apparently instinctive tendency of semi-nomads, to settle
without sacrificing tribal freedom and tribal faith, has crystallized
here after a remarkable fashion in the history of the " Fathers ", of
whom Isaac already shows strong peasant tendencies whereas
Jacob again reverts to the semi-nomadic type. What is it that
marks out this single J:labiru wave, or whatever else we may wish
to call it, from all the others ? Presumably the fact that this
" Israel " understood as a divine charge something that was poten
tial within him, and that it felt this too realistically to be able to
satisfy its conscience through a purely symbolic fulfilment of that
Gen. xxiii. b Gen. x ii, 12-20 ; xx ; xxvi, 1-17.
Gen. xxiv, 3 f., cf. xxvii, 46.
32 MOSES

charge. This is the deep-seated sentiment which finds poetic

expression in Balaam' s prophecy a : " Behold a people ('am) that
dwells alone and amid the nations (goyim) is not accounted " ;
which should perhaps be understood in the sense that it is pre
dominantly a people in the social sense, a community of people
who live with ('im) one another, and as such stand over against all
the others, who are predominantly people or nation in the physical
sense (the word goy deriving from a root meaning " body " ) .
The story o f Joseph tells something analogous, since according t o
i t Joseph takes steps for his brethren t o receive a more or less
autonomous separate territory for settlement. The individual may
be a vizier ; but the clan remains closed and separate. This one
band among the wandering " Hebrews " enters the Egyptian land
of culture as a unit. It receives and moulds the Egyptian influence
as a unit ; it suffers slavery as a unit ; and as a unit it departs from
slavery to freedom. This part of the " fluid " element enters into
the sphere of set forms and maintains itself there, apparently not
without a measure of degeneration. Yet under the surface of this
degeneration it grows to a might which begins to manifest itself in
the liberation and after.
Towards the end of the speech summing up the Exodus, which
is set in Moses' mouth in the first section of the Book of Deuter
onomy, we find b : " Or has (at any other time) Godhead en
deavoured to come to take Him a people from the midst of a
people ? " This " from the midst ", which might more precisely
be rendered " from the bowels ", characterizes the situation
accurately. As the " Children of Israel ", as a congeries of clans,
they came to Egypt c ; in the midst of the Egyptian people they
grew into a people whose God " comes to take him ". Here the
word goy is used for " people " . Scripture is concerned here with
the very body of the people. Yet when the God of this people
speaks of it for the first time as his own at the Burning Bush, as
told in Exodus," he uses the word 'am. In this word 'ammi, " my
People ", recurring at the beginning and the end of God's words,
which unites the " with " of human community with the heavenly
" my ", the mystery of the nature and charge of Israel has found its
most elemental formulation.
Num . xxiii, 9. b Deut. iv, 34. Gen. xlvi, 8. 4 Ex. iii, 7, IO.
 LEGEND OF THE BEGINN ING

W
E do not know when the tribes of Israel (or, as many scholars
think, part of them, as against whom the balance remained in
Canaan) came down to Egypt and settled in the Land of Goshen
in the eastern part of the Delta ; nor when they departed and
whetl1er they did so in more than a single wave. Correspondingly
we do not know when the Exodus took place. Chronologies both
Biblical and non-Biblical, archa:ological fmdings, and computa
tions on the part of the historians all contradict one another.
Various periods between the middle of the fifteenth and end of
the tl1irteenth centuries B.C. come into consideration. The two
named are available for narrower choice ; but our knowledge is
inadequate for decision. In the course of modem Biblical studies
first one and then the other view gains the upper hand. For a
long time it was believed that Rameses II, who reigned during the
first three-quarters of the thirteenth century, had to be identified
with the Pharaoh " who knew not Joseph ",a which is supported
inter alia by the name of one of the " store cities " built by the
Israelites. b More recently 25 there has been a tendency to give
preference to the earlier period, which again has been replaced
during the last few years 26 by a renewed preference for the later
epoch. There is much that speaks for an arrival of the tribes in
Egypt as early as 1700, that is, even before the Hyksos rule ; and
despite all objections certain historical factors seem to me to point
to Thutmose III, the spouse and rival of Hatshepsut, who reigned
in the first half of the fifteenth century, as the " Pharaoh of the
Oppression ". In that case the Exodus would belong to the time
of his successor. It seems probable that the change in the attitude
of the Egyptians to Israel commenced in the period following the
overthrow of the Hyksos. Yet it is impossible to deny consider
able weight to the arguments in favour of the later date, which
are drawn from the historical changes in the relations between
Egypt and Palestine. In any case there can be no doubt as to the
historicity of the servitude of Israel. It has justly been pointed
out, 27 that no people would care to invent so ignominious a chapter
of its own history.

Ex. i, 8. b Jbid., II.

33
34 MOSES

Moreover, the report of the Enslaving a is unmistakably main

tained at an exalted poetic tone. " And as they oppress him the
more so docs he increase and so does he spread forth " b is not
chronicle but poesy ; and the same is indicated by well-weighed
repetitions, like the rhyming reiteration " with rigour " c or the
fivefold repeated and hammered " servitude, bondage " in the
same two verses. Here the ignominy has obviously been raised
to a theme of folksong, as prelude to the story of the Exodus,
ever enchanting the audience ; the :>tory which is constructed
round the recurrent leitmotif that the God of Israel has liberated
his people from the " servitude " of Egypt in order to take them
into his own " service ". " Go, serve ", cries Pharaoh for instance
to his Hebrew overseers a ; and in the course of the same speech,
after his mind has begun to waver, he repeats to Moses three times,
and yet again at the decisive hour/ that they should go and serve
YHVH. This epic with its repeated transition into hymn must be
grasped after its own fashion and according to its own impulses,
in order to understand what this legend of tribulation has meant
for the generations of the people from those who composed it
down to those who, in our own later day, recount it at the Passover
Evening, that most historical of all historical festivals of the human
race.
It is evident that the report grew into a legend in the mouths
of the reporting generations. The motif of the slaying of the
children has nothing to do with the story of the hard labour ; it
bluntly contradicts the logic of the narrative (slave economy
naturally aims at an increase in the number of working hands) ;
it has clearly come into being through the motif of the saving of
the boy Moses. And this as well is truly a motif of legend. We
know a similar case in the often-quoted cuneiform text wherein
the great Semitic king Sargon of Akkad (about 2600 B.C.E. ) relates
that his mother bore him in hiding and placed him in the stream
in a reed box, the door of which she sealed with pitch ; that the
stream had not risen and he was afterwards taken out of it by an
irrigator and brought up as a gardener, until the goddess Ishtar
came to love him and brought him to the throne. Of Sargon we
know the fact that he was a gardener in his youth. Comparative
mythology can adduce a whole series of motifs analogous to that
of Moses, 28 and even permits the conclusion " that there is no
Ex. i, n-14. b Ibid., 12. Ibid., 13-14. d Ex. v, 1 8 .
Ex. x, 8, II, 24. I Ex. xii, J I .
 LEGEND OF THE BEGINNING 35

justification for believing that any of these heroes were real persons,
or that any stories of their exploits had a historical foundation " .20
Instead it should be realized how the passion of tradition, which is
a passion for reshaping, fills gaps in a transmitted biography by
carefully drawing on the treasury of legendary motifs common to
early humanity.
Yet what is most important of all here, as in all forms of
comparative study in the humanities, as far as these wish to give
their due to concrete historical facts, is, after having analysed the
common elements, to restore the individual elements to their
relationships, and thereafter to inquire into the meaning to be
attributed to any special linking of the common and the singular
elements. In the Biblical narrative of the saving of the boy Moses
the meaning is obvious : in order that the one appointed to liberate
his nation should grow up to be the liberator-and of all analogous
legends this is the only one containing this historical element of
liberating a nation-he has to be introduced into the stronghold of
the aliens, into that royal court by which Israel has been enslaved ;
and he must grow up there. This is a kind of liberation which
cannot be brought about by anyone who grew up as a slave, nor
yet by anyone who is not connected with the slaves ; but only by
one of the latter who has been brought up in the midst of the
aliens and has received an education equipping him with all their
wisdoms and powers, and thereafter " goes forth to his brethren
and observes their burdens ". The Biblical narrative sets this
clearly historical motif against that other of Joseph sold to Egypt
as the one sent ahead " to a great deliverance ".a A Sernitist ao con
cludes from the Egyptian loan word that the mother really chose
to make the " box " of papyrus, b in which the child was exposed,
in the shape of one of those shrines wherein pictures of the gods
floated on the Nile during festivals, in order to be certain of rescue.
If this was so, we may be permitted to consider it as symbolic ;
he who must immerse himself in the innermost parts of the alien
culture in order to withdraw his people from thence is hidden as a
child in the seat of the foreign gods.
That Moses bears an Egyptian name, no matter whether it
means " born, child (of somebody) " or something like " seed of
the pond, of the water " , 31 is part of the historical character of the
situation ; he seems to derive from a largely Egyptianized section
of the people. Whoever wishes to make an Egyptian of him on
0 Gen. xlv, 7 b Ex. ii, 3
 MOSES

that accoWlt deprives the tale of the foundation on which it rests.

The narrative itself sets out to explain the name on the basis of He
brew etymology as meaning " he who is drawn (out of the Nile) ".
But the form of the Hebrew verb (which with the exception of
this passage is not found save in a Psalm a ) can only mean " he who
draws forth ". And as it seems to me, it was the covert purpose
of the etymology to indicate this : the intention was to characterize
Moses as the one who drew Israel forth from the flood. I gather
from a never hitherto understood passage in Scripture that there
must have been a tradition to this effect. In a remarkable hymn
which was included in the Book of Isaiah b it is told of God : " He
remembered the days of old ", whereupon follow the words
mosheh ammo. At first sight this can scarcely mean anything but
" Moses his people " ; which, however does not offer a satisfactory
sequence. The meaning becomes clear when we notice that the
words may also be interpreted as : God remembered " the drawer
forth of his people ", the man who had withdrawn the people of
God from the flood. Then follow, and with obvious intention,
the words indicating God's co-operation with Moses : " Where
is He who brought them up from the sea with the shepherd of
His flock ? Where is He who set His holy spirit in his midst ? " 32
The narrative of the manner in which Moses went forth to his
brethren, which is the beginning of the essential life story, is
composed in true Biblical fashion on a thrice-recurring " he saw " ,
and a rhymingly repeated " his brethren " ; the Biblical epic
frequently indicates the more important elements in this particular
fashion without forsaking its own style.33 The point brought home
here is that Moses now came to " see " his brethren. How did
he, who had grown up as an Egyptian at the Egyptian Court,
know that the Hebrew slaves were his brethren ? We are not told ;
and this is also characteristic of the Bible style, with its unique
mixture of frankness and reticence. What we pave to know is
that he " goes out " from the Royal Court onder where the y
despised slaves toil ; and that he goes out because he wishes to see
his brethren. And now follow the three moments of the action.
First he sees the weary slave labour. Then he sees a single incident ;
an Egyptian taskmaster beats a Hebrew man, one " ofhis brethren ".
Now he looks round, yes, he actually looks round, driven to action,
yet clear-headed. He aims not at becoming a martyr but a liber
ator ; and he slays the Egyptian. That " beating " and this
II. Sam. xxii, 17 ; Ps. xviii, 17. b Is. hcili, 7-19. Ex. li, I I-IS.
 LEGEND OF THE BEGINNING 37

" slaying " are conveyed in precisely the same word i n the Hebrew ;
Moses does what he saw done to the one who did it. Now, however,
the narrative blossoms forth remarkably. On the next day Moses
goes there again ; it is his place, it is his affair, he must go there
afresh. And now he sees one of his brethren beating another.
What a discovery ! Taskmasters are not alone in beating slaves ;
one slave beats the other. And when Moses upbraids him, the man
answers with a growling burst of passion, the meaning of which
is betrayal, and which serves to foreshadow the ever-latent restive
ness that a liberator has to expect from the liberated : " Who hast
set thee as chief and judge over us ? " And then louder, barking
rather than growling, " dost thou think to slay me as thou hast
slain the Egyptian ? " Now Moses is alarmed, but he does not
flee yet. Only when Pharaoh " seeks to slay him " (the expression
sounds more like Semitic blood vengeance than Egyptian justice)
does he flee " before Pharaoh ".
What follows, the scene of Moses at the well in the land of the
Midianites (irrespective of whether the latter like Mount Sinai has
to be sought on the Sinai Peninsula, in North-West Arabia or
elsewhere) ; how he protects the seven daughters of the tribal
priest, among whom is his own future wife, from the bad shepherds
and helps them to water their flock ; is sometimes regarded as an
idyll. Unlike Jacob's meeting with Rachel at the well, with which
it is often compared, it is not an id.yll. It serves, possibly on the
basis of a tradition preserved by those Midianites or Kenites who
joined Israel in the Exodus from Egypt, to demonstrate how a
basic principle of Mosaic legislation, the protection of the weak
from the power of the strong, was applied by the legislator himself,
both at home and in foreign parts ; that is, as a universally valid
norm. The fact that the girls took Moses for an Egyptian a is
not without weight, no matter how casually the motive is intro
duced. The narrator stresses the fact that Moses had not already
become part and parcel of his brethren before his flight but retained
Egyptian costume and manners until he came to the Midianites
and accepted their customs together with their society. He had
not passed through the degrading forms of life involved in the
slave status, like the other Hebrews. He came directly from the
lofty culture of the Egyptian Court to the proximity to Nature of
the semi-nomad existence which the tribe of his father-in-law
continued to maintain until a late period, even in the midst of
0 Ex. ii , 19.
 MOSES

settled Israei.a Something of fundamental importance is to be

foWld here. Whatever may have been the relationship between
Israel and Midian, b Moses came back to his forefathers by way of
his flight. For the customs and order of life in the tribe which he
entered closely resembled in their character the customs and order
of life of the " fathers " of Israel. A man of the enslaved nation,
but the only one not enslaved together with them, had returned to
the free and keen air of his forebears.
At this point a biographical and historical truth, which is funda
mental for the understanding of all that follows, emerges from the
midst of the legend.
Jer. xxxv, cf. I Chr. ii, 55 b Cf Gen . xxv, 2.
 T HE B URNING B U S H
HE
T
section which deals with the Revelation at the Burning
Bush a cannot be regarded as a compilation from varying
sources and documents. All that is needed is to remove a few
additions, and there appears before us a homogeneous picture ;
any apparent contradiction can be accounted for by the fact
that the text has not been fully understood. The style and com
position of this section show that it is the fruit of a highly cultivated
dialectic and narrative art ; but certain of the essential elements
of which it is composed bear the stamp of early tradition.
Moses, tending the flocks of his father-in-law, leads them out
of the accustomed steppe on one occasion ; just as we hear of the
Bedouins of the same district moving with their flocks into the hills,
where the animals find pastures that are still green. There Moses
suddenly finds himself at the " Mountain of God ", Mount Horeb
or Sinai. " Mountain of God " (or " of gods ") had been its name
since time untold, presumably because mysterious phenomena,
either of volcanic or other character, take place on it and local
tradition therefore claims that divine beings reside there. 34 Here
Moses sees the " burning bush ". Just as the mountain is described
as "the mountain of God ", that is, the mountain known as " a
god-mountain ", b so is the bush described as " the thornbush ",
that is, the specific bush which is known to grow upon Sinai.
The name seneh, which is peculiar to it (no other kind of bush is
called so) echoes the name of the mountain, which is omitted of
set purpose at this point. The word seneh repeated three times in
the same sentence suggests the name Sinai, that is used only when
the nation reaches the mountain in order to receive the revelation.
The bush burns, the blaze flares up, and in the blaze the " mes
senger of YHVH " is seen by Moses. Such " messengers " (which
we call " angels " ) are always recorded in the earlier Scriptures
without personal names, and, so to say, without personal character.
They are nothing save the perceptible intervention of the God in
events ; which is sometimes made even more plain by the fact
that they and YHVH Himself are alternately named as speakers.
Ex. iii, 1-iv, 17.
Only after the revelation to the people in Numbers x, 3 3 , is it called " the
Mountain of YHVH " . ' Ex. xvi, I .
39
 MOSES

The flame does not consume the bush. This is not a consuming
fire that nourishes itself on the material it has seized, and is itself
extinguished in the destruction of that material. The bush blazes
but is not consumed : and in the blaze shining forth from it,
Moses sees the " messenger ".
Certain scholars take the story to mean that " on Sinai there
was a holy thorn bush which was considered by the residents of
the region to be the seat of the mountain divinity ", and they draw
the conclusion that YHVH " is also regarded here as a tree god ".35
They fmd support from the fact that in the " Blessing of Moses " 0

the god is designated shokhni seneh, which is translated as " He who

dwells in the thorn bush ". The verb, in question, however, did
not originally mean to dwell but to take up residence ; to sojourn,
no matter how temporarily. Further, the apparition is seen not
in the plant but in the fire ; and accordingly the voice which b
calls Moses " from the midst of the bush " should be understood as
coming from the fire which blazes throughout the entire bush.
YHVH, to be sure, can just as little be regarded here as mountain
god, he who attacks Moses on the way to Egypt c and orders
Aaron in Egypt a ; and in our story he already states the deeds
which he would perform there in support of Moses. All these are
characteristics the like of which are not reported of any of the
mountain gods, and which (apart from the fact that YHVH himself
says that he has " come down " from heaven) speak against the
view that Moses had " discovered the seat of YHVH ".
There are some who tend to " draw a distinction in principle "
between the calling of Moses, which commenced with this appari
tion, and the calling of the prophets ; " for whereas the latter
undergo a psychological experience which takes place in dream or
vision, there is a mythical event in the case of Moses, since the
divinity appears to him corporeally " 36 This is a distinction in
categories which finds nothing in the Bible text to support it.
Isaiah says/ apparently in a memorial written many years after
the event reported, that his eyes had seen " the king YHVH of
Hosts " ; which is not less but rather more corporeal than the
apparition described in the story of the summoning of Moses.
For it is made perfectly clear here that Moses saw no form. After
the messenger permitted himself to be seen " in the blazing fire ",
what Moses sees is expressly stated : " and there, the bush was

Deut. xxxiii , 16. b Ex. iii, 4 ' Ex. iv, 24. d !bit!., 27.
Ex. iii, 8. IIs. vi, S
 THE BURNING BUSH 41
burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed ". That it was
this he saw and nothing else is also stressed by the fact that he says
to himself : " Let me go across, and see this great sight-why the
thornbush is not burnt up ". Nobody who had seen a divine
form in the fire could talk in that way. Moses actually sees the
messenger in the blaze, he sees nothing other than this ; when he
sees the wondrous fire he sees what he has to see. No matter
how we explain the process as being natural, this at least is what
the narrative tells us and wishes to tell us ; and whatever this may
be, it is clearly not " mythology ".
As against this the difference between the literary categories of
saga and prophecy is indicated in scholarly quarters, and the
explanation is given 37 that literary history must " ab initio protest
at the obliteration of this saga-like character " ; no scientific
investigator, it is claimed, would even dare " to derive the legends
of Hellenic heroes, whose eyes so often saw divinities, from psycho
logical experiences ". Yet with all the deference to literary cate
gories, their scientific dignity is not great enough to decide the
character and dimension of the content of truth in an account of a
revelation ; it is not even enough to ensure the correct formulation
of the question. Instead of the legends of Greek heroes let those
of Greek thinkers be taken, say that of Pythagoras, which appears
to have influenced the late Alexandrian version of Moses' life
story 38 ; and it will immediately be seen that we are face to face
with the problem of a transmitted nucleus of personal experience
contained in it-naturally without even thinking of being able to
extract that nucleus. How much more so when it comes to a
vision so singular, so characteristic, despite certain external analogies,
as that of the Burning Bush, followed by such a conversation as
the one which follows. It compels us to forsake the pale of litera
ture for that singular region where great personal religious ex
periences are propagated in ways that can no longer be identified.
YHVH sees Moses approach to look ; and " God " (here of
set purpose not " YHVH " appears as the acting one, as previously,
but " God "), in order to establish the connection with the
" messenger ", calls to Moses from out of the bush. It has correctly
been remarked 39 that such a calling by God from a specific place
occurs only three times in the story of Moses, and that each of them
is made from a different one of the three sites of revelation : once,
in our text, from the bush, once a from the mountain, and once b
0 Ex. xix, 3 , b Lev. i , I .
42 MOSES
at the Tent of Meeting. The Biblical work of redaction indeed
shows wisdom and art of a rare kind. The passage now under
consideration differs from the others by the fact that Moses is
called on by name. That is the fashion in which divinity establishes
contact with the one chosen. The latter, not conscious yet aware
of the one whose voice is calling him, places himself at the service
of the God by his words " here I am " ; and the God first orders
him not to come closer (the restriction on the " approach " to the
divinity is one of the basic provisions of Biblical religion) and to
remove the sandals from his feet. The reason may possibly be
because being holy ground, it should not be trodden by any occupy
ing and therefore possessing shoe. a 40 It is only now that God
tells him who he is ; he who communicates with him, Moses, here
in strange parts, is none other than the god of his forefathers, the
God of the Fathers ; and hence, as we may suppose, the God of
whom Moses must have heard yonder in Egypt when he went
forth every day " unto his brethren ".
The favoured " Kenite " hypothesis explains that YHVH was
unknown to Israel until then, being a mountain, a fire or maybe a
volcanic god and simultaneously the tribal god of the Kenites (who
are often assumed to have been wandering smiths) and that Moses
had " discovered " this god at his seat of worship on Sinai. This
hypothesis is unfounded.41 There are not the faintest indications
that any god of the name was ever honoured in that district. No
more than suppositions are possible with regard to the character
and qualities of a, or the, putative Kenite god. For this reason the
hypothesis has not unjustly been described 42 as " an explanation of
ignotum ab ignoto ". We know of YHVH's connection with
Sinai only from the Bible ; and what we know is that at the time
of the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt YHVH had
selected Sinai as the seat for his manifestation. The Song of
Deborah, which is referred to, b does not bring YHVH, as is sup
posed, from Sinai to the Galilean battlefield, it only ascribes the
name " a Sinai " to Mount Tabor, from which c the God who had
come in storm clouds out of the south revealed himself in the
glorious victory over his foes. And Elij ah, who is thought to
have made a pilgrimage to Sinai when he wished to " speak per
sonally to and seek an audience of YHVH 43 really wandered ",

defeated and weary of life to the mountain in order to lay himself

down and perish in " the cave ", a that is, in yonder cleft in the rock, e
Cj. Ruth iv, 7 bJud. v, S 'Jud. iv, 6. I Kin. xix, 9 Ex. xxxiii, 22.
 THE BURNING BUSH 43
familiar to the wanderers, from which Moses had once seen the
God passing by. YHVH never appears in the tales of his revela
tions to Moses and Israel as " fixed " on Sinai ; he only comes
down thither on occasion, descending from heaven to do so."
Comparative religion, too, is familiar with mountains not merely
as the divine seat, but also as the place where gods manifest them
selves.
And just as this does not make him a mountain god, so the fact
that in the course of the revelation he often makes use of the element
of fire, the heavenly origin of which is frequently referred to in
the Bible, does not convert him into a fire god. For our purpose,
however, the most important fact is not the traits of the nature
gods which he has absorbed (criticism of these particular char
acteristics is offered in the story of the Sinai revelation to Elijah b)
but what he is to begin with. Is he an alien god whom Moses
meets, and through Moses, Israel, and who is made the national
god of Israel by Moses ? Or is he a " God of the fathers ? "

The Bible permits us to ascertain this. All we have to do is

to compare the peculiarities of the God of Moses with those of the
God of the Fathers. More precisely, it is our concern to reveal
the peculiar divine likeness, first in the constituents of our tale
which, beyond all question, lead back to early tradition, and then
in the corresponding elements of tl1e other, a likeness, that is to
say, which it is impossible simply to classify by some type or other
of the pre-Mosaic religious history of the Ancient East, for despite
all its relationships with one or anoilier of these types, it shows a
character differing from them all. Thereafter we must compare
the two divine likenesses with one another.
If the material in the Bible is subjected to such an examination,
the two likenesses will be found to differ in a special manner ;
namely, just as a clan god in non-historical situations might be
expected to differ from a national god in an historical situation.
Yet at the same time it can be observed that both depict the identical
god. To begin with the former, the clan god : we immediately
observe two main characteristics which are both demonstrated in
his relation to the men chosen by him. One is that he approaches
these men, addresses them, manifests himself to them, demands
and charges them and accepts them in his covenant ; and the
second, closely connected with the first, that he does not remain
satisfied with withdrawing them from their surrounding world
Ex. iii , 8 ; xix, I S, 20. b Cf I Kin. xix, II f.
44 MOSES
and sending them on new paths, but wanders with them himself
and guides them along those new paths ; meanwhile, however,
remaining invisible insofar as he does not " make himself seen " by
them. Taken both together, these cannot be compared with the
attributes of any other divinity in the history of religion, despite
certain analogies of detail. The prerequisite assumption for both
is that this god is not bound to any place, and that the seats of his
manifestations do not restrict him ; above them open the gates of
heaven,a through which he descends and returns to his inaccessible
realm.
We find all this once more in the second likeness, in the national
god ; but here it has the vivid colour of a historical driving force.
The new and supplementary characteristics, striking as they may
appear, nevertheless seem peripheral to us when compared with the
central power of the common element. Once again the God makes
his great demands of his men, commanding and promising, estab
lishing a covenant with them. But now he no longer turns to
single persons but to a people, and that people too he leads forth
and himself conducts along the new way. Once again the in
visible one becomes manifest from time to time. Once again
heaven and earth are joined, and the God utters his words from
heaven unto earth.b
This is no alien god " discovered " by Moses on Sinai ; it is the
God of the Fathers. And yet it is in his eyes none other than the
God of whom his wife's kinsfolk may have told him, saying that
he dwells on this mountain. When Moses came to the Midianites,
he entered the range of life of the Fathers ; and he senses the
apparition he now sees as being that of the God of the Fathers.
As YHVH had once gone down with Jacob to Egypt/ so has he
now gone from Egypt to Midian ; possibly with Moses himself,
who was obviously under his protection like Jacob of old. At all
events Moses perceives who it is that appears to him ; he recog
nizes him. That was what had happened in the days of the Fathers
too. Abraham had recognized YHVH in the El ' Elyon of Melchizc
dck, YHVH had permitted himself to be seen d by Abraham's
concubine, the Egyptian maid, Hagar, as the spirit of a desert
spring-seemingly one of those divinatory springs at which some
thing can be " seen " during sleep. What happens here, as it had
happened there, is, from the point of view of religious history,
an identification. The God brought with and accompanying a
0 Gen. xxviii, 17. b Ex. J..-x, 22. Gen. xlvi, 4 Gen. xvi, 7, I J .
 THE BURNING BUSH 45
man is identified with the one known as previously to be found at
this spot ; he becomes recognized in him. From Babylonian and
Egyptian religious thought we know the tendency to give full
expression to the faith in the supremacy of a single god by inter
preting the other gods as his forms of manifestation. But with the
exception of the short-lived imperialistic theology of Amenhotep
IV, no serious attempt in this direction was or could be made in
the great Pantheons. Only in the religious atmosphere of a solitary
exclusive God outside the Pantheons, claiming and leading his own
men, could any such identification become a living reality.u
Attention deserves to be given to the fact that YHVH addresses
Moses not merely as the God of the Fathers, but first as the God of
his (i.e. Moses's own) father. Later on this was, at times, no longer
understood, as can be seen in the text of the Samaritans which knows
only of a " God of thy fathers ". But the Biblical narrative lets
Moses a say when naming a son : " the God of my father was
my aid ". Only Jacob before him in the Bible spoke of himself
both personally and yet in relation to past generations. b Nobody
spoke in that way after him. Here too can be felt the peculiar
relation with the world of the patriarchs. And, whatever may be
the position in disentangling the sources, the redactor knew well
what he was doing when he introduced those passages ; in which
the man who had grown up in his own father's home is shown to
be conscious of his God as the God of his own father.
After the God tells his chosen one who he is, he reveals the
cause and purpose of the message with which he wishes to entrust
him. The sentence with which this partial address begins, and
that with which it ends, balance one another like the members of
a building, through the two key-words ammi, my people, and
Mitsraim, Egypt. These are repeated in both, and denote the
subject and the aim of the act : " I have indeed seen the sufferings
of my people who are in Egypt ", and " lead out my people the
children of Israel from Egypt " . To attribute the two sentences,
as is so often done, to different sources, constitutes a misunder
standing of the entire form and sense of the speech. With this
repeated " my people " at the commencement and close of the
passage, YHVH recognizes Israel in a fashion more powerful and
unequivocal than would have been possible by any other verbal
means. To be sure, he has not yet designated himself their God.
He will become the God of Israel as a people solely through the
a Ex. xviii, 4 b Gen. xxxi , s, 42 ; xxxi,i 10.
 MOSES
revelation to the people ; now he wishes to be known only as the
God of their forefathers, to whom he had once promised the land
whither he would lead Israel. But since he so stresses the naming
of Israel as his people, he shows that the bond uniting them had
been established of old. No new, no alien god talks in such a
way. This likewise indicates the hopelessness of the attempt
sometimes made to attribute this first speech, which refers to the
patriarchs, to some later stratum of the text. Try to insert at this
point the phrase assumed to have been in the original, namely
" I am the god ", i.e. " I am the god of this mountain ", and the
message, flaming with historical revelation and historical faith,
shrinks, one might well say, to a private remark which conveys
nothing.
And now begins the great duologue in which the God commands
and the man resists. As we have it before us, it is clearly disfigured
by supplements, inserted by editors, which should not be con
sidered as sections of a source. To begin with, something is
introduced between the two first objections of the resisting man,
namely his inadequacy and his inability to tell the people what
they would demand to hear of the name and hence of the character
of the God, on the one hand ; and the fmal passage which returns
once again to his inadequacy, on the other. In the interpolated
passage Moses asks how he can demonstrate the reliability of his
message to the people and is instructed to perform wonders. Here
later narrative motifs are introduced in evidence, largely in order
to link the story of the revelation with that of the negotiations with
Pharaoh ; but by this both sections are impaired. The style differs
here from that in the undoubtedly genuine parts of the narrative
of the burning bush ; it is more loose, more expansive, more
wordy. Here necessity does not hold sway as it does there ; the
purposeful repetitions are replaced by casual ones ; and finally a
rhetorical note is to be heard. The hard rhythm has become a
thin absence of rhythm, the firm composition has become negli
gent ; even the structure of the sentences is careless. The contents
do not resemble those of the genuine parts ; questions and answers
move at a lower level. In the genuine part every reply gives some
essential information as to the will and work of the God ; but
here there is, so to speak, a technical atmosphere. The clearest
sign of the difference, however, is that the word " sign " is used
here in a sense differing enurely from the one in which it is used
there. In the genuine parts it is used in accordance with prophetic
 THE BURNING BUSH 47
terminology. (For instance, compare Isaiah, xx, 3, where the
Prophet's nakedness appears as a sign, or Ezekiel, iv, 3, where
the erection of an iron wall which separates the Prophet from
the city of Jerusalem has the same function) . It is a symbol
ization, a sensory presentation of a manifested truth, a per
ceptible reality which, no matter whether it is more or less
" wondrous ", always reminds people once again of that truth.
In the same sense, after Moses says a : " Who am I that
I should go to Pharaoh and that I should lead the children of
Israel out of Egypt ? " YHVH provides the assurance " Indeed I
shall be present with you ", and He promises Moses a " sign "
which at first seems strange to us : that the people would come to
this same mountain, where they would engage in the service of
their God ; and this is what must serve Moses as a sign that it is
this same God who has sent him. We have to understand this as
meaning : what is now only existent in words will then take on
real existence. Then M9ses will experience the mission of this God
as an expression of His being ; not as a spiritual mission, as now,
but as a reality apparent to the senses. Unlike this, the word
" sign " in the supplement b appears as a proof of reliability
produced by way of supernatural arts, which have no inner rela
tionship with the truth intended ; a meaning which is alien to the
prophetic sphere. (The case of Isaiah, viii, 8, I I , for example; is
not concerned with a proof ; the " sign " proposed there is not a
proof).
If we omit this supplement, however, together with the seven
final verses of Chapter III, all written in a later and rhetorical style
(reminiscent of the late parts of Deuteronomy), which were also
clearly introduced in order to link the passage with the following
events, we are left with a narrative religious document of almost
incomparable purity ; in which every word is evidence of its
derivation from the hands of an early prophet, who worked up
elements offered to him by tradition in the light of his own basic
experience. The resistance offered to the mission, which was
opposed to all the natural tendencies of the one charged, and the
breaking down of this resistance by the Divine Power, belong,
as shown us by the autobiographical notes of Jeremiah and the
paradigmatic little book on Jonah (the nucleus of which may
derive from the eighth century B.C.E. ) 46 to the most intimate
experience of the prophetic man.
0 Ex. iH, I I . b Ex. iv, 8
 MOSES

The first objection, that of his own smalh1ess compared with

the vast task, corresponds precisely, after eliminating the supple
ments, to the third a, in which Moses stresses his difficulty of
speech. And once again, after YHVH responds that He, the God
of Creation, 46 makes the mouth of man to speak or be dumb,
and therefore made Moses himself as he is, and sends him just as
he is, YHVH continues : " Go, I myself shall be present with your
mouth and shall instruct you what you should say ". Here ends
the original wording of the narrative. (Verses 1 3 -16, repeating the
motif, " I shall be present with you " once again, but without
inner necessity, are formed on a variant to Chapter VII, verse I ,
and have clearly been inserted in order to introduce Moses' brother
Aaron, " the Levite ", the forefather of the Priesthood, at this early
point, as fellow-carrier of the Divine Will. This complement
actually has a later stamp than the original tale, but an earlier than
the supplements. Verse 17 derives from the author of the second
supplement.)
It is necessary to bear in mind the two promises of the speaking
God which begin with the word ehyeh, " I shall be ", I shall be
present, assuring that he would remain present amid his chosen, in
order properly to understand the central part of the duologue, the
central question and the central response, framed by these two pillars.
The point at issue here is not Man but God, the name of God.
The words of Moses are generally taken to mean that he wished
to learn the answer which he would have to give the people if they
asked him to tell them the name of the God whose message he
brought. Understood in this sense, the passage becomes one of
the chief supports of the Kenite hypothesis, since it is scarcely
possible to imagine that any people would not know the name of
the God of their fathers. If you wish to ask a person's name in
Biblical Hebrew, however, you never say, as is done here, " What
(mah) is his name ? " or, " What is your name ? ", but " Who
(mi) are you ? ", " Who is he ? ", " Who (mi) is your name ? ",
" Tell me your name ". Where the word " what " is associated
with the word " name ", the question asked is what finds expression
in or lies concealed behind that name.
When the " man " with whom Jacob wrestled at the ford of
Jabbok asks him b " What is your name ? ", the point at issue is
that this name can be given the reproach of an interpretation as
" Heel-sneak " .e Now, however, the new name Israel is intended
Ex. iv, 10. Gen. xxxii, 28. c Cf Gen. xxvii, 36 and Ho s. xii, 4
 THE BURNING BUSH 49
to take away the reproach of the old : " Not Jacob, heel-sneak,
should any longer be uttered as your name ". That is the change
which is to be introduced through the mention of the old name
by the one who bears it. In simpler form, and without dialogue,
this takes place again when God fulfils the promise. a
The phrase, " What is his name ? " appears once more in a
gnomic saying b ; but here the question asked is certainly not the
name of the one who " has established all the ends of the earth ".
The speaker is presumably well aware of that ; the subject of the
question is not sound but mystery. Moses expects the people to
ask the meaning and character of a name of which they have been
aware since the days of their fathers. Which name ? From
the answer of the God it can be seen that the question refers to
YHVH.
In a later manifestation,c YHVH informs Moses that he was
seen by the forefathers " in El Shaddai ", that is, in the quality of
a Shaddai God ; but " By my name YHVH I did not make myself
known to them ". What Shaddai is can only be guessed from the
word and the circumstances under which it is used in the stories
of the patriarchs ; yet the name clearly means the Divinity as
Power ; and, as seems to be indicated by five of the six passages
in Genesis where the name is found, as the power making the
human clan fruitful. Therefore the term can be taken to imply
the power founding the tribe. Here, indeed, the issue is the
biological development of Israel, which is understood as a divine
work. The name YHVH, it is true, is introduced only once in
the Genesis narrative in the form of a direct revelatory speech
placed in the mouth of the God, d and in the identical form of phrase
with which the revelation to the people begins. But Abraham
proclaims the name when he comes to Canaan as might a herald,
at one spot after another (which should not be understood as a
calling in prayer),47 and his clan knows the Name. Is it likely
that the author of Exodus vi, 3, did not know this ? Here, however,
what is said is not that the patriarchs made no use of the name of
YHVH, but only that they did not know him in the quality char
acterized by this name ; and that tlus had now been discovered.
What can that mean ?
Of all the various suppositions regarding the prehistoric use of
the name YHVH there is only one 48 the development of wlllch
makes all this understandable without contradiction. To the best
a Gen. XXXV, JO. b Prov. XXX, 4 c Ex. vi, J. d Gen. xv, 7 Ex. XX, :z.
50 MOSES
of my knowledge it was first expressed nearly half a century ago by
Duhm in an (unpublished) lecture at Goettingen : " Possibly the
name is in some degree only an extension of the word hu, meaning
he, as God is also called by other Arab tribes at times of religious
revival-the One, the Unnamable ". The Dervish cry Ya-hu is
interpreted to mean " 0 He ! " , and in one of the most important
poems of the Persian mystic, Jelaluddin Rumi,49 the following
occurs : " One I seek, one I know, One I see, One I call. He is
the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward. I
know no other except Yahu (0 He) and Ya-man-hu (0-He-who
is)." The original form of the cry may have been Ya-huva, if we
regard the Arabic pronoun huwa, he, as the original Semitic form
of the pronoun " he " which, in Hebrew as well as in another Arabic
form, has become hu. " The name Ya-huva would then mean
0-He ! with which the manifestations of the god would be greeted
in the cult when the god became perceptible in some fashion.
Such a Ya-huva could afterwards produce both Yahu and Yahveh
(possibly originally Yahvah) " . 50 Similar divine names deriving
from " primitive sounds " are also known in other religions, but
in, say, the Dionysos cult the cries developed into corresponding
nouns, whereas the Semites preserved the elemental cry itself as a
name. Such a name, which has an entirely oral character and
really requires completion by some such gesture as, for example,
the throwing out of an arm, is, to be sure (as long, at least, as the
undertone of the third person still affects the consciousness of
speaker and listener) more suitable for evocation than for invocation.
As an invocation it appears in the story of the patriarchs only in a
cry " which strangely interrupts the continuity of the blessings of
Jacob. This may also explain why during the pre-Mosaic period
scarcely any personal names are recorded as having been formed
with this divine name. The only known exception, as it would
appear, is the name of Moses' mother, Yochebed, which apparently
means " YHVH is weighty ". If so, it might possibly be regarded
as a sign of some specific family tradition, which prepares the way
for a new relation to the Divine name.
Certainly it is more typical that in the course of the ages, par
ticularly at an epoch of increasing religious laxity, as the Egyptian
period appears to have been for Israel, the element of excitation and
discharge connected with the calling of the name did not merely ebb
away, but the name itself degenerated into a sound simultaneously
Gen. xlix, 18.
 THE BURNING BUSH 51

empty and half forgotten. Under such conditions an hour might

well come when the people would ask this question of a man bring
ing them a message from the God of their fathers : " How about
his name ? " That means : " What is this God really like ? We
cannot ftnd out from his name ! " For as far as primitive human
beings are concerned, the name of a person indicates his character.
But there is also something else included in the question, namely
the expression of a negative experience which the enslaved people
had had with this God of theirs : " After all, he never troubled
about us all this while ! When the Egyptians require their gods,
they invoke them by uttering their ' true ' names in the correct
fashion, and the gods come and do what is necessary. But we
have not been able to invoke him, we cannot invoke him. How
can we be certain of him, how can we bring him into our power ?
How can we make use of his name ? What about his name ? "
The " true " name of a person, like that of any other object, is
far more than a mere denotative designation for men who think in
categories of magic ; it is the essence of the person, distilled from
his real being, so that he is present in it once again. What is more,
he is present in it in such a form that anybody who knows the
true name and knows how to pronounce it in the correct way can
gain control of him. The person himself is unapproachable, he
offers resistance ; but through the name he becomes approachable,
the speaker has power over him. The true name may be entirely
different from the generally familiar one which covers it ; it may
also, however, differ from the latter only in the " correct " pro
nnnciation, which would also include the correct rhythm and the
correct attitude of the body while engaged in the act of prononnc
ing it ; all things which can only be taught and transmitted per
sonally. And since the true name phoneticises the character of the
object, the essential thing in the last resort is that the speaker shall
recognize this essential being in the name, and direct his full atten
tion upon it. Where that happens, where the magical work
requires an aiming of the soul at the being meant, that is, when the
" person " aimed at is a god or a demon, the fuel is provided into
which the lightning of a religious experience can fall. Then the
magical compulsion becomes the intimacy of prayer, the bnndle
of utilisable forces bearing a personal name becomes a Thou, and
a demagisation of existence takes place.
As reply to his question about the name Moses is told : Ehyeh
asher ehyeh. This is usually understood to mean " I am that I
52 MOSES

am " in the sense that YnvH describes himself as the Being One or
even the Everlasting One, the one unalterably persisting in his
being. But that would be abstraction of a kind which does not
usually come about in periods of increasing religious vitality ;
while in addition the verb in the Biblical language does not carry
this particular shade of meaning of pure existence. It means :
happening, coming into being, being there, being present, being
thus and thus ; but not being in an abstract sense. " I am that I
am " could only be understood as an avoiding of the quesfion, as a
" statement which withholds any information ".51 Should we,
however, really assume that in the view of the narrator the God
who came to inform his people of their liberation wishes, at that
hour of all hours, merely to secure his distance, and not to grant and
warrant proximity as well ? This concept is certainly discouraged
"
by that twofold ehyeh, " I shall be present ,a which precedes and
follows the statement with unmistakable intention, and in which
God promises to be present with those chosen by him, to remain
present with them, to assist them. This promise is given un
conditional validity in the first part of the statement : " I shall
be present ", not merely, as previously and subsequently, " with
you, with your mouth ", but absolutely, " I shall be present ".
Placed as the phrase is between two utterances of so concrete a
kind that clearly means : I am and remain present. Behind it
stands the implied reply to those influenced by the magical practices
of Egypt, those infected by technical magic : it is superfluous for
you to wish to invoke me ; in accordance with my character I
again and again stand by those whom I befriend ; and I would
have you know indeed that I befriend you.
This is followed in the second part by : " That I shall be
present ", or " As which I shall be present ". In this way the
sentence is reminiscent of the Ia.ter statement of the God to Moses b :
" I shall be merciful to him to whom I shall be merciful ". But
in it the future character is more strongly stressed. YHVH indeed
states that he will always be present, but at any given moment as
the one as whom he then, in that given moment, will be present.
He who promises his steady presence, his steady assistance, refuses
to restrict himself to defmite forms of manifestation ; how could
the people even venture to conjure and limit him ! If the first
part of the statement states : " I do not need to be conjured for I

0 Ex. iii, 12 ; iv, 12. b Ex. xxxiii, 19.

 THE BURNING BUSH 53
a m always with you " , the second adds : " but it is impossible to
conjure me ".
It is necessary to remember Egypt as the background of such a
revelation : Egypt where the magician went so far as to threaten
the gods that if they would not do his will he would not merely
betray their names to the demons, but would also tear the hair from
their heads as lotus blossoms are pulle d out of the pond. Here
religion was in practice little more than regulated magic. In the
revelation at the Burning Bush religion is demagicized.
At the same time, however, the meaning and character of the
Divine Name itself changes ; that is, from the viewpoint of the
narrator as well as from that of the tradition given shape by him,
it is unfolded in its true sense. By means of the introduction of an
inconsiderable change in vocalization, a change to which the
consciousness of sound would not be too sensitive, a wildly ecstatic
outcry, half interjection half pronoun, is replaced by a grammatic
ally precise verbal form which, in the third person (havah is the
same as hayah to be-but belongs to an older stratum of language)
-

means the same as is communicated by the ehyeh : YHvH is " He

who will be present " or " He who is here ", he who is present
here ; not merely some time and some where but in every now
and in every here. Now the name expresses his character and
assures the faithful of the richly protective presence of their Lord.
And it is the God Himself who unfolds his name after this fashion.
The exclamation was its hidden form ; the verb is its revelation.
And in order to make it clear beyond all possibility of misappre
hension that the direct word ehyeh explains the indirect name,
Moses is first instructed, by an exceptionally daring linguistic
device, to tell the people " Ehyeh, I shall be present, or I am present,
sends me to you ", and immediately afterwards : " YHVH the
God of your fathers sends me to you ". That Ehyeh is not a
name ; the God can never be named so ; only on this one occasion,
in this sole moment of transmitting his work, is Moses allowed and
ordered to take the God's self-comprehension in his mouth as a
name. But when, shortly before the destruction of the Northern
Kingdom of Israel, the prophet Hosea, in order to give concrete
expression to the impending crisis in national history, calls his new
born son Lo-ammi, not my people, he justifies this name a with
the Divine word : " you are not my people and I am not ehyeh
for you ". One expects to hear : " . . . and I am not your God ",
0 Hos. i , 9
54 MOSES

but what is said is : " For you I am no longer ehyeh, that is, ' I am
present ' ". The unfaithful people lose the presence of their God,
the name revealed is concealed from them once again. Just as the
Lo-ammi refers to the ammi of the Burning Bush episode, so does
this ehyeh refer to that.
Again and again, when God says in the narrative : " Then will
the Egyptians recognize that I am YHVH ", or " you will recognize
that I am YHVH ", it is clearly not the name as a sound, but the
meaning revealed in it, which is meant. The Egyptians shall come
to know that I (unlike their gods) am the really present One in the
midst of the human world, the standing and acting One ; you
will know that I am He who is present with you, going with you
and directing your cause. And until the very close of the Baby
lonian Exile, and later, sayings such as " I am YHvH, that is my
name ",a or even more clearly, " Therefore let my people know
my name, therefore on that day, that I am he who says ' Here I
am ' " , b cannot be otherwise understood.
However, it appears that the message of the name never became
actually popular in Biblical Israel. It seems that the people did
not accept the new vocalization. The interpretation, to be sure,
hovers around the name in their consciousness ; but it does not
penetrate it. In the innermost nucleus it remains the dark, mys
terious cry, and there is evidence in all periods until the days of
the Talmud that an awareness of the sense of the pronoun " he "
hidden in it was always present. The prohibition against pro
nouncing the name only raised an ancient reluctance, which was
rooted in the resistance against rationalization, to the power of a
taboo. Nevertheless a tremendous vitalization in the relation of
the people to the name clearly took place on Sinai ; the boys are
given names containing it, and just as its proclamation combines
with the moving and stopping of the crowd, so it also fmds place
in the life of the tribe and in that of the individual ; the certainty
of the presence of the God as a quality of his being began to possess
the souls of the generations. It is impossible properly to grasp such
a process independently of the actually unaccepted yet so effective
message cont.lined in the meaning of the name.
The meaning of the name is usually ascribed to the " Elohist ",
to whose source this section of the narrative is attributed. But
quite apart from the fact that there was no Elohist in this sense
and that, as has been said, if we eliminate complements and supple-
Is. xlii, 8. b Is. lii, 6.
 THE BURNING BUSH 55
ments, w e fin d a uniform and firmly constructed narrative-such
discoveries or conversions are not born at the writing desk. A
speech like this ehyeh asher ehyeh does not belong to literature
but to the sphere attained by the founders of religion. If it is
theology, it is that archaic theology which, in the form of a his
torical narrative, stands at the threshold of every genuine historical
religion. No matter who related that speech or when, he derived
it from a tradition which, in the last resort, cannot go back to any
body other than the founder. What the latter revealed of his
religious experience to his disciples we cannot know ; that he
informed them of what had happened to him we must assume ;
in any case, the origin of such a tradition cannot be sought anywhere
else.
At his relatively late period Moses did not establish the religious
relationship between the Bnei Israel and YHVH. He was not the
first to utter that " primal sound " in enthusiastic astonishment.
That may have been done by somebody long before who, driven
by an irresistible force along a new road, now felt himself to be
preceded along that road by " him ", the invisible one who per
mitted himself to be seen. But it was Moses who, on this religious
relationship, established a covenant between the God and " his
people ". Nothing of such a kind can be imagined except on the
assumption that a relation which had come down fro m ancient
times has been melted in the fire of some new personal experience.
The foundation takes place before the assembled host ; the experi
ence is undergone in solitude.
 DIVINE D E M ONIS M

W
HILE Moses makes his way to Egypt with wife and child at
the divine behest, something strange, according to the Biblical
narrative, happens to him ; something which apparently rWls
counter to the mission. In the night-lodge YHVH attacks him
and wishes to slay him. Thereupon his wife, Zipporah, takes a
flint, cuts off the foreskin of her son with it, and then touches 52 his
legs and says : " Thou art a athan-dammim Wlto me " . Thereupon
" he ", the assailant, lets " him ", Moses the assailed, be. The story
is told with archaic stiffness, but its sense can in some measure be
comprehended ; particularly when it is noted that the narrator is
interested in the term athan-dammim , which is clearly stressed
" "

by a gloss at the end ; thereby Zipporah coined the designation

which has been customarily applied since then to boys who have
just been circumcised. Here a singular and untranslatable play of
words can evidently be foWld ; in Arabic the word athana means
to circumcise ; and since among the ancient Arabs as among
certain tribes to the present day, the adolescent yoWigster was
circumcised shortly before his wedding, the bridegroom was a
hathan, a cut one. At the moment of peril Zipporah carries out
the bloody ceremony on the child ; that is, she replaces the Midianite
custom by that of the Israelites, which, in accordance with the story
in Genesis, can be regarded as having been the practice of the latter
since the earliest times. We feel entitled to assume that it had
already replaced the general Semitic circumcision of the adolescent.
Thereafter she touches his legs, an act which apparently has a
symbolic meaning resembling the setting of the hands on the head
of the animal sacrificed ; an identification of the one performing
the action with the creature touched by him. 53 Zipporah's purpose
is to have the child represent and personify the entire clan, and she
adds the protective words that for her, the clan mother, and hence
for the clan, he has already become a athan through the shedding of
blood (dammim). By this action she places her clan, both the born
and the unborn, under the God of Israel and thus conciliates him.
Modern historians and exegetes, 54 basing themselves on the
word " unto me ", have converted this remarkable but not incon
ceivable process into a scene of fantastic " primitiveness ". Accord
ing to them the incident happened during the bridal night in the
$6
 DIVINE DEMONISM 57
original story. The god or demon had disputed thejus primCE noctis,
the " prerogative of the gods ", with Moses. Zipporah had there
upon cut off the foreskin of her spouse and thrown it at the
sexual organs of the " lustful nocturnal monster ", while at the
same time repeating a " magic formula " by which she " simulated
that he had had access to her ", and " was bloody from it " ;
whereupon he turned away satisfied and let Moses be. The
following is added by one of the scholars. " A period which in
vented such stories can be considered to have had the corresponding
customs ". This is an almost incomparable example of the de
vastation which the excessive enticement and allure of ethnology
has effected in the history of religion.
But the full implications of this too brief story go far beyond
the problem of origin and metamorphosis of rites. It is usually
regarded as an " erratic block of the oldest tradition, in which not
YHVH but a demon was the actor on the stage ". 55 The view
that YHVH had " absorbed everything demonic " very early, and
that since then " no demons were required any more in Israel " 56

leads further. But it is of decisive importance to realize that

this process had its origin in the message of Moses, and that this in
turn had derived from Moses' own experience. We can choose
between three alternatives : Either YHVH has been made to replace
the original demon in the already-fashioned account of the noc
turnal terror ; or this correction had already taken place in the
tradition ; or else the tradition had already found YHVH here as
the active party, and did not dare to make any change even for the
honour of their god. This third assumption is the only one which
reveals the whole significance of the tale for the history of
faith.
It is part of the basic character of this God that he claims the
entirety of the one he has chosen ; he takes complete possession
of the one to whom he addresses himself. It is told of him a that
once in the early days of the human race a human being {Enoch)
was allowed to accompany him in his wanderings ; this human
being had then suddenly vanished, because the God had taken him
away. Such taking away is part of his character in many respects.
He promises Abraham a son, gives him and demands him back in
order to make a gift of him afresh ; and for this son he remains
a sublime " Terror ". b His character finds even more direct ex
pression when he first tells the son of that son to return from
Gen. v, 22 ff. b Gen. xxxi, .p.
 MOSES
Aram to Canaan,a and thereafter attacks him or causes him to be
attacked and dislocates his hip while wrestling. At this point the
tradition is not yet fully interested in ascribing everything to YHVH
himself, and so the one who performs the action is " a man ", but
that the God stands behind cannot be doubted.b Unlike the narra
tive of the attack on Moses, the motif of the " dread night ", which
is merely hinted at there, is expanded in repeated keywords. By
the nocturnal struggle with the divine being, by holding the
" man " fast until a blessing is obtained, Jacob passes his test. His
leading God had ordered him to wander, the same God who had
once d promised him : " See, I am with you, I shall protect you
wherever you go, and shall bring you back to this land ". And
now that he had returned to this land, the wanderer had to face
the perilous encounter before he enjoyed the fmal grace of God.
The strange episode in the Exodus story is associated and yet
different. YHVH attacks the messenger whom he has just sent,
clearly because the man's devotion to him after his resistance has
been surmounted does not appear full enough. Here it cannot be
a question of the person, but of the clan. For this reason it is
the woman who plays the leading part. She performs the action
by which, from the Israelite point of view, the clan as such makes
its covenant in the flesh with the God and renews it again and
again. It is because the clan is concerned that the " sign " is made
on the organ of generation. In this way the woman obtains the
conciliation.
We know from the life of the fotmders of religions, and also from
that of other souls who live in the deeps of faith, that there is such
an " event of the night " ; the sudden collapse of the newly-won
certainty, the " deadly factual " moment when the demon working
with apparently unbounded authority appears in the world where
God alone had been in control but a moment before. The early
stage of lsraelite religion knows no Satan ; if a power attacks a man
and threatens him, it is proper to recognize YHVH in it or behind
it, no matter how nocturnally dread and cruel it may be ; and
it is proper to withstand Him, since after all He does not require
anything else of me than myself. The words of the prophet of
exile " Who makes peace and creates evil, I YHVH do all this ",
have roots that go very deep. In the account of the manner in
a Gen. xxxi, 1 3 .
b In view of the connection between Gen. xxxi, 28 f. and Gen. xxxv, 10.
Gen. xxxii, 29. d Gen. xxvili, 15. Is. xlv, 7
 DIVINE DEMONISM 59
which YHVH meets Moses as a demon one of these roots has been
uncovered. Here is the unmistakable language of a tradition which
also points to the obscure yet perceptible threshold of experience.
It may be that a further step has to be taken, and that something
more than a metaphor should be recognized in the figure of speech
with which the Bible in the identical words twice repeats a Moses'
remark as to his heaviness of speech : " For I am uncircumcised of
lips ". This is a kind of uncircumcision which cannot be elimin
ated by any circumcision, an absence of liberation which is clearly
not organic but penetrates to the core of the soul, an absence of
liberation and an impossibility of liberation ; not a mere defect in
the instruments of speech but a fundamental inhibition of expression.
Sent as bearer of the word, intermediary between heaven and earth
through the word, Moses possesses no mastery over freely coursing
speech. He has been created thus and has been chosen thus. By
this a barrier is raised between him and the human world. He
who has to establish the covenant between the people and YHVH
is, so to speak, not accepted fully into the covenant of his tribe.
Teacher, prophet, law-giver ; yet in the sphere of the word he
remains insurmountably lonely ; alone in the last resort with the
word of heaven which forces itself through inflexible soul into
inflexible throat.
Yet to me even this does not seem to be the most decisive thing.
In a supplement to the story of the Burning Bush, b which, however,
clearly preserves an early prophetic spirit, Moses is made a " god ",
an inspiring power, in regard to Aaron, who is to be his " mouth " .
Consequently, when the God who himself speaks his word into
him uses him as a " mouth ", it is a stammering mouth. And in
this way the tragedy of Moses becomes the tragedy inherent in
Revelation. It is laid upon the stammering to bring the voice of
Heaven to Earth.
Ex. vi, 12, JO. b Ex. iv, 16.
 M OSES A N D P HARAO H

F
ROM the legend of Moses' childhood, to which we owe the
item of information that he was closely connected with the
inner circles of Egyptian power and culture, we have advanced
into an atmosphere of tangible biographical motifs. These are
well suited to the actual course of life of the leader and founder,
yet in our opinion do not appear to belong to any typological
pattern. Instead they seem to be records of concrete events that
may be assumed to have happened once.
We found four such motifs. The first is the flight, character
istic of the liberator of a nation who must go to alien lands in order
to return full-grown, fully equipped, and capable of doing whatever
he has been called to do. Nevertheless the flight is given an indi
vidual and unschematic character ; first by the slaying of the
Egyptian, and even more by the sojourning in the desert which
follows.
After this comes Moses' reception by the Midianites, with their
manners and customs so resembling those of the " Fathers " of
Israel ; and his service as a shepherd, which is once again something
of a representative character-for Semitic religions at least. (Tradi
tion reports a saying of Mohammed that nobody becomes a prophet
who was not first a shepherd.) The association of the above two
traits, however, gives the story a unique stamp.
Then follows the Vision and Audition, so familiar throughout
the religious sphere, yet elevated above all analogously patterned
accounts by the circumstances and manner of manifestation, even
more by the vital urge of the duologue, and most of all by the
content of the Divine Utterance.
Last of all comes the demonic encounter, without which the
path of the religious can scarcely be imagined ; and which, though
barely indicated here, is nevertheless vivid enough to be
unique, by reason of that awesome encompassing of the demonic
by the divine, which nips any dualistic tendency in the bud.
Although these four stages of a man's path cannot be recon
structed in their historical dimensions and order of sequence, each
of them can be grasped in its own place and according to its own
basic character.
6o
 MOSES AND PHARAOH 61

The situation is different when we come to the section with

which we must now deal ; namely, the measures leading to the
fulfilment of the Divine Mission. The main contents of this
section, consisting of the negotiations between Moses and Pharaoh
and the associated plagues, can scarcely, when assessed in accord
ance with the historical approach followed, be fitted into place,
even under their fundamental aspects, as recording any historical
reality. In the Egypt known from history the negotiations
between the King and the representative of the slaves cannot
possibly have assumed any such forms as those recorded ; not
even when the former accounts of the relations between that
representative and the Court are given all due consideration.
Further, the story of the plagues does actually link with natural
phenomena of a kind that is, for the greater part, peculiar to
Egypt. Yet how is it possible to enucleate a historical kernel from
this breathless accumulation of extraordinary events, magnified
immeasurably ?
Yet even here, in this fantastic popular narrative, intended as it
is to bring to later generations of the nation a sense of the one
time passage of their history from wonder to wonder, we feel the
breath of some distant event of which there is no longer any
clearcut recollection. Only the might of a metamorphosing mytho
preic remembering bears witness identifiable throughout all its
fantastic work. There are two recognized approaches in this
regard ; that of the person accepting traditions entire, holding
that everything written here records something that has happened
in fact in some specific place at some specific time ; and that
of the self-assured professional scholar who proposes to treat
everything recorded here as literature pure and simple, and believes
that he can equate it all to, and comprehend it by, literary categories.
Between these two there must be a third, which is our own.
We must adopt the critical approach and seek reality, here as
well, by asking ourselves what human relation to real events this
could have been which led gradually, along many bypaths and by
way of many metamorphoses, from mouth to ear, from one memory
to another, and from dream to dream, until it grew into the written
account we have read. It is certainly not a chronicle which we
have to work on, but it is equally not imaginative poesy ; it is a
historical saga. But that is a concept the employment of which
should not calm the scientific conscience ; it must stir it up . From
this starting-point we shall, as used to be said deprecatingly, proceed
62 MOSES

along " rationalist " lines (we admit our rational search for re?lity) .
In the best of cases we shall not attain more than an outline of a
possible historical process, but this we deem a gain.
A starting-point and a finishing-point are afforded. The
starting-point is provided in the story of Moses' life, as we have
already indicated along general lines. It is the return of Moses to
Egypt, where meanwhile, as the Bible reports a in order to join the
heavenly by the terrestrial motif, all his adversaries had perished.
We find the fmishing-point in the historically indisputable fact of
the Exodus. What lies between these two ? How did the
Exodus come about, and what was Moses' share in it ? Naturally
we carmot seek more than the kernel of tradition round which the
growing material of legend developed. How can we penetrate it ?
How can we separate kernel from husk ?
The starting-point provided informs us what it is we have to
ask in order to find the answer . to this question. What we first
need to know is : As what was Moses summoned in the original
account of the Revelation at the Burning Bush ? If we wish, in
other words, to adumbrate a historical Moses who, feeling himself
summoned and given a mission, returns to Egypt, what can his
purpose be and how can he set about its execution ?
Our question is not identical with the current one of the " type "
to which Moses belonged. All we are concerned with here is the
hour and its purpose. If our distinction between original tale and
supplements is correct, it is plain that Moses was summoned as a
nabi, a prophet ". This, of course, does not mean that Moses
"

was simply a nabi, but only that the service on which he returned
to Egypt was in essence analogous with that reported by those
prophets of Israel whose existence is historically incontestable.
Hosea, one of the earliest prophets whose writings have come down
in the Bible, declares,b " By a nabi did the Lord lead Israel out of
Egypt ' ' . He certainly did not wish to imply that Moses was noth
ing more than one of the nebiim, but that he had done what he
had done as a nabi. It was a historical action ; Hosea, a man
filled with a passionate zeal for history, was thinking of the historical
function of Israel's prophets ; and we think of it with him. The
issue here is not that of the ecstatic experiences which characterize
the nebiim from early times until late. That would mean a
diversion of the centre of gravity from the events that happened
to the nation into the personal religious life. It can just as little be
Ex. iv, 19. b Hos. xii , 14.
 MOSES AND PHARAOH

a question of miracles, such as are related of Elijah and to an even

greater degree of Elisha ; for that would mean exchanging history
for legend, and of necessity not finding the historically possible
kernel which we seek. (I suppose that the expansion of tradition
into the legendary cycle of the Egyptian Ten Plagues took place
among the disciples of Elisha, who sang the legends of the Father
of the nebiim together with those of their own master.) What
is essential here, however, can only be that historical situation
which recurs again and again from Samuel to Jeremiah, a situation
in which the nabi penetrates into history again and again and
operates therein. It is the great refrain in Israel's history : prophet
versus king. What appears in this picture is not myth-making or
stylization, but the flesh and blood of history.
For the rest, we are not concerned here with the origin of the
nebiuth(I personally am of the opinion that it evolved in Israel's
prehistoric days from primitive Semitic sources) ; and we are
certainly not concerned with the origin of nomenclature and
concept, but only with that of the historic function of the nabi.
What one prophet after another did on the stage of history at his
torically determinable times was to stand forth against the ruler with
words and signs of rebuke. The word was a demand in the name of
God and His " Justice ", a warning of the penalties and an indication
of the disastrous events which must sooner or later follow in case of
refusal. The sign was an incarnation of the word ; the process
must indeed be extraordinary, though not necessarily in any way
supernatural, in order to have an effect as sign. Wonders as such,
purely as a production of credentials, are not performed by the
prophet in front of the king ; nor does the former soothsay. He
announces the fateful development proceeding or impending at
that hour, and proclaims it to be bound up with the given or
prospective decision of the king ; and he points to the impending
disaster as being a consequence of the false decision or absence of
decision. If we may permit ourselves (as I think we may) to seek
commencement of this historical phenomenon with Moses, and if
his appearance before Pharaoh is regarded as the first in this series
of prophetic incursions, there must remain a firm kernel of fact,
after the dispersion of all the wonder-working which the Biblical
account ascribes to Moses and his God. Disaster cannot indeed be
directly induced, but it can be threatened, even though in general
terms only, and such disasters as befall can be accounted for as an
outcome of " stiff-neckedness ". What is remarkable, yet still
 MOSES
worthy of credence, is the fact that this process which mostly failed
in later ages in the case of the kings of Israel, caused Pharaoh to
fulfil the demand made of him.
The historical Moses who returned to Egypt is neither a magician
nor a visionary. He knows precisely who Pharaoh is ; he knows
precisely what it means to talk to Pharaoh in the way that he,
Moses, will have to talk to him ; and he has resolved to do so.
As far as concerns the historical situation he is no " national
liberator " ; he has nothing more to offer than the Word ; yet
since the Word carne to him on the mountain he is certain that it
will suffice, for when he utters it, the " Present One " will be with
him. Apparently the Word does not prove effective, for the king
responds with contemptuous condescension to this alien godling
which imagines that he will be able to intervene in the affairs of
Egypt. Nevertheless it does prove effective, for some (no matter
how long) time afterwards Pharaoh releases the hordes of slaves. In
between lie events which Moses regards as a fulfilment of his
(conditional) warning of calamity ; events which, however,
extraordinary if by no means supernatural admit of such an inter
pretation according to their time and sequence. Each of these
events occurs between one prophetic utterance and the next,
words of warning and words of interpretation, although each is
separated from both warning and interpretation by longer and
shorter periods of time. The important thing is that each of the
events admit of easy inclusion within the causal nexus announced
by the word of the prophet.
Why does Pharaoh permit himself to be convinced ? We
find ourselves face to face with a historical mystery ; one, however,
which is historical and not literary in character. A historical
mystery always means a relation between a super-personal fate
and a person, and particularly that which is atypical in a person ;
that by which the person does not belong to his type. The task
given to Moses is prophetic in character. But the fact that Moses
fulfils it, tremendous as it is ; that what has to be achieved is
achieved ; that unlike the later prophets of Israel he proves vic
torious in wrestling with the king ; all this is clearly due to a
large degree to the fact that he is someth4lg more than a prophet.
Though it may not be possible to determine with any measure
of certainty what part of the " Plagues " belong to the kernel of
truth and what is later crystallization of legend, it nevertheless
seems to me that the four final plagues, as well as the second,
 MOSES AND PHARAOH

retain a trace not only of actual events, but also of events that
belong to this period. The seventh and eighth plagues bear the
clearest signs of literary treatment, yet both contain parallel verses
which, as it seen:..s to me, constitute an early tradition. One of them a
(following an account of Moses raising his staff, which is not an
integral portion) reads as follows : " YHVH gave thunderbolts and
hail ; fire fell to the earth ; YHVH rained down hail upon the land
of Egypt. There was hail and within the hail a fire taking hold of
itself, exceedingly grievous ; the like had not been in the land of
Egypt since it was held by a nation." Behind this passage stand both
direct observation and an intention to describe the event as natural,
and only its force as something unheard-of. Corresponding to
this, but transferred from the description to the warning, the
narration b gives the following account of the locusts, ' ' They cover
the surface of the earth ; the earth cannot be seen ; and they eat the
residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from
the hail, and eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field
. . . which neither thy fathers nor thy fathers' fathers have seen
since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day." Here,
too, is the same direct observation and the identical purpose ; and
in addition comes the express linkage with the previous plague.
Hereupon follows c the sign of darkness, remarkable once again
for words which show direct observation, " Then there will be
darkness over the land of Egypt, one will feel darkness " . That
is no actual plague but apparently either a transition to or, more
correctly, the background of the fmal one, the factual kernel of
which we may assume to have been a plague which slew even the
first-born son of Pharaoh.
This is indicated by an assuredly early fragment, which now
stands shortly before the account of the Divine Attack ti ; " Thus
said YHVH, my first-born son is Israel. I said to thee, ' let my son
go that he may serve me ' ; but thou has refused to let him go, so
behold I slay thy first-born son." That is not a forecast of things
to come, no demand or threat, but the words of the hour of
destiny itself, suited precisely to the immediate moment breathing
of inevitability. And the matter under consideration here lies not
between YHVH and Egypt, but between YHVH and Pharaoh alone.
Although the sonship of Israel implies not a mythical procreation
but a historical act of adoption, it must be understood as a true

Ex. ix, 23 f. b Ex. x, s ff. ' Ibid., 2I. d Ex. iv, 22 f.

66 MOSES
state of sonship in order wholly to grasp the meaning of the words.
It is one father speaking awesomely to another father.
The kernel of the story. of the deeds of Moses in Egypt seems to
me to be somewhat as follows :
Moses, accompanied by his brother and helper Aaron, 57 comes
to the slave people, informs them of his mission, and wins their
belief. The deliberations, however, soon arouse the suspicions
of the authorities, and in order to restrict the " freedom of assembly "
of the aliens, they subject the latter to more stringent working
conditions. Thereupon the people turn away from Moses and
refuse to hearken unto him any more. Flung back to the feet of
the God who had spoken to him from the flame, Moses tells of
his woe and accuses Him. What the narrator places in his mouth
here, a namely the question, " Why indeed hast thou sent me ? ",
and the repetition in critical fashion of the motif of ammi (my
people), " While as for delivering, thou hast not delivered thy
people at all ! , echoes the language of the earlier part of the
"

Revelation at the Burning Bush. These too are words of a kind

which are not born of literary devices. Words of the identical
genuineness are found in the response which is made to the violent
suppliant b : " I am YHVH (He-Who-Is-Here, the Present One)
and I lead you out from the burdens of the Egyptians. . . . I take
you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God ; and ye shall
know that I, YHVH, am your God."
He who has hitherto been only the " God of the Fathers "
and whom the tribes, " the Children of Israel ", have regarded only
as such, wishes to become the God of them as a people, as His
people ; and thereby to make them genuinely a people. Only
now, in the hour of disillusion at finding the people not yet truly
a people, and most certainly not a people of YHVH, only now
does the thought come to Moses of the Covenant ; which shall
simultaneously unite the tribes into a people and bind the people
to their God ; not merely religiously but in their living substance.
Now they do not listen to him by reason of " impatience of spirit
and hard work ". Then when they will be free yonder on the
mountain, in the free air of God, they will hearken unto that to
which they have to hearken.
This thought of the Covenant makes Moses-who has mean
while become an old man according to our ideas if the Biblical
data are correct, but we are reluctant to follow them-feel himself
Ex. v, 22 f. b Ex. vi, 6 f. Ex. vii, 7
 MOSES AND PHARAOH

strong enough to go forth and meet Pharaoh ; and as it appears,

he seeks him " on the banks of the Nile " a. In the name of " the
God of the Hebrews " he demands of Pharaoh to let God's people
go in order that they " may serve Him in the wildemess " ; in
accordance with that " sign " which YHVH had given Moses at the
Burning Bush. Moses proclaims the catastrophe which will occur
in case of refusal, possibly pointing in sign as he does so to the
river ; which was red, as was frequently the case, particularly
before the Nile begins to rise.
And the catastrophe does not fail to come. Some time later it
begins to announce its arrival, seemingly through abnormal pheno
mena originating in the same Nile. This is presumably the place
for the story of the masses of small frogs which come out of the
river (it is summer and the season for the flood) ; and which,
impudent as never before, penetrate everywhere. It is here that
we find, in the account of the Plagues, a passage showing the same
youthfully intensive power of vision as those already quoted b :
" Frogs shall swarm from the river ; and they shall go up and
come into thy house, into thy bedchamber, upon thy bed . . .
into thy ovens, into thy kneading-troughs ; upon thee, upon thy
people, upon all thy servants shall the frogs go up." This, however,
is no more than a grotesque prologue. At Court it is reported that
those disgusting Asiatics are standing around again and fitting
interpretations of their own to the incident. That the Levites,
who promote the state of unrest, are not interfered with is ap
parently due to the uncanny air of power which the Egyptians
scent as emanating from Moses.
Many doubtless still have tales to tell of his singularities at the
time he was associated with the Court : he had indeed absorbed
all the " wisdom of the Egyptians " . c But that he has, apart from
this, foretold the incident and, unlike the usual magician, has done
so without any magical conjurations (which I assume to be the
historical truth) ; and that he further knows how to interpret the
signs of the incident ; these facts have a somewhat weird atmos
phere not inviting any too close contact. The unwieldy words,
with which a strange God jerkily moves his throat, only serve to
enhance the weirdness.
And now things move further. In one winter there comes
the hailstorm ; in the same one (or the next) comes a swarm of
locusts ; between them they devastate the agriculture and thereby
a Ex. vii, 15. b Ibid., 2.8 f., found in Authorized Version as Ex. viii, 3 f.
' Ex. vii, 2.2..
68 MOSES

the life of Egypt. While ever and again the unca1my man appears
and speaks his words, occasionally standing in the way of Pharaoh
himself. He is mocked at more and more ; and he is feared more
and more.
And then, one spring, a sandstorm of hitherto unknown fury
bursts out. The air is black for days on end. The sun becomes
invisible. The darkness can be felt. All and sundry are paralysed
and lose their senses. In the middle of all this, however, hile
a pestilence, a children's epidemic, begins to rage and do its work,
the voice of the mighty man sounds through the streets of the
Royal City ; unaffected by the driving masses of sand. The signs
have persuaded his people. Massed around him, their hope is
stronger than the darkness ; they see light. a
f
And then, after three days o the furious storm, the first-born
son of the young king perishes in the night. Disconsolate in his
innermost chamber, bowed over the little corpse, no longer a god
but the very man that he is, he suddenly sees the hated one standing
before him ; and, " Go forth ! he cries.
"

Ex. x, 23.
 T HE PAS S O V ER
AccORDING to the Biblical narrative;a Moses spent the
.l"l. interval between the announcement of the death of the first
born and its fulfilment in ordering the preparations for the Passover
meal. A widely-spread view denies this text, even in its older
part, b any importance in elucidating the period of the Exodus, and
regards it as nothing more than an " a!tiological legend ", the
intention of which was to explain the festival rites as having been
ordained by Moses. It is true that the linking of the ordinances
with the legend of the death of the first-born, in which YHVH
" leapt over " the houses of the Israelites, which were smeared with
blood," interferes with attempts at understanding what happened
from the historical viewpoint. Nevertheless it appears to me that
the historical approach, which endeavours, despite all obscuration
of the original content, to penetrate to the men acting in a given
situation, should not be renounced here either. We must maintain
the conclusion that, for times about which we have nothing more
than reports impregnated with material of an obviously legendary
character, it is necessary to assume the same fundamental forms of
historical behaviour as we know in periods which have found
more sober chroniclers.
Favourable circumstances have, within a relatively brief per:od,
provided a man possessing the character and destiny of a leader
with the external prerequisites for the fulfilment of his immediate
task, the leading of a group of semi-nomadic tribes out of a
land of " bondage ". The geographical and political conditions
under which the impending wandering has to take place are tre
mendously difficult, no matter whether that wandering already
aims at landed possession and settlement or, for the time being, at
the resumption of a nomadic life. The human groups whom he
proposes to lead out are only loosely associated with one another ;
their traditions have grown faint, their customs degenerate, their
religious association insecure.a The great thought of the man, his
great impulse, is to establish a covenant of the tribes in the purer
and freer atmosphere of the desert, which had once purified and
a Ex. xii , 1-14, 21-27. b Ibid., 21 ff. e Ibid., 12-13, 23, 27.
11 Cf Ezek. xx, 7, and xxiii, 8.
69
70 MOSES
freed him himself, and to establish that covenant on the basis of
their common covenant with a common divinity who had been
neglected for generations. However, the degree of i1mer tm.ity is in
sufficient even for the way to this initial goal. The extraordinary
events, to be sure, had their effect ; but the sense of tm.ity, unity
of destiny and of road to be taken, was not yet ripe enough. At
such times, as we find at all historical periods, what is required is a
common symbolic act in which the joint existence is converted
into a sensory experience. Ilut this cannot be brought about of
set purpose ; any astutely calculated steps injure the basic root of
eventuation. Even though promoted by the words and deeds of
a man, it must evolve out of whatever has existed from times im
memorial. And so Moses reintroduces the holy and ancient
shepherds' meal, renewed in meaning and form.
It may be supposed on the basis of the known customs of Arabs
in Moab 68 and other lands, that the early Semites annually dedi
cated the first-born of their flock of sheep and goats (which was
regarded as a unity), and that they marked those first-born as
being dedicate. When it reached the age of about a year, at the
time of the full moon, a meal was prepared of it which served
as a festival of peace and common joy to the tribe and tm.ited
it with its blood-brothers and outliers, who came from other
places to be present. The blood of the animal was smeared on
the tent supports in order to keep the demonic element, apparently
consisting originally of the revengeful forefather of the species
of animal, at a distance ; particularly from the human first-born
whom he menaced.
A short while before the Exodus, when Moses is quite certain of
its impending fulfilment without knowing the exact hour, he
orders that the holy meal should be eaten on the evening prior to
the Departure ; when he recognizes that what he is awaiting is
immediately due, he gives the signals. He takes over the old
customs, but what had been distributed over a number of days by
the various clans is now concentrated into a single evening. The
clans slaughter the preordained animals at the same time. Each
family eats of its own, each in its own house, which nobody may
leave a ; but they all eat at the same time, a single meal unites
them into a community. Illood is smeared on the portals and
lintels of the houses ; but the demons are now replaced by YHVH,
to whom all the tribes jointly devote themselves in blood, and
Ex. xii, 22.
 THE PASSOVER 71
thereby simultaneously redeem the debt of the human first-hom,
which they owe him.
The process is a preliminary form of the blood covenant which
the people as such was to conclude with YHVH on Sinai.a What
is now being prepared in the form of diversity will be completed
there in that of unity. " It is a passover for YHVH " which,
though called an " offering ", does not resemble anything referred
to in the Bible as sacrifice ; it is a sacramental meal. This should
not be understood as meaning that the God partakes of it (none of
the rites indicate this) nor that divine substance dwells in the animal
or is consumed with it. The essential thing to realize is that here
a natural and customary human activity, that of eating, is elevated
by the participation of the whole community to the level of an
act of communion ; and as such is consecrated to the God. It is
eaten " for him ". We do not know what the original meaning
of the term pessab, translated Passover, may have been. The
interpretation of the " leaping over " the houses of Israel by YHVH
or the " destroyer " during the night of the death of the first-born b
is, in any case, secondary ; even though at the time of Isaiah this
supplementary meaning of the verb, to pass over and spare, had
already become established." The verb originally meant to move
on one foot, and thereafter to hop. It may be assumed that at the
old nomad feast a hopping dance had been presented, possibly by
boys masked as he-goats. It should also be added that the word
J:ag, festival, originally meant to dance in a ring. " It will be a
song for you ", says Isaiah d of YHvH's coming j udgment on
Assyria, in the likeness of the Passover judgment on Egypt, " as
in the night when the ring dance is hallowed ", that is, when the
holy ring dance is danced. It is obviously a mimetic game which
is meant, a later transformation of the old shepherd round-dance.
" And so you shall eat it ", are the instructions : " your loins girded,
your shoes on your feet, your sticks in your hands ; and you shall
eat it in haste, it is pessab for YHVH ". " The Exodus was, so to
say, performed ", it has been correctly said of the Passover feast,59
and possibly a hopping beating of time by those standing round
the table was part of the performance. But this fresh mimetic
character may have been given to the feast at the historical moment
itself. Just as there are war dances in which the desired event is
portrayed and simultaneously trained for until the mime suddenly
becomes a reality, so, it may well be imagined, a symbolic
Ex. xxiv, 6-8. b Ex. xii, 23, 27. Is. xxxi , S d Is. xxx, 29.
72 MOSES
representation of the Exodus may have passed into the Exodus
itself.
If our assumption is correct, Moses transformed the clan feast
of the shepherds (the matzoth too, the unleavened flat cakes, are the
bread of the nomads) into the feast of a nation, without its losing
its character of a family feast. And now the families as such are
the bearers of the sacramental celebration ; which, however,
unites them into a national community. Moses did not change
the custom of the ages into a cult ; he did not add any specific
sacrificial rite to it, and did not make it dependent on any sanctuary ;
but he consecrated it to YHVH. He transformed the already
existent Passover by introducing a new sense and symbol, as Jesus
did later by the introduction of a new sense and symbol. The
question as to whether his instructions already applied to the
annual ceremony, or were only subsequently extended to it,a must
be left open. The new character of the feast is explained by a
phrase of early coinage b ; " A night of watching was it for YHVH,
to lead them out of the land of Egypt ; and that is this night unto
YHVH, a watching of all the children of Israel throughout their
generations ". The words may very well derive from a period
before the legend of the death of the first-hom children had de
veloped : YHVH watched over his people, who are preparing and
executing their flight out of the " house of bondage ".
The pessa underwent a vast transformation in Israel. The
domestic blood rite was apparently less and less observed ; despite
the fact that it is, strikingly enough, still the practice of the Sam
aritans to-day, though in attenuated form. The domestic meal
became a great sacrificial feast, a general tribal pilgrimage to the
Jerusalem Temple ; where the clans jointly, as once in Egypt,
experienced the living reality of their communion. After the
destruction of the Second Temple the Passover naturally became
a domestic family feast again ; and this it has remained until tl1e
present day. It may be said that the Jewish people who celebrate
the Passover have again drawn close to the meal of the Egyptian
Exodus, despite their dispersion. The Passover was and has
remained a spring festival, first of the shepherds and then of the
peasants ; and it is still celebrated by those who have become
entirely landless, who no longer have even a common wilderness
to wander in. By celebrating the memory of their liberation
they glorify the unfettering power whose activity in Nature
Cf. Nurn. ix. & Ex. xii, 42..
 THE PASSOVER 73
manifests itself every year in the likeness of the spring. Yet since
the night of the Exodus it has become a history feast, and indeed
the history feast par excellence of the world ; not a feast of pious
remembrance, but of the ever-recurrent contemporaneousness of
that which once befell. Every celebrating generation becomes
united with the first generation and with all those that have followed.
As in that night the families united into the living people, so in the
Passover night the generations of the people unite together, year
after year.
What was established then, foWld expression in the intro
ductory sentence " Let this month be the head of the months
for you " , which does not appertain to the message to the people,
and which therefore seems to be of an esoteric character. The
sentence may be belated ; a reform of the calendar which made the
year begin with the spring, a reform of the kind which in one or
another fashion seems to be associated with the foundation of
religions, may not have taken place then. But the establishment
of the Passover in any case means a regulating of the time of Nature
by means of the time of history ; the foWldation of a new
beginning.
 T HE W OND ER ON THE S EA

A
SONG dating back to the time of Moses is preserved in
Exodus xv, 2 1 . Hynm-like in tone, in the Hebrew text it
contains no more than nine words : " Sing to YHVH for He has
raised Himself high, horse and charioteer He flung into the sea ".
Even radical critics recognize that this " can have been born only of
the situation itself ". 60 The sensuous power of an event has streamed
into it and lives on. In the history of Israel no other event can be
identified whose hymnic expression it might be, save that central
incident of the Exodus, the great miracle of delivery on the sea.
The song does not give any ample picture of a historical reality,
but it gives enough ; a sea, on its shore a mounted force inimical
to Israel-cavalry or chariots-and their downfall in the waters for
some reason which could not be ascribed to human power. For
this stage of the Exodus the passage affords us what was not avail
able as regards the earlier stages : a document recording the
definite fact to which the crystallizing, shaping memory of the
people has attached itself, a memory both true and transforming.
The song is placed in the mouth of Miriam, the sister of Moses, 6l
who is described as a nebia (a " prophetess "), a woman proclaimer
or spokeswoman, probably on account of this very poem ; for by
it she fulfilled the second of the two basic prophetic functions, of
bearing God's words to the community and bearing the words of
the community to God. She chants this song to the women of the
community, plays it and dances it to them. The chorus of the
women respond with song, drum play and round dance ; and all
this is directed towards YHVH and devoted to Him. This is a
process which we can well imagine as deriving directly from the
situation ; if not in all its details, at least in essential elements.
The situation itself cannot be reconstructed from the narrative.
In order to gain a historically possible picture for all tl1at, we must
very much reduce the figures given about the departing of the
tribes a ; which naturally does not affect the actual importance of
the event ; for the inner history of Mankind can be grasped most
easily in the actions and experiences of small groups. Further, it
may be assumed that the frontier guards set out in pursuit of the
fugitives, or those regarded as such, wheilier they had received
Ex. x:ii, 37
74
 THE WONDER ON THE SEA 75
no special instructions from the capital, and hence acted in accord
ance with standing orders, or whether a the government did not
propose to interpret a cry of the stricken Pharaoh as a binding
order, and in the morning sent out the necessary orders by special
couriers. We do not know where the pursuers caught up with
the fugitives ; whether in the neighbourhood of the present Suez
or, if the Gulf of Suez was then differently shaped from its con
tmporary form, further north at one of the bitter lakes or the
other inner lakes, most probably at the Sirbonian Lake-or even,
as some suppose, only at the Gulf of Akaba (though in that case it
is hard to understand why the pursuing chariots should not have
caught up with them sooner). Wherever it may have happened,
however, there begins a natural process, or a series of natural
processes (whether a combination of tides with unusual winds which
raised them tremendously, or the effect of distant volcanic pheno
mena on the movements of the sea 62) which, together with a daring
advance on the part of the Israelites and a destruction of the
Egyptians, whose heavy war chariots are caught in the sand or the
swamp, leads to the saving of the one and the downfall of the
other.
What is decisive with respect to the inner history of Mankind,
however, is that the children of Israel understood this as an act of
their God, as a " miracle " ; which does not mean that they
interpreted it as a miracle, but that they experienced it as such, that
as such they perceived it. This perception at the fateful hour, which
is assuredly to be attributed largely to the personal influence of
Moses, had a decisive influence on the coming into being of what
is called " Israel " in the history of the spirit ; on the development
of the element " Israel " in the religious history of humanity.
The concept of miracle which is permissible from the historical
approach can be defined at its starting point as an abiding astonish
ment. The philosophizing and the religious person both wonder
at the phenomenon, but the one neutralizes his wonder in ideal
knowledge, while the other abides in that wonder ; no knowledge,
no cognition, can weaken his astonishment. Any causal explanation
only deepens the wonder for him. The great turning-points in
religious history are based on the fact that again and ever again an
individual and a group attached to him wonder and keep on
wondering ; at a natural phenomenon, at a historical event, or at
both together ; always at something which intervenes fatefully in
Cf Ex. xiv, s.
 MOSES

the life of this individual and this group. They sense and experience
it as a wonder. This, to be sure, is only the starting-point of the
historical concept of wonder, but it cannot be explained away.
Miracle is not something " supernatural " or " superhistorical ",
but an incident, an event which can be fully included in the objective,
scientific nexus of nature and history ; the vital meaning of which,
however, for the person to whom it occurs, destroys the security of
the whole nexus of knowledge for him, and explodes the fixity of
the fields of experience named " Nature " and " History ". Miracle
is simply what happens ; in so far as it meets people who are
capable of receiving it, or prepared to receive it, as miracle. The
extraordinary element favours this corning together, but it is not
characteristic of it ; the normal and ordinary can also undergo a
transfiguration into miracle in the light of the suitable hour.
The historical reality of Israel leaving Egypt cannot be grasped
if the conception of the accompanying, preceding, guiding God is
left out. This is the " God of the Fathers ", with whom the tribes
have now established contact. He has always been a God who
wandered with his own and showed them the way. But now he
has been revealed to them afresh through the secret of his name, as
the one who remains present with his own. He leads them by a way
differing from the customary one of the caravans and armies. a He
has his own ideas of guidance, and those who follow him find wel
fare. Carrying with them, as a symbol of the rescue of the whole
of Egyptized Israel, the mwnmy of Joseph, which has not to be left
in Egypt, they go along the road where YHVH precedes them. A
passage in poetic rhythm and style b, either a fragment of a poem or
a lyrical rise in the narrative, relates : " And YHVH went before
them/ by day in a pillar of cloud/ to lead them the way/ and by
night in a pillar of fire J to give them the light/ to go by day and
night. /Aside turns not/ the pillar of cloud by day J nor the
pillar of fire by night/ before the people." Quite irrespective of
whether volcanic phenomena have or have not exerted any influence
here on either the nucleus or the development of the tradition, it is
to be felt that the primreval phenomenon which has found optical
expression in the clearly native, unique picture is the belief of the
man Moses in the leadership of the God whose voice he heard
from the fire ; and that this belief, though in a far slighter measure
and in varying degrees, is also transferred to the people. Moses
himself, at least, follows when he leads a leader ingenuously and
a Ex. xiii, 17 f. b Ibid., 21 f.
 THE WONDER ON THE SEA 77
undauntedly. We may call it intuition or whatever we like. He
calls it obedience, and if we wish to understand him we must take
cognizance of his view and build upon it. Following his leader,
Moses comes to the shore, he steps on sands that are barely covered
by shallow water ; and the hosts follow him as he follows the God.
At this point occurs whatever occurs, and it is apprehended as a
miracle.
It is irrevelant whether " much " or " little ", unusual things
or usual, tremendous or trifling events happened ; what is vital is
only that what happened was experienced, while it happened, as
the act of God. The people saw in whatever it was they saw " the
great hand " ,a and they " believed in YHVH , or, more correctly
"

translated, they gave their trust to YHVH.

We have found that the permissible concept of miracle from
the historical approach means, to begin with, nothing but an
abiding astonishment. In order to arrive at the completeness of
the miracle from this concept we must add something which
proves to be essential. We may ascribe what gives rise to our
astonishment to a specific power, which therefore requires no other
content than that of being the doer of this miracle or this kind of
miracle, than to be, so to say, the subject of a miracle. That does
not do away with the astonishment, the event is not included in a
general chain of cause and effect apt to explain it adequately ;
but for the performance of the miracle a particular magical spirit,
a special demon, a special idol is called into being. It is an idol
just because it is special. But that is not what historical con
sideration means by miracle. For where a doer is restricted by
other doers, the current system of cause and effect is replaced by
another, less adequate, lacking sequence and connection. The real
miracle means that in the astonishing experience of the event the
current system of cause and effect becomes, as it were, transparent
and permits a glimpse of the sphere in which a sole power, not
restricted by any other, is at work. To live with the miracle
means to recognize this power on every given occasion as the
effecting one. That is the religion of Moses, the man who
experienced the futility of magic, who learned to recognize the
demonic as one of the forms by which the divine functions, and
who saw how all the gods of Egypt vanished at the blows of
the One ; and that is religion generally, as far as it is
reality.
0 Ex. xiv, 31.
 MOSES

At a later time the song of Miriam gradually, presumably first

in the days of Samuel, and afterwards in the days of Solomon, 63
was expanded into a long hymn.a In the proclamation with
which it closes, " YHVH will reign in time and eternity ", can be
heard a feeling which had its origin in Moses himself. Whoever
recognizes the one effective power qn every given occasion must
desire that the whole life of the community should be made subject
to that power. The verb which we translate with " will reign ",
or " be king ", mala!. is to be understood from the Assyrian malaku,
to counsel, to resolve, to decide ; and melek originally meant the
one whose opinion is decisive. For that reason we find that certain
West Semites, clearly of the pre-state period, use the substantive
malk<melek as a designation of the tribal god, 64 which characterizes
him as the actual and supreme head of the tribe. There are weighty
reasons for assuming that this also applied to Israel. 6 5 As a result,
however, of the intensity of religious experience which flowered
in this way only here, and particularly as a result of the singular
development of the prophetic spirit, but most of all thanks to the
personal influence of Moses, the basic view assumed a seriousness
and concreteness not to be found anywhere else. YHVH has led
Israel from Egypt with miraculous power, with miraculous power
He leads them on their way to their goal, miraculously He precedes
them ; where uncertainty and anxious questionings arise at one of
the stations of the road, His is the miraculous wisdom by which the
nabi gives his counsel. In this way He is the heavenly and yet
present leader and decider, the only effecting power restricted by
no other, to whose leadership and decision must be subjected all
fields of common life ; the lord of wonder, the everlasting melek.
The melek proclamation stands with full meaning at the close
of the hymn which deals with the miracle on the sea. Under the
echo of tllis nliracle the children of Israel learned to w1derstand
that they had a God who, and who alone among all the protective
gods of the peoples, could really perform miracles, b 66 whereas all
the neighbours who had no such lords and leaders are gripped with
fear when He acts. 0 So Israel renders homage to Him as being the
One to whom alone kingship is due.
I have apparently just treated Nature and History as being equal
in relation to the nliracle ; but they are not really so ; not, at
least, in the Biblical, which is a history religion. Here there is no
Nature in the Greek, the Chinese or the modern Occidental sense.
Ex. xv, r-19. b Ibid., II. Ibid., 14 ff.
 THE WONDER ON THE SEA 79

What is shown us of Nature is stamped by History. Even the

work of creation has a historical tone. Certainly during the
historical period Nature always points to History, and from the
Biblical viewpoint History always contains the element of wonder.
Prophets and psalmists praise the deeds of YHVH at the Red Sea
with the same images of cosmic battles and victories in which the
divine works of Creation are extolled and glorified. The defeated
Egyptian " dragon " grows into a symbol as vast as the world in
tl1e drama of rescue which serves as prelude to the revelation, but
which in itself is also already revelation. Fqr here the miracle is
revelation through the deed, which precedes revelation through
the word.
 THE S ABBAT H
N
I
a section a which is apparently independent, and is composed
of various traditions which have converged and been repeatedly
reworked, the tale is told of the manna (a secretion of a cochineal
insect, tasting like crystallized honey, which covers the tamarisk
bushes at the time of the apricot harvest, drips to earth by day and
becomes hard at night 07) . " Something fine, scaly, fine as cl1e
hoar-frost on the earth ", it was greeted as a heavenly gift by the
hungry desert wanderers who yearned to return to the fleshpots of
Egypt. Woven into this is an order of Moses not to pick it up on
the Sabbath, as that day is " a time of rest " (shabbaton), a resting
(shabbat) consecrated to YHVH. In this order Moses refers to a
word uttered by YHVH which is not, however, to be foWld in
the preceding narrative. Thereafter, YHVH himself speaks :
" See that YHVH has given you the Sabbath ". The gift of ilie
manna is the occasion for remembering the greater gift ; the
latter, however, was given not now but earlier. In this way the
actual Sabbath command is anticipated with Wlmistakable intention.
It is first foWld recorded in the Decalogue, then in various forms,
and with various reasons given for it on each occasion. (Togeilier
with the passage on the manna in this section there are ten express
commandments.) The Sabbath is not introduced for ilie first
time on Sinai, it is there already ; the believers are only ordered to
" remember ". However, it is not introduced for the first time
even in the wilderness of Sin, where the manna is found. Here,
too, it is proclaimed as something which is already in existence.
And the strange narrative motif which leads to this annoWlce
ment, namely, that there was a double portion on the sixth day but
none on the seventh, indicates something connected with it.
Sabbath does not exist exclusively in the world of human beings ;
it also functions outside ilieir world.
Here traces of a definite fact seem to me to have been preserved
in a singular fashion and in a singular connection. Moses does not
introduce the Sabbath as something new, but renews something
old, probably very old indeed ; he simultaneously extends and
condenses it, he endows it wiili a new and vast meaning ; ilie
renewal of the name of God and of the Passover has a third chord,
Ex. xvi, 2-36.
So
 THE SABBATH Sr

the renewal o f the Sabbath. And here as well the renewal ensues
as an unravelling of something pre-existent. In the Sabbath
Moses recognizes not merely a human law but a universal law,
which has only to be discovered and separated out. That i,s how
it always was with the founders. They desire not the new but the
time old and eternal, that which has always and everlastingly been
there, part and parcel of the inner essence of the world ; where
they beheld it and from which they have revealed it. They do
not regard themselves as the inventors of the order of life which
they bring, but as those who fmd it. Moses should not be re
garded as more primitive than this, despite his early period. The
now wide-spread shifting into the primitive is no less capable of
blurring the historical figure than did the once popular shifting
into the mystagogical.
From Babylon we are familiar with the term shabattu, as
applied to specific days in the year, which are likewise designated
as " calming of the heart ", that is as days of penitence and thus of
the mollification of the anger of the gods. A similar name is
applied to the mid-month day, which would be identical with
that of the full moon. In addition four of the " evil days ", or
" days of wrath " of the month, fall on the seventh, fourteenth,
etc. Among the Babylonians, it should be remembered, the seven
was not merely a holy number, which it was among the Semites
in general as well as other peoples, but it also included the concept
of the comprehensive whole in space and time. Hence nnder
lying those critical days may have been the idea of the restoration
of a violated integrity, the idea of rectification. 88 The Israelite
Sabbath cannot be derived from the whole of this approach.
It has not been possible to prove that it was originally the feast of
the full moon. 89 (Similarly the existence of an early Israelite moon
cult has not left the stage of hypothesis. On the contrary, the
patriarchal religion seems to have been a rennnciation of the cult
of the " planet of way for the wayfaring Semitic race ",70 and a
going over to the cult of the invisible leader.) The Sabbath is
mentioned together with the New Moon because both of them
together mark the festive rhythm of the year in weeks and months.
It has been just as little possible to expose a day of penitence and
atonement behind the festival of joy a for the whole commnnity,
from the fathers of the households to the servants and cattle . We
read of the Babylonian unlucky days that on them the king, the
a Hos. ii, 13.
82 MOSES

priest of the oracle and the physician should cease their most
important activities ; naturally because on those days they would
produce only misfortune. Certain practices of a mournful nature
are also prescribed for the king. In Israel, on the other hand, it is
impossible to fmd any sign that here the Sabbath rest of the entire
people, and, indeed, of everything created, was ever caused by a
negative motive. 71 Babylon and Israel had the word in common.
We do not exactly know whether it means " to cease ", or " to
cause to cease ", or something else, in the former place. On the
other hand the Hebrew word shabat means exclusively to be
fmished with an action or a situation, not to do or not to be some
thing any more ; it does not mean to rest or to leave something
undone. What is involved here is in essence the completion of
an activity or a function, its no-longer state.
All this taken together in no way justifies the assumption that
the Israelite Sabbath is borrowed from the Babylon culture. Here
and there the material indicates a common origin, a common
Semitic conception of some qualitative difference between the
whole six days on the one hand and the seventh on the other ; and
in addition the name of a day which is, however, not dependent
on but independent of that conception. Out of the original
content it seems that two almost opposed developments took place
in Babylon and Israel respectively. There the seventh day,
which is not called Sabbath, is the day of instability, the day of
dire peril, of the pressing need for immediately propitiating the
angry gods ; here it is the day of stability, of untroubled serenity,
of utter peace between Heaven and Earth. And this state of serenity,
this achievement of peace in the creation, is regarded as a rhythm
running uniformly through the whole year and through all the
years of time. In Israel and, as far as we know, in Israel only, the
seven-day week developed as the ever-returning passage from toil
to appeasement and from discord to harmony.
Moses clearly found the Sabbath in Israel in some already
existent elementary form. Presumably he had already met related
customs in Midian ; and as shepherd he himself may have observed
certain rites there on every seventh day. He took hold of some
thing that was already in existence, in order to create what was
necessary for the beginning of his initiatory work ; a holy order
of time. The men whom we call founders of religions are not
really concerned with founding a religion, but wish to establish
a human world that is subject to a divine truth ; to unite the way
 THE SABBATH

of the earth with that of heaven. And it is an important factor in

this that time, which is itself articulated only by the cosmic rhythms,
by the changes of the sun and the phases of the moon, has to be set
firm and stabilized in a higher holiness that extends even beyond
the cosmos. In this way Moses establishes the Sabbath, and with
it the week that flows into the Sabbath, as the divine measure that
regulates the life of human beings. But the God, whose measuring
rod it is, is the same God who takes care of human beings, who
supports them, who liberates them, who aids them to achieve
salvation. And so the Sabbath week ca1mot be merely an " absolute
metre of time 72 ; it is likewise and of necessity the ever-recurrent
"

way of God's peace.

The decisive step is : The seventh day, which had even pre
viously been regarded as " holy ", that is, as something excepted
from the general series of days, and which accordingly enj oyed
taboos peculiar to itself, was now to belong entirely to YHVH.
It was to be " holy unto YHVH ". Just as on the Passover the
shepherds brought the first-hom of every flock to the God, so
should they now bring a tribute of their time : the seventh day.
Henceforward it was no longer " holy " in itself, no longer some
thing uncanny, charged with magic, a day for dread and caution,
to be treated with all kinds of negative and positive rites. It was
hallowed by the very fact that it was hallowed wlto YHVH : it
was hallowed through him and through the contact with him.
This God had indeed absorbed everything demonic in himself, but
whoever established commw1ion with him was liberated from all
demoniality ; and the seventh days hallowed unto him were times
of j oy. The hallowing of the day led to a certain limitation of
work, such as is possible even under nomadic conditions. In
order to be there for YHVH it was necessary to change the cus
tomary working habits as far as possible. Nothing more than the
absolutely necessary minimum was done. People washed them
selves, put on festival clothing, gathered round holy emblems,
and, by coming to YHVH, came to one another. We have no
clear idea of the Mosaic celebration of the Sabbath, but this is
obvious : here again a great step had been taken towards unifying
the people, towards bringing the national community into being ;
and, once again, by means of an institution which served to gather
Israel round their God.
With the establishment of the Sabbath as the day of YHVH
and of his community, two things were germinated that could
 MOSES

develop in due course : something cosmic and something social.

The results of the dual development are to be fOtmd in two pas
sages a which closely bear a relation to one another. Their present
form (or that, at least, of one of them) has been influenced by the
fact that they were intended to complement one another, and that
the reader of the one is intended to be reminded immediately of
the other. In one passage a command is given to celebrate the
seventh day " in order that your ox and your ass may rest, and the
son of your maid servant and the stranger (gcr) may breathe
freely ". In the other YHVH describes the Sabbath as a " sign "
between himself and the Children of Israel, a bodying forth and
visualization of the fact that " in six days YHVH made heaven and
earth, and on the seventh day he rested and breathed freely ".
Israel, who are repeatedly commanded to go in the way of their
God, are thus told to " do work " six days and to celebrate the
Sabbath on the seventh day.b The first of these two passages, in
its character as part of the " Book of the Covenant ", is usually
regarded as very early if not necessarily as Mosaic ; whereas the
second, which is attributed to the " Priestly Code ", is regarded as
very late. The early origin of the first seems beyond all doubt to
me as well ; but the second, which clearly developed under its
influence, obviously derives from a time which had no fear as yet
of daring anthropomorphisms, if they were found necessary to
bring something of basic importance to direct apprehension in this
way. And that was what was necessary here. The extremely
rare verb meaning regaining one's breath or breathing freely is
used for YHvH's resting after the erection of the world, in order
to make that first passage even more impressive by setting God, so
to say, on the same level as the most dependent and least protected
of human beings. Even the slave admitted into the household
community, even the ger, the stranger admitted into the national
community, must be permitted to share in the divine rest ; they
also must be allowed to celebrate the day of YHVH together
with him. The Sabbath is the common property of all, and all
ought to enjoy it without restriction.
No matter when the one passage or the other may have been
written down, the spirit of Moses speaks out of both. It is im
possible to gain any adequate idea of the man if we do not bear in
mind that from the very beginni ng he strives for the coming of
justice ; the reign of his God and a just order between men are one
0 Ex. xxiii, 12 ; xxxi, 17. b Ex. xxxi, 15.
 THE SABBATH ss

and the same to him ; as legislator, too, he wishes to help the unfree,
the exposed ones, to gain their rights. It is an inseparable part of
his great conception of Sabbath rest that all are united, free and
unfree, those who derive from Abraham's seed and those strangers
who have j oined them. On that one day in every week, on the
day of communion with YHVH God's leisure and God's joy must
reign among all members of the community.
But the doctrine of the relation between the Sabbath and the
creation of the world likewise seems, to me, inseparable from
Moses. If the Sabbath week is really to articulate universal time,
it cannot enter it at a certain moment, but can only be discovered
and revealed at that moment as something which has always been
in existence ; that is, it must be rooted in the very beginnings of
the world itself, and the very creation of the world must be such a
week and flow into such a Sabbath. Whatever may be the period
to which we attribute the writing of the first chapter of Genesis
(and it unquestionably bears the stamp of a period of ripe struc
tural art) the idea of the work of creation itself belongs to the early
days of humanity. The Egyptian myths, in whose atmosphere
Moses grew up, know it as well as the Babylonian, which may
have had a direct or indirect influence on the " Fathers " ; and the
priest of Midian doubtless also had something to tell of this.
If we take away all the legendary traits of Moses we must still
recognize him as the spiritual force in which the Ancient Orient
concentrated itself at its close and surmounted itsel In the silence
of the steppes he may have tested all the myths against his own
awareness of God, finally arriving at his own view. He may
have commingled the conception of the Sabbath week, which was
already maturing within him, with this view of his. The God who
" makes " heaven and earth and in addition man, in order that man
may " make " his own share in the creation ; the God who rests
on the completion of his work and wishes man to rest with him
throughout the future, Sabbath after Sabbath ; that God is no
concept of a late priestly speculation. The vital sap of an
early, elementally alive humanity is in this vision, and no less a
person than Moses was necessary in order to bring it into the
world of the word.
 T HE M URM URERS

W
E are told that even in Egypt at the first lack of success,
shortly after the people came to believe in Moses' mission and
bowed down before YHVH,a the elders of the people assailed the
divine messengers and threatened them with divine judgment. b
At the Red Sea, when the people see the Egyptian war chariots
approaching, they cry to YHVH, to be sure ; but then they com
plain against Moses in a little speech artistically composed by
the narrator, c which, in genuine Biblical style, brings out the anti
thesis of Egypt and desert by closing five of its seven members
with the word " Egypt " and two with the word " desert ". The
life of servitude in Egypt appears preferable to death in the desert
as far as they are concerned.
After the great wonder they believe again " in YHVH and his
servant Moses " ; d but scarcely have they passed through the
desert without water for three days than they " murmur " again ;

and this time without crying out to YHVH. Instead it is Moses

who does so on this occasion on their behalf,! and who is heard.
But this is only the first of three stations between the sea and Sinai
where they murmur. The second is that at which they demand
the " flesh-pots " again. g Promptly thereon follows the third, 11
where once again the wrangling is increased through shortage of
water. " Yet a little and they will stone me ! ", says Moses to God.
And so it goes on steadily until the great revolt after the report of
the spies, where the people say that they wish to choose themselves
a new chief and to return to Egypt ' ; with all that follows thereon.
It is probable that certain of these narratives are only " doublets "
and can be attributed to varying traditions of the same event. In
addition, the genuine traditional material has certainly been supple
mented by all kinds of fictions, partly popular and partly literary
in character. Only in a restricted degree is it possible to distinguish
here between what is close to history and what is far from history.
Yet the basic description of the process bears a strong stamp of
reality. To its shaping some later prophetic experiences with
the " stiff-necked " people may have contributed ; yet it is
the frequent repetition of such experience, known to us from
a Ex. i v , JI. Ex. v, 2 0 c Ex. xiv, I I f. 4 Ibid., 3 1 . ' Ex. xv, 24.
I Ibid., 25. Ex. xvi, J . h Ex. xvii, 2 f. ' Num. xiv, 4
86
 THE MURMURERS

elsewhere, which j usties the assumption that the repetitions in

question began very early.
Nevertheless, there is clearly a basically important historical
difference, quite apart from all the other differences, between these
" men of the spirit " and Moses. They are powerless, o fficeless
spokesmen of Heaven, whereas he, although sent from above as
they are, is sent not merely to speak, but also to perform ; he is
the commissioned leader of Israel. In the case of the prophets, the
actual conflict is not with the people, but with the persons
wielding power ; and naturally the people, even though they may
secretly maintain and support those who call for justice, ostensibly
stand with the authorities. The hidden covenant existent between
the oppressed classes of the people and the demanding spirit proves
here ineffectual, as is so frequently the case ; and the " stiff
neckedness " may find expression not only in the palace, but also
in the market place without restriction.
The situation of Moses is entirely different. He himself pos
sesses the power, but his power is a doubtful one. He is the leader
who demands no dominion for himself, and evidently by reason of
a sentiment in which different motives converge. We can trace
one such motive if we remember the resistance of Bedouin tribes,
even in pre-Islamic time, to the granting of unlimited authority to
an individual, and in particular to every stabilization of the power ;
if we remember their tendency towards a " commonwealth without
authorities " as Wellhausen once called it in a noteworthy
address.73 We tend to assume that in Midian Moses was strongly
influenced by this basic attitude, and that a, in view of his biography,
quite understandable anti-pharaonic sentiment was favourable to its
further development.
The other motive, which I have already indicated, and which
will yet engage us, is rather more difficult to grasp genetically.
It is the passionate wish to make a serious political issue of the faith
in the earthly dominion of the god, such as is met with in varied
forms and situations in the Ancient Orient, including Southern
Arabia.74 The stern and deep realism of Moses, which could not
bear that, as elsewhere, a sacred symbolism should replace or
supplant the factual realization of his faith, determines the type,
the order of the power. Power lies in the hands of the " charis
matic " leader who is led by God ; and, for that very reason, this
wielder of power must not engage in any transformation to
dominion, which is kept for the God alone. Hundreds of years
88 MOSES

later Gideon refuses the crown offered to him a with the words,
" I shall not rule over you nor shall my son rule over you, YHVH
will rule over you " ; an expression which to me carries an un
questionably historical scent.76
Those words seem to me to have their origin here. There arc
early Arabic parallels to this as well.
But the double tendency of which we speak conceals dangers
which militate against its fulfi.lment. The unbridled craving for
independence, which was common to semi-nomadic Israelites of
ancient times and to the Bedouins, leads again and again to a
singular misapprehension with regard to the charismatic idea.
Only as long as the leader is successful is he regarded as equipped
with the authority of Heaven. As soon as something goes wrong,
or unsatisfactory circumstances ensue, people are swift to detect a
rift between him and the God, to whom appeal is made against his
unworthy because unlucky representative ; if indeed they do not
prefer to draw the conclusion from the mishap that it is impossible
to depend on the favour of YHVH, or even on his loyalty.
Always and everywhere in the history of religion the fact that
God is identified with success is the greatest obstacle to a steadfast
religious life. In the Biblical narrative of the Exodus and the
wanderings in the desert this identification becomes particularly
acute. Moses has to engage in a never-interrupted, never-despairing
struggle against the " stiff-neckedness " of Israel ; that is, against
this permanent passion for success. Certainly, the unfamiliar and in
themselves excessive privations of the journey are a cause of great
suffering to the people, but historical deed always means the sur
mounting of suffering, the suffering inherent in human being.
The majestic Moses of Western art tradition should not cause us
to forget the one suffering with the people. In a fashion which
no narrator could invent do we observe him suffering all that the
people suffer, and far more deeply than they do ; and we see him
wrestling to overcome the evil.
Assuredly he sometimes speaks in a petty fashion, " Yet a little
and they stone me " ; but he rises with the needs of the hour. And
in the ultimate moment when, foliowing the great sin of the people,
he permits himself to remind YHVH of his faith as Abraham once
reminded him of his j ustice, he utters the bold words b : " And
now, if you will bear with their sins . . . ! But if not, blot me
out of your book ! " And the fact that he has said this, that he has
Jud. vili, 23. b Ex. xxxii, 32
 THE MURMURERS

done tlus, permits him soon after to mount still higher and to
address his God with words that cannot be surpassed, words of the
most intimate knowledge and the most intimate daring " : " Indeed,
a people stiff of neck are they-forgive then our transgression ! "

Because the people are stiff-necked, God ought to forgive them.

This can certainly be explained in the sense that where and when a
person or a people are just what they are, nothing, so to say, is
left except for God to forgive them. Yet might it not be under
stood otherwise, as arising out of the deeps of the situation ? Ac
cording to its current exterior character, stiff-neckedness means
permanent passion for success and a rebellious mind. Yet hidden
therein is a kind of secret virtue, which only rarely comes to light.
Tlus is the holy audacity which enables the people to do their deeds
of faith as a people. Here Moses and Israel become one, and he
genuinely represents lus people before YHVH.
Granted, all these are obvious literary attempts to retrace
footsteps that have almost entirely vanished. Yet this state of
affairs is enough to permit us to usc them, with careful hand,
for the picture.
Ex. xxxiv, 9.
 THE BATTLE

T
HE weary hosts passing through the wilderness are suddenly
attacked by a wild tribe of Bedouins, presumably in order to
prevent any entry into the pasture of the latter by means of a well
timed attack ; yet the desire, on such occasions, to increase one's
own herds and flocks is also part of the reason. These Amalekites,
who apparently called themselves the " first-hom of the peoples ",a
and were therefore regarded as such, were certainly a very old
people. Like the Bedouins of that district to this day, they
jealously guarded the approaches to their territory but willingly
entered other people's lands and took away their harvests.
Thanks to their strategy of surprise, they now succeeded in
cutting off a part of the army which wearily followed the main
body ; and they destroyed them. Such a proceeding was generally
regarded as against the " fear of God " b ; that is as against the
custom of the nations whose practice it was to spare those who
could not fight and were left behind. In the night, while they
share the booty and do not think for the time being of further
undertakings, Moses, who promptly grasps the situation, orders
Joshua 76 his " servant " (as Elisha is called in relation to Elij ah),
meaning his adjutant and personal representative who is mentioned
for the first time in this narrative, immediately to call out an
experienced band in order to attack the Amalekite camp early in
the morning.
At the moment when Moses' men have succeeded in approach
ing the enemy unnoticed, Moses himself appears on a neighbouring
hill with the " staff of God " in his hands ; and as long as his
strength permits, he holds his hand aloft. " And it came to pass
that as Moses held his hand up Israel prevailed, but when he rested
his hand, Amalek prevailed." " When his hand becomes heavy it
is supported. The plural " hands " which appears at this point for
the first time and implies that not only the right hand holding the
staff was supported but also the left, can be recognized as a change
by an editor who mistakenly assumed the position to be one of
prayer. And now his hand remains emtmah, i.e. firmness, staunch
ness, until at stmset victory is won. According to a supplementary
report Moses builds an altar ; and the cry which, as was the
a Num. xx.iv. 20. b Dcut. xxv, 1 8. Ex. xvii, I I .
90
 THE BATTLE 91

practice after completing the building o f an altar, h e utters over it

is a : " YHVH is my banner ! The raised staff was a flagpole,
"

but the true banner is the name YHvH, which inspirits and puts
power into the staff by its pledge of the divine presence.
Moses' staff is not originally a magical one. It is the shepherd's
staff which was in his hand at the time he found the Burning Bush.
(We hear of it only from the supplement, but the motif can be
attributed to the oldest stratum of tradition.) And it became a
" staff of God " when it touched the " holy ground " ; at the
time when Moses became a " man of God . b That magical
"

powers were ascribed to it even at the time of Moses is likely

enough. But the main source of this was probably in its actual
use for signalling or giving orders, which is what seems to have
been its purpose in the account of the battle with Amalek.
The belief in the supposed power of a man over inanimate
things has its deepest root in the actual power of that man over
living beings ; and that is also true of the instrument which the
person uses for making signs, or which represents the contact of
power. The staff has become " the symbol of the simplest dominion
in its primal form among nomadic steppe dwellers, such as those
who still wander to and fro in the highlands of Asia " ; 77 not
merely, as Lobeck thinks, because the relation of the shepherds
and their flocks was symbolically transferred to that of the ruler
and the ruled, but to a far greater degree because the staff is the
natural instrument in which the effect of the power of a man on a
human group is most strongly concentrated. Such a man raises
the staff over the group set in motion ; and all eyes turn to it as do
those of the musicians to the baton of the conductor. But the
musicians feel themselves directed and strengthened even when
they do not look there ; the fighters do not need to see the baton
of the commander in order to be led by him to victory. The
commanding soul-substance which streams into it streams out
of it again across the distance and into their hearts. Even when
the banner is carried by somebody nameless, it waves over and
inspires the strong army ; a sign and manifestation of that power
which moves the leader.
And here a time-old aspect of the symbolic function is active.
Raising the staff rouses the elementary will to be uppermost, to
" prevail ", to bear way the victory ; and even the capacity to
achieve this. This is also the way in which to understand the
b Deut. xxxiii, I .
92 MOSES

statement that the hand of Moses is cmurzah. It was the firm and
fixing organ of the manifestation, of the command of power, of
endowment with power. Here emu11a h means, precisely, reliable
signal.
According to the order of events, the story of the victory over
Amalek, the historical kernel of which cannot be doubted, should
certainly come at a later point, since the approach to Kadesh was
clearly the objective fought for here. But the point at which the
account stands is fraught with meaning. The intention of the
narrator was to place the battle at the identical station where that
increasing murmuring of the people was reported. Greatly as they
may have murmured-that is what we are told by implication
the true relation between them and Moses is nevertheless as tre
mendous, as is shown in this picture of the raised hand and the
victorious troops.
It is told of an East Jordan tribe of modern times 78 that they
are always accompanied in their forays by a " knowing man ", who
is asked for counsel before the battle, who advises the leaders of
the favourable moment for attack and who, during the battle,
often draws lines with his staff which the foe must not be per
mitted to cross. The tribe might thank him for a number of
victories. In Moses we find one of those cases, rare in the whole
history of the world, in which the " knowing man " is also the
leader.
At the end of the section we are told that after Moses has cried
out over the newly-built altar, " YHVH is my banner " , he adds a
further sentence. Translated literally, it appears worded as

follows 79 : " Hand on throne, Yah ! YHVH wars with Amalek

for age on age ! " It is YHvH's own war because, as far as we can
conclude from those apparently early words of Deuteronomy,
this tribe transgressed against tl1e most primitive " fear of God "
by attacking the defenceless. And wiiliout that fear of God no
nation should or can exist. Previously, YHVH himself had de
clared, and had committed to both written and verbal transmission :
" Yea, I shall indeed blot out the memory of Amalek from under
the heaven ". And so by that sentence Moses enters into an
alliance with YHVH, in the name of Israel, for the execution of his
word ; and we know how the war with Amalek flared up again
and again afterwards until the victories of Saul and David. Ac
cording to tl1e text before us, Moses calls on YHVH (the latter's
abbreviated name Yah, which occurs almost exclusively in songs
 THE BATTLE 93
and verse-like sayings, still echoes the ancient cry-character of the
divine name) and summons him to place hand on throne and swear
the oath in which Israel shares. Yet, even when we ignore the
fact that the word which is translated as " throne " occurs in this
form (kes instead of kisse) only here, and that the concept of the
hand placed " on throne " is queer, this sentence, like other such
cases, is clearly intended to supplement the preceding cry, the
giving of the name to the altar " YHVH my banner ! ; and flag
"

pole or banner is called in Hebrew nes. The two Hebrew letters

corresponding to K and N can easily be confused ; and so there is
good reason to agree with the generally-accepted emendation and
to read the passage : " The hand on the flagpole of Yah ! Moses
"

sets his hand on the divine staff, which had become the flagpole of
God in the course of the battle, and takes oath. On behalf of
Israel he takes oath to fight, following the God whose name is the
true banner. The knowing man knows what is given him to
know. The leading man leads where he is told to lead.
 JETHRO
AND Jethro, the priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses,
.\... heard . . . And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took
. . . And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, came . . . The lofty
three-fold arsis of the story does more than merely indicate the
importance which it has in the eyes of the narrator. Jethro is
referred to in this section as Moses' father-in-law ten times more,
yet never again does his priestly title recr. It seems as though the
narrator wished to obviate that view of the event which has become
widespread in modem Biblical criticism ; namely, that when Israel
made a covenant with the Kenites, it also adopted the god of the
latter " in the person of Aaron and all the elders of lsrael, who here
took part for the first time in their lives in a solemn offering to
Yahveh " ; and that in this way took place the most ancient
example of conversion to another religion which is known to us.80
This view cannot base itself on the Biblical narrator. The
latter tells us in his own impressive fashion that Jethro came to
Israel not as the priest of Midian but as Moses' father-in-law
- ; and
in addition the further facts that are told can be used for the Kenite
hypothesis only by exploiting the text in a kind of exegesis that
puts the text to work more than it explains it.
That the incident is found here and not at a later point, 8 1 since
it takes place " at the mountain of God " ,a once again appears to
evince specific purpose on the part of the redactor. He wishes to
show here, immediately after the battle with the Amalek.ites, how
clear a d_i_stll,lctionJps to b_!l his_ric!!J--tweE: -- Ama!e
kites and. .- in view of the fact that this tribe or part of it
afterwards united temporarily with the former. b But it seems that
the narrator himself is interested in describing the meeting in
strong and awe-inspiring colours, possibly because he wishes to
explain why it was that in the days of the kings the Kenites were
zealous for YHVH." At the same time he stresses the family
motive, once again by a three-fold emphasis on the fact that Jethro
brings to his son-in-law the latter's wife and sons ; he or the
redactor clearly takes it for granted a that Moses had previously
sent his family back to Midian, presumably from Egypt. After
Ex. xvili, 5 b Cf 1 Sam. xv, 6. I I Kin. x, 1 5 f., 23. 4 Ex. xvili, 2.
94
 JETHRO 95

a shrewdly described greeting the two of them, the widely-ex

perienced sheikh and his daring disciple, enter the tent ; and Moses
tells what there is to tell, the news of which has already reached
Midian. Jethro praises YHVH for that which he has done in
Egypt-once again a striking three-fold naming of Egypt as the
common foe- and states " : " Now do I know that YHVH is
greater than all the gods ". The word Elohim, which means both
gods and God, now becomes the motif, repeated three times
immediately and seven times later, which is clearly intended to
show that in spite of everything the Kenites and the Israelites
were then united QD.lyJlUJte _Elohim cept, which was common
to the peoples ; but not as yet in the knoledge of YHVI:i:. Jethro
offers up cattle, apparently brought by him, " for Elohim ", and after
wards he eats the offering and covenant meal " before Elohim " ,
together with the elders o f Israel. The fact that only at this point
is a report made of an offering in Israel to Elohim instead of, as
elsewhere, to YHVH, serves to illuminate the uniqueness of what
happened.
" This action ", declare the supporters of the Kenite hypothesis,82
" is incomprehensible except on the assumption that Yahweh was
the god of Jethro and his tribe, the Kenites, and that Jethro himself
was Yahweh's priest. " Actually, what happened becomes some
thing beyond understanding on this assumption. Jethro's praise
of the God is interpreted 83 as meaning that he gave expression to
his proud joy because his own god had proved himself mightier
than all the others. Something different, however, is found in the
text. Jethro says : " Now have I known . . . ", or " Now I
know. . . . " By this, if he were the priest of YHVH, he would
be saying that hitherto he has not known his god to be the greatest ;
whereas now that Israel had been saved and Egypt beaten by him,
he, the priest, does know this. Never, it seems to me, has the
priest of a god spoken in such a way to a community which is not
his own ; he could scarcely say such a thing to his own community
unless-which, of course, cannot be the case here-the god has
hitherto occupied a subordinate or uncertain position in the
pantheon.
At this point, however, it is asserted that it is after all Jethro
who offers up tl1e sacrifice. " How does a strange, even though
related and friendly priest, come to take the place of the native
one ? " 84 Further, the absence of Moses from those mentioned as
a Ex. xvili, II.
 MOSES

participating in the meal cannot, it is claimed_, be considered an

accident ; while he was resident among the Kenites he had " long
earlier participated in the YHVH service and therefore no longer
required acceptance in that community ".85
This argument, however, also runs counter to the wording of
the text. Jethro does not conduct the sacri.fi.ce but " fetches " it
or has it fetched ; and it is incorrect that this " does not recur any
where and has no understandable meaning " and must therefore be
amended.8& The initiator of an offering in Biblical terminology,
either " brings " the animal or alternatively " fetches " it."
And the reason why Moses is not mentioned is-as rabbinical
exegesis 87 recognized-very simply that the spot where the sacrifice
is brought " before God " lies at the entrance to the leader's tent,
to which Moses had led his father-in-law, and which Aaron and
the elders now enter as well. This tent is the real " tent of meeting " ;
its entrance is the place " before God ", at which the communal
offerings are brought.
The days of Moses did not know private offerings but only
communal offerings and communal feasts ; and those only under
particular conditions. 88 The person making the offering is naturally
the possessor of the tent and leader of the community, without the
need for making any special mention of the fact ; which, incident
ally, leaves him just as little of a priest (as some scholars claim) as
the offerings brought by Samuel or by Elijah. As a result of this,
no part of the text can be taken to mean a " conversion of Israel ".
Nevertheless, it would be an equally unsatisfactory simplifica
tion of the problem if we were to reverse the statement and speak
of a conversion of the Kenites. What happens here is rather that the
" identi.fi.cation ", which Moses had once made in the presence of
the burning bush, is now resumed in a new dimension, in the
relation between two communities ; that is, in the field of history.
Jethro's words of praise " Blessed be YHVH who . . . " are reminis
cent of those of that other priestly leader, Melchizedek, in his
greeting to Abraham b : " Blessed be El 'Elyon who. . . ".
There Abraham. responds (in words which were obviously origin
ally directed to Melchizedek) by identifying the El 'Elyon, the
Most High God, with his own God YHVH.
This is not to be regarded as a political action despite the fact
that it certainly has a political side as well. The inner nature of
the event is appreciated only when it is understood that the
a Lev. xii, 8. b Gen. xiv, 19.
 JETHRO 97
" monolatrous " believer in a god-that is, a man devoted only
and exclusively to one single god and opposed to any construction
of a pantheon-when experiencing divine action directly or in
directly elsewhere than in his own society, will always ascribe such
action to his own god, will claim it for him and will, therefore, be
inclined to identify the god brought along and the god already
present. The Biblical narrative does not tell us how Melchizedek
received Abraham's declaration, which meant more or less : " The
divinity to whom you refer as the Most High God is none other
than YHVH whom I serve, and this is his correct name ; hitherto you
have only known his epithet". And so at that stage the subject
does not enter the historical dimension.
With Jethro matters are different. He comes and professes.
Once, when Moses returned home with the herds, he may have
told his father-in-law, and presumably instructor, that the God who
really appears on the " mountain of God ", is none other than the
God of the forefathers ofhis brethren. How is Jethro likely to have
received this report ? Surely in the way of a wise priest and accus
tomed to receive such things in that cultural milieu, and possibly
elsewhere as well ; he certainly had no doubt of the reality of the
phenomenon itself, but would have reserved j udgment in respect
of the real meaning of tl1e words ; and for the rest he is likely to
have preserved a, so to say, expectant memory of the happening
as possibly being likewise directed to him and to his own.
We do not know how far Sinai lay from the customary pastures
of the Kenites, from which Moses had strayed on that occasion.
Yet even if it was at a great distance we have to assume that they
ascribed to their own god those divine messages of which they heard.
We know nothing of this god, but we may regard him in a tribe
which participated in the early Midianite exploitation of the copper
mines of the district,89 and part of whom were also apparently
smiths by calling,90 as having been a mountain and fire god. It is
therefore reasonable to suppose that Jethro now waited attentively
to hear whether the God had kept the promise, given to Moses, of
liberating " His people ".
If the God did this, one may suppose the line of thought o f the
Midianite priest to have been, then the name announced by Moses
might be recognized as the correct one, and union must be estab
lished with those favoured by the God ; that is a demand of
religious discernment. It would also admittedly be a demand of
political understanding, particularly if the Exodus, as is now
 MOSES

mostly assumed, took place at a period when the foreign power

of Egypt was growing steadily weaker.
And when Jethro now received information of the successful
Exodus, he may also have come to remember that it would be
advisable to direct these tribes, who are admittedly favoured by so
mighty a god, away from the Midianite pastures to other more
distant ones ; yet at the same time to give them a section of Kenites
as companions in order to ensure participation in their good
fortune. What appears to have been decisive, however, for the
clearly priestly Jethro was not the political consideration but the
kernel of message which was brought to him. It meant that the
god himself had left Sinai and now went before the tribes.
That, it seems to me, must have been the decisive factor for the
old man who may have experienced all kinds of things with gods ;
this dazzling picture of the Lord who dwelt high above the moun
tains, in the deeps of heaven itself, and who chose from thence a
people, descended to them and wanders with them as their guide.
" Yes ", he may have weighed matters to himself, " the Hebrew
spoke the truth ; among us the god only took his seat here and
there, but he has attached himself to them and has revealed his
name to them."
So he then comes and states : " Yes, we now know that the
god whom you rightly call the one who is present because he is
with you and supports you, your god, who has done all this for
you yet whom we have also known, is the greatest of all gods " .
That does not mean : " I have now become aware that my god is
the greatest ". It means : " I have now come to know that your
god is the greatest, but have also recognized in him the true form
and the true name of my god, the fiery gleam of the middle whose
rays have illuminated me ".
By this the identification enters the historical dimension. The
holy communal meal of the Covenant takes place on this basis.
" At Sinai Israel does not go over to the god of the Kenites, yet
equally the Kenites do not go over to the god of the Israelites."
Israel has seen that their national god also directs the forces of
Nature. The Kenites have seen that their fire and mountain god
rescued the tribes he has chosen and leads them. " The concept of
god possessed by each is growing." 9 1
On the day following the Covenant meal, continues the
narrator, Jethro observed how Moses is surrounded all day long
by the people who demand the divine decision on great and small
 JETHRO 99

issues, as well as in all their daily uncertainties, both public and

private ; obviously because many people either do not wish to
trust the understanding of the elders, or appeal from the latter's
decision to that of the man of God. Jethro warns his son-in-law,
that this is too difficult for him to continue to take upon himself ;
and advises him to entrust all subordinate matters, that is, those in
which only the general law and legal custom need be applied, to
reliable men, each of whom should be appointed over a fixed
part of the people, one over ten, one over a hundred, and so on.
He should keep himself only for important matters in which
nobody can take his place ; that is, those matters for the decision
of which it is not enough to know what the law is, or which are
not merely individual cases of a general rule but each of which is
different, a different life and a different problem, and therefore
demands a comprehension of its particular content and the decision
of its particular request. Only in such a limitation of his own
personal responsibilities would he be able adequately to fulfil his
essential function of intermediary between God and people, and to
teach the people the will of God. (" God " and " people " are the
dominant words in this part of the narrative.)
That the report is based on a historical fact seems to be certain.
There must clearly have been a tradition that in the days of the
Desert an attempt was once made, under Kenite influence, to
balance the organization of the people from below upwards (as
expressed in the units of the " houses of the Fathers ", the clans
and the tribes, as well as in the representative body of the elders)
by an organization from above downwards. This organization
was constituted not in organic units but in mathematical units of
decades, and its authorities consisted of representatives selected
and appointed by the charismatic leader.
The tradition appears credible. The amorphous system of
division by decades will never agree with the genuine forms of life
of a people settled on the soil ; it derives from the utilitarian neces
sities of military expeditions and large caravans. Midian, which
seems to have been a loose association of tribes with varying origins,
was apparently familiar with both far-ranging razzias and extensive
trade journeys into foreign parts. Of the latter something is told
in the story of Joseph a ; of the former we hear in the days of the
Judges. b As an attempt to surmount the anarchy of the wandering
Israelites this system may have appeared suitable to Moses together
Gen. xxxvii, .28. b Jud. vi, 3 ; vii, 1.2.
100 MOSES

with a careful selection of authorities, since the institution of the

elders was obviously inadequate. With the exception of the
military field, however, it did not survive the period of the wander
ing.93 The description of the daily toil of Moses given by the
narrator may appear naive, yet here as well an appreciable element
of reality can be recognized. If we remember what the Biblical
narrative has to tell of the in part stubborn, in part j ealous particu
larism of the clans and tribes, a phenomenon which is also to be
found in the manner of life of other Semitic peoples, it is possible
to understand why Moses set out to graft into the resistant cellular
structure of the community a mechanical one that was more easy
to handle. The leader summoned by the spirit, who fmds that the
" burden " of the people which he has to bear a is too heavy, and
who, in order to do his duty, has to borrow a " soulless " 94 structure
from the Midianites, familiar as they were with organization,
appears to me a genuine historical phenomenon.
a Nun1. xi. I I .
 " U P ON EAGLES ' W INGS "
(THE EAGLE S PEECH )
HE
T
hour has come. The sign promised to Moses by the voice
which spoke from the burning bush is now about to be ful
filled. " At this mountain " Israel is to enter the service of the God.
What had come into being yonder only as word must now take
on flesh. It is the hour : not of revelation, which had begun with
that call " Moses ! " ; it is the hour of the " Covenant ". The
man flaming with the urgent truth of his mission has fulfilled the
first charge laid upon him ; he has brought the people to the
Mountain of God. " In the third month after the departure of
the Children of Israel from Egypt, to the very day, they come to
the Wilderness of Sinai . . . . And Israel camped there, facing the
mountain." And now, as Moses, unsummoned, like a messenger
who is come to report to his lord the execution of a mission,
ascends the mountain " to the God ", which assuredly means to
the place of that earlier revelation, the voice comes, as it were, to
meet him ; and YHVH entrusts him with the mission unto the
house of Jacob.
This message is a rhythmic utterance, in which once again
almost every word stands in the place fixed for it by sound and
sense. Only one sentence, " when ye hearken, hearken unto my
voice and keep my Covenant ", does not appear to be in place
within the firm rhythm here, but would seem to indicate either a
reworking or an interpolation. Enigmatically singular and inde
pendent, the passage as a whole has sometimes been attributed to
later literary strata, with which it actually has certain concepts and
turns of phrase in common. In our days, however, the view is
increasingly being held 9 5 that here we have an old, genuinely
traditional fragment which goes back to Moses himself ; if not
verbally, then at all events in basic content. Indeed, I know no
other text which expresses so clearly and effectively as this what I
would like to call the theo-political idea of Moses ; namely, his
conception of the relation between YHVH and Israel, which could
not be other than political in its realistic character, yet which starts
from the God and not from the nation in the political indication of
goal and way. In order to see this clearly we must certainly treat
the speech as early ; that is, we must understand the weightiest
101
102 MOSES

words in it not in the sacral meaning with which they have been
vested in the course of time, but in their aboriginal sense.
" You yourselves have seen what I did in Egypt. I bore you
upon eagles' wings and brought you unto me." The first part of
this verse summarizes the negative aspect of a decisive point of
view. In order that Israel might come here to the God it was
necessary for that to befall the Egyptians which had befallen them ;
and it also had to befall them in such a fashion that Israel itself
should see that which befell. Only as those who saw, and seeing
" confided ", could they be brought to YHVH, to the meeting
with Him. And so they were brought to him " upon eagles'
wings ". Those who consider such an image as this to be no
more than a happy metaphor miss the intent of the whole passage.
The basis of comparison here is not the speed of the eagles
or their strength, which would be an introduction scarcely suited
to a first divine manifesto to the assembled people ; at that moment
something fundamentally important regarding the historical
relationship between YHVH and Israel has to fmd its expression
through the figure of speech used. This is achieved in an image
which is admittedly too meagre to be fully comprehended by us :
but the early listener or reader certainly grasped the sense. Later
it may nevertheless have proved desirable to elucidate it by means
of expansion, and a poetic commentary which we have reason to
assume reflects the traditional view has been preserved in the late
" Song of Moses " . a
Here YHVH is likened in His historical relationship with
Israel to the eagle, who stirs up his nest and hovers hither and
thither above it in order to teach his young how to fly. That the
latter are taken to mean the peoples cannot be doubted, as in the
Song, shortly before, b the Highest had allotted their territories to
the nations and had fixed their boundaries. The great eagle
spreads out his wings over the nestlings ; he takes up one of them,
a shy or weary one, and bears it upon his pinions ; until it can at
length dare the flight itself and follows the father in his mounting
gyrations. Here we have election, deliverance and education ; all
m one.
The verse following likewise certainly dealt in its original form
with the berith, the " Covenant ", which called for mention at
this spot. Yet it must be assumed that no demand, after the fashion
of a prerequisite condition for everything that was to follow, was
0 Deut. xxxii, II. b Ibid., 8.
 " UPON EAGLES' WINGS " 103

made in it for a docile observance of the sections of the Covenant

by Israel ; but that the verse contained the up-to-this-point
unconveyed notification that YHVH wished to make a berith
with Israel. The original meaning of berith is not " contract " or
" agreement " ; that is, no conditions were originally stipulated
therein, nor did any require to be stipulated.
In order to gain an idea of what is really comprehended in this
concept we can best start with the story of David, which consists
of chroniclers' tales that were certainly recorded for the most part
soon after the events with which they deal. Here we find two
kinds of berith, which are not conceptually differentiated from each
other. One is the alliance between two people who stand to some
degree on the same level, like that concluded by David and
Jonathan." This we may describe on the basis of Arab and other
analogies as a covenant of brotherhood. That this leads to a
mutual Wldertaking of unconditional support, a faithfulness even
Wlto death, is not stated, and does not have to be stated ; for it
stands to reason. The two covenanters have j ust become brethren,
which is quite enough in a social form where the clan is still the
central reality of communal life. Any detailed agreement is
superfluous.
The other kind of berith is found most clearly in the covenant
which David, now King ofJudah, concludes with the Elders of the
Northern tribes. b Here there is no common level ; the person at
the higher level of power concludes a covenant, not " with " the
submitting ones but " for them ". Here, too, no special agreement
is necessary, and indeed there is no room for any such thing. The
relation of overlordship and service, into which the two partners
enter, is the decisive factor. Engagements, concessions, constitu
tional limitations of power may be added, yet the covenant is
foWlded not on them but on the basic fact of rule and service.
According to its principal form, I classify this kind of berith as the
Royal Covenant.96 It is this kind which YHVH makes with Israel.
The argument cannot be offered against this view that in the
Genesis narrative there is another kind of Covenant, which the
God makes either with living creatures in general," or with a
chosen family.< This, too, is not a contract, but an assumption
into a life-relationship, a relationship comprehending the entire
life of the men involved ; according to the situation, however,
I Sam. xviii, 3 ; xxiii, I8. b I I Sam. v, J . Gen. ix, 9 ff.
d Gen. vi, IS ; xvii, 2 tf.
!04 MOSES

not into a relationship which has a political, thea-political character.

Only here, only in the Sinai covenant and its later renewals, is it a
berith between YHVH and the people, between Him and Israel ;
no longer Israel as the " seed of Abraham ", out of which a people
has to grow, but as the people which has grown out of that seed.
And in accordance with this the concept of Royal Dominion is
also expressly introduced here.a This life-relationship between the
King and his people is the important thing. In the narrative of
the conclusion of the Covenant itself " a Book of the Covenant "
is certainly read out by Moses,b and the Covenant is considered
to be concluded " upon all these words " . This book, however,
has the character not of an agreement but of a royal proclamation
The laws contained therein are registered accordingly in the record
of the making of the Covenant as those proclaimed in that hour.c
But these laws cannot claim any priority over those which may be
proclaimed later on, and when the people declare after the reading
that they wish " to do and to hear ", they clearly signify that they
bind themselves not in respect of specific ordinances as such, but
in respect of the will of their Lord, who issues His commands in
the present and will issue them in the future ; in the respect of the
life-relationship of service to Him.
Those who maintain the Kenite hypothesis argue 97 : " If
YHVH had been the God of Israel even before Moses, a Covenant
would have been superfluous ; for it would have stood to reason
that YHVH was the god of Israel and Israel the people of YHVH.
Contracts are only made where the demands of the contracting
parties differ and may under certain circumstances become opposed
to one another. For this reason it follows of necessity from the
idea of Covenant that Israel and YHVH had hitherto been strangers
to one another." But berith is not the same as agreement or
contract. YHVH and Israel enter into a new relation to one
another by making the Covenant, a relation which had not pre
viously been in existence ; and further could not have been in
existence because Israel as a nation, as a nation which was able to
elect itself a King and submit to his service, had been constituted
only in that hour. YHVH, speaking from the flame, had antici
pated this hour with that ammi of His. He now proclaims that
the hour has come, and utters the words about His Kingdom. In
its present form the narrative has the people begin with the Pro
clamation of the King in the final verse of the Song of the Sea.
Gen. xvii, 6. b Ex. xxiv, 7 f. ' Ex. xxxiv, 27.
 " UPON EAGLES' WINGS " 105

The older tradition, however, was obviously that according to

which the first and decisive word was uttered from above.
The Proclamation of the Covenant is immediately followed by
YHVH's assurance that Israel will be for him " a peculiar treasure
among all the nations " . Segulah, the Hebrew word translated in
the Authorized Version as " peculiar treasure ", means a possession
which is withdrawn from the general family property because one
individual has a special relation to it and a special claim upon it.
The meaning of the word as employed in connection with the
relation between YHVH and Israel is immediately explained here
by the words " for the whole earth is mine ". It is impossible to
express more clearly and unequivocally that the liberation from
Egypt does not secure the people of Israel any monopoly over
their God. From this phrase there is a direct line leading to the
warning of the prophet a which also refers to the Exodus, the
warning which glorifies this God as the one who has also guided
other nations on their wanderings, aye even the neighbouring
nations which are foes of Israel ; and which glorifies this God as
the liberator of the nations. The expression " peculiar treasure "
is directly imperilled by an atmosphere of restriction and self
assurance, unless it is accompanied by such an explanation. This
we can see in three cases, b where the word is used in the Book of
Deuteronomy (a work which may well have developed from a
collection of traditional sayings of Moses in a number of variant
forms, rather like the Hadith of Mohammed in Islamic tradition) .
All these three passages are associated with the concept of the Holy
People, which is also derived from the Eagle Speech. The danger
of particularist misunderstanding is so obvious that in the first
passage a warning is issued against ascribing the choice made by
God to their own importance. The Eagle Speech itself opposes
the haughty stressing of the choice by the subsequent message that
the choice means a charge imposed on them and nothing more ;
and that tl1erefore the choice, so to say, exists only negatively
unless the charge is also fulfilled.
This message became obscured for later generations by the fact
that, as already mentioned, its great concepts no longer retained
their original concreteness, but were understood in accordance
with a technical waning-away of meaning. When one reads
" you shall become unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy people",
it at first strikes us almost irresistibly as though it is not the
0 Amos ix. 7 b Deut. vii, 16 ; xiv, 2 ; xxvi, 18.
Io6 MOSES

thea--political idea of a factual divine domination which finds

expression here, but a cult conception which aims at being all
embracing. But that is not so . The period whose loftiest thought"
was given shape by the Eagle Speech was concerned not with
" religion ", but with God and people ; that is, with God's people
on a basis of political and social realism ; with what might almost
be called a pre-state divine state. The word mamlakah, which is
translated by " kingdom ", means king's rule and likewise, area
of the king's rule ; and the word kohanim, which usually means
priests, is synonymous, where it describes a secular court office,
with " the first at the hand of the king " ,a or with companion,
adj utant. b The mamlakah comprises those particular servants of the
king who attend immediately upon him. Mamleketh kohanim there
fore means the direct sphere of rule of the lord, composed of those
of his companions who are at his immediate disposal, his immediate
retinue. All of them, all the children of lsrael, stand in the identical
direct and immediate relationship of retainers to Him.
To this corresponds the second member of the sentence, " a
holy people ". And this balancing phrase, as is so frequent in
parallelisms of the kind, is simultaneously a completion, and indeed
a clarifying completion, of the sense. As the elemental meaning
of the Biblical concept of holiness we have to assume a power
drawn and concentrated within itself, which, however, radiates
forth and is capable of exerting both a destructive and a " hallowing"
effect. In relation to YHVH holiness is regarded as His direct
power, dispensing both good and ill ; and thence as the derived
quality of those things and beings which are separated from out
of the tmspecified common realm, the " profane ", and have been
dedicated to or dedicate themselves to YHVH ; and which, since
they are dedicate to Him and as long as they are so dedicate to Him,
are hallowed by His holy force.
Therefore goy qadosh, as complement of that mamleketh kohanim
which means the charging and appointment by God, thus requires
and implies a spontaneous and ever-renewed act on the part of the
people. They have to dedicate themselves to YHVH and remain
dedicate to him, and further they must do this as goy, that is, with
their corporeal national existence. Hence the intention is not
the behaviour of the members of the people, as it is later,c of
all members of the people as individuals ; as, for example, that
Cf. I Sam. viii, IS with I Chron. xviii, I7.
bI Kin. iv, s ; cf. II Sam. xx, 26 and I Chron. xxvii, 33 c Ex. xxii, 30.
 " UPON EAGLES' WINGS " 107

they shall refrain from unclean, polluting foods ; but the point at
issue is the behaviour of the national body as such. Only when the
nation with all its substance and all its functions, with legal forms
and institutions, with the whole organization of its internal and
external relationships, dedicates itself to YHVH as its Lord, as its
melek, does it become His holy people ; only then is it a holy
people.
And specifically as that, and as that alone, can it render its
divine leader the services for which He has selected it : as " the
first to his hand " of the " whole earth ", which is " His " ; in
order to transmit His will, which it fulfils by means of its own life.
It is laid upon Israel to factualize, by way of this office and this
dedication, YHVH's choice of them as a peculiar treasure among
all peoples ; this is the berith he wishes to conclude with them.
The Biblical narrative makes Moses " offer " his thea-political
message to the elders, and " the whole people " answer through the
latter that they will do what YHVH has said ; that is, that they
would enter the melek Covenant, which He wishes to conclude
with them. That what took place at Sinai was understood even
in early tradition as such a Covenant, as a royal pronouncement
from above and as an acclamation of royalty from below, is indi
cated by the hymn which is placed as the frame of the so-called
" Blessing of Moses " ." Even radical critics 98 conclude from
the resemblance between this Psalm and the Song of Deborah
" that in itself it may be old and indeed very old ". But
since Israel is twice referred to in it under the name " Yeshurun " ,
which i s otherwise found only i n two late passages, it i s assumed
that the language of the text before us is not so much archaic as
archaicizing. In both those other passages, however, this name
which would appear to derive from the old folk-singers (compare
the title of an old collection of songs, Sephe; Hayashar or Book of
the Upright) has been taken over with a conscious purpose. Follow
ing a few difficult, and in part incomprehensible verses, the hymn
reads with absolute clarity b : " And there came about in Yeshurun
a king, when the heads of the people foregathered, together the
tribes of Israel ". No interpretation other than a reference to
what happened at Sinai, which is mentioned at the commencement
of the hymn, serves to do justice to this important passage. The
great melek message appears to be the one which is lauded in the
preceding verse to this as " the teaching which Moses ordered us ".99
Dcut. xxxii.i, 1-7, 2.6-2.9. Ibid., 5
108 MOSES

Historically considered, the idea finding expression in the Eagle

Speech and associated texts is the challenge offered by the Hebrew
tribes, departing from Egypt into freedom, to Pharaonism. The
freedom is understood by their leader as God's freedom ; and that
means as God's rule. Historically considered, this means the rule of
the spirit through the persons charismatically induced and authorized
as the situation warrants ; its rule on the basis of the just laws issued
in the name of the spirit. The entire conception of this royal
Covenant, which aims at being all-embracing, is only possible
when and because the God who enters into the Covenant is just
and wishes to introduce a just order in the human world.
Justice as an attribute is in some degree implicit in the old Semitic
conception of the tribal gods as judges of the tribes.100 It achieved
completion in the God conception of Israel. The just law of the
just Melek is there in order to banish the danger of " Bedouin "
anarchy, which threatens all freedom with God. The unrestrained
instinct of independence of the Semitic nomads, who do not wish
to permit anybody to rise above them and to impose his will upon
them, 101 fmds its satisfaction in the thought that all the Children
of Israel are required to stand in the same direct relation to YHVH ;
but it achieves restraint through the fact that YHVH himself is the
promulgator and guardian of the law. Both together, the king
ship of God as the power of His law over human beings and as the
joy of the free in His rule, achieve expression in the ideal image of
Israel which is found in an old lyric utterance 102 attributed to the
heathen prophet Balaam a : " One beholds no trouble in Jacob
and one sees no toilsomeness in Israel, YHVH his God is with him
and melek jubilation is in him ". YHVH the " Present One ", is
really present among his people, who therefore proclaim him as
their Melek.
During the period following the conquest of Palestine the
melek title was rarely employed for YHVH, obviously in order to
differentiate Him from the " religious and political Canaanite
world with its divine kings and its monarchistic state forms " , 103
and particularly because these Melek or "Moloch " gods demanded
children as sacrifices.104 But the idea of divine rule remained in
existence, as can be seen from the narratives of Gideon and Samuel.10 5
During the early period of David's rule it once again, as I would
suppose, received magnificent poetic formulation in the four verses
now placed at the end of Psalm XXIV, praising YHVH the " hero
Num. xxili, :u.
 " UPON EAGLES' WINGS " 109

of war ", and " the King of Glory ", who enters Jerusalem in
visibly enthroned on the Ark of the Covenant. But the factual
meaning had already begun to undergo its transformation into the
symbolic. Under the influence of the dynasty, which consistently
opposed all attempts of the spirit to influence public life, the con
ception of divine rule soon became quite pallid. Only Isaiah, in
the notes of his atmWlciatory vision," dared to contrast YHVH as
" the ", that is, as the true, Melek with King Uzziah, whom He had
smitten with leprosy. In all later Psalms which sing of YHvH's
ascent to the throne, He is only the Cosmocrator ; which means
far more in appearance but far less in reality. For the true king
ship does not exist without a people who recognize the King.
When the whole world appears in those Psalms as such a people,
the action is thereby shifted to an eschatological level, to a future
becoming-perfect of the Creation. Unlimited recognition of the
factual and contemporary kingship of God over the whole national
existence, however, is what was required of Israel, in the midst of
the historical reality, by the message which found its form in the
Eagle Speech.
Is. vi, 5.
 THE CO V ENANT
HEN
W
those who have grown up in the atmosphere of the
Bible think of the " Revelation upon Sinai ", they immedi
ately see once again that image which overwhelmed and delighted
them in their childhood : " the mountain burning with fire up to
the heart of the heavens, darkness, cloud and lowering mist ".a
And down from above, down upon the quaking mountain, that
smokes like a furnace, descends another fire, Bashing fire from
heaven ; while through the thunder that accompanies the Bashing
lightning or, it may be, from out of that self-same thunder, comes
the blast of a ram's horn.b Various attempts have been made to
refer this image back to some natural event, either a tremendous
thunderstorm or the eruption of a volcano ; but the singular
wealth of phenomena, which is inseparable from the description,
runs counter to such an explanation. What takes place here is a
meeting between two fires, the earthly and the heavenly ; and if
either of them is struck out, there is an immediate lacuna in the
picture which has so enraptured the generations of the People of
Israel and the generations of the Christian peoples. To-day,
however, something else is more important than all of this. The
spirit of our own times, which has grown mature and more re
served, takes objection to the venerable image. Yonder Moses
who ascends the smoking mountain before the eyes of the assembled
people, who speaks to the Height and receives from the thunder
and trumpet-blasts a response which he brings to his people in the
form of commandments and laws,-yonder Moses is not merely
a stranger to us, which the real Moses also threatens to become at
times when we sense him most ; he is unreal. It is precisely when
we make the most earnest efforts to establish a reality, a reality con
sisting of actual facts, that we are possessed by the feeling that " the
words of the Covenant, the Ten Words " " could surely not have
entered the world thus, in such optical and acoustical pomp and
circumstance ; and where the narrative reports them as having been
written on Tablets of Stone, things happen quite differently, in
silence and solitude. We the late-born, oppressed as we are by the
a Deut. iv, I r. b Ex. xix, 16, 18 f. ' Ex. xxxiv, 28.
110
 THE COVENANT III

merciless problem o f Truth, feel in our own minds a singular

belated echoing of the protest which found its expression in the
story of the Revelation to Elijah at Sinai.a The voice comes not
out of the storm, not out of the fury and the fire, but in " a small
whisper ".
In any case every attempt to penetrate to some factual process
which is concealed behind the awe-inspiring picture is quite in
vain. We are no longer in a position to replace that immense
image by actual data. It may be that one of those formidable
thunderstorms, by which the Bedouins of this district are still struck
with wonder from time to time as by a heavenly catastrophe, may
have given the wandering people to know the primal force of the
God who had been theirs from the times of the Fathers, yet whom
they now first " came to know " in a nexus of actual events.
Even if that is so, however, we can no longer substitute this for
the traditional picture.
The situation is different in respect of the making of the Cove
nant and the covenantal meal. b Critical scholars have j ustly
remarked on the high antiquity of one or the other of the com
ponents ; 10 6 but the fact of the association of those components,
questionable as it appears in their present literary structure, indi
cates two stages of a coherent process, since the common meal
belongs to the conclusion of the Covenant ; save that here, accord
ing to the sense, it is shown as divided into the two separate actions
of making the offering (verse 5) and eating (verse I I ) . 107 No
matter how we may check and test the account, no basis will be
found for doubting the essential historicity of what is described as
having happened. 1os
To be more precise, there are not two but seven stages, or rather
seven actions.
First, and clearly before the dawn, Moses builds an altar at the
foot of the mountain and erects, clearly in a circle round about
himself, twelve standing stones-stones which, according to the
ancient conception, could see, hear and testify-" for the twelve
tribes of Israel ". Something analogous is reported in the story
of Elijah c who, in order to " heal " the broken YHVH altar on
Mount Carmel, employs twelve stones " according to the number
of the sons of Jacob ". The word " Jacob " is followed by the
noteworthy relative clause, " unto whom came the word of YHVH
saying, Thy name shall be Israel ". When Elijah prays to God at
a I Kin. xix, I I ff. b Ex. xxiv, 41>-I I. c I Kin. xviii, 30 ff.
 112 MOSES
the altar a the name Israel is again repeated twice, obviously of set
purpo5e, in the fashion of a refrain ; the first time in a passage
where, on the one and only occasion in the Bible apart from
certain very late texts, the names of Abraham and Isaac are followed
not by Jacob but by " Israel ".
The implication ca1mot be misunderstood. Just as the one
single altar was reconstituted with the twelve stones, so has the one
Israel been constituted anew now that the people have nnited
afresh aronnd their God. What appears in the narrative of Elijah
as a symbol of the restoration is an act of foundation in the narra
tive of the Covenant made by Moses. In the report of this Cove
nant, written with reluctance and reserve, the meaning of things
that ca1mot properly speaking be reported is more deeply con
cealed ; but it finds direct expression when the God whom the
representatives of the people " see " b is called " the God of Israel ".
The Covenant entered into between the tribes and YHVH contains
in its very core the Covenant entered into between the tribes
themselves ; they became Israel only when they became partners
in the Covenant of the God.
We have good reason to assume that here we stand on his
torical ground. In our own days it has been convincingly demon
strated 109 that the system of twelve tribes in Israel, like so many
other " amphictyonies ", is not to be accounted for on the basis
of natural growth, but is due to a regulation and division deriving
from a specific historical situation. It must be added, however,
that a regulation and division of clus kind cannot be merely arti
ficial, but presupposes the existence of an organic development.
Among all the possibilities available, that specific grouping is
selected winch has as its basis the number twelve, a number which
is sacred to tribal associations ; that is, small units are either allo
cated to larger ones or else left in their independence as may best
suit the circumstances ; but no unit is arbitrarily split. Hence
there is to be found here a singular co-functioning of development
and decision.
Nowadays, however, there is a widely held view 110 that no
twelve tribes of Israel were ever in Egypt, that those who were in
that conntry were the " tribes of Joseph " and their followers ;
and that in Canaan these united for the first time into a complete
twelve-tribe association with the tribes which had remained there
and which had previously constituted a " six-tribe amphictyony ".
1 Kin. xviii, 36. b Ex. xxiv, 10.
 THE COVENANT IIJ

The presumed union is supposed to have taken place under Joshua's

leadership at the " Assembly in Shechem a and only there is
"

the recognition of YHVH by the " autochthonous " tribes assumed

to have taken place.
But as a precise exegesis of the important passage goes to
show, 1 11 the arguments adduced are a long way from conclusive.
We do not know, to be sure, whether parts of the " Israelite "
tribes had not actually remained in Canaan, nor whether and with
what measure of success other parts of those tribes had attempted
to return to Canaan even before Moses. There are obscure pas
sages in the Bible which can be read as indications in one or the
other direction. That only a few tribes, however, undertook the
Exodus under Moses' leadership, or that any considerable associa
tion existed in Canaan to whom YHVH was alien or who had
merely heard talk of Him, is an inadequately-grounded hypothesis.
Joshua did not establish a new covenant but renewed the one
which was in existence between Israel and YHVH, j ust as it was
repeatedly renewed during the ensuing period after having been
seriously broken, in accordance with the practice of the Ancient
Orient, where a covenant entered into with a God always admitted
of renewal. Joshua did this by re-establishing the Covenant, in
accordance with the original intention of the founder, on the basis
of an exclusive relationship with YHVH and the elimination of all
particularist idols. The berith, together with the system of the
twelve tribes, was founded by Moses, and the evidence of the report
before us does not need to be impugned. We do not know, to
be sure, the names of the tribes referred to here, nor can we judge
which of them were and which were not identical with those whose
names have been preserved by tradition. We do not know which
septs or clans were united by Moses as one tribe, nor to which
clans grown large he gave the character of tribes. But we may
rest reasonably well assured that he, and none other than he, to
whom we may well attribute a knowledge of the inner organization
of the peoples, educed the tribal system of Israel from out of the
natural structure of the national material ; and that by completing
the appropriate parts he made it possible to weld them together.
The tribes which have united in the Covenant with YHVH
are termed Israel as a collective unit. It might be going too far to
assume 112 that the name was " a religious one, a profession of faith,
and that it came into being with the foundation by Moses " ; but
a Jos. xxiv.
 MOSES

we may consider ourselves quite justified in assuming that, what

ever association it may previously have designated, it was seized
upon by the new fellowship ; to which end the interpretation of
the name as " God rules " na appears to have been an important
factor. The basic content of the message epitomized in the Eagle
Speech was the rule of God over the " people ". Now, following
on this, the people, am, the community, constitutes itself as the
unity of those subject to His rule. " God rules " is the proper
name for the Holy Covenanters, which is what the tribes have
become united for under Moses. 114
The name may first have been used by Moses as a call or a
watchword, which passed from rank to rank in the still nascent
association, and which sounded like something obvious and self
explanatory by the time it had reached those who stood hindmost.
This first action, the erection of the altar and the twelve standing
stones, is followed by the second ; Moses sends the " youths of
the Children of Israel " to fetch the offering. In this, the oldest
stratum of tradition known to us, there is obviously as yet no
Levitical priesthood at all, no actual official class engaged in the
offering-up of sacrifices. The assistants of Moses in sacred affairs
are the youths, who arc apparently selected without preference
being given to any specific clans. That they are youths is obviously
connected with the fact that, in early stages of religion, the natural
state of chastity is preferred to the acquired one, which we find
elsewhere in Biblical texts <> as a condition of access to the Holy.
It is reasonable to assume that those referred to are the first-born
who in the early period were apparently devoted to YHVH for
the term of their youth as a substitute for the common Semitic
sacrifice of the first-born ; and who were afterwards b redeemed
by the Levitcs.115 Yet the term " youth " in the sense of " sacred
servant " irrespective of age was also beginning to come into use."
And now Moses, not as priest for he is none, but as the inter
mediary between community and Godhead, himself accomplishes
the decisive act of establishing the Covenant ; which in tum
consists of tluee actions. The blood of the animals offered is
divided into two halves. He scatters the blood from tl1e one half
on the altar and thereby devotes it to YHVH. He binds the people
to the Covenant. (Originally, as it seems to me, the reference
here was not to the reading of a " book ", of a document, but to
the proclamation of the message.) And he scatters the remainder
0 I Sam. xxi, S b Num. iii, 12. Ex. xxxiii, II.
 THE COVENANT I I5

of the blood, which had been kept in basins, over the people, while
repeating the sacramental formula, " this is the blood of the Cove
nant which YHVH establishes with you ". (In the text this is
followed by " upon all these words ", which is presumably a
supplement dating from the period in which the proclamation
was replaced by a reading.)
What Moses does by this rite, which, though reminiscent of the
Semitic custom of Blood Covenant, is nevertheless unique in
character, 11 6 is no pure C\llt act but a cultic " pre-state " state act. 1 17
Agreements between God and people are known to us fro m various
places in the Ancient Orient ; in Babylon, for instance, as early as
the first half of the third millenium B.c., and in Southern Arabia
as late as the commencement of the seventh century B.C. But that
which took place at Sinai involved more than a contract, more
than a fixed, limited agreement. YHVH unites himself with
Israel into a political, theo-political unity, " within which the two
partners bear the relations towards each other of a primitive
wandering community and its melek " . n s
Now Moses, together with Aaron and seventy of the elders,
begin to climb up the mountain. On its summit they have to
accomplish the final action, the holy meal of the Covenant, and to
consume, as guests of YHVH, that portion of the flesh of the offering
which has not ascended to heaven in smoke. Here, however,
something unheard-of occurs, at the telling of which the narrator
breaks into rhythmic words, as though he were quoting verses
fro m a time-old song : " They saw the God of Israel, at his feet
as the work of a sapphire pavement, as the very heavens for purity ".
After the word " Israel " the word " and " occurs in the text, but
as in so many other places, it has the value only of the word
" namely ", or of a colon. It is usually assumed either that the
reluctance of the narrator prevented him from undertaking a
description of the divine manifestation itself, or else that a later
abbreviated version replaced an earlier description which had
become objectionable. Both views miss what is actually to be
found in the verse. If it really told of the seeing of a divine form,
it would mean that the redactor had not noticed the vast contradic
tion to be found between this passage and that other one a in which
YHVH soon afterwards warns Moses, who wishes to look upon
Him, that " Man " cannot see him and remain alive. Would the
redactor not have dared to take the steps necessary in order to
G Ex. xxxi,ii 20.
n6 MOSES

remove this contradiction, on so delicate a point ? It is true that

we repeatedly read of the kabod, the radiation of the divine " mass " ,
which showed itself t o the whole people ; b u t there i s obviously
a qualitative difference between such a temporary manifestation of
light and what would have been the case here. There the redactor
would not need to concern himself with any harmonization, but
here he would have to undertake one. We cannot come closer
to understanding the enigmatic verses unless we are prepared to
ask at this point, too, what the reality was that lay at the basis of
the report.
Isaiah writes in the note regarding that Vision of Annunciation,a
in which he was appointed a prophet, that he had seen the Lord
" sitting on a high and exalted throne, and his trains filled the
temple-hall ". We clearly have to suppose the prophet to be
standing in the entry-hall of the Temple at Jerusalem. " He gazes
into the depths of the Temple as far as the gloom of the Holy of
Holies, where stands the Ark, the Throne and Shrine of YHVH.
And then the darkness becomes light, the limited space expands
into a vastness, the roof is borne away, in place of the Ark there
rises a throne that reaches to heaven ; so vast that the train of the
garment worn by the One seated upon it fills the Temple." 1 19
Visions are subject to optical laws of their own ; yet it is obvious
that when the train of light filled the Temple in front of Isaiah, he
could not have seen the form on the Throne at all. None the less,
this is what he calls seeing the Lord, and of this he says b : " The
King YHVH of Hosts have mine eyes seen " . He senses his seeing
in the radiance as being a seeing of the Radiant. The impact of
the sitting on the Throne as such replaces, for him, the form of the
One seated on the Throne. This is not later prophetic develop
ment ; it is the aboriginal experience, without an appreciation of
which the innermost relation of the Biblical man to his Gcd is not
to be understood.
If we disregard the multitude of those who are not interested at
all in theophanies related in the " Old Testament ", the present-day
world of men may be divided into those who view the theophanies
in question as supernatural miracles in respect of which the quest
for any reality comparable to that of our own experience is illicit ;
and those for whom they are impressive fantasies or fictions which,
from a certain aspect, are worthy of consideration. But when we
are told in Biblical accounts of early experiences of God that He
Is. vi, I. b Ibid., 6.
 THE COVENANT I I7

let Himself " be seen " by His believers (the real sense of the verbal
form which is customarily translated as " appeared " ) , we feel
ourselves bound to ask what it means ; and this implies, since the
word undeniably refers us to a specific kind of practical experience,
that we must ask what, more or less, can have been the nature of
those experiences. A God who " gives " His worshipper " to
see " the land to which He leads him," but who does not as yet
permit Himself to be seen, reserving this " being seen " for a
specific and particularly important station of the wandering through
that land, b can in Himself only be an invisible God who, however,
becomes visible at will. How, as what, wherein does he become
visible ? No prophet had anything to tell of a figure resembling
the human until Ezekiel," who was affected by theological specula
tions and leads us on to the apocalyptical sphere. Nothing is
revealed regarding the One on the Throne, even in a popular
legend of vision like that ot Micah ben Yimla. d
The saga of the Fathers, to be sure, particularly in the eighteenth
chapter of Genesis with its fondness for narrative, has something to
tell of human figures, in which YHVH lets himself be seen. But
there is nothing supernatural about them, and they are not present
otherwise than any other section of Nature in which the God
manifests himself. What is actually meant by this letting-Himself
be-seen on the part of YHVH has been shown in the story of the
Burning Bush ; in the fiery flame, not as a form to be separated
from it, but in it and through it, is " the messenger of YHVH ",
that is, YHVH as the Power that intervenes in earthly affairs, given
to be seen by Moses.
And it is in precisely such a fashion, as far as I can ascertain
from the text, that the representatives of Israel come to see Him on
the heights of Sinai. They have presumably wandered through
clinging, hanging mist before dawn ; and at the very moment
they reach their goal, the swaying darkness tears asunder (as I
myself happened to witness once) and dissolves except for one
cloud already transparent with the hue of the still unrisen sun.
The sapphire proximity of the heavens overwhelms the aged
shepherds of the Delta, who have never before tasted, who have
never been given the slightest idea, of what is shown in the play of
early light over the summits of the mountains. And this precisely
is perceived by the representatives of the liberated tribes as that
which lies under the feet of their enthroned Melek.
Gen. xii, r. b Ibid., 1 Ezek. 1, 26. d I Kin. xxii, 19.
II8 MOSES

And in seeing that which radiates from Him, they see Him.
He has led them by His great might through the sea and through
the wilderness. He has brought them " upon eagles' wings "
to this mountain of His revelation. Here He has entered into the
Blood Covenant, the King's Covenant, with them. He has
invited them to eat here before Him ; and now that they have
reached unto Him, He allows them to see Him in the glory of His
light, becoming manifest yet remaining invisible.
Even such a " seeing " of the Godhead is dangerous ; for where
YHVH is, there the whole of divine demonism can be found as
well. But He bestows mercy on whomsoever He wishes to
bestow it. The host does not reach out His hand against the
" comer-pillars " or " joints " of the people (the basic meaning of
the Hebrew word generally used for " nobles " is one or the other) .
Of set intention the story ends with that phrase which at first sight
seems almost queer to us : " They saw the Godhead and ate and
drank ". The bodily function of eating the covenantal meal
must link itself with the continuous consciousness of the Divine
Presence. But this consciousness itself has now become less
bodily than it was. The verb aza&, used in the prophetic field of
experience for " seeing ", bears less relation to an objective exterior,
is more interior, than raah, to see. It should be understood as more
or less " the inner appropriation of that which is seen ".12o
As the sun rises higher the primal blue grows paler ; but the
heart of the hallowed eaters of the hallowed food remains full of
the primal blue, such as it had been.
 T HE W ORD S ON T HE TABLETS

C
ERTAIN excerpts from a " Theosophia " , presumably written
by an Alexandrian of the fifth century c.E . , 121 have come
down to us. In these we are told, among many other memora
bilia, that Moses had actually written two Decalo &ues. The first
and hence older of them, reads, " For their altars ye shall smash,
their pillars ye shall break, their sacred poles ye shall cut down ",
and so on. This refers, of course, to Exodus xxxiv , 1 3 -26, out of
which it would be possible to construct ten commandments, though
with a certain amount of difficulty. The second is the Decalogue of
tradition, Exodus xx, 2-17. To give this view expression in
modem scientific terminology, it means that Moses preceded his
" ethical " decalogue with an earlier, " cultic " one, which starts
polemically and then goes on to various prescriptions. That the
commencement proposed by the author, which begins with " his "
and refers to the peoples already mentioned, cannot be any real
commencement, was apparently not noticed by him.
In a dissertation on the Tablets of Moses, prepared with " inde
scribable toil ", which the University of Strassbourg rejected,
Goethe undertook to prove " that the Ten Commandments were
not actually the covenantal laws of the Israelites ". A year and a
half later he returned to this thesis in a little paper entitled " Two
important and hitherto unclarified Biblical Questions thoroughly
dealt with for the first time by a country priest in Swabia ". In
this paper he has his country priest offer a view largely identical
with that finding expression in the " Theosophia ", which was
unknown to Goethe. He begins, however, with the sentence
" Thou shalt worship no other God ", which might indeed be the
starting-point for a decalogue. Goethe sets out to overcome the
" troublesome old error " that the Covenant " by which God
pledged himself to Israel " could " be based on universal obliga
tions ". What is regarded by us as the Decalogue is only " the
introduction to the legislation " which, in the view of the Swabian
village pastor, contains doctrines " that God presupposed in his
people as human beings and Israelites." Behind this, however,
lies Goethe's actual idea, though not without some contradiction
of what has been said : that the history and doctrine of the People
of Israel had a particularist and not a universal character until the
II9
120 MOSES

time when Christianity was grafted on to its stem. Some decades

later, in his Notes and Studies to the " West-Oestlicher Divan ",
Goethe declared that he had endeavoured to separate " what
would be fitting to alllands, to all moral people " from that " which
especially concerns and is binding on the Peop le of Israel." He
did not specify this separation in any greater detail ; in any case,
however, his views as they find expression in his early work remain
a pace behind those of his masters Hama1m and Herder, who
recognized in that particularism the earthly vehicle without which
nothing universal can achieve earthly life.
A century after the " Two Questions " Wellhausen, who was
long followed and in wide circles still is followed without restriction
by critical Bible study, undertook to prove the priority of the
" Goethean Law of the Two Tablets " by means of a comprehensive
critical analysis of sources. Exodus xx and Exodus xxxiv, he
held, are diametrically opposed. " There the commandments are
almost only moral, here they are exclusively ritual." 122 And
obviously, in accordance with a view still prevalent in our own
days, the ritual one must be older and in fact original. The
Decalogue of Exodus xx accordingly appears to be influenced by
the prophetic protest against ritualism, whereas that of Exodus
xxxiv would mirror the primitive pan-sacralism of the Moses
epoch, though after a fashion conditioned by the setting actually
found in Canaan.
If we consider this so-called " cultic " decalogue without
\
prejudice, we fmd that it is not a complete whole in itself like the
" ethical " one, but consists of a compilation of appendixes and
complements ; chiefly, further, such as would comprehensibly
derive from a transition to regular agriculture- and the civilization
associated therewith. Most of them, supplements almost exclus
ively, are also to be found in the same or an analogous form in the
so-called " Book of the Covenant ".a The complements, on the
other hand, in no case refer to the laws of this book, but only to
those which are found either in the " Ethical Decalogue " itself or
else in prescriptions to be found earlier in the rext. Thus the
provisions for the sacrifice or redemption of the animal first-born b
are extended to horned cattle." Two characteristic comple
ments to Exodus xx are provided : the prohibition of images,
which in that context has as its subject only such as are hewn and
carved (this still remains to be shown), is extended there to graven
0 Ex. XX, 22-xxiii, 19. b Ex. xiii, II ff. Cj. Ex. xxii, 29.
 THE WORDS ON THE TABLETS 121

images, a while the commandment of Sabbath rest is rendered more

stringent by being made applicable even to the seasons of ploughing
and harvesting, the times of most pressing work in the fields.
From all this it may reasonably be concluded that this compilation
was younger than the Decalogue in its original form. It has
therefore been justly described more recently as a " secondary
mixed form " ; 1 23 save that it may certainly be considered as
older than the redaction of the " Book of the Covenant " in our
possession, since it assuredly did not borrow the doublets from the
latter. Still, the selection was clearly made in accordance with a
specific attitude, so that we may well assume to have before us
the " House-book of a Palestinian Sanctuary " 12 4 prepared from
,

old material.
Critical research of the Wellhausen school has for the greater
part not, or only inadequately, recognised the real character of this
composition. In general it has not ceased to stress its " great age "
and the " influence of the foundation of the religion of Moses " 1 25
that finds expression in it ; as against which the date of the Deca
logue was shifted into ever later times, until the assumption was
made that it could belong only to the exilic or post-exilic age ; 126
and must in fact constitute the catechism of the religious and moral
duties of Israel in Exile ; 127 and that as such it must be " a product
of the religious needs of Israel in Exile ". 1 2 8 Supporters of a more
moderate point of view still found it necessary to explain that the
Ten Commandments were " both impossible and superfluous for
archaic Israel . 129
"

As against this negative self-certainty, the past three decades

have seen the emergence of the feeling that it is necessary to examine
the situation once again, and irrespective of all preconceptions and
theories.
For the greater part the argument had been conducted on the
basis of single commandments, which were held to be incompatible
with the social and cultural, moral and literary conditions of the
early period ; to which the protagonists of the Mosaic origin of the
Decalogue had replied by characterizing the passages which were
questionable in respect of content and language as later supple
ments, and in turn laid bare an incontestably original Decalogue.
Now, however, the stress is being shifted to an increasing degree
from the parts to the whole.

Cf Ex. xx, 23.

122 MOSES

The thesis of the impossibility of such high ethical standards in

those days lost its force when the publication and translation of
Egyptian and Babylonian texts led to the dissemination of informa
tion regarding, and appreciation of, a reality in the history of the
human mind which has received the name of the ,&cjept Qrienc;al
oral Code::., but which might rather be regarded as the ancient
Oriental tendency to commingle cultic prohibitions and postulates
with those of a moral kind. In those texts which have become best
known and are also most characteristic, a confession of the dead
before the. Judges of the Dead found in the Egyptian " Book of the
-
Dead " (deriving from the period in which the Exodus from
Egypt took place), and a " catalogue of sins " from the Babylonian
conjuration tablets, the moral part is the greater by far ; 130 and
this fact is quite sufficient in itself to break down the general assump
tion that cult necessarily preceded ethics. But even if we tum our
attention to the so-called primitive races and read, say, the tribal
lore of an East African tribe, 131 which the elders pass on to adoles
cents about to be admitted into the community, we observe that
their real concern is with the correct relations between the members
of a family, the members of a clan ; and furthermore the im
portant fact of the repeated stressing that this is the will of the
god, of the " Heaven Man ". The most thorough-going opponents
of a Mosaic origin for the Decalogue therefore no longer reject the
possibility that Moses may have proclaimed moral commandments
such as those to be found in the Decalogue. " The moral command
ments of the Decalogue ", says one of these opponents,132 " belong
to those basic laws with which even the most primitive of societies
cannot dispense."
So the question at issue is now held to be whether Moses could
have regarded the moral commandments " as the totality of the
basic prescriptions of religion ", and whether he really presented
" the collection of these commandments as the religious and moral
norm par excellence " ; which, however, " would appear improb
able and unthinkable in the highest degree, according to the
evidence of the sources ". " The question ", says another critic, 133
" is not whether Moses could have established certain individual
religious and moral demands with this content, but whether
Moses, taking into consideration all that we otherwise know of his
religious attitude, can be believed to have been capable of compres
sing the basic demands of religiousness and morality in this Deca
logue, while excluding from it all the other motives which at the
 THE WORDS ON THE TABLETS 1 23

time were of importance in religious and moral life ; whether he

can be supposed to have done this with a genius which would find
its parallel only in Jesus and which, indeed, would needs have been
far greater in the case of Moses, who stands at the beginning of
religious development, than in that of Jesus."
What is meant by the words " all that we otherwise know of
his religious attitude " in this context is explained as follows : from
the material of the most ancient sagas we received quite a different
picture of the personality of Moses than that which we must
assume in order to comprehend the Decalogue as having been his
work. " Moses the sorcerer, the healer, the dispenser of oracles,
the Faustian magician is a different figure from the man who
summarized the essence of piety and morality in the few lapidary
sentences of the Decalogue."But quite irrespective of the basic
problem, regarding which it is possible to hold very different
views, as to which, namely, are the oldest sagas, and even assuming
that in these Moses appears as a thaumaturgist and the like,-what
conclusions could be drawn from this ? On the same page of a
book, to which the scholar j ust quoted refers, we first read 134 :
" Moses the Faustian magician is an entirely believable figure of
the steppes ", and thereafter, " the deeds of the ancient heroes
were already felt by their contemporary world as wonders and
enchantments, and those heroes themselves may likewise easily
have regarded them in the same way." That Moses himself
experienced and understood many of his own actual deeds, par
ticularly the decisive ones, as " wonders ", or more correctly as
deeds of his God performed through him, is obvious ; which,
however, does not transform him into a " Faustian magician ", but
if anything into the contrary ; while the idea that he himself
regarded anything he did as " sorcery " seems to me to lie beyond all
proof. In legend, to be sure, and to some degree even in the
legend which blossomed in the minds and memories of those who
were present, something of the kind may have taken place-clearly
under the influence of Egyptian conceptions 135 ; those people,
thirsting for miracle, whose remoulding memory allowed them to
remember events. as they did not occur and could not have occurred,
were prepared to transform God Himself into a sorcerer, and with
Him His messenger. The same process was doubtless at work,
and very early at that, in the legend of Jesus. It was not enough
to glorify his healings ; the legend set him also walking on the
sea, giving his commands to tl1e winds and turning water into
124 MOSES

wine. Great is the work of the Saga, and as ever it still thrills
our heart 13 6 ; that, however, should not prevent us from pene
trating wherever possible beyond the veil of legend and, as far as
we can, viewing the pure form which it conceals.
In this nothing helps us so much, with Moses as with Jesus and
others, as those utterances which, by use of criteria other than a
general judgment derived from the saga material about the " re
ligious attitude " of a person, may properly be attributed to that
specific man with whom we deal. There is certainly no doubt that
Moses took over archaic rites that were charged with magical
meaning. Yet, as we have seen in the case of the Passover, the
Sabbath and the Blood Covenant, he brought about a fundamental
transformation of meaning in them without in this way depriving
them of any of their vitality ; but rather while rejuvenating this very
vitality by transmuting it from a nature vitality to a historical one.
The change in meaning which he introduced was drawn by him
from the same ground of faith, the same kind and power of faith,
which was given imperishable form in the first three of the Ten
Commandments. It is not hard to understand, when one has at
length touched this ground of faith, that Moses worded these and
specifically these basic demands ; no less but likewise no more ;
and fashioned them into a unity.
An attempt must be made, however, to render the situation
even more clear in its details.
What the critics have been arguing more recently against the
Mosaic origin of the Decalogue refers, as has been said, not to the
content of the individual commandments but to their elevation to
the level of fundamentals of religion ; or, I would prefer to say,
to fundamentals of community life under ilie rule of God. This
has been demonstrated with particular impressiveness in connection
with the prohibition of statues and images ; nor can we choose
any better example in order to elucidate the actual facts.
One of the most radical of critics has admitted 137 that the
iconoclastic movement in later Israel may with some justification
have referred itself to Moses. As among the ancient Arabs and
in the early days of the Semitic cultures in general, Art does not
appear to have been put to use in the cult practices. We know
that the pre-Islamic Arabs 1 38 were beginning to convert stones to
images of gods by bringing out a natural resemblance, say to a
human head, with the aid of art. Between this primitive cultural
situation and ilie later tendencies directed against images of the
 THE WORDS ON THE TABLETS 12 5

god, there lay the essential difference that the primitive Semites
regarded their imageless cult as a natural usage, whereas it consti
tuted a programme of reform for the later ones. What is natural
would not require to be fixed by any separate or especial command
ment. The cult in which absence of images is a principle could
therefore, it is claimed, not derive from the days of Moses.
Edvard-Lehmann has justly pointed out 1 39 that it is often difficult
to decide whether a cult is imageless because it does not yet
require images or because it no longer requires them. But there
are historically important constellations in which the appearance
of a great personality during the pre-image period anticipates the
highest teachings of the post-image period in a simple form that
cannot be improved upon.
We must first realize that matters are by no means simple as
regards the pre-image stage in Mosaic Israel, if we assume that the
latter was under Egyptian influence ; not as regards the belief in
some gods or other, but in respect of the custom of making images
of the gods believed in. If this was indeed the case, a conflict must
necessarily have come about between those who could not or did
not wish to break down this influence, and those who wished to
eradicate it. If, however, we assume that the unabbreviated
wording of the " prohibition of images " is of early date (I mean
that, although only verse 4a belongs to the original text, the rest of
the verse has been added very early) the prospects continue to
expand before us, seeing that in that case we have before us more
than a prohibition of images. For that prohibition is followed by
a prohibition of the worship of any of the figures that could be
perceived in the heavens, on the earth or in the water ( And every
"

figure that . . . and that . . . . and that . . . , bow not down before
them and serve them not " ) . In Egypt the great national gods
appeared in the forms of beasts and other natural beings. Hence,
once the " other gods " have been excluded in verse 3 , there is an
implicit prohibition of worshipping YHVH himself in an image or
in one of the natural forms.
We penetrate even deeper when we base our viewpoint on
what we know of the God of Israel.
Originally He was what has been called a " god of way ",140
but He differed in character from all the other gods of way. The
function of a god of way, who accompanies and protects the
wandering nomads and the caravans through the wilderness, was
exercised in Mesopotamia by the moon, the god " who opens the
126 MOSES

way ", and his assistants. In Syria it was the evening star who
served this purpose. (Characteristically enough such a god of
way of the Nabatacans, whose name meant roughly " He who
accompanies the tribe ", was apparently considered by Epiphanius
to be the deified Moses.141) It is assuredly something more than a
mere coincidence that the name of the city of Harran, which
togetl1er with Ur was the chief city of the moon cult and in which
Abraham separated from his clan, meant way or caravan, and would
appear to have designated the spot " where the caravans met and
from which they started out ".142 The God by whom Abraham,
after " straying away " from Harran, is led in his wanderings,
differs from all solar, lunar and stellar divinities, apart from the
fact that He guides only Abraham and His own group,143 by the
further fact that He is not regularly visible in the heavens, but only
occasionally permits Himself to be seen by His chosen ; whenever
and wherever it is His will to do so. This necessarily implies that
various natural things and processes are on occasion regarded as
manifestations of the God, and that it is impossible to know for
certain where or wherein He will next appear.
It may be supposed and is readily understood that among ilie
Hebrew tribes resident in Egypt the guiding function of the ancient
clan God had been forgotten. But this clearly is what revives
withid the spirit of Moses in Midian when he meditates upon the
possibility of bringing forili ilie tribes. The God who meets him
wishes to resume His guiding function, but for " His people " now.
With His words, " I shall be present howsoever I shall be present ",
He describes Himself as the one who is not restricted to any specific
manner of manifestation, but permits Himself to be seen from time
to time by those He leads and, in order to lead them, to be
seen by them after the fashion which He prefers at the given
moment.144
Thus it can be understood that clouds, and smoke, and fire,
and all kinds of visual phenomena are interpreted by Moses as
manifestations from which he has to decide as to the further course
through the wilderness ; as to the whither and the how. But
always, and that is the fundamental characteristic, YHVH remains
the invisible One, who only permits Himself to be seen in the flame,
in " the very heavens ", in the flash of the lightning. Admittedly
anthropomorphic manifestations also alternate with these ; but
none of them shows an unequivocally clear-cut figure with which
YHVH might be identified.
 THE WORDS ON THE TABLETS 1 27

For this reason He should not be imaged, that is, limited to any
one defmite form ; nor should He be equated to one or other of
the " figures " in Nature, that is, restricted to any one defmite
manifestation. He is the history God, which He is, only when He
is not localized in Nature ; and precisely because He makes use of
everything potentially visible in Nature, every kind of natural
existence, for His manifestation. The prohibition of " images "
and " figures " was absolutely necessary for the establishment of
His rule, for the investiture of His absoluteness before all current
" other gods ".
No later hour in history required this with such force ; every
later period which combated images could do nothing more than
renew the ancient demand. What was immediately opposed to
the founder-will of Moses makes no difference : whether the
memories of the great Egyptian sculptures or the clumsy attempts
of the people themselves to create, by means of some slight working
of wood or stone, a reliable form in which the Divinity could be
taken with them. Moses certainly saw himself as facing a contrary
tendency, namely that natural and powerful tendency which can
be found in all religions, from the most crude to the most sublime,
to reduce the Divinity to a form available for and identifiable by
the senses. The fight against this is not a fight against art, which
would certainly contrast with the report of Moses' initiative in
carving the images of the cherubim ; it is a fight to subdue the
revolt of fantasy against faith. This conflict is to be found again,
in more or less clear-cut fashion, at the decisive early hours, the
plastic hours, of every " founded " religion ; that is, of every
religion born from the meeting of a human person and the mystery.
Moses more than anybody who followed him in Israel must have
established the principle of the " imageless cult ", or more correctly
of the imageless presence of the invisible, who permits Himself to
be seen. 145
Thus in the case of the sentence whose antiquity has been the
most strongly disputed, we have shown that the roots of these
commandments and prohibitions derive from a specific time and
situation. However, this leaves open the decisive question as to
whether the whole Decalogue as such, as collection and composition,
can be explained in terms of this specific time and situation ;
whether it can be assumed that Moses separated and unified pre
cisely these phrases as an absolute norm, out of the wealth of
existent or nascent sentences regarding the right and the unright,
128 MOSES

regarding what should be and what should not be ; while excluding

all cultic elements.
First we once again meet the argument of " primitivity " ,
although in attenuated form. I t i s claimed 146 that at the Mosaic
epoch the religion of Israel could not have possessed tendencies
such as would have permitted the manifestation of a " catechism ",
in which the cult is consciously thrust into the background and the
main content of the religion is reduced to purely ethical sentences.
An assumption that this could have occurred is said to be based on
" a lack of understanding of both the mentality and the civilization
of the Mosaic epoch " . 1 47 The " prelogical " thinking of those
times is supposed to have included the primacy of the " sacral
system " ; for " in his religion and the practice of his cult primitive
man has the means of producing everything that he needs badly " . 1 48
And in this sense even " the loftiest efflorescence of Egyptian
culture " is regarded as primitive.
The use of such a concept of primitivity leads to a questionable
simplification of religious history. Religions as complexes of
popular practices and traditions are more or less " primitive " at
all times and among all peoples. The inner conflict for faith, for
the personally experienced reality, is non-primitive in all religions.
A religious change, an interior transformation which also alters the
structure, never takes place, however, without an internal conflict.
Particularly as far as the religion of Israel is concerned, we cannot
comprehend its ways and changes at all unless we pay attention to
the inner dialectic, to the at various stages and in various forms
ever-recurrent struggle for the truth of belief, for revelation.
That this conflict began at the times of Moses, and indeed that
he waged the primal fight from which everything subsequent,
including the great protests of the prophets against a cult emptied
of intention, can find only its starting-point, is proved, even though
generally in legendary form, by the great and small stories which
tell of the " murmuring ", the rebellion, the insurrection ; and in
most of which we recognize or sense the presence of a religious
problem in the background. The people wish for a tangible
security, they wish to " have " the God, they wish to have Him at
their disposal through a sacral system ; and it is this security which
Moses cannot and must not grant them.
This, however, should not in any way be taken to mean that
Moses had " founded a clear and conscious anti-cultic religion " 1 49 ;
that is, a religion directed against the cult. Nothing is so likely to
 THE WORDS ON THE TABLETS 129

interfere with a historical cognition, which is one not of categories

but of facts, as the introduction of alternatives formulated in so
extreme a fashion. There can be no talk here of simple rejection
of the cult. It is quite enough to bear in mind, to begin with, that
a semi-nomadic life does not encourage a high degree of cult
practices and institutions, here in particular there is clearly a very
ancient tendency " to place morality above the cult " . l5o Further,
it should also be remembered that all those elements which were
liable to militate against the exclusive service of YHVH have been
eliminated. For what remained there was need of a change not of
form, but only of sense and content, in order to satisfy the purpose
of Moses. The sacral principle remained ; but the sacral assurance,
the sacral power of utilizing the God, was uprooted ; as was de
manded by His character and essence. This sacral power was
replaced by the consecration of men and things, of times and
places, to the One who vouchsafes His presence amid His chosen
people, if only the latter persevere in the Royal Covenant.
And why are there no cultic ordinances in the Decalogue ?
Why is it that in the domain of cult nothing more is done than the
prohibition of the false, not the prescription of the correct deeds ?
Why is the prescription of circumcision not to be found ? Why
is Sabbath observance required, but not that of the New Moon
festival ? Why the Sabbath but not the Passover ? Does not this,
for instance, indicate a late origin, seeing that in Exile, far from the
Temple, the Sabbath came to be the centre of religious life ?
All these and similar questions taken together mean : why does
the Decalogue contain these precise commandments, these and none
other, no more and no less ? Why have these been j oined together
as the norm, and where in those early days could the principle be
found in accordance with which the association took place ?
Naturally this question also comprehends the analogous questions
which arise within the ethical field, such as : Is it possible to suppose
that in the time of Moses there could have been a prohibition of
" coveting ", which, in contrast to all the other prohibitions, was
aimed not at action but at a state of mind ? Or on the other hand,
why is there no prohibition of lying ? 1 51
It is desirable to offer a single and comprehensive answer to
all these questions ; and necessarily that answer will have to deal
with both selection and composition. Hence the literary category
as such must be a subject of interest. Why should there be a
decalogue or anything resembling a decalogue ? Why these ten
130 MOSES

commandments and no others ? Why, which in turn means : to

what end ? To what end, and that in turn means : when ?
In order to find an answer we must first disabuse ourselves of
the widely-held view that the Decalogue is a " catechism " which
supplies the essence of the Israelite religion in summary fashion, in
articles of faith that can be counted on the ten fingers, and are
specially " prepared for learning by heart ".15 2 If we have to
think of ten fingers, then rather those of the law-giver himself,
who was first a law-finder and who, so to say, sees in his two
hands an image of the completeness requisite ere he raises those
two hands towards the multitude. We miss the essential point if
we nnderstand the Decalogue to be " the catechism of the Hebrews
in the Mosaic period ". 163 A catechism means an instruction for
the person who has to be in a position to demonstrate his full
membership of a religious community on the basis of general
sentences which he recites either in complete or in abbreviated
form. Such a catechism is correspondingly prepared partly in the
third person as a series of statements, and partly in the first as a
series of articles of personal faith.
The soul of the Decalogue, however, is to be found in the word
" Thou ". Here nothing is either stated or confessed ; but orders
are given to the one addressed, to the listener. In distinction to all
catechisms and compositions resembling catechisms, everything
here has reference to that specific hour in which the words were
spoken and heard. It is possible that only the man who wrote
down the words had once had the experience of feeling himself
addressed ; possibly he transmitted that which he heard to his
people not orally, taking the " I " of the god in his own mouth as
though it were his own, but only in written form, preserving the
necessary distance. At all times, in any case, only those persons
really grasped the Decalogue who literally felt it as having been
addressed to them themselves ; only those, that is, who experienced
that first one's state of being addressed as though they themselves
were being addressed. Thanks to its " thou ", the Decalogue
means the preservation of the Divine Voice.
And if we now not any longer formulate the question from the
point of view of literary criticism but in accordance with strictly
historical categories, the Decalogue again shows its difference
in kind, its antithesis in fact to all catechisms. It is both legislation
and promulgation, in the precise historical sense. What this
means is that the intention to be recognized in it refers neither to
 THE WORDS ON THE TABLETS 13 1

articles of faith nor to rules of behaviour, but to the constituting

of a community by means of common regulation. This state of
affairs has been obscured through the fact that the contents of the
single commandments are partly " religious " and partly " ethical " ,
and that i f the single commandments are considered o n their own
they seem, even in their totality, to be directed towards the religious
and ethical life of the individual, and appear to be capable of realiza
tion there. Only when the whole Ten Commandments are con
sidered as a whole can it be recognized that no matter how repeatedly
the individual alone is addressed, it is nevertheless not the isolated
individual who is meant. If the " religious " commandments are
taken by themselves :md the " ethical " by themselves, it is almost
possible to gain the impression that they derived from a culture in
which religion and morality have already become separate spheres,
each with a special system and a special form of speech. If they
are regarded in their connection, it will be observed that there are
no such separate fields at all here, but only one as yet undifferentiated
common life, which requires a constitution containing " religious "
and " ethical " elements in order to achieve a uniform growth.
Here the unifying force has to start from the conception of a
divine lord. The disparate material out of which the people
develop shapes itself into a closed national form as a result of their
common relation to Him. Only as the people of YHVH can
Israel come into being and remain in being. The constitution
appears not as something objective, to be taken at its own intrinsic
value, but as an allocution by Him, a thing which can be actualized
only in and through a living relationship with Him. It therefore
begins by His designation of Himself as the One who brought
forth and liberated Israel addressed ; including each and every
person addressed in Israel. God does not wish to speak as the Lord
of the world that He is, a but as the One who has led them forth
from Egypt. He wishes to fmd recognition in the concrete reality
of that historic hour ; it is from that starting-point that the people
have to accept His rule.
This calls for and conditions a threefold commandment through
a threefold prohibition. First : a commandment of an exclusive
relationship of worship by means of the prohibition of other gods
" in my face ". Secondly : a commandment of self-dedication to
His invisible "but nevertheless manifesting presence, by means of a
prohibition of all sensory representations. Thirdly : a command
ment of faith to His name as the truly " Present One " through
Ex. xix, sb.
132 MOSES

the prohibition of carrying that name over to any kind of

" illusion ", 1 64 and thus of admitting that any kind whatsoever
of illusive thing can participate in the presence of the Present One.
This, to be sure, prohibits idol-worship, image-worship and magic
worship. But the essential reason for which they have been
prohibited is the exclusive recognition of the exclusive rule of the
divine lord, the exclusive leadership of the divine leader ; and to
this end it is necessary to recognize Him as He is, and not in the
shape with which people would like to endow Him.
This first part of the Decalogue, which bases the life of the
community on the rule of the Lord, is built up in five phrases,
all beginning " Thou shalt not " (the two phrases, beginning with
" fo r " , appear to be later supplements) . If the final verse of the third
section is restored to an original shorter version, it can be seen to
consist likewise of five phrases beginning " Thou shalt not ".
(We therefore, to be precise, have a group of twelve command
ments before us.) Between these two groups comes a central
section containing the commandment of the Sabbath and the
commandment to honour parents (in shorter versions) , both
commencing with a positive inj unction. The first, a " religious "
one, refers back to what went before : the second as " ethical "
refers ahead to those that follow.
Between the two of them, however, there is a connection
other than the purely formal one. The two of them, and only
these two among all of the Ten Commandments, deal with time,
articulated time ; the first with the closed succession of weeks in
the year, the second with the open succession of generations in
national duration. Time itself is introduced into the constitutional
foundation of national life by being partly articulated in the lesser
rhythm of the weeks, and partly realized in its given articulation
through the greater rhythm of the generations. The former
requirement is provided for through the repeated " remembering "
of the Sabbath day as that which has been consecrated to YHVH ;
and the latter by the " honouring " of the parents. Both of them
together ensure the continuity of national time ; the never-to-be
interrupted consecution of consecration, the never-to-be-broken
consecution of tradition.
There is no room here for the mention of special individual
festivals alongside the Sabbath. The Sabbath represents the equal
measure, the regular articulation of the year ; and further, one
which is not simply taken over from Nature, which is not strictly
 THE WORDS ON THE TABLETS 133

lWlar, but i s based o n the concept o f the regular consecration o f

every seventh day. I t i s not the exceptional, not that which has
to be done only at certain times and on certain occasions, but that
which is of all time, that which is valid at all times, for which
alone place must be foWld in the basic constitution. The cult is
not in any way excluded ; but only its general prerequisite postu
lates, as they are expressed in the first part of the Decalogue, and
not its details, have foWld acceptance here in accordance with the
main purpose.
If the first part deals with the God of the CommWlity and the
second with the time, the one-after-the-other of the Community,
the third is devoted to the space, the with-one-another of the Com
munity in so far as it establishes a norm for the mutual relations
between its members. There are four things above all which have
to be protected, in order that the Community may stand firm in
itself. They are life, marriage, proper;ty and social honour. And
so the damaging of these four basic goods and basic rights of
personal existence is forbidden in the most simple and pregnant of
formulas. In the case of the first three the verb does not even
possess any object ; as a result of which the impression is given of
a comprehensive and absolute prescription.
But these four commandments in themselves are not enough to
protect the CommWlity from disorganization, on accoWlt of all
the kinds of inner conflicts which might break out. They apply
only to actions, to the active outcome of passions or feelings of
ill-will directed against the personal sphere of other people ; they
do not involve attitudes which have not passed into action.
There is one attitude, however, which destroys the inner con
nection of the Community even when it does not transform itself
into actual action ; and which indeed, precisely on account of its
passive or semi-passive persistence, may become a consuming
disease of a special kind in the body politic. This is the attitude of
envy. The prohibition of " covetousness ", no matter whether it
was without any object in its original form 16 5 or read, " do not
covet the house-i.e., the content of the personal life in general,
household, property, and prestige a_of your fellow-man ", is to
be Wlderstood as a prohibition of envy. The point here is not
merely a feeling of the heart but an attitude of one man to another
which leads to a decomposition of the very tissues of Society.
The third part of the Decalogue can be summarized in its basic
a Cf. Ex. i, 21.
1 34 MOSES

tendency as : Do not spoil the commnnal life of Israel at the point

upon which you are placed.
Since, as we have seen, it is the will towards inner stability of
the Commnnity which determined the selection of commandments
and prohibitions, we must, if the Decalogue is ascribed to a later
period, necessarily note the absence of some phrase reading more
or less as follows : " Do not oppress thy fellow-man ". In a
commnnity which was being broken up from within, as we know
was the case during the period of the Kings in Israel, by a vast
increase of social inequality, by the misuse of the power of property
in order to gain possession of smaller properties, by the exploitation
of the strength of the economically weaker and dependent ; in a
community wherein, generation after generation, rang the great
protest of the prophets, no central and authoritative collection
of the laws indispensable for the inner strengthening of the com
munity could have been thinkable which did not expressly combat
social injustice. It is appropriate to a period in which, to be sure,
inequality of property is already to be found ; but in which,
taking the whole situation into account, that inequality does not
yet lead to any fateful misuses, so that the immediately obvious
danger deriving from it is envy and not oppression.
But we can fix the period in question even more precisely.
Within the individual clan and even the individual tribe there had
always been, as we are also aware from other Semitic peoples, a
solidarity which interdicted and directly punished every trans
gression of a member against the personal sphere of life of another.
What was lacking in wandering Israel, fused together of related
and unrelated elements, which was joined on its wanderings by
other elements, was a sense of solidarity as between the tribes.
What Israel needed was the extension of its tribal solidarity to the
nation. The members of each separate tribe knew " thou shalt
not kill ", " thou shalt not commit adultery ", " thou shalt not
steal ", they had them deeply engraved in their consciousness in
respect of other members of their own tribe ; an analogous
" Israelite " consciousness, however, had hardly begun to come into
being. The constituting of a people out of clans and tribes, which
Moses undertook, made the expansion of the specific tribal pro
hibitions to the relations between the components of the people
as a whole an nnconditional necessity. At no later period was the
need so urgent as at this plastic and fateful hour, in which it was
necessary to build the " House of Israel " out of unequally suited,
 THE WORDS ON THE TABLETS 13 5

unequally cut stones. A wandering into the unknown had begun

under the most difficult external circumstances. Bfore that
wandering could be given a destination it was necessary to shape,
no matter in how raw and clumsy a fashion, a folk-character
which would have the capacity, as a homogeneous being, to follow
a road to a destination. This, in tum, indispensably required the
proclamation of a basic constitution founded on the principles of
unlimited rule of the one God, equable duration oflsrael th ughout
the changes of years and generations, and the inner coheSion of
those members of Israel living as contemporaries at any one
period.
The situation of Moses has been compared, not unjustly, 1 6 8
with that of Hammurabi, who made his code in order to establish
a strong unity among all the city communities of his kingdom,
despite their many and varied customs and laws. But Hammurabi
was the victorious ruler of a firmly established kingdom ; Moses
was the leader of an inchoate, stubborn horde during the transition
of that horde from a lack of freedom into a problematic freedom.
Admittedly we must not imagine Moses as a planning, selecting
and composing legislator directed by certain motives of " biological
social necessity " ; for his consciousness as for that of his successors
in the work of codification, admittedly, " only the demand of the
law was decisive, in order to manifest divine commands that are of
absolute authority " . 1 57 But here we are not justified in attempt
ing to discriminate too precisely between conscious and unconscious
processes. Moses can only be understood as deriving from the
terrain of an elemental unity between religion and society. He
undertook the paradoxical task of leading forth the Hebrew tribes
only because he had been possessed, in his direct experience, by the
certainty that this was the will of the God who called those tribes
His People. He aims at nothing else than to prepare the Com
munity for this God, who has declared that He is ready to be their
covenantal Lord ; but, and for that very reason, he must provide
Israel with a basic constitution, in order to make Israel united and
firm in itself. For him God's dominion over the people and the
inner cohesion of the people are only two aspects of the same
reality. From out of those words, " I, YHVH, am thy God who
brought thee out of the land of Egypt " which flood into his
expectant spirit, gush forth all the remaining ones in a stream that
is not to be stayed; and as they gush they gain their strict order
and form. To be sure, he is not concerned with the soul of man,
IJ6 MOSES

he is concerned with Israel ; but he is concerned with Israel for the

sake of YHVH. For this reason all those who carne after him in
Israel, and were concerned with the soul of man, had to start from
his law.
Thus, in so far as any historical conclusions are at all permissible
from texts such as those before us, we have to recognize in the
Decalogue " the Constitution by which the host of Moses became
united with their God and likewise among themselves " 1 58 ; save
that this host should not, as sometimes happens, be understood to
be a " religious " union, a " Yahveh League " 1 69 a cult association, 160
,

a " congregation " 161 ; for, despite their deliquescent state,

reminiscent as it is of a saturated solution before crystallization,
they are a complete society, a people that is corning into being.
It is a " unique event in human history " 162 that the decisive
process of crystallization in the development of a people should
have come about on a religious basis. Irrespective of the import
ance of the typological view of phenomena in the history of the
spirit, the latter, just because it is history, also contains the atypical,
the unique in the most precise sense. This is true particularly of
the religious document of that crystalloid unification : of the
" Decalogue ".
It has been supposed 163 that, in spite of the fact that the original
short form to be laid bare within it " contains nothing which speaks
against its composition at the time of Moses ", nevertheless " it is
impossible to trace it back to Moses himself, because in its literary
style every Decalogue is impersonal ". But do we really know so
much of " Decalogues " in general that we have to subject this
one to a typological view in order to discover what is possible
and what is impossible in respect of it ? All other sections of the
Pentateuch and other books of the Bible, which it has been the
practice to describe as Decalogues, are either loose and, as it were,
accidental or else are of indubitably literary origin ; this one alone
is fully self-consistent in its nucleus and aims at the mark like a
perfect instrument, each word charged with the dynamism of a
historical situation. We cannot under any condition regard some
thing of this kind as an " impersonal " piece of writing but, if at
all, only as the work of that particular man upon whom it was
incumbent to master the situation. May this be a hypothesis, it
is undoubtedly the only one which affords us what is requisite :
namely, to insert a combination of words found in literature into
a sequence of events such as would be possible within history.
 THE WORDS ON THE TABLETS 137

A demand is voiced, and quite properly, to ascertain what

" position in life " such a text may have had ; which means, more
or less, at which celebration it was likely to have been regularly
read aloud. Even more important, however, than the question of
that which is regularly recurrent, namely, of the reality of the
calendar, is that of the first time, that of the reality of innovation.
This too can be answered only by hypothesis and assumption ; but
it can be answered.
If we attempt to gain the view of a sequence of events from the
texts which we have sifted, it is first necessary, de-spite everything
which may appear to speak in its favour, to reject the theory that
" the Decalogue was the document on the basis of which the
"
Covenant was made . 164 The concept of the document in the
making of the Covenant appears to me to be secondary, and to
have derived from the fact that the Covenant was misunderstood
at a later period as the conclusion of a contract. In any case,
however, the Decalogue has the Covenant not as its subject, but as
a prerequisite condition.
In a message which must underlie our Eagle Speech, but which
cannot be reconstructed from it, Moses brings to his rank and file,
as he had already brought to the elders, YHVH's offer to establish
the berith, which would unite both of them, the God and the human
host, into a living community ; in which YHVH would be the
melek and Israel His mamlakah, His regal retinue, YHVH would be
the owner and Israel the especial personal property chosen by Him,
YHVH would be the hallowing leader and Israel the goy hallowed
by Him, the national body made holy through Him. These are
concepts which I take out of the version before us, but which must
already have been either contained or latent in an undifferentiated
form in the original source, if the latter was to fulfil its function.
The host accepts the offer ; and in the blood rite which had
already begun earlier, and wherein the two partners share in the
identical living substance, the Covenant by which YHVH becomes
"
" melek in Yeshurun a is concluded. The process is completed in
the contemplation of the heavens and the holy meal. This might
be the proper place for a report of the representative to those repre
sented, in which the motto " Israel " was given out and taken up ;
a report that has not come down to us. What now has to follow
sooner or later is the proclamation of the melek YHVH. It is this
which seems to me to be preserved in the " Decalogue " as restored
Deut. xxxiii, 5
 MOSES

to its original nucleus. Here YHVH tells the tribes united in

" Israel " what has to be done and what left undone by them as
Israel, and by each individual person in Israel (an induction into
such a new and exclusive relationship will consist, naturally, for
the greater part, in a prohibition of that which must henceforward
be left undone) ; in order that a people, the people of YHVH
which has to come into being, should come into being. In order
that it should really become His people it must really become a
people ; and vice versa. The instruction to this is the Ten Com
mandments.
Whether this proclamation was made immediately after the
conclusion of the Covenant or only in the course of the " many
days " a of the sojourning at the oasis of Kadesh is a question that
may be left open. It seems to me, on the other hand, as already
said, more likely both from the introduction to the passage
commencing " I ", as well as from the prose-like structure of the
sentences, that the manifestation took place in written form. That
it was written down on two tables is a tradition which is worthy
of belief. Tables or stelre with laws ascribed to the divinity, are
known to us both from Babylon and from early Greece ; as against
which there is not a single historical analogy, 1 6 5 to the best of my
knowledge, for the frequently-:!ssumed imaginary transformation
of stone fetishes, thought to have been kept in the Ark, into tablets
of the law. It may well be conceived that the tablets on which
Moses wrote in truly " lapidary " sentences the basic constitution
given by YHVH to His people " in order to instruct them " 1 66 were
erected and again and again inspected and read out ; until the
departure from that spot made it necessary to place them in the
Ark.
The story of the tables as told in the book of Exodus consists of
a series of tremendous scenes, which have always aroused the fervent
emotions of believing hearts. Moses summoned to the summit of
the mountain in order to receive the tables which YHVH Himself
has written for the instruction of the children of Israel b ; Moses
ascending into God's cloud and remaining there for forty days
and forty nights ; Moses receiving from God the " Tablets of
the Testimony " written by His finger d ; Moses on the way down
from the mountain becoming aware of the " unbridled " people,
and in flaming fury flinging the tables away from his hands, so
that they smash below on the mountain-side ; Moses, at the
Deut. i, 46. b Ex. xxiv, 12. ' Ibid., 1 8. d Ex. xxxi, 1 8. Ex. xxx ii, 19.
 THE WORDS ON THE TABLETS 139

command of YHVH, hewing two fresh tables from the stone

" like the first ", in order that God may write upon them again:
and again ascending the mountain with them a ; Moses with the
tables in his hand receiving from the mouth of the God who
" passes him by " the revelation of God's qualities b ; Moses again
standing forty days and forty nights on the mountain without
food and drink and writing on the tables " the words of the
covenant, the ten words " ; he and not YHVH, although YHVH
had promised him to do this Himself, and hence, from the view
point and for the purpose of the redactor, who considered that the
two passages were mutually reconcilable, functioning as the
writing fmger of YHVH c ; and Moses going down with the new
tables, the skin of his face radiant from his contact with God, and
he himself unaware of it. d
If we wish to keep before us a sequence of events possible in
our human world, we must renounce all such tremendous scenes.
Nothing remains for us except the image, capable of being seen
only in the barest outline and shading, of the man who withdraws
to the loneliness of God's mountain in order, far from the people
and overshadowed by God's cloud, to write God's law for the
people. To this end he has hewn stela:: out of the stone for himself.
It must be stone and not papyrus. For the hard stone is called to
testify, to serve as a witness. It sees what there is to see, it hears
what there is to hear ; and it testifies thereto, makes present and
contemporary for all corning generations that which it has to see
and hear ; the stone outlasts the decaying eyes and ears, and goes
on speaking. In the same way Moses, before the Covenant was
made, had erected twelve memorial stones-such as men making
covenants were accustomed to erect -for the twelve tribes which
were to become Israel at that hour.
Now, however, he goes further. After all, there is one means
of placing a more comprehensive, clearer, verbally dependable
witness upon the stone. That is the wondrous means of writing,
which for early Israel was still surrounded by the mystery of its
origin, by the breath of God, who makes a gift of it to men. By
means of it one can embody in the stone what has been revealed
to one ; so that it is no longer simply an event, the making of the
Covenant, but also, word by word, it continues to serve as evidence
of a revelation, of the law of the King. What Moses says may be
.

0 Ex. xxxiv, I, 4 b Ibid., 5-7. Ibid., 28.

d Ibid., 29. Gen. xxxi, 45 ff.
 MOSES

clumsy, but not what he writes ; that is suitable for his time and
for the later times in which the stone will testify.
And so he writes on the tables what has been introduced to his
senses , in order that Israel may come about ; and he writes it
fittingly, as a fmger of God. And the tables remain as " tables of
testimony " or " tables of making present " ,a 167 whose function
it is to make present unto the generations of Israel forever what
had once become word ; that is, to set it before them as something
spoken to them in this very hour. It may well be assumed, although
there is no tradition extant to this effect, that in the days before
Samuel the tables were taken out of the Ark at extraordinary
moments and elevated before the people, as had once been done in
the wilderness, in order to restore them to the situation in which
they had been at Sinai. Reports about this may have been de
stroyed after the Tables were placed in the Holy of Holies of
Solomon's Temple together with the Ark, which was now deprived
of its mobile character b ; obviously in order that they might
become immovable themselves, and no longer serve as the occasion
ally reviving original witnesses, but should remain nothing more
than relics of dead stone.
And at an unknown hour they pass out of our ken. The Word
alone endures.
0 Ex. xxxii, 15. b I Kin. viii, 9 .
 THE Z EALO U S GOD

F
OR reasons both of style and of content I have accepted the
view that the original Decalogue was not so long as that
which we now possess, and that it was largely constructed in
succinct imperative sentences ; which, however, does not in any
way mean that an origin in the days of Moses must be denied to
all clements which can be separated out after this fashion. This
applies in particular to the sentence, so generally discussed at all
times, of the " Jealous God " .a With the possible exception of the
last two words ( " and who keep my commandments ) which tend
" ,

to disturb the parallelism of the structure, this has so archaic a stamp

that certain of the protagonists of the " Original Decalogue 169 "

have held that it ought to be transposed to the commencement of

the Decalogue in place of the present introductory verse. Yet the
introductory verse, the nuclear passage of the Revelation is so
" unmistakably ancient 1 70 that it will not do merely to remove
"

it from the place which alone is suitable to it.

The situation is different as regards the verse of the Jealous God.
This likewise obviously fits into an early connection but not
necessarily here, in a passage which, in its nature as proclamation
of the God as God of the Covenant, with whom the people have
just entered into a community of life, docs not require any threat
of punishment at this particular point. On the other hand, it
seems to me that there is an inner association between this and
certain other laws, which also point more or less to the period of
Moses but are not included in the Decalogue.
" I YHVH thy God am a jealous God, ordaining the iniquity
of the fathers upon the sons unto the third and fourth generation
of those that hate me, but doing mercy to the thousandth generation
of those that love me." Two of the elements of the sentence, the
characterization of the God as a jealous one and the differentiation
between those that hate him and those that love him, arc again to
be found in similar form in passages which should be regarded as
effects and applications of this. A distinction between the foes
of YHVH, who are marked for downfall, and those that love him,
who ascend in their course like the rising sun, is drawn with the
a Ex. XX, sl>-6.
141
 MOSES

strongest urge of fighting faith at the close of the Song of Deborah.a

" Foes " in this Song clearly means not merely the foes of Israel,
who are for that reason the foes of Israel's divine leader and com
mander, but also those within the people itself who at the hour of
battle refrained from coming to the aid of YHVH, and who arc
therefore provided with a curse b ; " lovers " are those who
unconditionally adhere to YHVH and follow him, those devoting
themselves to Him of their own free will. c It is of great importance
that this expression of personal feeling is chosen as the designation
of the following of the God ; and this applies equally to the
Decalogue sentence by which, it seems to me, the song has been
influenced.17 1 The guilty ones have to bear the burden of their
guilt as a load extending beyond their own person if they are
haters of God ; they are faced by the lovers, over whom the flood
of mercy pours forth, reaching far beyond them in distant waves.
But what kind of guilt is it that is spoken of here ? According
to the context of the Decalogue idolatry and the like are meant ;
and this view seems to be confirmed by the introduction to Goethe's
" Cultic Decalogue ",a where the jealousy of YHVH stands in rela
tion to the worship of another god. But the same association is
also found in the report of the historic assembly at Shechem,
in a verse e which there is no adequate reason for regarding as
later than its context. It is clear that in these two passages the
thing about which God is jealous is exclusive devotion to Him,
the rejection of the demands of all other gods. This, however,
does not in any way mean of necessity that the sentence in the
Decalogue, considered on its own intrinsic merits, bears the identical
meaning. We must therefore now consult it by itself.
Our question must naturally refer to the precise sense of those
much discussed words : " Ordaining the sins of the fathers upon
the children tmto the third and fourth generation ". The verb
paqad, which I render by " ordaining " or " co-ordinating " ,
originally means " to arrange ", then " to set in order ", " to fix
an order ", " to restore order ". The order between heaven and
earth, disturbed by guilt, is restored by the punishment. That
this should take place " unto the third and fourth generation " ,
can only mean, since there is no reason to assume any arbitrary
introduction of the figures, the precise number of generations or
direct lineal successors which a man living to a ripe old age is likely
to see gathered round him. This in turn can be understood in
a Jud. v, Jl. b Ibid., 2.3. < Ibid., 2.. d Ex. xxxiv, 14. Josh. xxiv, 19.
 THE ZEALOUS GOD 14 3

two different ways : either that the guilty one sees how the conse
quences of his guilt work themselves out on his grand-children or
great-grand-children, or else that his punishment comes to affect
those of his descendants who arc then alive. The passage in the
Decalogue itself does not tell us which of the two possible inter
pretations is correct ; and so we must extend our inquiry to other
passages , which may stand in some inner connection with it.
When we consider the undoubtedly early laws of the Pentateuch,
with the exception of the Decalogue, which deal with the punish
ment of transgression, we find that there are very few, only two
to be precise, in which the divine speaker does not rest satisfied
with prescribing for the tribunals a punishment fitting the guilt,
but offers a prospect of His own vengeful intervention. Both of
them a refer to transgressions of a " social " nature, to an injustice
committed against one's fellow-man and which is of such a kind
that it is not amenable to human justice. Both divide themselves
sharply from their contexts by the force of language and rhythm,
which does not recur in any other of the single laws to be found in
the so-called " Book of the Covenant ". Further, none of the
collections of Ancient Oriental laws with which those of the Bible
have been compared offer any kind of analogy to this singularly
exalted tone, nor to this kind of divine warning of an expiation of
guilt brought about from on high. Most of the modem com
mentators think of re-working and interpolation when trying to
account for this. To me, however, it seems, despite a certain
syntactical clumsiness, that the two laws are both cast in the same
mould ; and it correspondingly seems to me that the small group
to which they both belong is part of the oldest stratum of Mosaic
legislation, i.e. " Words of YHVH ",172 sayings " which appeal
to the conscience and the sense of responsibility before the com
pelling God ".
The first of the two laws forbids the oppression of any widow
or orphan : " For if he cries, cries unto me, I shall hear, hear his
cry, and my wrath will flame, and I shall slay you with the sword,
and your wives shall be widows and your children orphans ".
The unjust Community, the Community containing both those
who behave thus and those who tolerate such behaviour, is visited
by war ; and the offspring living at the time will be affected by
the death of the fathers. The second law holds out the prospect
of the same divine hearing of the outcry of the oppressed, if the
Ex. xxii, 21-22, 25-26.
1 44 MOSES

right of pledging is subjected to abuse ; and behind it as well a

j udging intervention of the God is to be understood. Both laws
have a character which can be described, alike in content and tone,
as none other than proto-prophetic. The small group of four
laws to which they belong leaves me with the impression that they
must be the sole remaining vestige of a longer series, in which
more succinct commandments, such as verses 20 and 24, may have
alternated with expanded ones such as the two nnder consideration
here. And I could well imagine that the series was introduced by
the Decalogue sentence of the " jealous " God, and that it possibly
ended with the phrase which now serves as the close of the small
group : " For I am a gracious one ".
It may admittedly be argued that the adjective here can mean
,
only " jealous ; in the usual sense, as is shown by the usage of the
verb deriving from the same root. But the pertinent nonn is not
infrequently used to characterize the zeal of the fighter ; and that
is what is meant here. YHVH zealously fights His " haters " ;
and these are not only the people who have other gods " in His
face ", but also those who break up the society fonnded and led by
Him, through their injustice to their fellow-men. The " re
ligious " and the " social ", the exclusive service of YHVH and
the just faith between men, without which Israel canno t become
Israel, canno t become the people of YHVH, are closely connected.
I have indicated that social inequality in the midst of the people
of Israel at the time of Moses had not extended so far that such
a commandment as " Thou shalt not oppress thy fellow-man "
required to be inserted in the basic constitution. At the same time
there certainly must already have been such a quantity of oppression
in the wandering host that the dangers involved therein had to be
cowlteracted by single specific laws, which surrounded and com
pleted that central massif. Such single laws were not written on
tables, but possibly on a scroll ; and presumably not on one single
occasion, but, in the course of time, in connection with particular
happenings, which called for the promulgation of new laws of this
kind in order to combat the evil. All this is no more than conjec
ture, and will probably never become more than conjecture. Yet,
in our vision, we see this man Moses at times, following some new
and wearing experience with his people, entering the leader's tent,
sitting down on the ground and for a long time weighing in his
soul whatever may have befallen ; nntil at lengtl1 the new com
prehension rises to the surface and the new word oppresses his
 THE ZEALOUS GOD 1 45

throat ; till it finally darts across into the muscles of his hand,
permitting a new utterance of the Zealous God to come into being
on the scroll.
The effect of the association of this jealousy or zealousness until
late times with the " social " laws can be seen from the example of
a commandment at the beginning of the " Book of the Covenant "a,
the commandment to liberate the " Hebrew " slave in the
seventh year. This law, it is known, shows some resemblance
to one in the Code of Hammurabi, which specifies liberation as
early as the fourth year ; though only of those enslaved for debt.
The important difference between the two codes lies in the fact
that in Israelite law the decision is left to the will of the slave, who,
if he refuses to be liberated, has the lobe of his ear pierced as a sign
of life-long slavery. (This procedure cannot but remind one of
another law in the Hammurabi Code, according to which that
particular slave who denies his owner with the words " You are
not my lord " has an ear cut off, whereas, in Israel, the slave is
marked with the degrading sign because of his having renounced
liberty.)
Here the differentiating characteristic is not the practical mild
ness but the basic recognition of personal freedom of choice. In
Babylonian law the slave, foreign as well as indigenous, is a
" chattel 173 ; the Hebrew slave, in Israelite law, is a person.
"

There the relationship is unilateral, while here it is mutual.

The Hethite slave law also shows a noteworthy humanity.
What distinguishes the law of Israel in essence from it is the close
relationship between the religious and the social element. Since
Israel is the " peculiar property " of YHVH, no person in Israel
can be, properly speaking, the slave of any other person in Israel.I74
All belong to the God, and are therefore free to make their own
decisions.
This basic feeling, to which " it is impossible to fmd a parallel
within the old Oriental circle ",176 is spirit of Moses's spirit, no
matter when the presumably archaic law may have found its
actual formulation. And we are also presumably justified in
ascribing to the man by whom the Sabbath was inaugurated the
initiative for extending the Sabbatical manner of thought into the
cycle of the years ; in which, as in the days, six units of work and
dependence have to be followed by one unit of liberation. Once

o Ex. xxi, 2 ff.

 MOSES

in history, shortly before the fall of the Kingdom, a the king and
the princes in Judah understood a military disaster as being due to
the non-fulfilment of a particular commandment. It was not a
cult law, but that commanding the liberation of the slaves, which
they recognized as having been the cause of YHVH's zeal against
the beleaguered Jerusalem.
Jcr. xxxiv, 8 If.
 T HE B ULL AND T HE ARK
HE
T
Biblical narrative relates that while Moses remained on
the mountain to hear the injunction of God and to receive the
Tablets from Him, the people, despairing of his return, demanded
that Aaron should fashion them gods (elohim) to go before them.
They greet the image of a young bull made by Aaron with the
cry : " These are thy gods, 0 Israel, who brought thee out of the
Land of Egypt " . They offer up sacrifices and celebrate a festival,
apparently orgiastic in character. Coming down the mountain,
Moses sees the bull and the dances ; and in an upsurge of fury he
flings from his hands the tables written by God, so that they shatter.
Reaching the camp, he summons to him all those who have
remained true to YHVH ; and these, who belong chiefly to his own
tribe of Levi, go forth with the sword at his behest " from gate to
gate ", and reduce all resistance.
In the Book of Kings it is told a that after the division of the
Kingdom, Jeroboam, the elected king of the northern tribes,
established a separate cult in order that the people should no longer
make pilgrimages to Jerusalem at the annual festival. He resolves
to erect young bulls of gold at the ancient cult centres of Bethel
and Dan, and shows them to the people with the words : ' ' These
are thy Elohim, 0 Israel, who brought thee out of the Land of
Egypt " ; and as priests for them he appoints outsiders, " who
were not of the Levites ".
The conform wording of the tw.D--tales, &nd particularly of the
two sacral proclamations, is striking ; and it is impossihk to :woid
the question of the relation them. It is generally assumed
tl1at the tale of the backsliding of Jeroboam is the older, and that
the story of the " Golden Calf " came into existence under its
influence. But a comparison of the two contexts and of the
situation implicit in them would rather appear to show the
opposite. The sacral cry rings strangely in the mouth ofJeroboam.
He wishes to establish a rival to the Jerusalem Ark ; but since the
latter has been withdrawn into the Temple it is regarded no longer
as the symbol of the wandering and leading God, but of the One
who protects the holy city by His presence ; whereas on Sinai,
naturally enough, all the thoughts of the people revolved round
0 I Kin. xii, 2.6 1f.
1 47
 MOSES

their previous and future guidance through the desert. And while
the plural " thy elohim is surprising in Jeroboam's mouth, 176 its
"

use as an utterance of the people in connection with their heathenish

demand reminds us of the way in which Abraham speaks of his
God to the prince of the Philistines,a as well as the way in which
the Philistines speak of the Ark of this God. b It fits with greater
ease into the early period.
In addition, the fact that motifs so unpleasant for the hierarchy
of the Jerusalem Temple as Aaron's share in the responsibility and
the breaking of the first Tablets were accepted by the redactors
speaks for their antiquity and traditional character.177 Hence it is
most probable that the undoubtedly tendentious description of the
" sin of Jeroboam " was influenced by the generally familiar tale
of the " Calf " ; or more correctly the former description put to
use what was already to be found in the latter. The author has
Jeroboam making defiant use of the words which, according to
the tradition, the people cried out in their hour of greatest wrong
doing.
In the historical reality Jeroboam would certainly not have
thought of setting himself against the divine law which had been
handed down. When he made his young bulls of gold he did not
think of representations of YHVH, and assuredly did not have
images of any other God in mind. His " golden calves " were
intended to be an improvement on the brazen oxen which carried
the basin in Solomon's Temple, and simultaneously to fulfil the
function of the Ark and serve as a throne for the invisible YHVH.
Underlying these as much as the Ark, although in a grosser form, 178
is the idea, which is quite familiar in the history of religion, " that
a divine or demonic guest is given an occasion to be corporeally
present through the allocation of an empty seat ".179 The bull is
chosen as bearer of the God because popular Semitic phantasy has
been deeply impressed by him through stone images of the fourth
millennium 180 (from the district round that Harran out of which
Abraham journeyed to Canaan) and then particularly through
Hittite art,181 he being tl1e holy animal on whose back the Weather
God stood. So it can be unden;tood that Elijah did not speak
against the " Calves ", nor did Jehu do away with them c ; and
what Hosea alleges against them in supercilious and mocking
fashion is clearly due to the fact that the common people, as may
easily be conceived, did not know how to differentiate for any
a Gen. XX, I). &I Sam. iv, 8. c I I Kin. x, 2.9.
 THE B ULL AND THE ARK 1 49

length of time between a god-bearer and a representation of the

God Himself, and kissed the pedestal " " as though it were the
God hirnself ".182 The narrative of the Book of Kings transfers
this attitude to the intention of Jeroboam, which is sometimes b
treated as idolatry. The spiritual leaders, however, were awake
to this danger even earlier. It has justly been observed 1 83 that the
Prophets, who so gladly compare YHVH with the lion, very
carefully avoid any use of the bull as a metaphor for this purpose .
The reason for this can be found not in the images at Bethel and
Dan, but in the fashion after which the people tended to compre
hend them. Similar tendencies, finding expression in more
elementary forms, can be assumed to have been already present in
the early days.
Nothing of the Court literature of Jeroboam and his dynasty
has come down to us. " Together with the calves of Dan and
Bethel, what was sung about them has sunk out of knowledge, ex
punged from the collections of the holy songs of old." 1 84 But it
may well be assumed that in the Northern Kingdom the tradition
of the image of the bull on Sinai assumed a form which j ustified
the animal carrier instead of the Ark, and also permitted a stand to
be taken against the " people-slaying " Levites, without in any
way affecting the reverence requisite towards Moses. All that was
necessary was to relate, on the one hand, that part of the people
had gone beyond the original intention, and on the other, that the
Levites abused the orders which they had received.

But what is the position as regards the nucleus of fact that lies
behind the tradition ? Is it possible to find any traces of such a
nucleus at all here, in this passage which is apparently the most
difficult in the Pentateuch when regarded from the textual and
literary viewpoint ? The basic question with which we must
start is that of the period at which the " Ark of the Covenant "
carne into being, and the reasons for bringing it into being.
The view that the Ark is of Mosaic origin is once again being
accepted. Between Moses and Samuel, in whose early days we
already fmd the Ark in the full light of history despite the fact that
the narrative of its capture contains legendary elements, no other
period can be thought of in which this, the greatest symbol in the
Israelite faith, can have been introduced. It is " a genuine migrating
sanctuary " . 18 5 Archa:ological and ethnological findings have
confirmed its period. 186 That it was not entirely analogous to
Hos. xiii, 2. b I Kin. xiv, 9 I Sam. iv.
 MOSES

those related utensils which have been discovered may possibly

be explained on the assumption 187 " that the technically un
educated wanderers imitated such vessels without equipping them
in accordance with their basic principles, as required by arch
reology ". Here too, I personally prefer to leave room for the
initiative of the man who can be believed to have had the ability
to change both the form and the sense of a symbol already to be
found in the world of the Ancient Orient.
The much discussed alternative of an empty throne of God, as we
repeatedly fmd it in the history of religion,1 88 or a box, is not a
proper one, as thrones of God in box form are not uncommon. 18 9
Nor do we need to question the authenticity of the tradition
regarding the contents,a as there is no lack of reports describing
the placing of documents that are holy, or to be hallowed, at the
feet of the divinity. What is important is the synthetic function
by which these elements are brought together and join in a unity
with which another was combined, namely, the Palladium which
can be carried like a litter, just as we know it from the war expedi
tions of Bedouin tribes. 190 It is precisely this synthetic function
which, in a very specific fashion, induces us to look around for a
person who would have been capable of exercising it, and also for
a situation of such a kind as would lead the person in question to
do so-that would, indeed, awaken the specific synthetic function
within him. The elements out of which such a synthesis can come
into being are always present in the history of religion ; in order
that it should come into being, however, a person must be postu
lated who, by virtue of his knowledge and thinking, is capable of
seeing the elements together ; and a moment has to be postulated
which compels him, because of its peremptory needs, to associate
those elements in a fresh organic form. We now fmd that we can
formulate the question as follows : was there a moment in the life
of Moses which drove him overpoweringly to unite and mould
the elements familiar to him from extended observation and
knowledge of tradition, and to make some new formation out of
them ?
For the host, which has to advance without any knowledge of
the way into the " great and fearful wilderness , b the problem of
"

guidance occupies the centre of the relations to the God, which

have been renewed for them through the extraordinary man who
has taken them in his charge. He has brought them an assurance
a I Kin. viii, 9 b Dcut. i, 19.
 THE BULL AND THE ARK 151

from this God, namely, that He wishes to lead and protect them ;
indeed, he has taught them that such constant assistance, such a
capacity for remaining present with those chosen by Him, is an
attribute of this Being and is indicated in His name. But the
constant and uniformly functioning oracle to which they had
looked forward has not been provided for them. At their stations
on the way the extraordinary man used to wait for some kind of
sign or other, corning out of the mist or from somewhere else,
before he ordered them to commence their journey afresh. They
never knew what might happen at the next moment ; they could
never depend on being able to rest next day in a pleasant oasis in
order to recover from the hardships of the journey. He said, to
be sure, did that man, that God goes before them and that He
makes His presence known by one or another sign ; but the sole
firm and unshakable fact was, in the last resort, that the God
could not be seen ; and all said and done you cannot actually
follow something which you cannot see. All said and done, it is
only the man who is followed, and they can all see how often he
is uncertain, when he withdraws himself into his tent and broods
for hours and days on end, until he fmally comes forth and says
that what has to be done shall be done in this and this way.
What kind of guidance is this, after all ? And does it not mean
that there must be something not quite in order between him and
the God, if he cannot produce the God ? He says, to be sure, that
the God is not to be seen ; that in spite of His being present it is
impossible to get a sight of Him-but what can that mean ?
If you have a God, then to be sure you can naturally see Him as
well ; you have an image and His strength is in that image. To
be sure, it is whispered (the Decalogue, it has to be remembered,
has not yet been proclaimed) that the man declares no image
should be made of the God ; but that is just sheer nonsense, after
all. As long as you have no proper image you will have no proper
guidance. And now, to cap it all, the man has vanished completely.
He said that he is going aloft to the God up there, when we need
the God down here just where we are ; but he has not come back,
and it must be supposed that that God of his has made away with
him, since something or other between them was clearly not as it
should have been. What are we to do now ? We have to take
matters into our own hands. An image has to be made, and then
the power of the God will enter the image and there will be proper
guidance.
1 52 MOSES

That was the way talk must have gone in the camp . People
growl, they dispute, they vociferate. The representatives ap
pointed by Moses intervene. Action is taken against them. In
vain does Aaron seek to act as go-between. A riot begins.
For riot it must have been. If it then reached the point of
making the " calf " we cannot ascertain from the report, which is
vague and improbable in its technical details. It is possible that
motifs have been transferred here from what Hosea castigates as
the first great national sin, the goings-on at Baal Peor,a when the
people, already within the magic circle of Canaanite culture and
sexual rites, engaged inholy p.romiscui.cy with the M0ite "WOmen.
Nevertheless the sacral proclamation, " these are thy Elohim, 0
Israel, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt ", which ap
parently derives from an early tradition, would seem to indicate
that the situation arose at Sinai itself. It is therefore permissible
to assume the erection of a clumsy image of a bull under Aaron's
mediation and assistance ; admittedly without being in a position
to say by which of the ancient Oriental religions it is likely to have
been influenced. For this, naturally, a more primitive religious
stage than that of the bull of Jeroboam must be assumed ; a stage at
which it was believed that the power of the God took up its abode
in the mighty creature and worked through it. The wording of
the sacral proclamation is in accord with this.
However that may be, there must certainly have been a riot.
There is no other way by which it is possible to understand that
the effect on the inimical Bedouin tribes of the district was described
as a derisive whispering b ; bull worship and orgies were not very
likely to have made such an impression on them. An indication
of this also seems to have been retained in the ancient verses,
reminiscent as they are of vestiges of a primitive ballad, which
Moses and Joshua exchange when they hear the noise made by the
people.c Joshua says : " Noise of war is in the camp." Moses
replies first : " No noise of voices (anoth) of victory, no noise of
voices (anoth) of defeat " ; and then adds a phrase out of which the
art of Hebrew punctuation (which turned " anoth " into " annoth ")
has brought forth the following meaning : I hear the sound of
singing alternatively, which would indicate the mirth of feasting.
An uninitiated reader of the unpunctuated text, however, would
have to understand : " the sound of voices I hear ", and would,
necessarily and with obvious justice, assume that a word has been
Num. xxv. b Ex. xxxii, 25. Ibid. 17 f.
 THE B ULL AND THE ARK I53

omitted. Here the context indicates a word with the meaning o f

riot.191
The behaviour of Moses in the camp, Wlderlying which there
seems to be a historical nucleus, points in the same direction. He
places himself in the gateway of the camp and calls : " Whoever
belongs to YHVH come to me ! thus showing his conviction
",

that what happened was directed against YHVH ; which would

not be quite suitable to the erection of an animal image to represent
YHVH, particularly prior to the proclamation of the Decalogue.
Then the revolt is suppressed by force of arms at the order of
Moses, in a bloody battle regarding which the important fact is
that the split clearly runs right across the tribe of Levi ; since
Moses praises those Levites who remain faithful a because they did
not spare either sons or brothers.192 The riot seems to have
developed into an internal fight between the Levites, which now
reaches its decisive stage.
Once the catastrophe is at an end, however, what had befallen
overwhelms Moses, as we may well suppose, even more than at
the moment of the first upgush of fury. Since it may be assumed
that the archaic passage on the tent, b which stands here by itself,
chronologically belongs to this particular point, it shows us a scene
of melancholy clarity. Moses takes " the tent ", his leader tent,C 193
which has hitherto stood in the midst of the camp, and sets it " for
himself " outside the camp, where it always has to be set thereafter
at the stations of the way ; but no longer as a human leader's tent.
He calls it the " tent of meeting " or " tent of corning together " ;
and that is what it has to be, no longer devoted to anything other
than the audiences granted him by his Lord. Henceforward he
can no longer enter the tent in the midst of the camp, as he had
presumably been accustomed to do ; he can no longer seat himself
upon the groWld and wait for that which we call inspiration-an
abstract word, which has become almost too familiar, yet from which
the original vivid sense of a wafting-in of the divine breath has not
yet passed away.
As before, Moses' own place remains in the camp of " Israel " ;
there he belongs now as previously ; but he can no longer expect
his God to come and visit him in a place that has been polluted.
If he wishes to question YHVH thereafter, he must leave the camp,
he must go out to the tent that is guarded by Joshua the most
faithful one ; and the people, shaken and changed by that which
Ex. xxxii, 29. Ex. xxxiii, 7- u . Cf Ex. xviii, 7
154 MOSES

has befallen them, reverently watch him from time to time, each
man standing at the entry to his own tent. He does not prohibit
any of the people who wish to do so from coming to God about
any matter ; they may approach the holy tent as they were wont
to do, in order that counsel, instruction, decision might come to
them from thence. But these are individuals ; YHVH no longer
has any contact with the people as such.
That is the basic feeling of Moses after the catastrophe. But
his feeling does not remain like that. It is rectified for him by a
new experience of God.
Behind the ingeniously constructed 194 conversations with God,
which have had so great an effect on the view taken by later genera
tions of Moses' relations with God, we feel a reality that has been
lived through. We have to regard it as a reality that Moses, after
having been zealous for his zealous God, entreats Him not to
forsake the people whom He has brought hither " upon eagles'
wings ", now that they have been unfaithful to the newly
concluded Covenant ; but that He should go on leading them.
And further it is an unmistakably genuine biographical character
istic that while Moses is in " the cleft of the rock ",tJ which the
narrator assumes to be a familiar spot (presumably because b it is
near the place of the revelation at the Burning Bush) , he, Moses,
begs for the grace of the One who once addressed him from the
flame, and is overwhelmed by a new experience of God. Its
central content appears to be found in the words of YHVH 195
which in the text, admittedly, precede the entry of Moses into the
cleft, and which combine with and complete the previous " I
shall be present howsoever I shall be present " : " I shall be gracious
unto whom I shall be gracious and I shall be compassionate unto
whom I shall be compassionate ". c
Here it should be observed that whereas the first of the two
verbs, indeed, gives expression to the superior favour of the Lord,
the root used in the second has, in its noun form, the meaning of
" mother's womb ", thus pointing at the intimate nearness of the
God. Moses had once learned two things in one at this spot :
that YHVH is present with His own, yet canno t be bound to any
one fashion of manifestation. And likewise he now learns two
things in one : of the graciousness and mercifulness of YHVH,
which are named a as His essential attributes, and of His liberty
Ex. xxxiii, 22, cf. 3 r. Like the rock mentioned in Ex. xvii, 6.
' Ex. xxx.ii i , I9. Ex. xxxiv, 6.
 THE DULL AND THE ARK 155

t o show those attributes o f His to whomsoever He wishes t o show

them. This word of God, however, is preceded a (although in a
section possibly independent of this one) by one which sounds as
though it were an immediate application of the other to the situation :
" So my face is to go with ? Shall I then cause you to rest ? "
And only following that comes Moses' urgent, " If thy face does
not go with, do not bring us up from here ! " b, and then the
divine consent to the request.
It is important, in the sequence of texts which we find before us,
that YHVH first has compassion and thereafter says that He is the
compassionate One. The authenticity of this sequence, its con
formity, that is, to experience, is incomparably more important
than all the literary and critical issues which have been raised in
connection with it. Whoever it was that wrote the one passage
down, and whoever it was who wrote the other, they both to
gether, if there were two of them, have with the aid of the redactor
brought something to biographically consistent record which
could only be experienced and not contrived. We know of no
one in the history of Israel other than Moses to whom this basic
experience can be attributed ; and in his life we know of no other
moment for it than that of this crisis.
Dut the narrative reports that after Moses received the consent
he turned to YHvH with a fresh request a : " May my Lord go in
our midst " ! It is clearly not sufficient for him that God's " face "
goes with. How should this be understood ? 198 That God's
" face " goes with means, since Moses has just been told that
whoever sees it must die, that YHVH goes ahead of the people in
order to overthrow foes who meet them on the way t ; for which
reason Moses also talks in this cmmection u of the impression on
the world. And this meaning still echoes in the Deuteronomic
review," where it is stated that YHVH had led the people out of
Egypt " with His face ". It should also be borne in mind how
He had looked upon the Egyptian camp at the Red Sea, and
through that looking had prepared its downfall.' At the tent
YHVH talks to Moses " face to face " k ; but when His face moves
with the tent which has been removed and set before the camp,
and the deadly gaze meets the approaching foe, absolute protection
has been provided for the people.

Ex. xxxiii, I4. b Ibid., IS. ' Ibid., I7. Ex. xxxiv, 9
Ex. xxxiii, 20, 23. t Cf Num. x, 35. Ex. xxiii, I6.
Dcut. iv, 37 I Ex. xiv, 24. k Ex. xxxiii, I 1.
 MOSES

Moses permits himself to go even further. His last request is

that YHVH should not grant Israel merely His external protection
but fuller forgiveness, that He should also grant them His accom
panying presence within the camp a ; that He should not merely
guide them through the wilderness but should also secure them
inner guidance to support and safety. By this he aims at something
greater than the mere restoration of the relationship which had
existed before the straying. He does not merely wish to be per
mitted to bring the tent back into the camp ; he requests a journey
ing in the midst of the people, a closeness manifested in all ways
and in all needs ; ' yet which nevertheless should not have any
destructive effect. b YHVH' s answer to the request is missing in
our text, for the verse following cannot be understood as a response.
Yet even from this fragmentary text it is possible for us to re
construct a biographical reality ; and one which at the same time
constitutes a reality in the realm of the history of faith. For at
precisely this point comes the establishment of the " Ark of the
Covenant ", which is capable of providing the exact earthly basis
of realization for which Moses had asked. If this establishment was
preceded by a great praying experience, as the narrator sets out to
describe it, then it must have included the granting of the final
request.
The establishment by Moses of the Ark of YHVH is not described.
The late literary information about its erection at the beginning
of the divine instructions for the building of the " Tabernacle "

i.e., the other, unhistorical tent, naturally canno t fill this gap ;
although the description of this " idealized model of a tent sanctuary
which actually once existed " 197 certainly includes some old
tradition within it. The conversations with God supply us with
part of what has been left out, insofar as they mirror afresh those
inner conditions which had been prerequisite. No matter how
much the generation passing on the tradition, and the authors who
wrote it down, may have reshaped the reality that once was lived
through, we are nevertheless given another glimpse into that
moment in the life of Moses which overwhelmingly drove him to
unite and mould the elements available to him from extended
observation and knowledge into a new formation ; empty God
throne, shrine for documents, and portable Palladium. It was
necessary to give the people legitimately, that is, in a fashion
corresponding to the character of YHVH, that which they had
Ex. xxxiv, 9 Cf Ex. xxxiii, J. ' Ex. xxv, 10 ff.
 THE BULL AND THE ARK 1 57

wished to fashion illegitimately ; that is, after a fashion running

counter to the character of YHVH. They had to be given the
utensil which would represent and warrant the presence of their
invisible leader. The Royal Covenant is followed by the building
of the Throne.
We have no reliable reports as to the original appearance of
the Ark. If, as it seems to me may be assumed, the cherubim were
already part of it, then we have to distinguish between them
as the actual seat of the throne and the shrine as the foot-stool of
the throne ; as was expressly done later for the Ark introduced
into the temple of Solomon.a The heavenly beings have flown
down, so to say, in order to prepare for YHVH the seat of the
throne on which He descends when He desires ; for this, the fact
that He sometimes descends thereon, is what is meant by the
descriptive term " Who is seated upon the cherubim " , 198 the
original presence of which in the old narrative text where it is
found b we have no adequate grounds for doubting.199
The King does not always sit on the throne ; He seats Himself
upon it when He wishes His function as ruler to become manifest
to the senses. Then he places His feet upon the shrine in which
His proclamation to Israel is preserved in stony witness. The
objectified word of the constitution is repeatedly overshadowed
afresh by the invisible presence of its first speaker ; and as at the
time of the Psalmist c so in the days of Moses, the people may well
have prostrated themselves at the " stool of His feet " .200
That " certain technical skill " necessary for the preparation of
such a sacral obj ect can be assumed " more easily among the Canaan
ites than among the Hebrew tribes in the wilderness " 201 is in
disputable. The question, however, should not be so framed as to
ask where the making of the Ark is " more probable " , 202 but
whether its coming about in the wilderness is historically possible.
In an undoubtedly early text we read d : " And when the Ark
began moving Moses said : ' Arise 0 YHVH and scatter Thy foes,
so that Thy haters may flee before Thy face ! " Here it is our '

scientific duty to ascertain whether the purport of this text can his
torically be reliable ; for wherever this prerequisite is satisfied, a text
has the right to be regarded until further notice as historical com
pared with a hypothesis which does not find support in any text
whatsoever. If an authentic literary document like this points to
a Ezek. xliii, 7. bI Sam. iv, 4 ; II Sam. vi, 2. Ps. xcix, 5 ; cxxxii , 7.
d Num. x, 35
!58 MOSES

a specific historical situation as that in which a sacral institution of

such power was born, it is a basic law of methodology not to permit
the " firm letter " to be broken down by any general hypothesis
based on the comparative history of culture ; as long as what is
said in that text is historically possible. That it is possible, how
ever, is no longer a matter of doubt, now that the concept of the
absolute " primitivity " of wandering Israel has been outgrown. 203
The Royal Covenant is followed by the building of the throne.
Moses and the representatives of Israel saw the footstool of the
One who sat invisibly enthroned over the mountain, and it was
" a work of sapphire tiles " ; now, out of the simple material
available to him, he prepares a simply-joined Ark for YHVH to
rest His feet upon when He visits the people chosen by Him in
order to lead them in their wanderings and in battle. Over it,
and possibly fashioned in the shape of yonder cloud-forms made
radiant by the rising sun, rise the cherubim, in order that their
Lord should take His place to ride upon their horizontally-extended
wings, which touch one another.204
This should, of course, not be understood to mean that the Ark
is " a representation of the heavens as the cosmic throne " of
YHVH,205 which in turn would mean that Babylon is tl1e country
in which th.e cherubim originate.206 The name certainly points to
Babylon, and naturally, notwithstanding the spontaneity of inten
tion, similar forms from ancient Oriental plastic art, Egyptian to
be sure rather than Babylonian as far as can be j udged on the basis
of the material known to us, may have been tl1e subject of imitation.
But although, as I suppose, the Ark has borrowed one or another
motif from the heavenly vision of the elders, it does not in any
way pretend to be a representation of the heavenly Throne. In
its purpose it is a meagre and necessarily dissimilar earthly substitute
for it. And YHVH who, when visiting His people, takes His seat
upon it does so not as Cosmic King but as the Melek of Israel. The
Babylonian divine thrones are nature symbols, that of Israel is a
history symbol ; and the tablets with the " I " of the God who has
led the people out of Egypt are an inseparable part of it. Only in
the period of the State, when the theo-political realism succumbed
to the influence of the dynastic principle and the Kingdom of
YHVH was transfigured and subtilized into a cosmic one lacking
all direct binding force, did the nature symbolism prevail ; since
the aim then was to abstract living history from the domain of the
Kingdom of God.
 THE B ULL AND THE ARK I 59

Wc do not know why the designation " throne " for the Ark
was avoided. 207 But we arc entitled to assume that it was felt
necessary to maintain the association of the tablets of the constitu
tion as the basis of the Covenant, the expression and sign of which
is the Divine Presence. For this reason it was necessary to keep
the shrine character of the utensil clearly in consciousness. The
throne was the inspiring and the shrine the obligating part. With
out the constant counter-balance of the shrine the throne might
easily have given the people a false security ; as we repeatedly hear
in later times out of the mouths of the prophets.
We have seen that the Biblical sequence of time is the correct
one for the three decisive moments of the removal of the tent from
the camp, the great praying experience and the conception of the
Ark. When did Moses place the Ark in the tent ? When he
brought the tent back into the camp. And when did he bring it
back ? When the Ark was there. 208 For the Ark is the assenting
response of God to the person praying.
If we wish to allocate a category from the history of religion to
tl1e resting tent in which the Ark stands-each of them separately
and both of them jointly an " expression of God's local nnbonnded
ness " 209-we have to think of those tents of divinities travelling
with the armies which we know within the Semitic civilization in
the cases of the Assyrians, the Carthaginians and the Arabs. That
the God does not reside within the sanctuary, but manifests himself
in it or on it, reminds us of the difference 2 10 between residential
and manifestation temples in Babylon. Despite all this the nn
justly questioned early association of the tent and the Ark finds its
singularity in the fact that what appears above or in the sanctuary
is not a cult image but the Invisible One.
In Babylon the god dwelt invisibly in his chamber, provided
with bed and table, within the residential temple, and was visible
in the manifestation temple in the form of an image. In Israel he
had nothing more than a manifestation temple and no image and,
without any image, His presence was directly and immediately
experienced.
The fonndation of this great Sacrum, like the foundation of all
great symbols and sacraments in the history of religion, came about
as the realization of a paradox : an invisible God is sensed by the
fact that He comes and goes, descends and rises. The view that
YHVH was imagined as residing above the Ark or actually in it
misses the sense of tlus singular reality of faith. The effect of the
!60 MOSES

Ark symbol was clearly so great that the movement of the God
was virtually sensed as a corporeal thing ; so that the invisible God
was Himself apprehended. This is more than a continuous abiding ;
it is an ever-renewed coming, appearing, being present and accom
panying. For the promise once developed from the name of the
God that he would " be there " from time to time, and always at
the moment when His presence was necessary, there is no more
adequate material substratum to be thought of than this. What
the old wandering God of the Mesopotamian steppe means when
He says to David a 21 1 that He has gone about until this day " in tent
and dwelling-chamber " and that He does not demand anything
else, is not merely a simple state of being carried about ; it is this
coming and accompanying and disappearing and returning.
The belief in the concentration from time to time of the Divine
Presence must, to be sure, have been transferred in the popular
mind to the Ark and the tent themselves ; yet every such " coarsen
ing of concept " 212 can lead, through the counter-movement of
the spirit which it calls forth, to a new deepening of the conception ;
a deepening which admittedly also contains within itself the danger
of abstraction ; that is, of a reduction in the awareness of vivid
reality. The hour of establishing a great symbol is apparently the
only one in which spirit and sensuous presentation maintain their
balance. Nevertheless, when Jeremiah or one of his disciples b ,213
shortly after the Burning of the Temple, prophesies a time at which
the Ark of the Covenant will no longer be remembered, since
then the whole of Jerusalem will be called the Throne of YHVH,
we should recognize this as being a development of the original
intention of the foundation ; for if the whole human world has
become the Kingdom of God, then Jerusalem as its midst should
be His Throne ; as once the Ark was Israel's wandering centre
when YHVH became King of the people.
In Canaan the tent and the Ark appear to have been long separated
from one another, not only during the exile of the Ark but also
after its restoration through David ; until, as reported a, they
were both brought to the Temple under Solomon, but were
obviously not united. The Ark is placed within the Holy of
Holies ; of the tent we hear nothing more. However, we should
not, with our historical comprehension of faith, regard as separated
what was associated in the hour of foundation. The Ark, bearing
4
the invisible and silent but effective Divine Presence, 21 went
II Sam. vii, 6. b Jer. iii, r6 f. c II Chron. i, 3 f. dr Kin. viii, 4
 THE BULL AND THE ARK 161

ahead in the wanderings and campaigns ; to the tent sheltering it

at quiet times witl:: in the camp came the Presence, invisible as the
voice which talks to Moses-in early texts out of the dark of
the " Pillar of Cloud " , a and in later texts " from between the two
cherubim " b-yet visible to the people (this is told, to be sure,
only in narratives that are of late literary origin) as the radiation
of the Divine substance, as the kabod ; whether it be in the cloud
lit up by the red of morning 21 5 or in the sheet-lightning 2 1 8
flashing incessantly near or far across the night sky ; but always
visibly directed towards or pointing to the tent.
It carne to show and to warn, to arbitrate and to j udge. Both
of them, Ark and tent, belong to each other as the symbol of the
double function of theMelek : that of leading His people through
and defending them in an inimical world, and that of directing
them through all the inner obstacles towards " holiness ".
Ex. xx:xiii, 9 b Num. vii, 89.
 THE S P IRIT

W
HILE the narrative portion of the Book of Exodus is con
structed in two large epic sequences, the story of the Exodus
and the story of the Revelation, the narrative section of the Book
of Numbers consists of single incidents loosely grouped round a
doubtful itinerary. Two kinds of story appear to have been
selected and redacted out of what seems to have been no more than
fragmentary material : those which were necessary in order to
record the important stages of the further wanderings, and those
which seemed suitable for bringing out the character of Moses
and the relation between him and his environment. The latter
include the stories of the descent of the Spirit upon the elders, and
of the revolt of Aaron and Miriam.
Since it is hela tlut prophecy, with the spirit of which these
narratives are imbued, did not develop prior to the days of Samuel
or even later under the influence of Canaanite ecstaticism, the
summary view 217 that those strata of the Moses Saga in which we
meet the prophetic element must all be secondary can well be
understood. This approach to the development of prophecy in
Israel, however, is contradicted by the fact that of the two elements
of " possession by Spirit " and " seeing hidden things " which
have fused together therein, the former is in no way limited to
the Syro-Phcenician cultural world. Indeed, it is also met with
among the Arabs, whose ancient poets spoke " words of daemonic
possession " 21B ; whose ascetics used to fling their clothes off their
body in their ecstasy like Saul 2 19 ; among whom even to-day the
" knowing ones " of the genuine Bedouin tribes have themselves
inspired by music like Elisha, 220 while the simpletons, who are
regarded as " temporary residences " of the good spirits, run through
the streets of the villages vaticinating like the nebiim. 221
The second element is already quite familiar to us in the early
Arabic culture. I mean those " seers ", called J.msters of the mys
"

teries " by certain mode.r:n Bedouin tribes, 222 who in the hour of
vision cover their faces and speak of themselves not as I but as
Thou, " because they speak not in their own name but in the
name of the spirits which address them ". 223 In which connection
it should, however, be noted that they also prefer to describe
such " hearing " as " seeing " .22 4
16.2.
 THE SPIRIT

The first of these two clements exerted a decisive influence in

Israel on the development of the ecstatic bands of nebiim, as we
know them in particular from times of crisis such as that of Samuel ;
and it influenced individual prophecy in Israel thereafter with a
varying degree of force. The second, an element found fairly
equally in the Old Arab and early Israelite cultures, seems to derive
from a common root, out of which it developed in differing
fashions. 22 5
The historical Moses should be considered against the back
ground of such early developments. It may be asked with which
of these two elements he should be associated, how far his personal
character can be understood on this basis, and how far that
character stands out from it. These questions refer to two com
parisons ; one with Israelite ecstasy and the other with Israelite
seership.
The two comparisons already seem to have been of importance
for the authors and redactors of the book out of which evolved the
Book of Numbers. This interest showed tself most strongly i1
the shaping of the story of the descent of the Sfirit on the elders
(comparison with collective ecstasy) and the story of the revolt of
Aaron and Miriam (comparison with seership ) . An associated
interest, that of comparison with extra-Israelite seership, was
satisfied by the inclusion in the Book of Numbers of the folk-book
of Balaam ; apparently, however, without having led to any
reworking of the latter in the sense of comparison.
Hence it is incumbent upon us to test these stories in order not
only to see how the conceptions of later prophetic circles regarding
the person and personality of Moses find expression here, but also
how far these conceptions correspond with the historical image of
Moses which we are able to win ; that is, whether they merely
constitute attempts to provide " a nebiist touching-up of the
Moses image , 226 or whether we ought rather to consider them
"

as revealing some vestiges of the oldest conception of the workings

of Spirit and of Vision of God in Israel. 227
The story of the descent of the Spirit upon the Elders " lies
before us in a singular fusion with the story of the gift of the quails.
It has not merely been grafted on to this tale, which was clearly
originally connected with that of the manna, 228 but has actually
grown into union with it ; in such a way, however, that the
separate branchings of both can still be distinguished.
a Num. xi.
 MOSES

On the way from the Wilderness of Sinai to the Wilderness of

Paran the people are infected by the desire of the " rabble " who
had joined them at the Exodus, and " weep " again because they
remember the good food which was so plentiful in Egypt that it
was given to be eaten " for nothing " .
Moses complains t o YHVH that h e cannot give the people the
meat which they demand ; and with this he connects the general
complaint that the burden of " this people " is too heavy for him.
In His reply God tells Moses to bring together seventy men of
the elders at the Tent of Meeting, that He, God, would " set
apart " of the ruah that is upon Moses, and would lay it upon
them, in order th;t they may help him in bearing the burden of
the people. And again He links this with the promise to the
people that they would receive meat to eat until they were sick of
it. Now both things are fulfilled. The rua descends upon the
elders and compels them to ecstatic cries and movements ; but
the uniqueness of the occasion is stressed, for " they did not do it
anymore " .a And after this there again comes a ruah, a wind that
is, from YHVH, which drives quails in from the sea.
To begin with, it is the antithesis of flesh and spirit which had
led to the interweaving of the two successions of events . The
twofold process takes place on the two levels of being. The
antithesis current among the prophets between the earthly " flesh "
and the heavenly " spirit " b is intended to find its expression in
this. It is supplemented by the double meaning of the word
rua,229 which, just like pneuma and spiritus, originally meant the
afHation, the wafting, the wafting from heaven, the wafting of
wind and the wafting of spirit ; which are associated for primitive
man because he feels and comprehends the enthusiasm which
overwhelms him, the overpowering working within him of the
spirit, as the stormy breath of a superhuman power which has
penetrated into him ; and as with himself, so with others. The
Biblical authors draw from this double sense all that it can offer ;
from the lofty pathos of the beginning of the story of the Creation,
where the ruah of God, wafting of the wind and wafting of the
Spirit that are still together in their pristine unity, hovers above the
first waters ; until the bitter mockery of the prophet who
speaks of the rua, that is the spirit of the wind which enters into
the mouths of the " false prophets " talking to the kings, and
which turns them into so many windbags. In thus fusing the
Num. xi, zs. b Is. xxxi, 3 c I Kin. xxii, ZI ff.
 THE SPIRIT

stories of the quails and the elders the purpose was to make the
reader feel that both, the working in Nature and the working in
the soul of human beings, are the one work from on high ; and
are indeed, in the last resort, the identical work from on high.
At the same time, however, a clear distinction is drawn in
respect of the gifts of the spirit. The rua " is " over Moses ; on
the " Seventy " a it comes to rest, leads to extraordinary but
temporary behaviour on their part ; and the fact that they have
once experienced this condition, this stirring up and perception of
all the forces, thereafter enables them to help Moses in " bearing "
the people. Moses himself does not require to undergo any such
process ; he to whom the Voice has spoken, as one person to
another, has become the carrier of the Spirit, of a resting and
constant spirit without any violent effects ; a spirit which is nothing
other than an assumption into a dialogic relationship with the
Divinity, into the colloquy. As against this, the rua which takes
possession of the elders is an impersonal, wordless force, and if
they do " speak " nnder its influence, what can be grasped from
them 230 is certainly not the group of words that transmits a
meaning, a message or a command.
The spiritual experience of the elders corresponds in every
way to the workings of the rua of which we learn in the period
following the Conquest of Palestine, from the first great " Judges "
nntil the commencement of the Kingdom 231 ; and which is fonnd
with most clarity in the case of Saul. On one single occasion the
spirit descends upon the charismatic one and turns him into
" another man ", endowing him with special powers for his o ffice.
It is not a subsequent interpretation of history which finds
expression here. It is the character of the historical period itself,
of the particular one which begins with Moses. Moses, of course,
appears as raised above the " Judges " and their spiritual experience ;
and that also should be nnderstood as a recognition of a historical
truth seen from the perspective of faith. For Mission is greater
than induction into office, even that of commander in a war of
liberation, as in the cases of the Judges and of Saul. The Mission
takes place above the sphert: of the impersonal rua ; it takes place
in the sphere of the Word .232
It has justly been remarked that the pre-exilic prophets whose
writings have reached us do not treat the ecstatic experience, with
which they were quite familiar, as of the same rank as the W ord ; 233
The selection already to be found in Ex. xxiv, I, 9
166 MOSES

that they mostly refer to it only in passing or not at all ; in fact,

they prefer to avoid the concept. of rua and almost always char
acterize the word entering into them as the source of their speech.
However, it should llkewise not be left without remark 23"' that
the Divine Word itself needs to be understood as having the
character of a power which works in and through the people to
whom it turns. This second sort of effect, it is true, appears to be
broken and restricted through the human substance ; a fact which
finds strong expression in the complaint of Moses. At Sinai,
when God had forgiven the people at Moses' urgent entreaty,
He had said to the latter a that he, Moses, had found favour in
His, God's, eyes. Now b Moses reminds God of this in an un
usual, indirect fashion, by speaking as though God had not said
anything of the kind to him at all, while at the same time making
use of the same words : " Why have I not found favour in your
eyes, that you put the burden of all these people upon me " ! He
is unable to bear it " on his bosom " ; it is too heavy for him.
These are words which, in their relevancy to a precise situation,
may really be thought of as constituting part of an actual prayer
by Moses. The truth is that they continue the personal objections
which he had offered when his mission was announced to him at
the Burning Bush. When he had then asked " Who am I ? "

YHVH had answered : " Indeed I shall be present with thee " ;
and after that He had been present with him in the struggle against
Pharaoh. Now, however, when it is necessary to " carry " this
" heavy " people, God leaves it to him alone ! In reply God
shows him that He is " present " internally as well.
As the emissary of YHVH Moses is contrasted with, and ele
vated above, the elders who have been possessed by the ruah of
YHVH. But the narrator does not wish this superiority to be
understood as something desired by Moses himself, who was
" very humble ", d but as the fate with which he has been charged
by God and which oppresses him. He tells an episode regarding
two men who remained amid the tents of the camp instead of
" going forth " to the Tent of Meeting, which stood in the midst
of the circle ; and who were possessed by the Spirit where they
stood. Joshua, now mentioned for the first time since the con
versation at the descent from Sinai as conversing with Moses ,
Ex. xxxiii, 18.
b This part of Numbers xi may well be derived from the same author or else
has been influenced by him.
Num. xi, I I . d Num. xii, 3 . Num. xi , 2 6 ff.
 THE SPIRIT

wishes the latter to " withhold " the presumptuous fellows.

Moses, however, disapproves of his " zeal " on his behalf ; if
only, says he, the whole people were nebiim ! It is worthy of
remark that he does not make use of the verb employed in the
previous account, and stating that those possessed by the Spirit
" behaved themselves like prophets ", that is, expressed themselves
in ecstatic fashion like the bands of nebiim : but instead he employs
the substantive itself. Hence what he means is not a transitory
state but the summons in virtue of which a man has immediate
contact with Godhead and receives its behest directly.
By saying this, Moses only reiterates in another basic fashion
and as a wish what YHVH had commanded to Israel in the Eagle
speech : that they should become a royal retinue of kohanim, of
direct and immediate bondsmen of their Melek . This is not the
speech of a period " in which the institution of nabi was already
in a state of deliquescence " 235 ; but rather " the hope that at some
time the Spirit might be shared by all was already in existence at
an early day " .236 This hope, which is reminiscent to us of
" eschatological thought ", is admittedly not Mosaic in the strict
sense ; but it may be ascribed to the after-effects of Moses' spirit.
The narrator extracts these words from the situation with great
art and wisdom. For when the whole people have become
nebiim, in direct contact with God, it would no longer be necessary
for somebody to be charged by God with the function of bearing
them on his bosom like an infant.
Moses is subjected to comparison with the seers of Israel in the
following section, reworked but old at core, which tells how
Miriam and Aaron " talk against Moses ", and are summoned by
YHVH to the tent, where they are reproached by Him. Miriam,
who obviously took the leading part in the revolt (it seems to me
that this particular point does not belong to the reworking) is
also punished by a skin eruption, which is later healed at Moses'
entreaty ; whereas Aaron, the forefather of the priesthood, departs
without punishment here as in the story of the " Golden Calf ".
The reason for the " talk against Moses " is his wife, who is de
scribed here for some reason not clear to us 237 as a Kushite, which
in general would mean Ethiopian woman. That Miriam and
Aaron now begin to worry about her is presumably to be ex
plained 238 by the fact that in the original sequence this passage
may have been directly preceded by the visit of Jethro, who
brought back the wife and children of Moses.
168 MOSES

That Miriam takes the lead would seem to indicate that this is a
family affair. The Biblical statement that Aaron and Miriam were
Moses' brother and sister (or possibly half-brother and half-sister
by another mother) may well be correct, despite the various doubts
which have been expressed. It has been assumed with probable
justice 239 that Moses derived from an old Hebrew family of
" seers " ; we know analogous facts from other cultures, particu
larly from that of the Arabs.240 What the brother and sister
reproach Moses with is doubtless conditioned not by a general
tendency to keep the blood pure, but by the concept that continua
tion of the gift of seership in the clan would be unfavourably
affected by the alien element ; a concept which would permit
certain motifs in the stories of the patriarchs to become clear, if
the persons of the " fathers " are regarded as historical, and as
recipients of revelation and heads of religious communities.24 1
Only through this can it be understood that when YHVH
speaks to the two rebels he talks not of Zipporah but only of Moses.
The purpose is to elevate Moses above all seership. With his
gifts and works he is not a member of a clan possessed of a hereditary
charisma, but remains entirely a person ; the person sent by God,
the personal bearer of a personal, one-time office. He is YHvH's
servant or bondsman, who is " entrusted with His whole house " ;
and so he has to administer Israel as God's people and kingdom, as
His " peculiar possession ".2 42
The rhythmic divine speech is left vague at certain decisive
points. If here, as in so many similar cases, there is an ingenious
play of words, it should be understood in the sense that God makes
Himself known to the prophets " in vision " but to Moses " visually
and not in riddles ". They have visions which must first be inter
preted ; but he is shown God's purpose in the visible reality itself.
To them God speaks " in dream ", but to Moses " from mouth to
mouth " ; by which, apparently, relationship is expressed 243 still
more intimate than that conveyed by the phrase " face to face a ; "

the word is blown into the man as from a breath, it " inspires " itself
into him.
Most difficult is the description of the exceptional position of
Moses in the final statement that he looks on " the appearance of
YHVH ". Here it seems to me that the stress should be laid upon
the word translated " look on ", which is never used of prophetic
VlSlon. Only of Moses had it already been told b that he did not
0 Ex. xxxiii, I I . b Ex. iii, 6.
 THE SPIRIT 169

dare " to look towards God". Moses does not see or look at a
divine form, but he looks on the appearance of YHVH-in every
thing in which it can possibly be looked on ; and that is what we
repeatedly meet with regarding him in the story of the revelations,
from the appearance which addressed him out of the flame but
which was no semblance separated or separable from that flame,
till the seeing of the " back" of God, which was a seeing of the
kabod, of the radiation of YHVH " in the cloud " .a
If commentators on God's speech to Aaron and Miriam are of
the opinion 244 that even strictly historical consideration would have
to deal with a primacy on the part of Moses, " admittedly while
rejecting any arrogation to him of an entirely different kind of
revelation", this can be assented to for the time being. Nevertheless
we should not regard the speech of God as though it were a free
composition aiming at the glorification of Moses. Behind this
speech, it seems to me, is concealed some reminiscence, albeit a
faded one, of the man who recognized his God, the God who is
present at every time in the way in which He is present-who
recognized Him in his natural appearances " visually ", and who
experienced His word as breathed into his innermost self. That
is classically Israelite in character, but is none the less unique in its
purity and strength. And even if we were not to read anything
about it, we would still have to postulate an experience of the
kind as underlying such words and such a deed.
The folk-book of the Aramaic soothsayer Balaam, whose
native country was presumably the Aramaic Hauran,245 appears to
be fused together from ancient and more recent songs and narra
tives, the oldest of which seem to date from the time of the Judges
and the latest from the time of the great Israelite kingdom. Its
fixed nucleus would originally appear to have been only the two
first verse utterances, which used to be included by the popular
bard in a prose version freely constructed by him 246 ; the rest
was a gradual accretion. The basic attitude is expressed in the
first two utterances and the older part of the second utterance b 247 ;
" For there is no augury in Jacob and no divination in Israel : in
time it is said to Jacob and Israel what work God has in hand ".
He who utters this as high praise sets out himself to practise augury
and receives his fee as a divinator.d 2 4&

0 Ex. xxxiii, 1 8, 23 ; xx:xiv, S b Num. xxiii, 23 .

Num. xxiv, I . 4 Num. xxii, 7
 MOSES

There is an obvious tendency in this contrasting of the concepts

that have passed from the verses into the narrative. At first
Balaam is the image of a genuine nabi. The spirit of God comes
upon him, YHVH " meets him " and " places utterance in his
mouth.249 But he engages in divination and augury, and YHVH
has him say that in Israel, in God's people, neither is to be
found ; neither is needed there, because God, at the right moment,
informs His people through the man whom He sends them, of the
meaning of the given situation, of that work which He, God, now
has in hand, and what He demands thenceforward from Israel ;
and that is precisely what Israel needs to know, no less and no
more.
Balaam is not sent ; God makes use of him, but does not com
mission him. Balaam is an individual who has the gift of an Art,
but who has not been summoned to a Work. He is not the leader
of a people ; he has no people to whom he is required to state the
meaning of any given situations. For that reason he engages in
divination and augury ; and so a rift comes about in his nabi
function, and deprives the latter of its essence. The true nabi
scarcely ever presages a fixed, unchangeable future ; he announces
a present that requires human choice and decision, as a present in
which the future is being prepared. Balaam is far from the sphere
of human decisions, which means that he is far from the sphere of
divine commandment. YHVH puts the utterance into him, but
has no personal contact with him and does not reveal His com
manding will to him, except in so far as He instructs him as to what
he should say and what he should not say.
In his words a Balaam praises Israel because YHVH their God
is with them ; and by this the poet once again takes up the old
motif of the Annunciation to Moses, the motif of the meaning of
God's name. But he, Balaam, does not know this kind of presence
on the part of God. He continues : " and the shout of acclaim
for the melek is within him " ; by which the poet means the event
which always recurs in the camp of Israel, even in his own time ;
the jubilation of the people round the tent of their divine leader.
Yet Balaam can know even this, the kingship of God, only from
without. To be sure, he expresses the personal wish at the end of
his first utterance b to die the death of these " upright " or
" straight " ones. Yet the life of the people who " dwells alone "
must remain alien to him in its essence. Close as he may come to
a Num. xxiii, 2I. b Ibid., ro.
 THE SPIRIT 171

Israel in his utterances, it is inaccessible to his divinatory and

augurial character.
What Israel is it that the poet has in mind ? From whence
does he derive his acquaintance with an Israel which knows no
trouble and no misery,a and which does not want to have anything
to do with magic and divination ? His purpose is not adequately
grasped by a reference to " idealization ". He doubtless aims at a
tradition. What he has in mind cannot be anything other than
Moses' idea of Israel. Moses had wished for such an Israel, he had
desired life, marriage and property to be secure, and envy to be
eradicated among the people ; and he had directed his sense of
mission and his utterance of the will of God against magic and
mantic practices.
Moses is not named or mentioned in the folk-book of Balaam.
But he, who feels himself called to tell Israel in time what work
God has in hand, is the unseen opponent of the soothsayer and
interpreter of omens. True, the Balaam story, as we have it,
" reaches its peak in the meaningful blessings predicting and indeed
effecting the happy future of Israel, and which therefore must
have been genuine ; that is to say, effected, from the Israelite
standpoint, by YHVH " . 250 But in addition to this the narrator is
certainly very much concerned to show that, by these blessings
from the mouth of the heathen, the unsouled nabi, YHVH confirms
what has been founded by His true emissary. Here, too, in the en
thusiasm for the j ubilation of the King in the camp of Israel, which
is placed in the mouth of the stranger, the purpose which has set its
stamp on the Eagle Speech is still effective.
Num. xxili, 21.
 THE LAND
A CCORDING to the account in the Book of Numbers a and
.l.. the parallel narrative in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses b

sends spies from Kadesh to Canaan. They bring back good and
bad tidings. Shaken by the unfavourable part of the reports, the
people lament, speak of appointing themselves a new head and
returning to Egypt ; those who offer them opposition are in
danger of being stoned. At this point YHVH intervenes ; He
wishes to destroy the people, and to let the offspring of Moses serve
for the making of a fresh one. Moses intercedes and wins for
giveness for them, but the sinful generation is condenmed to
perish in the wilderness ; " forty years " must pass ere Israel enters
Canaan.
Now the people suddenly resolve to depart for Canaan at once.
Against the will of Moses and without the Ark of the Covenant,
they make a sortie against the Amalekites and Canaanites living in
the mountains, and are defeated.
It is scarcely possible to win any historical core of fact out of
the narrative ; save that the Amalekites, who had been compelled
to relinquish Kadesh to the incursors, had united themselves with
the neighbouring tribes and prevented further advances, for an
entire generation as it would seem. Yet the story seems to hold
an implication that Kadesh, where Israel obviously stayed for a
long time, was the station at which the people became directly
aware of Canaan as the goal of their wanderings.
Here Kadesh should not be understood as meaning a single
spot, but the entire group of level valleys lying south of Palestine
on the way between Akaba and Beersheba, which link up with the
place of that name ; valleys surrounded by hills, where springs
gush forth, so that sometimes the water bursts from the clefts and
crannies of the rocks. The land is rich in water and fruitful for
the greater part ; here and there, indeed, of a " paradisical fruit
fulness " .25 1 To this day the soil, which is several feet deep, still
provides the Arabs who till it with rich harvests of grain when
there has been a good rainy season.252 The district has noteworthy
remains of Syro-Canaanite culture, dating from the second half of
the second rnillenium B.C., including a fortress which is supposed 253
Num. xiii, xiv. b Dcut. i, 22-46.
 THE LAND 1 73

to have been already standing when Moses and his hosts came there ;
and the presence of which makes it possible to explain the Biblical
description of Kadesh as a " town " or fortified place. a
The people may have fixed on this spot, which was so suitable
for the purpose, as the centre of their movements ; where, pre
sumably on the Midianite model, 254 Moses remained with the Ark
and the armed Levite guard, while the tribes swarmed forth. The
fruitful soil was tilled, as had already been done by the " Fathers ","
with primitive but productive methods ; and the herds were
driven to pasture in the neighbourhood.25 6 The Hebrews had
returned not only " to the place of the Fathers " 25 6 but also to
their form of life.
But is the urge to Canaan to be attributed, as some think, to
the fact that the rapid increase of the people made it necessary to
find more room ? Or was Kadesh regarded from the very begin
ning as no more than a station, the prolonged sojourning in which
was an outcome of the historical circumstances ? Is the promise
to Moses of a " good broad land " to be explained as due to a
later shaping of the Exodus tradition, or ought we to understand
it as an essential motive in Moses' own actions ? When Moses
departed from Egypt, did he wish only to liberate the tribes ? Or
did he wish to lead them to settle as well ? Was the memory of
the Canaan of the Fathers at work in him as a hope and aspiration ?
In the religious field he had sought and found, in a passionately
remembered past, the basis of the future which he wished to
build. Was this equally true in the field of actual history ?
In our own times critical investigation is once again beginning
to recognize 257 that " the element of the promising of the land in
the legends of the Fathers is not in itself a free creation of the
Yahvist, a predating, perchance, of the needs of the tradition of
the Occupation of the Land, but belongs to old and indeed to the
oldest traditions ". In other words : it will not do to view the
stories of the Fathers as no more than a pseudo-historical justifica
tion of the claim to Canaan.258 It has been emphatically pointed
out 259 that the Fathers owed their position in the Israelite traditional
sagas primarily to their function as recipients of revelation, and at
the same time to the relations of the divinities revealing themselves
to them " to genealogically confirmed associations, to clans and
tribes " 2 60 ; as well as to the fact that this type of religion con
tained within itself " a tendency to the social and the historical ",
Num. xx , 16. b Gen. xxvi, 12. Ex. iii, 8.
1 74 MOSES

which " corresponds to the conditions of life in nomadic

tribes " .2 61
But from the fact that each of the Fathers has a separate designa
tion for the God who revealed Himself to him-Shield of Abraham,
Fear of Isaac, Paladin of Jacob-it would be quite wrong to
conclude that three different gods are meant. He who receives a
tradition from the father or the inaugurator regarding the latter's
God will certainly identify the God who appears to himself with
the God of that tradition ; yet at the same time he will give ex
pression to the fact of his own immediate and personal relation
ship, which is so basically important for him and his circle, by
employing some fresh appellative. " Isaac recognizes the God of
Abraham, who, however, was also his, Isaac's, own God, in a peculiar
fashion deriving from his own personal biography ; and so forth. "2 62
If that is so, we must ascertain in how far it is still possible for
us to examine the texts available to us with regard to a common
concrete content of that revelation ; and further, a content which
contains an implicit trend towards the social and historical. We
are entitled to regard the promising of the Land as such a content.
These men announce that a God has led them hither in order that
they, like some herald in the name of the king, may proclaim His
name over the holy cities of this land, as a sign that He is about
to come in order to claim them as having been his own from the
beginning, and to take possession of them." 2 63 That God promises
them in specific connection with this that he wishes to " give " it
to their offspring as the community of those who confess Him
and serve Him. This is actually, as far as I can see, something so
pregnant as to be without parallel in the history of religion ; yet
there is a primal lushness and freshness about it, such as cannot be
syntltesized in the laboratories of tendentious literature.
And it is very understandable historically that such a revelation
continues to exert an effect. As we saw in considering the duologue
at the Burning Bush, no distinction can be drawn between the
" God of the Fathers " and the One who revealed Himself to
Moses. Aye, the identity of the two, and with that identity the
fulfilment of the ancient promise, cannot be imagined or supposed
save together with the tremendous meaning of this revelation for
Moses, which sets his personal activity into motion. Moses dis
covers himself as the agent and carrier of this fulfilment. It is of
necessity part of the message which he brings to the people.
Gen. xii , 8 ; xiii, 4 ; xxi, 33 ; xxvi, 25.
 THE LAND 1 75

I tend to doubt whether the settlem.ent of the people, with all

its full concrete implications, can have become clear to him until
this point. As far as can be judged, the tribes in Egypt were in
all likelihood restricted to cattle-raising in the main, and the period
of forced labour is scarcely likely to have served them as a prepara
tion for agriculture ; neither in Midian nor afterwards in Egypt
could Moses ever have come to realize all the external and internal
transformations that were bound to be involved in a transfer to a
predominantly agrarian form of life. I tend to suppose that this
can have begun to become clear to him only at Kadesh, with the
beginning of the people's experience in some measure of tilling
the soil.
As the thought of the land became more concrete, however,
Moses would also have begun to consider the necessity of legal
provisions such as might serve to regulate the new form of life in a
fashion that could secure the conditions of a just social life, which
he may well have known from nomadic tribal traditions and his
own experience with the people, against grave disturbance. And
here as well he would have had to start out from his basic idea,
that of the real and direct rule of God ; which would necessarily
have led to the postulate that God owns all land.
The name Kadesh means " sanctuary " 264 ; since ancient times a
it had been called " Fountain of Judgment " ; it was a holy well.
When I sat under the ancient oak in the grove above one of the
sources of the Jordan in the extreme north of Palestine, at that
unmistakable place of j udgment which the Arabs still call " The
Hill of the Judge " near Dan (which itself is also a name meaning
" Judge "), I began to comprehend what Kadesh must have been
in the far south of the country, and what had happened there.
Moses, as had been the custom of the Fathers, had laid claim in
the name of YHVH to the time-old hallowed place - we do not
know anything about the god or spirit to which it had been dedi
cated. There he must not merely have pronounced judgment
but must also have " set up law and judgment " b ; that is clearly
the duty and function of every leader of a people in such a situation,
where he cannot draw on a fixed legal tradition adapted to the
given conditions of life. Yet far beyond all the requirements of
the moment, his mind may well have meditated on what must
become precept in order that the at that time as yet unrealized people
of God might become a reality under more favourable conditions.
Gen. xiv, 7 b Ex. xv, 25.
 MOSES

Research in principle treats Israelite land law as predominantly

post-Mosaic, because Moses in the wilderness cannot very well be
supposed to have concerned himself with the entirely different type
of organization to be foWld in the life of a settled people. Historic
ally, however, it is quite thinkable that a legislator, who has in
mind a fWldamental transformation of the economic structure of a
people, should also draft a legal system corresponding to that
change ; even though along very general lines only. To which
it should be added that even the very modest agricultural attempts
at Kadesh might already be sufficient to make the promulgation of
certain provisions appear necessary to tl1e leader, who is intent on
the inner cohesion of the commWlity.
In addition, it must be remembered that no innovations were
involved as far as the world of the Ancient Orient was concerned.
We know, for example, that in the old Arabian civilization " God,
King and People was the juridical formula for the State " (in
which formula the king fWlctions as representative of the god,
and as intermediary) ; and that in connection with this the soil
was considered to be the property of the god. 28 6 Though the
documents which have become known to us have to be dated
many hWldreds of years after Moses, it is scarcely possible to
doubt the high age of the basic idea ; particularly when we meet
with cognate concepts at Babylon in the middle of the Third
Millenium B.c.
As can so frequently be found in Israel's treatment of ancient
Oriental spiritual values, the land law of the Bible transformed
what was already existent into a realistic view which does not
rest satisfied with any mere symbolism. Yet at the same time it
elevated this pre-existent material into a higher sphere of meaning
and word ; while basing itself upon the principle expressed in the
words of God a : " For the earth (the land) is mine ; for you are
dwellers and sojourners with me ". To-day this sentence is once
again recognized as " very ancient " 288 It is foWld in a text
.

which, as a whole, belongs to a late literary period and is composed

of various stylistic shreds 287 ; but this certainly does not justify
us in refusing to attribute it to Moses. The Israelites must, it
would seem, have described their relations to Egypt in such terms ;
and the warning, foWld recurring even in the oldest part of Biblical
law,b not to oppress the " dweller ", since they themselves had
been in his situation when in Egypt, and therefore know his " soul ",
a Lev. XXV, 2.]. Ex. xxii, 2.0 ; xxili, 9
 THE LAND 177

clearly has very deep roots in the historical memory of the people.
Just as the children of Israel have left the service of Egypt for the
service of YHVH, so from having been dwellers in Egypt they
have become dwellers with YHVH. The introductory words
" for the earth is mine " is also reminiscent of the words of the
Eagle Speech : " For the whole earth is mine ". On both occasions
God lays claim to the earth ; on one occasion, however, namely in
the Eagle Speech, in respect of his rule over the peoples of the
earth ; and on the other, in the words about sojourners, in respect
of possession of the soil, the soil of Canaan.
However, another motif seems to have become associated with
the sense of these ancient words, and in it the belief of Moses in
the one Lord, an early and powerful belief, is given expression.
In the, at all events, very old legal stratum of the so-called Book
of the Covenant the command is found " to " let fall " the cultivated
land, fields, vineyards and olive-groves, in the seventh year of their
cultivation, and to " forsake " their yield so that " the needy ones
of your people may eat therefrom " ; what they leave over may be
consumed by the " beasts of the field ". The scanty and " some
what abrupt 268 formulation seems to be something like a pre
"

liminary note calling for later elucidation and precise definition.

At the same time it is marked with that vivid force of expression
which is so often characteristic of such notes. At the beginnin g
of the section in which the " dwellers " passage is to be
found b the underlying idea of the law is expressed more pre
cisely, and in three respects : first that the seventh year is a " Sabbath
unto YHVH " like the seventh day ; second, that it should be a
Sabbath for the soil, in which the latter should lie fallow and thus
find rest like M2.n on the seventh day ; third, that what it yields
shall belong to all and sundry in common, freeman and bonds,
Israelite and sojourner, man and beast. Here we obviously have
the ' ' better and more complete text 269 ; or more precisely the
"

expansion of that first sketch. The relationship between these

two should not be taken as meaning that in the beginning there
was a practical economic and social humanitarian provision, which
was afterwards expanded and extended into the religious sphere
by a later theology. Rather was the seventh year in Israel the
period since time immemorial of a " fallow-lying which was
sacral in intention, for the duration of which the right of usufruct
enjoyed by the Israelite clans in the soil and land which fell to their
Ex. xxiii, I 0 f. b Lev. xxv, 2-7.
 MOSES

lot was invalidated, and the sole and exclusive right of possession
of Yahveh once more becomes manifest " .270 " The idea of the
equality of all creatures 271 is certainly characteristic of the
"

Sabbatical year, as it is of the Sabbath itself ; but it is as creatures

of the one Creator that they are all equal to one another ; and as
on the day dedicated to YHVH, so in the year dedicated to Him,
they receive the same rights in one or the other sphere, in one or
the other form. And here the thought is certainly at work " that
the soil shall be free for a time, so that it should not be subjected
to the will of human beings, but left to its own nature ; in order
that it may be no man's land ".272 But just because it belongs to
God, the soil must be made free again and again. Here the cosmic,
the social and the religious aspects are still in their roots nnited ;
they cannot yet be separated from each other.
The epoch in which such a unity was still possible can be fixed.
For this reason it has justly been said 273 that the establishment of
the institution of the Sabbatical year " is thinkable only at a time
when the Israelite tribes had not yet entirely foresaken the semi
nomadism of their early days and, though they have alre "y begnn
to engage in agriculture, to be sure, have not yet made che centre
of gravity of their economic life ". It is true that " fc c this stage
the final period bt iore and the initial period after their occupation
of Palestine can equally well be thoti ht of " . But the earlier,
Kadesh that is, is indicated by the as yet undiminished concentra
tion of the wandering hosts and ;he intensity of the initiative of
Moses ; and at no later time can anything similar be found that
will bear comparison with these two.
The view has been expressed in various quarters 274 " that the
abolition of the preceding legal situation in respect of land during
the seventh year was originally a complete one ", as complete as
in the later law regarding the year of Jubilee (which, incidentally,
is not to my mind late in its nucleus, and certainly not merely
" theoretical ", but was rather intended to afford an extension of the
period of restoration, because the one originally provided for was
not observed) . Hence, according to this view, in the Sabbatical
year there was a fresh allotment of landed areas to the single
families, such as can still be found taking place annually among
certain Arab semi-nomads after a fashion reminiscent of the Biblical
terminology.27 6
If this assumption is correct, and so it seems to me, then it was
the purpose of the Sabbatical year to lead to a renewal of the
 THE LAND 179

organization of the society, in order to start afresh. The renewal

of the land in the fallow period and the renewal of the people in
the restoration of the original equality are associated. " The
unconditional connection of the people was intended to preserve
the consciousness of common ownership of land and soil." 276
But this consciousness necessarily had to strike deep roots ; it had
to be nourished in its deeps by a knowledge of the life of the earth,
on which the life of human beings is dependent.
So we are entitled to assume that Moses continued his Sab
batical train of thought and, while making use of the economic
tradition of the semi-nomads, conceived the idea of overcoming
the continually-expanding social harm for ever by ensuring the
restoration, in each ensuing Sabbatical year, " of the normal situa
tion of the national community of Israel after all the deviations and
wrong developments of the preceding six years ".277
The " normal situation " in question is that particular one in
which the people found itself when it entered into the melek
covenant and was prepared to fulf1l it, that is, to bring about a
genuine community ; and it is this particular situation which
Moses wishes to establish afresh again and again in despite of all
" deviations and wrong developments " which might occur.
What an isolated social contemplation might regard as a restoration
of a normal situation, to a view including the religious element it
becomes manifest as a renewal of the Covenant in the seventh year,
the year of " letting fall ", during which the old Mosaic law is read
out aloud at the Feast of Tabernacles before the assembled people
in later days. a It becomes manifest as " a reconducting of the
national community to the ideal basis of their existence, a renewed
obligation of all members of the people to the will of Yahve,
without which the union of the tribes into a national entity would
not and could not have come about ".278
Various scholarly hypotheses have been spun about Kadesh.
Thus it has been supposed 279 that this had been the district of the
Tribe of Levi since time untold, and that Moses was a priest of
that tribe. " The cultic site at the Burning Bush, which pre
sumably lay in the same valley ", had been " held in high esteem
far beyond the territory of Levi, among all the neighbouring
tribes " ; and at " the great festival of Yahwe " with which
" was associated an annual fair and market standing under the
protection of the truce of God ", the priests of Levi functioned as,
o Deut. xxxi, 10 ff.
I SO MOSES

" intermediaries and arbitrators between the tribes and the

individuals ".
An attractive picture, but here the historian goes an unwarranted
distance from the texts which are available to him. What the
latter provide is only that Moses made the fortified spot at the
holy well of judgment into a centre of " Israel ", at which he
gave out the law and instructed the people. As the journey to
Canaan became more and more plain as the task impending, first
as immediately ahead and then, after the unfortunate issue of
fighting, as a task for which they would have to equip themselves
a long time in advance, Moses must have seen it as necessary to
draft the fundamental principles of the land law on the basis of the
experiences gained at Kadesh.
These had to be principles suitable for protecting the settled
people from the dangers of settlement, from the inequality of land
ownership that threatened the community with decomposition.
No institution of the " once-for-all " kind seemed to be capable
of prevailing here against the rapacity of those who possessed more.
Here Moses, while supporting himself by the customs of the semi
nomads, brought from the deeps of his Sabbatical thought, in
which time is rhythmically articulated, the principle of a regular
restoration of the initial state of affairs, to be regulated by arranging
the years according to the holy number ; just as the days of the
week had been arranged according to the holy number. And for
Moses any effective arrangement is intimately bound up with
consecration to YHVH ; in fact it is the consecration which properly
speaking establishes the order.
The Sabbath consecrated to YHVH establishes the unit of the
week ; the Sabbatical year consecrated to YHVH establishes the
unit of seven years. As the Sabbath unites the busy household
community in the common freedom of God, surmounting all the
differences of the working days, so the Sabbatical year, surmounting
all the differences which have ensued and accrued in the preceding
six years, unites the busy national community in the common free
dom of God. There the concrete foundation is the joint resting of
human beings who have worked for six days ; here it is the resting
of the soil which has been tilled for six years. All the other pro
visions are bound up with this one. Just as those who have become
slaves are liberated in the seventh year, which certain scholars 280 even
identify with the Sabbatical year, so in the Sabbatical year, if those
plausible assumptions were to be correct, the equality of owner-
 THE LAND 181

ship of the impoverished families with that of the enriched ones is

re-established ; while the abolishment of, or the respite for, debts
ameliorates the situation of the indebted individual, and enables him
to fall back once again on his share of the family property. At
the same time a great symbol of the common accessibility to all
men of the nourishing earth is established by the equal right of all
creatures to enjoy the usufruct of the earth in the Sabbatical year.
And above all this there hovers the consecration to YHVH, to
whom the earth belongs and who, by means of that earth, nourishes
His dwellers and sojourners. They ought not to thrust one another
aside, they ought not to impoverish one another permanently o r
enslave one another ; they must again and ever again become
equal to one another in their freedom of person and free relation to
the soil ; they must rest together and enjoy the usufruct together ;
the times dedicated to God make them free and equal again and
again, as they were at the beginning.
The land is given to them in common in order that in it and
from it they may become a true national Community, a " Holy
People ". Such is the unfolding of the promise of Canaan to the
Fathers, which had doubtless lived on in the Egyptian exile,
even though almost forgotten. This earth, so YHVH had promised
the Fathers, He would give to their " seed " a ; in order that they
might become a berakah, a blessing power. b
Gen. xii, 7 b Ibid., z.
 T HE CONTRAD ICT ION
E
W
read a of another revolt ; the one known as the revolt
of " Korah and his band ". Its nucleus of fact is barely to
be identified under the thick layer of tendentious treatment, the
purpose of which was clearly to equip the privileged position of the
" Aaronid " priests vis-a-vis the " Levites " with all the sanctions
of the Mosaic period. The only thing which can be regarded as
certain 281 is that in the original report there was no question of
any action of the Levites as Levites.
On the other hand, it would be regarding things from far too
narrow a perspective if we were to see here nothing more than a
protest on the part of the laity against the appointment of the
Levites to the cult service ; a fight against the priestly class in general
on the grounds that priests are held to be superfluous.282
Nothing is reported in the early stratum of the Pentateuch with
regard to the establishment of an actual priestly class. The existence
of priests is referred to in passing on one occasion b ; but we are
told nothing about the functions which were exercised by them.
Whatever is found in the so-called Book of the Covenant which
implies the exercise of such functions does not offer any adequate
grounds for the assumption of an organized priestly class in the
days of Moses. Here, in any case, the officiating cult group, if it
exists, does not show the quality of pathos proper to the sacral
power. The obscure hint of an appointment of the Levites
nothing more than such a hint is to be found in the ambiguous
phrasing 283-following the suppression of the rebellion can
scarcely be regarded, if recourse is had exclusively to the old texts,
as more than an indication of services of watch and ward, to be
rendered thereafter by the Levites at the tent of the leader, now
elevated to the status of tent of God, without any actual priestly
activities.
This tent is not a tent of offering. In the old textual stratum
very little information is given us about sacrifices ; only on very
rare and extraordinary occasions are communal and conventional
sacrifices made, and then clearly not by any actual priestly caste.
With the exception of Moses, nobody engages in the holy action ;
Num. xvi. b Ex. xix, 22. Ex. xxxii, 29.
1 82
 THE CONTRADICTION

there is no participation by Levites, and Moses, too, performs his

function not as a professional priest but as the leader of the people ;
as we afterwards also find, for example, in the case of Samuel.
The tent, to be sure, might be described as " an oracle tent ", but
nobody except Moses has anything to do in the tent with that
oracle.
It is true that in a text which probably derives from the time
before the period of the kings but is post-Mosaic, a reference is
made to a divine bestowal of the oracular instruments called
Urim and Thummim. to the Levites or to one of them. But the
narrative texts available to us do not give us any point d' appui for
relating this to a particular event ; and it appears most likely
that the instrument, of which we hear in a dependably early story
only as belonging to the time of Saul, was introduced after the
death of Moses and as his legacy, in order to ensure the continuation
of the oracular function which, however, had been conducted by
him without any instrument.
Possibly the process of back-dating to the Mosaic period came
about by way of the mysterious reference to be found in the
" Blessing of Moses " . In general i t seems t o m e that the period
of the conquest of the land must have been decisive for the de
velopment of a regulated and somewhat centralized cult and a
permanent (in addition to the fluctuating) priestly class ; this can
be understood from the entire nexus of circumstances.
Be that as it may, all the reports deriving from early days about
the priestly functions of the tribe of Levi are not sufficient, in spite
of the penetrating efforts of scholars,284 to make any common front
of " laymen against Levites " seem credible as the historical nucleus
of the story of Korah and his band. This nucleus does not appear
to have been a protest against any " clerical class ", but rather to
have been directed against the special status of Moses in person ;
in which those closest to Moses (though perhaps not Aaron in
particular) b may well have been included.
Here, too, we can best start with a passage which appears to
go back to early days, but the wording of which has been so
altered in the course of the priestly treatment of the narrative that
its antiquity has no longer been recognized. This passage c reads
as follows in the form before us : " Enough of you ! For all the
community, all of them, are holy and YHVH is in their midst, so
why do you exalt yourselves over the assembly of YHVH ? " The
a Deut. xxxiii, 8. As in the present text of Num. xvi, 3 c Num. xvi, 3
 MOSES

later terms edah community, and qahal assembly, congregation,2B5

have been submitted, it seems to me, for the original words goy and
am. This means that the narrative in its present form has been
artistically and of set intent constructed round the word edah, which
is used in a double sense : community (the whole nation) and band
(the separate group rising in revolt), while in addition the root
qahal is used alternatively in the sense of assembling the people and
of banding together.2Bo
If we restore the original words, two associations which are
worthy of remark become clear. The word goy, people, associated
with the word qedoshim, holy, is reminiscent of the expression go1
qadosh, holy people, found in the Eagle Speech, a form which is
found in the Bible at that one place, and at that one place only ;
and am YHVH, people of YHVH, is found in early strata of the
Pentateuch (Num. xvii, 6 belongs to a very late one) only in the
words with which Moses replies to Joshua's misgivings in the
story of the Descent of the Spirit 11 : " Who would grant that
the whole people of YHVH were prophets, that YHVH grant his
spirit over them ! "
The purpose, in suggesting a cross-reference to these two
passages, seems to me unmistakable. The protesting party base
themselves on the two utterances made by Moses himself, in which
he referred to all Israel as holy, as consisting exclusively of direct
servants of YHVH, and again to all the individuals in Israel as
prophetic carriers of the spirit of God ; one, it is true, in the form
of a commandment, and the other in that of a wish. " Korah
and his band ", consisting of Levites and laymen who have con
federated, say : " The people do not have to become holy first,
the people are holy, for YHVH is in their midst ; the whole people
is holy, and because it is holy all the individuals in it are holy."
On this they base their attack against Moses and his kinsfolk :
" If all are holy you have no priority over the others. If all are
holy, there is no need for any mediation. If all are holy there is
no need for human beings to exercise any power over other human
beings. Everybody is given instruction directly by YHVH as to
what he is to do."
This contradiction rising out of the midst of the people, which
converts the words of Moses into their opposite, changing as it
does request and hope into insolent self-assertion, was conditioned
and made possible by one of his great works, the establishment of
Num. xi, 29.
 THE CONTRADICTION 1 85

the Ark of the Covenant. The people as people necessarily under

stood the occasional descent of YHVH in their midst as a residence
of YHVH in their midst, and such a residence as a guarantee of the
holiness of them all ; while their common holiness was bound to
appear to them as an adequate reason for throwing off the yoke of
what should be done and what must not be done, the yoke that this
man Moses imposed upon them, the holy people, hour by hour,
and day by day, in the name of God ; as though God dwelt with
him alone ; as though he alone had access to God.
Moses had endeavoured to preclude this danger by placing the
shrine with the Tables of the Law at the feet of YHVH. But he
himself, after all, had made the Invisible more visible to his people
than the stone upon which His will was written. For the people
as people the Divine Presence meant that they possessed the god ;
or, in other words, that they could transform their own will into
the will of God.
The issue here is at bottom something rather different from the
question of priestly functions, or indeed the question of cult in
general. Though it is directed, to be sure, against Moses, yet no
matter how deeply and strongly religious motives are associated
with the passions at play here, they are not directed really
against Moses as priest. This if only for the reason that though
Moses himself, as said, actually carries out or directs the cult acts
in which the community as such has to be represented, he does not
become a priest as a result ; he carries them out and directs them
as the man who represents the community where the latter has to
act " before God ". And equally the fact that he receives and
transmits the expressions of God's will does not turn him into a
priest ; for the manner of this reception does not admit of inclusion
in any tradition of divinatory methods ; it is unique to him, to
Moses ; it comes into being from his religious experiences and
vanishes with him.
He takes over cult elements and transforms their form and
meaning ; he introduces fresh cult elements ; but he has no cult
o ffice.287 The priest is the greatest human specialization that we
know. In his mission and his work Moses is unspecialized ; he
is conditioned not by an office but by a situation, a historical
situation.
Moses' character is eminently historical ; that of the priest,
even when he delivers an oracle in given historical situations, is
eminently non-historical. This, however, does not mean that
!86 MOSES

Moses is " not a priest but a prophet ".288 It is true that the way
in which he receives the revelation is largely prophetical, even
though the institution of the tent and all that is associated therewith
does make a considerable difference ; but his activity in history, as
leader of the people, as legislator, is what separates him in character
from all the bearers of prophecy known to us. For this reason
Moses likewise cannot be comprehended merely as a combination
of priest and prophet ; moreover, he is not to be comprehended
at all within any exclusively " religious " categories. What
constitutes his idea and his task : the realization of the unity of
religious and social life in the community oflsrael, the substantiation
of a ruling by God that shall not be cultually restricted but shall
comprehend the entire existence of the nation, the theo-political
principle ; all this has penetrated to the deeps of his personality, it
has raised his person above the compartmental system of typology,
it has mingled the elements of his soul into a most rare unity.
The historical Moses, as far as we are capable of perceiving him,
does not differentiate between the spheres of religion and politics ;
and in him they are not separated. When " Korah and his band "
revolt against Moses, it is not to be interpreted as meaning that
they rise against his cult privileges as such ; for these privileges as
such are not stressed and might as well be non-existent.
Rather do they rise at first against the fact that one man leads
the people in the name of God. But they go beyond this and
revolt against the fact that this man decides in the name of God
what is right and what is wrong. " The whole people, all of
them, are holy " , and therefore nobody can give orders or issue
prohibitions to anybody else in respect of what the latter's own
holiness suggests to him. Since the people are holy, command
ments from without are no longer necessary.
It should not be supposed that later stages of development are
introduced here into the words of Korah. The attitude which
finds expression in these words is known to us from far more
primitive stages. In many of those tribes which are labelled as
primitive, such motives have contributed vastly to the establish
ment of secret societies. A chief or shaman, whose authority is
supported by a superhuman power, can be combated in two ways.
One is to attempt to overthrow him, particularly by shaking faith
in the assurance that he will receive that support, and to take his
place, which is precisely what some suppose to have been the nucleus
of the story of Korah 289 ; that is, a manifestation of the personal
 THE CONTRADICTION

struggle for power known to us from all phases of human history,

and one which in general leaves the structure of society unchanged.
The second method is to cut off the main roots of the leader's
power by establishing, within the tribe but external to the o fficial
tribal life, a secret society in which the actual, the true, the " holy "
communal life is lived, free from the bonds of the " law " ; a life
of " leopards " or " werewolves " in which the wildest instincts
reach their goal on the basis of mutual aid, but in holy action.
Once they have succeeded in abducting the god, all further robbery
is no more than taking possession by means of him. From this
separate life it is natural that vast and varied social and political
effects should afterwards be felt in the life of the tribe, vis-a-vis
which the secret society regards itself as the " true " tribe, spinal
column and driving force of the tribe ; as the tribe, so to speak,
in so far as it really dares to be its own self.
This phenomenon, which can be observed throughout the
inhabited world, is regarded much too superficially if it is con
sidered to be nothing more than a masking of the urge of the
libido to become unfettered. The people who set rebellions of
this kind under way are not merely endeavouring to find a sanction
for the satisfaction of repressed lusts, but are in all seriousness
desirous of gaining power over the divine might ; or more pre
cisely, of actualizing and giving legitimacy to the god-might which
a person has in himself, the " free " one, as against the one which
is " bound " by the chief or shaman, with all the taboos used to
fetter it. This tendency can admittedly be realized only by placing
those who are not members of the secret societies in a state of non
freedom and exposure, such as is in many cases far worse than any
previous abuse ever was ; but this is only, as one might say, a
secondary effect, which is regarded as being unworthy of any
consideration.
It is easy to adduce analogies at higher levels of development,
particularly out of the history of antinomist sects and movements.
The issue is always that of" divine freedom " against " divine law " ;
but at these higher levels it becomes even more clear than at the
more primitive stages that the isolated divine freedom abolishes
itself. Naturally God rules through men who have been gripped
and filled by His spirit, and who on occasion carry out His will
not merely by means of instantaneous decisions but also through
lasting justice and law. If their authority as the chosen ones is
disputed and extended to all, then the actual dominion is taken
188 MOSES

away from God ; for without law, that is, without any clear-cut
and transmissible line of demarcation between that which is pleasing
to God and that which is displeasing to Him, there can be no
historical continuity of divine rule upon earth.
The true argument of the rebellion is that in the world of the
law what has been inspired always becomes emptied of the spirit,
but that in this state it continues to maintain its claim of full in
spiration ; or, in other words, that the living element always dies
off but that thereafter what is left continues to rule over living
men. And the true conclusion is that the law must again and again
immerse itself in the consuming and purifying fire of the spirit,
in order to renew itself and anew refine the genuine substance out
of the dross of what has become false. This lies in the continuation
of the line of that Mosaic principle of ever-recurrent renewal.
As against this comes the false argument of the rebels that the law
as such displaces the spirit and the freedom, and the false conclusion
that it ought to be replaced by them. The falsity of this con
clusion remains hidden and even ineffective as long as the " eschato
logical " expectation, the expectation of the corning of the direct
and complete rule of God over all creatures, or more correctly of
His presence in all creatures tl1at no longer requires law and re
presentation, is maintained unweakened. As soon as it slackens,
it follows historically that God's rule is restricted to the " religious "
sphere, everything that is left over is rendered unto Caesar ; and
the rift which runs through the whole being of the human world
receives its sanction.
Indeed, the false would become true as soon as the presence of
God comes to be fulfilled in all creatures. It is here that the
greatness and the questionability are to be found in every genuine
eschatology ; its greatness in belief and its questionability vis-a-vis
the realities of history. The " Mosaic " attitude facing this is to
believe in the future of a " holy people " ; and to prepare for it
within history.
These remarks are essentially relevant to our subject, for they
help us to understand the tragedy of Moses. Everything subsequent
to the antagonism between Moses and Korah appears to us as
having been already present in the seed therein, if only we view
Korah in large enough terms. Then we recognize that here the
eternal word is opposed by eternal contradiction.
But something peculiar must also be added : the waywardness
of Bedouin life, which often survives the nomadic stage. 2 90 This
 THE CONTRADICTION

elementary need of people to be independent of other people may

develop in two opposite directions, according to the particular
personal temperament with which it is associated. It can grow
into an unconditional submission to the will of God and His will
alone, but it may also become empty stubbornness, which does not
wish to bow to any order because order is, after all, nothing but
human order. On the one hand we see here the devotion to the
Kingdom of God carried out by a person's deepest self, such as can
and should be inspired in spontaneous fashion ; and on the other
the resistance offered by the deepest self to the coming of the
Kingdom ; so that a man submits to his own wilfulness and feels,
or endeavours to feel, that very wilfulness as that which is re
ligiously correct, as that which brings salvation, as holy.
This schizoid development from a common root meets us in
Israel as well as in the pre-Islamic and Islamic Arab worlds. When
Moses bases Israel's becoming a " king's retinue of qohanim ", that is,
the beginning of the Kingdom of God, on spontaneity, on " doing
and hearing " without compulsion, he relies upon that Bedouin
waywardness ; trusting and assuming that they, who do not wish
to recognize any other master than the Lord of the world alone,
will truly recognize Him. Until the present day Israel has really
existed in the precise degree in which Moses has proved right.
But by doing what he did, Moses also encouraged the contrary
development from the identical root. The fact that Korah is able
to make use of Moses' own words against him has a tragic purport.
Moses does not wish to use force, he does not wish to impose
himself, he wishes to bring the men of his people so far along
that they themselves can become qohanim and nebiim. He is
" humble ". But this humility of his, which is one with his
fundamental faith in spontaneity and in freedom, is precisely what
provokes the " Korahite " reaction among men of the Korah type.
Since, however, his whole work, the Covenant between God and
people, is threatened, he must now doom the rebels to destruction,
just as he once ordered Levites to fight against Levites. There is
certainly something sinister underlying the legend of the earth
which opened its mouth and swallowed up the rebels.
It was the hour of decision. Both Moses and Korah desired
the people to be the people of YHVH, the holy people. But for
Moses this was the goal. In order to reach it, generation after
generation had to choose again and again between the roads,
between the way of God and the wrong paths of their own hearts ;
1 90 MOSES

between " life " and " death " .a For this God had introduced
Good and Evil, in order that men might find their own way to
Him.
For Korah the people, as being the people of YHVH, were
already holy. They had been chosen by God and He dwelt in
their midst, so why should there be further need of ways and
choice ? The people was holy just as it was, and all those within
it were holy just as they were ; all that needed to be done was to
draw the conclusions from this, and everything would be found to
be good. It is precisely this which Moses, in a parting speech
placed in his mouth and which appears to be a development of
one of his traditional utterances, calls Death ; meaning the death
of the people, as though they were swallowed up while still alive.
Therefore he was zealous ; he was zealous for his God as the
one who sets a goal and shows a path and writes a guide to that
path on tablets and orders men to choose again and again, to choose
that which is right ; and he was zealous against the great and
popular mystical Baal which, instead of demanding that the people
should hallow themselves in order to be holy, treats them as already
holy.
Korah calls that Baal by the name of YHVH ; but that does not
change anything in his essence.
Deut. xxx, 15.
 BAAL
HE
T
events which follow on the revolt of Korah in the Biblical
narrative are chronologically even more opaque than what
precedes them ; but in any case they fall chiefly in the later period of
the wanderings through the wilderness. Among them one stands out
by reason of the fact that Hosea, one of the first and greatest of the
prophets who used the written word as their medium, regarded it
as the crisis in the fate of Israel. a As when a wanderer through the
wilderness unexpectedly fmds fresh grapes (here Hosea may be
strilcing a note drawn from a reminiscence of the story of the
spies), or when a person who has planted a fig-tree sees the first
ripe fruit gleaming before him on the sapling " in its begirming " ;
so had it seemed to YHVH when He " found " Israel who came to
meet Him ; joyous astonishment at the sight of the people who
appeared as though renewed in freedom, joy of the creator of the
peoples, who finds here the first ripe fruit on the tree of the human
race ; that is what the prophet describes his God as feeling. " Then
they came to Baal Peor and dedicated themselves Wlto the shame
idol and became (the same) beings of abomination as that which
they loved."
Hosea does not blame his people for any earlier revolt, but this
one he sees as a defection on their part. Just as a man vows and
dedicates himself to YHVH as a Nazarite (this is the meaning of the
verb), so did they dedicate and submit themselves to the idol of
shame, to the Baal ; and this association with the idol transformed
them in their innermost selves, so that they became as horrible as
he was. Thus Hosea, the tragic lover who was the first in the
world to say what the love between a god and a people might be, 291
accuses Israel of Wlfaithfulness.
After the accoWltS of Miriam's death and then of that of
Aaron, of transit negotiations, of battles and of Balaam's sooth
saying, we are told in the narrative b how the Israelites (the early
tradition would presumably have reported this of only one part
of the people, say of a single tribe), who by that time are camping
on the boundaries of Moab, that is, who have already reached
sown land, permit themselves to be led astray by the maidens of
the country ; they participate in their sacrificial meals and prostrate
a Hos. ix, 10. b Num. xxv, 1 ff.
191
!92 MOSES

themselves before their tribal god. " And Israel yoked themselves
together unto Baal Peor."
This Baal is not identical with Kamosh, the tribal god of the
Moabites, but like the Canaanite Baal gods in general is a local
god of a special kind and with a special cult. This cult consists
chiefly of " cult prostitution " or, more correctly, of fertility rites
aiming at an increase through human action of the strength of the
divine pairings, the matings of Baal and Baalat, meaning " owner "
and " owneress ", who bring about the fruitfulness of the soil.
That this is so seems also to be indicated by the queer expression
used only here a and in a Psalm b referring to this passage. The
noun tsemed derived from this verbal root tsamad means a brace
of animals harnessed together and providing a specific service
through the resultant unity. The dative " unto Baal Peor "
indicates for whom the service was carried out here.
The Baal who meets the God of Way of the wanderers at the
threshold of the agrarian civilization is the divinity who has been
worshipped by the Canaanite peoples in the fashion which seemed
proper to them as the unconditional prerequisite of fruitful farm
ing. 292 In countless forms at the fruitful places of the country
teem the Baalim and the Baalot, and always in pairs ; together
they engage in the mystery rites by which the downpour of water
always makes the soil of the earth fruitful again. This mysterious
phenomenon is again and ever again viewed with astonishment by
early man ; that wherever ample moisture is given to the earth,
whether out of its own deeps, whether from fountains flowing
down out of the mountains or the hills, whether in the form of
rain or dew from heaven, the earth multiplies from within itself
whatever seed is placed in it. And this is ascribed to the powerful
effects of divine matings.
Out of this, and corresponding to the conception of the earthly
Baalim, evolves that of the heavenly Baalim ; who concentrate in
more differentiated civilizations such as that of the Phcenicians into
the mighty rain-god Baal who is also " the lord of the deep
wells " (as he is called in a text from Ras Shamra) . And since from
the " primitive " point of view the power of all imitative actions of
this kind on the part of human beings merges into the actions of the
gods-or since, rather, according to this point of view, all similar
actions are basically one and the same and, given the proper inten
tion, will exert a uniform effect, particularly when a divine action
a Num. xxv, 3, s. Ps. cvi, 28.
 BAAL 193
takes the lead,-the magical sexual rites develop into orgiastic
cults.
These are not to be regarded as libidinous excesses, although
they naturally could not exist without the driving force of the
libido. A deep experience of the unity of organic life, such as is
proper in particular to the soul-stirring discoveries of the earliest
period of tilling the soil, found misled but elemental expression.
What met YHVH on the threshold of the Promised Land is
therefore nothing less than the spirit which holds sway at the
initiation of settled tilling of the soil. Where a man settles in
order to win the blessings of the soil from out of its midst, there he
finds moisture, there he finds the domain of Baal ; and there it is
meet and proper for him, and for the human pair, to imitate the
gods and contribute to their holy work.
On this was based the cultivation of the soil in Canaan. " The
Baalim are truly the owners of the fields, which are wooed by
ploughing, and there is no luck if they are not served as they
desire." 203 This is what " the daughters of Moab " taught the
sons of Israel when the latter " began to whore unto them ". Free
sexuality as a sacral labour of uniting men and gods and as the
element serving as sacral fundament of the most important human
economic activity, was what confronted YHVH on the threshold
of Canaan.
Moses' aim, which was clearly growing stronger and stronger,
was directed to the settlement of the people. He wished, we may
well translate his purpose into our own style of thought, to heal
the people of the simultaneously lax and obstinate character it had
assumed in Egypt ; he wished to heal it by active union with the
soil inhabited by and promised to the Fathers, in order that the
people might be able to become the " People of YHVH " . Now,
however, on the very threshold of Canaan he sees, threatening the
"
soul of Israel, the misdemeanour which is held to be the funda
ment of agriculture, and hence the fundament of settlement.
Human sexuality becomes bound up with a divine sexuality ; the

divinity is drawn down into the duality of corporeal nature ; and

the relation of man and wife, destined in Israel by YHVH to help
make the seed of Abraham " into a great goy " ,a is, when reft
away from holy lawfulness, misused for the service of the pair of
idols. The " sin of the Amorite ", which the story of the Fathers
darkly hints at b as the reason why the peoples settled in Canaan
Gen. xii, 2.. Gen. xv , 16.
1 94 MOSES

would have to be supplanted by Israel,294 threatens to become the

sin of Israel.
The contradiction from without, which overwhelms Moses here
after the contradiction from within, goes to the very deeps of his
consciousness of God. The unity of his God, not one that is
thought of from the aspect of the general point of view, but one
believed in and known as the exclusiveness of relations to him, is
dependent on God's being above sex. A sexually determined God
is an incomplete one, one who requires completion ; it cannot be
the one and only God. Among the motives for the so-called
prohibition of images, which we have seen is really far more since
it is actually a prohibition of fixing any form for YHVH, this is
apparently one of the most important : if the God were to be
represented in any specific human or animal form, and if that form
were to be recognized as the form of the God, even symbolically,
He would of necessity be drawn down into the sphere of sexuality.
That is why the symbol of the bull was one of the animal symbols
to be most firmly combated. No other animal can serve so
intensely as this one for symbolizing the power of procreation ;
justly does it bear the rain-pouring god of the weather on its back ;
and it corresponds to the nature of the Phcenician Baal that, as
we are told in one of the Ras Shamra epics, he pairs in the fields,
while in the form of a bull, with his sister in the form of a wild
cow ; and he begets a bull-calf. 295
It is true that anthropomorphism is necessary and legitimate
for the style and language of the Bible, and that we owe two great
concepts to the metaphorical description of YHVH in human terms :
that of His divine love for Israel as developed by Hosea and
Jeremiah, and that of His fatherhood, which we first meet in Moses'
original words to Pharaoh : " Israel is my first-born son ". But
the anthropomorphic metaphor must preserve its character, it must
not transgress the bounds of spirituality ; it has to give people what
they need but must not affect the essence of God. This is what
the anthropomorphism of the Old Testament accomplishes ; and
it is on account of this that the latter has given the religions what
they require to satisfy the demand for proximity to God without
making God's unity in any way questionable.
The YHVH religion is doubly threatened by the nature of the
Baal : by the elimination of the God from the central position in
the new cultural life, and as against this that Baalization which
converts the God himself into a Baal. The war against both
 BAAL 1 95

dangers continues for centuries in the religious history of Israel ;

Elijah and Hosea are its protagonists. We are not told what
Moses already felt regarding it when he saw his people falling
away to Baal Pear. But we may well assume that he, having at
last reached the Land of Promise, knew to the very deeps of his
heart how much inner struggle would still be required before the
promise could fmd its true fulfilment.
 THE END
T
I
is not one of the functions of this book to examine and
elucidate the Biblical reports, which have apparently come down
to us as scanty and uncotlllected remains of a tradition that is lost
for the greater part, regarding the unsuccessful negotiations with
Edam and the skirting of that country ; regarding the apparently
ambiguous relations with Moab ; regarding the victorious wars
against Sihon, King of the Amorites and Og, King of the Bashan ;
and regarding the settlement of certain Israelite tribes east of the
Jordan. The results of investigation may be taken as showing
that these for the greater part have a historical nucleus ; that in
actual fact certain neighbouring peoples to Israel appeared too
strong to be challenged, whereas largely successful campaigns were
conducted against others. From time to time the Biblical text
reports the share of Moses in these political and military activities ;
but even where he is not especially mentioned we have the right
to imagine him planning, deciding and directing. Biographically
speaking there is far less to go upon in this final stage of his life,
in respect of which we are not even given an approximate length
of time. We only feel, when looking at the meagre fragments,
that the guiding power continues unabated in an unaging soul.
That soul itself understands its power as the strength to allow itself
to be guided, and we may understand it in the same way with him ;
as long as we do not ignore the fact that that really is a strength,
and indeed the strength that is above all others.
And now, the Biblical narrative reports,a Moses is informed by
God that he should prepare himself for death. On account of
a " stubbornness b or " unfaithfulness
" c the character of which
",

cannot be clearly and unequivocally elucidated, he is forbidden to

tread the soil of Canaan. Only from the summit of a mountain
may he look upon the land. At his request to appoint his successor
to the leadership, in which cotmection he is visibly thinking first
and foremost of leadership in war, Moses is authorized to induct
Joshua into the office.296 What he has to do is to place his hand
upon him, with the gesture of identification which we know from
the sacrificial cult. Joshua is already possessed of the spirit ; of
set purpose the narrative has Moses calling on God as the " God of
a Num. xxvii, I 2 ff. Num. x:cvii, 14. Deut. xxxii, 5 1 .
196
 THE END 197
the spmts in all flesh ", that is, the endower of the individual
spirit. Now he, Moses, has to indue Joshua with something of
his " radiance ", of the maiestas 297 which he possesses.
The figure of Joshua is not easy to grasp historically, as the
book that has been given his name is a confluence of traditions
differing very widely in value, while his position during the life
time of Moses is not made quite clear in the books of the Pentateuch.
There are some 298 who regard him as a tribal chief, resembling
the so-called Great Judges in the Book of Judges, who fought and
won in a single battle, and Joshua may well be regarded as actually
the first of the " Judges " ; even though, as it seems to me, in a
far more extensive sense. There is also a view 299 which would
attribute to him the greater part of the work of Moses, particu
larly in the religious field. And again there is another 300 which
would transfer him into a period earlier than that of Moses ; and
according to which he led the first departure of the Israelites to
Canaan, while Moses led the second.
To me the arguments which have been offered against the
Biblical account of the relation between Moses and Joshua do not
appear strong enough. Despite the scanty material, we can never
theless fashion ourselves a consistent picture of the functions of
Joshua under the leadership of Moses. Moses entrusted the youth
ful Joshua at a critical moment with the guarding of his leader
tent, which had become the divine tent. He entrusted it to him,
a man of the tribe of Ephraim, and not to any of the Levites, not
even to his brother or his own son. (It appears that at a later
time this function, which had become a collective one, was en
trusted to the group of Levitcs who had remained faithful.) This
is, on the one hand, in accord with the uncertain character of the
relations between Moses and his clan ; while on the other it fits
in well with the obviously complete absence of any dynastic inten
tions which we observe in him.
It is entirely in harmony with the nomadic and semi-nomadic
style of life that Moses should by choice educate his spiritual son
and successor. The nature of the particular qualities which led
him to choose the young Joshua is not told us, but in the two
brief conversations between them of which we are told we learn
two things : his " zeal " for Moses and his physical and instinctive
interest in everything connected with fighting. Possibly we ought
to assume, even though the texts are silent about it, that the next
stage was preceded by a decisive participation of Joshua in the
 MOSES

suppression of one of the revolts ; maybe of that particular one

the noise of which sounded in his ears like the alarms of war.
This would make it immediately understandable that Moses should
now transfer to him the leadership of the external battles, in which
Joshua passes the test and emerges a victor.
At the same time there is an important difference between the
characters and temperaments of the two men. Joshua lacks that
which is the constituent element in the attitude and actions of
Moses ; he does not receive revelations. " Spirit is in him ", but
the spirit of God does not come to him. YHVH has selected him
for an o ffice, but He does not deem him worthy of associating
with him. Naturally nothing of this needs to be altered because
of either the fragmentary account of the manifestation near
Jericho, a characteristically the apparition of a heavenly commander,
operating in its clearly literary style with fixed requisites, or the
words of God to Joshua which are occasionally reported. No
personal experience to be compared with that of Moses can be
glimpsed anywhere.
This absence is clearly decisive for Moses' resolution. There
ripens within him a thought which is rich in consequences, the
thought of what has to be done : the division of powers. Those
functions which were united in him, in Moses, namely the sacral
utterance of oracles, the direction of communal offerings and the
political organization and leadership of the people's life, must be
divided between two men, two kinds of men, two series of men ;
the second of such a kind as to be united with the military leader
ship.
Here what was to develop in coming generations, the duality
of " priest " and " judge " in Israel, finds its historical origin. We
do not know how this process was carried out in detail. It is
possible, in spite of the fact that the reference to Eleazar the Priest
in Numbers xxvii, 19 seems quite secondary, that it was not Aaron
but his son who was dedicated as priest, and that in this way the
authoritative priestly class was fmally introduced. It is possibly
during one of these late hours in the life of Moses that the oracular
instruments, the Urim and Thummim, which are of presumably
Kenite origin, first make their appearance. These he himself may
well have kept but did not use, and clearly did not permit others
to use ; now, however, he appears to have handed them over to
the priest as indispensable for his sacral successors.
Josh. v, 13 ff.
 THE END 1 99

At all events, what was united in the person of Moses is now

reft asunder, and the rift runs right through the organization of the
people established by him. For not merely his personal task was
based on the same man receiving the will of God and directing its
execution ; it is one of the firmest foundations of his work that
" religion " and " politics " are inseparable. What had become
reality in the spirit and character of this unique man, the unity of
human leadership of a collective body in the name of God, was
what he had introduced despite all obstacles as an objective unity
of public order in the social reality. There had been the sacral
sphere including that of the cult ; but it was impossible to exempt
oneself, by means of cult performances, from the commandment
of God regarding the right behaviour towards men (the
third part of the Decalogue) . There was the sphere of public
life, comprehending that of politics ; but it was impossible to make
political decisions which would contradict the command of God to
serve Him exclusively (the first part of the Decalogue).
Now the division of powers, which Moses found imposed
upon him by the needs of a personal succession due to the situation
in which a newly-summoned leader might be required almost at
a moment's notice, inevitably induced the first urge towards a
s!i!paration of the two spheres. No matter how faithfully the
Judge and the Priest co-operated in administering their holy heri
tage, the separate legislation of the two spheres deriving from the
division would of necessity have its effect in splitting what was
marked for unity, in the order of the people and, together with
that, in every individual soul as well. Moses does something, for
the sake of maintaining the work, as a consequence of which a
central part of the foundation of his work is broken down. The
final scene in the tragedy of Moses, like those which had preceded
it, derives from the resistance of the human material. Moses
wished for an entire, undivided human life, as the right answer to
the Divine revelation. But splitting up is the historical way of
mankind, and the unsplit persons canno t do anything more than
raise man to a higher level on which he may thereafter follow his
course, as long as he is bound by the law of his history.
The Book of Deuteronomy, which presumably evolved over
a period of several centuries out of ever-renewed oratorical elabora

tion by preachers and legislators of certain traditional sayings of

Moses, aims at transmitting to us the parting address of Moses,
which he delivered to the people " in the fortieth year " . No
200 MOSES

matter whether it really was precisely forty years or, as may be

presumed, a considerably shorter period (in any case it was far
more than the four years which Goethe assumes) : we can still
feel in the polished rhetoric of the book something of the closing
period of the wanderings, of the hour of leave-taking after a long
journey together. Among the sayings which, whenever they may
have received their form known to us, show signs of an early spiritual
origin, one of the most important is that promise of God a that at
times He would send the people a prophet like to Moses, in whose
mouth He would place His words like Moses, and to whom they
would have to hearken.
This, going far beyond the problem associated with the succes
sion, is an admission of a higher continuity resulting from the ever
repeated renewal out of the spirit. We are entitled to regard
this as containing, at its core, a genuine hope on the part of Moses.
He regards himself not as a unique individual coming only once,
but as the one entrusted with the task, who, as long as that task
has not been fulfilled in its entirety, must return again and again ;
not as the same person or the identical soul (of course we are not
intended to think of transmigration of souls or anything resembling
it) but precisely as the one continuing the fulfilment of that task,
no matter what else that person or soul may be.
" Prophet " is said here, but what is meant at bottom is that
undivided, entire person who as such receives the message and as
such endeavours to establish that message in life. Only in
apparent contradiction to this are the words b with which the
narrative of Moses' death obviously ended at first ; that thereafter no
prophet arose in Israel like tmto Moses " who recognized YHVH
face to face " ; that is, with whom He was in such direct contact
as with Moses.
Here, in order to prevent any misunderstanding of the statement,
the one-time element is separated from the recurrent. Something,
something paraphrased in these words, does not return ; but what
does return is sufficient for renewal from the Spirit. Moses is not
the first of the prophets of Israel ; he stands out from that series as
he does from all others ; but the Prophets of Israel, who are men
of the Spirit in the sense of the Word of the Spirit only, continue
his work. Each of them takes it up afresh ; and every new thing
aims at being no more than restoration.

a Dcut. xviii, I 5 b Dcut. xxxiv, 10.

 THE END 201

And now Moses ascends Mount Nebo, solitary as he has always

been ; more solitary than he has ever been before. As he is making
his way over the ridge and is mounting to the level summit, he is
reminiscent of one of those noble animals which leave their herd
in order to perish alone.
According to the Bible he was one hundred and twenty years
old ; according to our understanding of the sequence of time the
years were far less in number. In any case he was an aged man.
But as he stands here upon the peak everything within him demon
strates the soul that has not aged. " His eyes were not dimmed,
and his freshness had not fled " ; that is the speech of a people's
memory.
From Nebo you can see the whole of the Jordan depression and
beyond. When the air is clear you see the snows of Hermon in the
north, and in the West the hills that lie above the Mediterranean ;
it is Canaan. That is what he sees close before him.
On this plateau, " on the heights of the Pisgah ", Israel had once
stood when first it came from the wilderness a and saw the Promised
Land lying before it. Now the wandering is at an end.
" So Moses the servant of YHVH died there in the Land of
Moab at the bidding of YHVH." The Hebrew wording admits
of the meaning " by the mouth of YHVH " This, in turn, was
.

elaborated by post-Biblical legend, for which the death of Moses

was a favourite theme. But here as ever the Biblical text is far
greater than all expansions ; greater than the picture of death by
the kiss of God is that of the man who has lived by the bidding of
this God, and who now also perishes at His bidding.
" And he buried him in the gorge, in the Land of Moab, facing
Beth Pear " ; that is, facing the spot at which the defection to
Baal had taken place. Although the translation " and one buried
him " is permissible, there can be no doubt that YHVH himself is
regarded as the digger of the grave for His servant ; and therefore
" no man knoweth his grave unto this day " .

NIIIli. xxi, :zo.

 ADD E ND U M : FROM " THE TEACinNG OF
THE PROPHETS " . (SEE NoTE I I I )
HE duologue between Joshua and the people, once the later elements
T (such as Joshua xxiv, 17 and 18a) are excluded, can be recognized as a

religious act in dialogue form. Joshua demands that the people should fear
YHVH and serve Him " simply and in truth " (verse 14b appears doubtful) ;
otherwise they must decide upon and choose " to-day " other gods for
themselves ; either the gods of the legendary days of the tribes when
the " Fathers " still dwelt in Mesopotamia, or else the gods of the sur
rounding Canaanite peoples ; " while I and my house shall serve YHVH ".
The people solemnly proclaim that they d o not wish t o forsake YHVH
in order to serve " other gods ". " We too shall serve YHVH because He is
our God " (verse 17). This proclamation does not satisfy Joshua, and he
warns them that they will not be able to serve YHVH in the way they
wish to follow. In that way it is possible to worshir other gods but not
Him, " for He is a holy God " (verse 19). He is a ' zealous " God, who
demands absolute devotion and will assuredly consume them for any
defection from Him ; no matter whether that defection be partial and
casual or whether it be entire.
The people repeat and stand by their declaration. They are prepared
to be witnesses against themselves as Joshua requires of them. And now
he orders them to put away the strange gods who are in their midst, " and
make your hearts to turn unto YHVH the God of Israel " (verse 23 ).
Only at this point does there appear in the dialogue, as it had appeared
at the very commencement of the address (verse 2 ) , this refrain from the
Song of Deborah. Only now, after " all the tribes of Israel " have united
round the worship of YHVH, does this designation again become legiti
mate. And to this the people answer conclusively (verse 24) : " YHVH
our God shall we serve, unto His voice shall we hearken ". Only now
(verse 25) does Joshua " establish a covenant for the people " and " set
statute and judgment for them " ; as was told of Moses after the division
of the Red Sea (Exodus xv, 25 ) . Nowhere in the Bible save at these two
points do we fmd this phrase, " set statute and judgment for somebody " ;
and in neither of these two passages is any information given regarding the
content of the things which are set. (It may be supposed chat the rules
governing the wanderings and journeyings of the desert period were
stated there, whereas here they heard the promulgation of the rules con
cerning the sanctuary of the Covenant, the Festivals and the Assemblies of
the Covenant.1) And in addition Joshua erects a large stone, a standing
stone, as testimony under the terebinth which grows at the sanctuary.
What we are told of here in the form of a dialogue is a historic and
vital decision of the people, from which rises the formula " YHVH,
God of lsrael ", linking the names of the God and the people. Are we to
1 Cf Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 157 tf.
202
 ADDENDUM 203
conclude from this that it must have been the historic hour in which the
tribes united by a single act and became Israel, while Israel in turn became
linked to YHVH ? Is it only at this point that the relationship of faith
commences between the God and the people ? There have actually been
some who have supposed so, and who have expressed the view that " the
Covenant ofJoshua was really the first, and was the first to be concluded ".1
There is no foundation, however, for this opinion. Here nothing of
the sacramental character of a Covenant established between God and
people is to be found ; after the fashion described in the story of the Blood
Covenant at Sinai (Exodus xxiv, 8 ) . Here you are not immersed in and
imbued with the spirit of the holy occurrence, which is revealed to us as
an objective act between those on high and those below, and which

fashions a mutual nexus between the nation and God. Instead you feel the
spirit of a human group decision which derives from faith ; a decision
that requires no special sacramental activity and no more than the ordinary
symbolic testimony. Here no covenant between Heaven and Earth,
and binding on both sides, is to be found, but the bond which the people
take on themselves vis-a-vis YHVH receives the colour of duties under the
Covenant.
In this act Joshua does not function at all " as representative of the people
and in its name ", as is supposed.2 In the Bible the expression " to make a
Covenant for somebody " almost always means an action initiated by the
superior party or his representative. Even what is before us is only the
first of those renew.1ls of the Covenant, the nature of which is clearly
shown in the case of the " making of the Covenant " by King Josiah
{II Kings xxiii, 3 ). The people who have betrayed or rejected the Covenant
once again undertake to fulfil it and perform it ; whereas the God, who has
faithfully observed the Covenant, does not need to enter into it afresh.
He does nothing more than respond, and accepts the renewal by authorizing
His representative, in this case the king, to accept it as in force " before
YHVH " (similarly to " before the God " in Joshua xxiv, 1 ) , and to fulfil it.
(The linguistic form is different in the description of a religious state act
such as that to be found in II Kings xi, 17, where the king has to be con
fumed as intermediary between God and people ; after the fashion known
to us in documents of Ancient Arabia, concerning the renewals of
Covenants.)
Here we have to define our attitude to another view, which has been
expressed by certain outstanding scholars.3 They hold that " the great
majority of the people did not know anything of YHVH until then,
and therefore did not participate at all in the wandering through the
Desert ", but " remained within the country " and " only upon seeing
the wonderful leadership of the hosts of Moses and Joshua, that is, of the
Tribe of Ephraim, did they also turn to the God ". This group is now
supposed to have solemnly forsaken its " established religious traditions "
1Bin Gurion, Sinai und Garizim (1926), p. 405.
2Noth, Das Buch Josua (1938), p. 1 08.
3 Cf in particular : Sellin, Geschichte des Israelitisch-juedischcn Volkes I (1924) ;

Noth, Das System dcr zwoelf Staemmc Isracls (1930), p. 66 ff. ; Steuernagcl, Jahwe
und die Vaetergoetter (Festschrift Georg Beer, 1935), p. 63 ff.
204 MOSES
and to have chosen YHVH, thus likewise joining in the Covenantal worship
which found its centre at Shechem.
Only in such a way, these scholars hold, is it possible to explain the
fact that the People of Israel appear here not as though they had once been
present at Mount Sinai, but as a people " the greater portion of whom are
still idolatrous, and who still have to remove the false gods from their
midst ' '. And among those gods that have to be removed are likewise
numbered " all the gods of the Fathers of Israel ". By those " other gods "
which, according to verses 2 and 14, had formerly been served by the
Fathers, their own particular gods are meant ; the elim which were peculiar
to them.
But not only is there no trace in the text of any such division of the
people into two (for after all, it is impossible to attribute the phrase " I
and my house " to all the tribes which participated in the wanderings
through the wilderness, even though the latter may have been few in
number) ; not only do all the responses in the dialogue sound as though
they are the responses of " the people " but, as the first of these responses,
the people declare (verse 16) : " Far be it from us to forsake YHVH in
order to serve other gods ".
Hence the people had followed YHVH until that time as well ; and
Joshua refers to those words in his reply (verse zo). For his own words,
" If you forsake YHVH and serve strange gods . . . ", have the implication :
you forsake YHVH even if you only worship strange gods beside Him To .

this the people reply : " No (not so), but YHVH (and He alone) shall we
serve." It is impossible to see a late addition in the words " Far be it
from us to forsake YHVH ", which actually serve as the main theme of
the dialogue. Here it is stated quite clearly that " the people " had
followed YHVH until that day according to their own view ; that is, in
their aspect of a complete unit. Yet what follows (verse 19) makes it
clear that in the eyes ofJoshua such service is not regarded as true service
of YHVH, since it was not absolute ; it did not satisfy the demand of the
" Holy God ", of this " zealous God ".
The meaning of their words to Joshua is : assuredly we recognize
YHVH. But the purpose of the words of Joshua to them is : there is no
true recognition of YHVH when those recognizing Him recognize other
powers as well ; you must decide to whom it is that you wish to cleave,
whether to those powers or to Him ; for from this moment you are not
entitled to imagine that you may do both things together. It cannot be
claimed, to be sure, that in this word " other " Joshua had referred to
other gods in the simple sense of elim ; for if he had been referring to
them, the people could not have denied so energetically that they thought
of other gods. What, in that case, was his purpose ? And what, in that
case, was the sin of the people against the Covenant, which necessitated
the renewal of the latter ?
The people are not at all aware that they are supposed to have served
other gods ; for as a people they had no other gods. As far as they are
aware, they really had no other gods, for with the exception of YHVH
they had no god who was common to them all. Nor did any single tribe
have a separate god of its own ; all of them, as we have seen, participate
 ADDENDUM 20 5
in the general declaration. But the families have separate gods, family
gods, household gods, private gods, the existence of which had not made
any impression on public consciousness. These gods are almost certainly
in the form of wooden masks. The term tharaph, the root of which is
found in a text from Ugarit (Ras Shamra), and which is found only in
the plural in the Scriptures, seems to have been explained in later texts as
something that gradually rots away. It is easier to get on with them, to
be sure, than with the invisible spirit. They secure happiness, they increase
strength, they foretell the future, recourse may be had to them at all times
or under any of the situations which are liable to befall in life ; and the
womenfolk bring them to the homes of their husbands from the homes of
their fathers. Characteristic of them is the fact that they are nameless
gods, that they have no personality, that they enjoy neither mythos nor
worship 1 ; they are entirely incidental gods, gods by the by, as it were.
They were incidental gods in the cultural regions of Babylon and Syria,
among those peoples in whose midst Israel passed along its way. They
were brought from " strange parts ". Now they are incidental gods in
Israel. And it is in that respect, and in that respect specifically, that they
must be " put away ".
How are they to be put away ? The legends of the Fathers contain
the following description (Genesis xxxv, 2-4 ) : All the " strange gods "
are handed over to the head of the family, who buries them under a holy
tree in the vicinity of Shechem ; and this would appear to be the tree under
which Joshua set up the memorial stone. Here too, in the legend, the act
of putting away bears the implication that a fresh situation has come about.
In the historical story we find a kind of concentration which bears the
stamp of history. Here no fundamental distinction can be drawn between
religion and politics, just as in general no distinction could be drawn
between them in Israel, at the period when the singular qualities of the
latter began to assume form. Since these {lrivate incidental gods weaken
the concentration of the people round YHVH, they prevent the establish
ment of a unified " Israel ", which could be capable of functioning in
history as a unified people. This is made particularly clear in a well
preserved fragment (I Samuel, vii, 3 ) which linguistically resembles the
earlier portion in the narrative of the Book of Joshua. Tllis fragment
belongs to a tale dating from the days of the Wars of the Philistines, the
remaining sections of which have been reworked again and again. In this
tale Samuel commands " the whole house of Israel " to return unto YHVH
with all their hearts, to remove from their midst the strange gods (the
word " and the Ashtoreths " is a later addition), to " prepare " their hearts
for YHVH and to serve Him alone. The corresponding action on the
part of Joshua is an expression and outcome of his experience while he
had been leader and general of the people ; no matter whether all the
tribes were under his command, as would appear from the Biblical account,
or only a smaller group. 2 Up to this point the conquest of the country
1 Kaufmann quite correctly points out this fact (History of the Hebrew Religion
I, p. 675 and elsewhere) ; but he identifies the baalim with the tl1eraphim without any
reason for doing so.
2 Cf Alt, Josua (Werden und Wesen des Aleen Testaments, 1936), p. I ff.
206 MOSES
had been only partially successful, because there was not any real and
vital national unity in existence as yet. The lives of the tribes were largely
restricted to family interests, and remained subject to the family gods.
The people could not exist in history as a unit and a reality unless they
became, absolutely and entirely, " the people of YHVH " ; unless YHVH
became absolutey, entirely and indisputably the " God of Israel ".
It was this that was the crux of the matter here, as it was to be later on
in the Song of Deborah. The association of the tribes upon which Joshua
stamped an organic form can have had its centre nowhere else than in the
sanctuary of YHVH ; and the forms of its gatherings could not have been
any except those of the festivals of YHVH.
 N OTES
1 Usener, Der Stoff des griechischen Epos. Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie
der Wissenschaften, philologisch-historische Klasse CXXXVII (1897), p. 4 f. (re
printed in Usener, Kleine Schriften IV, p. 201 f.).
2 Herzfeld, Mythos und Geschichte. Archa:ologische Mitteilungen aus Iran VI

(1933). p. 102 ff.

3 Jacob Grimm, Gedanken ueber Mythos, Epos und Geschichte. Deutsches
Museum 1 8 1 3, III, p. 53 (reprinted in Jacob Grimm, Kleinere Schriften IV, p. 74).
' B. Jacob, in a study on " The Childhood and Youth of Moses, the Messenger of
God " which reached me only after the completion of this book (Essays in Honour of
the Very Rev. Dr. J. H. Hertz, 1942), p. 250, declares that there can be no question
of a legal adoption in the Biblical narrative. That the report, however, of the child
being brought to the daughter of Pharaoh and becoming as her son (Exodus ii, 10)
indicates that Moses was brought up to maturity by the Princess, canno t well be
disputed. Incidentally, the passage in II Samuel vii, 14, quoted by Jacob, where
God says that Solomon will become His son, is clearly a metaphor drawn from the
sphere of legal adoption ; compare the analogous formula in Psalms ii, 7
Sethe, Die Totenliteratur der Alten Aegypter (1931), p. 9
8 A good, although still incomplete, review is given by Jirku, Die Wanderungen
der Hebraeer (1924). Since that time certain important facts have become known
without, however, considerably changing the general picture.
7 Speiser, Ethnic Movements in the Near East in the Second Millennium B.c.
(193 3).
8 Toynbee, A Study of History III (1934), p. 14.
Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums I, 2, para. 340.
1 Cahun, Introduction a l'histoire de l'Asie (1896), p. 48.
11
Cf Buber, The Teaching of the Prophets (Hebrew, 1 942), p. 30 f. ; also von
Rad, Das formgeschichtliche Problem des Hexateuchs (1938), p. 3 (" The rhyth
mical and alliterative character of the beginning is particularly archaic.")
12 Lewy, :tlabirii and Hebrews, Hebrew Union College Annual XIV (1939) ,

p. 616, interprets : " A disloyal servant who rose against his master ". To me,
however, this does not seem to follow of necessity from the fact that in the texts,
as was actually the custom in all literatures, a servant is compared to a dog. A
runaway dog does not rise against its master.
13 Cf in particular Landsberger, tJabiru und Lulau (Kleinasiatische Forschungen,
I, 1930), p. 327
14 Cf Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, 2nd Ed. (1936), p. 73 ff. ; Buber, The Teaching
of the Prophets, p. 29 ff. Haller in " Religion, Recht und Sitte in den Genesissagen "
(1905), p. 32, justly remarks : " Since the God concept of the legend of the Fathers
contains all these characteristics, not only a considerable uniformity, but also the
character of the real God of the nomads, must be ascribed to him. It is therefore
scarcely thinkable that so lively a memory of the requirements of nomad life should
be nothing more than a literary costume, which could also have altered the God
idea."
u Radloff, Aus Sibirien, 2nd Ed. (1893) I, p. 517.
18 Grimme, Althebraeische Handschriften von Sinai (1923), p. 95
1 7 Lowie, An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (1934), p. 53
18 Strzygowski, Asiens bildende Kunst (1930), p. 578.
19 Hasebroek, Griechische Wirtschafts-und Gesellschaftsgeschichte (193 1), p. I .
20
Mauss, Critique interne d e I a legende d'Abraham. Revue des .Etudes Juives
lxx:xii (1926), p. 39
207
 208 NOTES
21 B. Jacob, Das erste Buch der Thora (1934), p. 376.
22 Despite the similar Babylonian and Canaanite .terms for " warrior, fellow
warrior, man sworn to war ", it seems to me that this meaning should be adhered to
as being the original one.
21 We find this verb with the meaning of the parental bringing-forth in Genesis

iv, I and, in rather more attenuated fashion, in Deuteronomy xxxii, 6. In an epic

text of the Ras Shamra the spouse of the highest God is described by this very term
as the " bringer forth " of the Gods. (It must, however, be noted that this meaning
is being contested by Levi della Vida, El 'Elyon in Genesis XIV, I 8-2o, Journal of
Biblical Literature, lxiii, 1944, p. I ff.)
" Cf Westermarck, Ritual and Belief in Morocco (1926) I, p. 3 5 ff.
26 Thus, for example : Peet, Egypt and the Old Testament (I922) ; Jack, The

Date of the Exodus (1925) ; Musil, The Northern Hejaz (1926) ; Garstang, The
Foundations of Bible History, Joshua-Judges {I93I) ; Oesterley and T. H. Robinson,
A History of lsrael, I (1932) ; Yahuda, The Accuracy of the Bible (1934) ; if. also
Yahuda, The Year of the Exodus (Hebrew), The American Hebrew Year Book, vii,
1944. p. 126 ff.
26 Thus, for example, Wardle in H. W. Robinson, Record and Revelation

{I938) ; Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity (1940) ; J. Kaufmann,

History of the Religion of Israel (Hebrew) IV (1942).
27 R. Kittel, Geschichte des Volkes Israel I, 5-6 Ed. (1923), p. 366.
28 Thus, for example, Frazer, Folklore in the Old Testament (1919) II, p. 438 ff.
28 Lord Raglan, The Hero (1936), p. I78.

30 Yahuda, op. cit., p. 6o ff.

81 Yahuda, op. cit., p. 65 f.
8 2 In the article already mentioned B. Jacob also indicates, p. 253, that there is a
play upon words here. It is his opinion, however, that the name was actually given
to the child with this specific sense by the linguistic advisers of the Princess, who
were presumably familiar with Hebrew ; and that thereby they wished to express
the hope that " he himself is to draw his people out of the waves of death " ; where
" waves of death " has to be regarded as a popular simile and poetic speech. I cannot
concur in this view. The passage from Isaiah in particular proves that the idea
behind the name is not the metaphorical waters of death, but the actual waters of the
Red Sea.
38 Cf Buber und Rosenweig, Die Schrift und ihre Verdeutschung (1936), p. 39
ff., 58 ff., 64 ff., 68 ff., 72 ff., II6 f., 126 f., I 52 f., 2II ff., 249 ff., 262 ff.
34 Cf Phythian-Adams, The Call of Israel (1934), p. 144 f., who points out that
in the country of the Masai on the Congo a volcano is called " The God mountain ".
The author, however, does not notice the fact that the Masai have obviously been
influenced by Biblical traditions in the shaping of their mythology.
35 Gressmann, Mose und seine Zeit (1913), p. 30.
38 Gressmann, op. cit., p. 21. From this statement, which canno t be supported
from the text, the author draws the conclusion on p. 442 f. that : " An inner experi
ence such as that enjoyed by the prophets who left writings, or by Jesus, is excluded
ab initio ". That is, it is " not testified to anywhere ". Gressmann's addition,
namely that an experience of the kind runs counter to " the spirit of anti
quity ", is quite incomprehensible to me. It is impossible to understand Zarathustra,
for example, without positing some actual religious experience ; and Moses even less.
Cf also J. Kaufmann , History of the Religion of Israel (Hebrew) II, I (I942), p. 48 f.
87 Gressmann, op. cit., p. 22.
88 Cf Isidore Levy, La legende de Pythagore de Grece en Palestine {I927), p.
137 ff.
81 B . Jacob, Mose am Dornbusch, Monatsschrift fuer die Geschichte und Wissen
schaft des Judentums, New Series, XXX (1922), p. I7. Special reference should be
made at this point to Jacob's as yet unpublished commentary on Exodus.
 NOTES 209
4 Cf Schmoekd, Das angewandte Recht im Alten Testament (1930), p. 8 .
u I have given a detailed criticism o f this thesis in m y work, " Koenigtum
Gottes ", 2nd Ed., p. xxxi ff.
Montgomery, Arabia and the Bible (1934), p. ro.
Gressmann, op. cit., p. 434
u Cf Buber, The Teaching of the Prophets, p. 36 ff.
45 Cf Kaufmann, op. cit., II, I p. 279 ff.
'" That early tribal gods are also creators is known to us from countless myths,
of which the Polynesian and North American are particularly characteristic. For
the myth-makers the land of the tribe means the entire earth, since it alone affects
them directly.
47 God, using the same choice of words, says to Moses (Exodus xxxiii , 19) that
He will call out the name of YHVH before him ; and it is told with the identical
wording (xxxiv, 5) that He does so.
'" Cf Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, pp. 84, 23 5 ff., and the literature referred to
there ; Huber-Rosenzweig, Die Schrift und ihre Verdeutschung, pp. 201 , 207 f. ;
Buber, The Teaching of the Prophets, pp. 26 f., 3 5, and the literature referred to
there ; more recently A. Vincent, La religion des Judeo-Arameens d'Elephantine
(1937), p. 46. Among the literature that reached me after the completion of this
book the article of Montgomery, The Hebrew Divine Name and the Personal
Pronoun HU, Journal of Biblical Literature, LXIII fz, 1 944, p. 161 ff., is noteworthy.
It refers to II Kings ii, 14 and Jeremiah v, 12.)
Nicholson, Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz (1899), p. 126 f.,
282.
50 Mowinckel in a letter to Rudolf Otto, printed in R. Otto, Das Gefuehl des
Ueberweltlichen (1932), p. 326 f.
5 1 L. Koehler, Theologie des Alten Testaments (1936), p. 234.
5 2 This should be read : wa-thiga.
53 Among certain Arab tribes of the Sinai Peninsula and the South Egyptian
desert, this is done by the mother or sister of the circumcised boy placing the severed
foreskin on her toe and keeping it lying there as long as possible (G. W. Murray,
Sons of Ishmael, 1935, p. 176) ; in this way the practice is also of use to the women
of tlte tribe.
54 So Ed. Meyer, Die lsraeliten und ihre Nachbarstaemme (1906), p. 59 ; Ed.
Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums II 2, 2nd Ed. (193 1), p. 206 ; Weill, Le sejour des
Israelites au desert (1909), p. 66 ; Gressmann, Mose, p. 56 ff. ; Loisy, La religion
d'Israel, 3rd Ed. (1933), p. 91 ; most recently Beer, Exodus (1939), p. 38 f. Simi
larly already Mauss, Essai sur le sacrifice, L'annee sociologique II (1 899), p. 134.
55 Rudolph, Der " Elohist " von Exodus bis Josua (1938), p. 7
56 Vo!z, Das Daemonische in Jahwe (1924).
51 The considerations adduced against Aaron having been the brother of Moses
arc of weight, but not convincing.
58 Jaussen, Coutumes des Arabes au pays du Moab (1908), p. 366.
Pedersen, Passahfest und Passahlegende, Zeitschrift fuer die alttestamentliche
Wissenschaft, New Series XI (1937), p. 167.
0 0 Gressmann, Mose, p. 120.
61 That she is called " the sister of Aaron " here, and is also mentioned elsewhere
together with him, may well be explained on the basis of an old clan tradition, which
can no longer be precisely apprehended by us, according to which the older members
of the family constituted a group on their own ; to which tlte clan-member adopted
by the Egyptian woman, or more strongly Egyptized for other personal reasons,
did not belong.
The material speaking in favour of this has been best collected in Phythian
Adams, The Call of Israel, p. r66 ff.
2!0 NOTES
6 3 Cf. Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 1 3 1 , also Galling, Die Erwaehlungstradi
tionen Israels (I98), p. 6 : " Here speaks the unbroken national consciousness of the
whole people. This can most easily be thought of in the era of David."
u Cf. Buber, op. cit., p. 63 ff.
u Cf. Eichrodt, Thcologie des Alten Testaments I (1933), p. 95 f.
66 The verse docs not consist, as is usually supposed, of two phrases but of
a single one ; the second, " Who is like thee " is only an intensifying reiteration
(cf. verse 6). It should be understood as : Which among the protective gods, 0
YHVH, is so glorified in holiness as thee, dread in praiseworthy works and performer
of wonders !
6 7 Cf. A. Kaiser, Wanderungen und Wandlungcn in der Sinaiwueste (I98), p .
ff. ; Bodenheimer an d Theodor, Ergebnisse der Sinai Expedition 197 (I99),
p. 54 ff.
6 8 J. Hehn, Siebenzahl und Sabbat bei der Babyloniem und im Alten Testament
(1907), pp. 6 If., 93 . CJ., however, H. and]. Lewy, The Origin of theWeek and the
Oldest West Asiatic Calendar, Hebrew Union College Annual, XVII (I942/3), p. I6 f.
6 8 Colson, TheWeek, an Essay on the Origin and Development of the Seven
Day Cycle (I926), p. 3 is right in observing that the early forms of the sequence
of weeks have nothing to do with the phases of the moon.
o Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta I, chapter IJ.
7 1 The contrary views ofJastrow, The Original Character of the Hebrew Sabbath,
American Journal of Theology II, I 898, p. 323 ff., are not convincing. The hypo
thesis that the Sabbath was originally a day of fasting is also unfounded. (The argu
ments in favour of it can be found in Webster, Rest Days, p. 259 f.) The view of
Nilsson in Primitive Time-reckoning (I920), p. 333 ff., that the Sabbath was origin
ally a market day, is wrong in assuming the late (although pre-exilic) development.
The authors of the article mentioned in note 68, H. and J. Lewy, assume that the
seven-day week (after the failure of an attempt at calendar reform under King
Josiah) developed out of the original fifty-day unit of Ancient Orient only in the
time of Ezra ; the valuable article, containing in particular important indications of
the connection of the Babylonian septenary system with the number of winds, failed,
however, to convince me of the late origin of the seven-day week.
Hehn, op. cit., p. I30.
73 Wellhausen, Rede zur Feier des Geburtstages Seiner Majestaet des Kaisers und
Koenigs (I 900).
74 Cf. Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 47 If.
7& Cf. Buber, op. cit. p. 4 ff.
76 It seems that Joshua's original name Hoshea was expanded to Yehoshua upon
his adoption into a narrower YHVH association.
77 Lebeck, Ueber die Symbolik des Szepters, in : Auswahl a us Lobecks akadc-
mischen Reden, published by Lehnardt (I865), p. 71.
78 Musil, Arabia Petraea III (I908), p. 377
7 8 Cf. Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 84.
60 Budde, Religion oflsrael to the Exile (I899), p. 25.
61 Cf. the texts of Rabbinic and Karaite exegetes compiled by Bin Gorion in

Sinai und Gari:zim (I926), p. 222 If.

8 Z Oesterley and T. H. Robinson, Hebrew Religion (I930), p. I I2.
83 Budde, op. dt., p. 22
84 Gressmann, Mose, p. I6I ; cf. Gray, Sacrifice in the Old Testament (1925),
p. 208.
s& Budde, op. dt., p. 24.
86 Budde, Die Altisraelitische Religion (I9IZ), p. 132.. The Septuagint reading
" and Jethro offered " (wa-yoqrib instead of wo-yiqa&) is based on a defective technical
grasp of what took place.
 NOTES 2II
8 7 See the commentaries o f Ibn Ezra and Rashbam.
88 On community sacrifice or " total sacrifice " among the Arabs see Wellhausen,
Reste arabischen Heidentums, 2nd Ed., p. 120.
88 Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity, p. 195.
00 Eerdman's assumption, in : Alttestamentliche Studien II (1901), p. 44 ff., that
the Kenites were craftsmen settled at the oases, many of whom, and particularly the
smiths, went to live with the nomads for longer or briefer periods, calls for some
qualification ; in no case should this semi-nomadic type be described as " town
dwellers ". Eisler, Das Qainzeichen und die Qeniter, Le Monde Oriental XXIII,
1929, p. 59 ff., offers suggestions worthy of notice, particularly regarding Kenite
activities as ore-smelters, but tries to prove too much.
01 Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. xliv.
82 It is in no way " unnatural " (Gray, Sacrifice in the Old Testament, p. 207),

but is the Oriental fashion of speech, for Jethro to offer his advice in such a manner
that he first formulates that part of Moses' experience which he afterwards recom
mends him to continue. For this reason it is baseless to assume with Gray that there
was an earlier version of the story in which Moses had not previously had this ex
perience, but that he learnt this from Jethro as well. Is it really likely for the tale
originally to have run that Moses now learnt from his father-in-law that he had
" to be before God for the people " (verse 19).
08 In passages such as Judges vi, 1 5, I Samuel x, 19, the word elef means not
" thousand " but racial association, gens, in accordance with the original meaning of
the root " to associate " (cJ. the noun elef, herd).
Phythian-Adams, The Call of Israel, p. 76,
06 Volz, Mose, 2nd Ed. ( 1932), p. 84 ; cJ. also Staerk, Zum alttestamentlichen
Erwaehlungsglauben (Zeitschrift fuer die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, New Series,
XIV, 1937), p. 8, and von Rad, Das formgeschichtliche Problem des Hexateuchs, p. 36.
Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. uz ff. ; cJ. also Quell, article ll<a8K7J in Kittel,
Theologisches Woerterbuch zum Neuen Testament II (1935), p. 123.
07 Gressmann, Die Anfaenge Israels (Die Schriften des Alten Testaments I, z),
2nd Ed. (1922), p. 6o ; cJ. Gressmann, Mose, p. 1 85.
08 Eissfeldt, Einleitung in das Alte Testament (1934}, p. z6o.
Cf Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 126 ff. Regarding the interpretation in
detail cJ. Staerk, Zum alttestamentlichen Erwaehlungsglauben, p. 8 ff.
10 Cf the excellent exposition in Baudissin, Kyrios als Gottesname im Judentum
III (1927), p. 379 ff. (See p. 398 ff. in particular for the attribute ofjustice.)
1o1
Cf Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 140 ff.
101 Ibid., p. 1 3 2 ff., 273 ff. ; cJ. also Gunkel, Einleitung in die Psalmen (1933},
p. 208.
xoa Eichrodt, Theologie des Alten Testaments I, p. 96.
10' Cf Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 69 (, 93 ff., 2II ff.
106 On Gideon see ibid., p. 3 ff. I have demonstrated the unity of nucleus of the
Samuel story in my as yet unpublished work, " The Anointed " (passages from which
have appeared in the Hebrew Historical Quarterly Zion IV, 1939, pp. I ff.).
100 On the age of the first constituent cJ. Steuernagel, Der jehovistische Bericht
ueber den Bundesschluss, Theologische Studien und Kritiken LXXII (1899), p. 349 ( ;
on that of the second cJ. Baentsch, Exodus-Leviticus-Numeri (1903), p. 213 ,
Gressmann , Mose, p. r8z.
107
Cf Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 254 (
108 f T. H. Robinson, The Crises, in H. W. Robinson, Record and Revelation
C
(193 8), p. 141.
10 Noth, Das System der zwoelf Staemme Israels (1930).
110 Sellin, Geschichte des israelitisch-juedischen Volkes I (1924), p. 98 ff. ; Noth,
op. dt. p. 69 f.
212 NOTES
111 In view of the importance of the subject, I append above (p. 202) a translation
of the relevant passage from my Hebrew work, " The Teaching of the Prophets ".
11 2 Volz, Mose, pp. 77, 88 ; cJ. also Caspari, Die Gottesgemeinde von Sinaj
(192.2), p. 168.
118 Noth, Die israelitischen Personennamen (1929), p. 191 , 208 f.
1"
Cf Sachsse, Die Bedeutung des Namens Israel (192.2.), p. 91.
111
Cf Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, pp. 219, 224 ; Baudissin, Die Geschichte des
alttestamentlichen Priestertums (1889), p. ss tf. ; Baudissin, art. Priests and Levites,
in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible IV, p. 69 f. Van Hoonacker, Le sacerdoce levi
rique dans Ia loi et dans l'histoire (1899) understands " servers of the people in the
procedure of the God cult " ; but that is a strangely complicated concept. In that
case one would expect simply " the lads " instead of the " lads of the Children of
Israel " ; as correspondingly for Joshua (Exodus xxxiii, II) and Samuel (I Samuel
iii, 1).
111 " The occasion described here is unique ; and so, in some respects, is the
ritual." Gray, Sacrifice in the Old Testament, p. 200.
117
Cf Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. I I I ff.
11 8 Op. cit., p. 123 f.
11 8 Buber, The Teaching of the Prophets, p. I I8.
120 Baudissin, " Gott schauen " in der alttestamentlichen Religion (Archiv fuer
Religionswissenschaft XVIII, 1915), p. 217.
121 Buresch, Klaros (1899), p. 89 ff. ; the passage on the Decalogue is found

on p. I I6.
1u Wellhausen, Skizzen und Vorarbeiten I, Die Composition des Hexateuchs
p. 96.
1 23 Alt, Die Urspruenge des israelitischen Rechts (1929), p. 52 ; cJ. Rudolph,
Der " Elohist " von Exodus bis Josua, p. 59 : " a conglomerate of little value from
the Book of the Covenant, which is in no way source material ".
m B. Duhm, lsraels Propheten (1916), p. 38.
1 26 Beer, Exodus, p. 162.
1 21
Hoelscher, Geschichte der israelitischen und juedischen Religion (1922),
p. 129.
1 27 Steuernagel, Einleitung in das Alte Testament (1912), p. 260.
128 Beer, op. cit. p. 103 .
1 28 Budde, Religion of Israel to the Exile, p. 33 : " both superfluous and im

possible ".
uo Mowinckel, Le decalogue (192.7), p. 102, is of the opinion that unlike the

Decalogue the moral elements " seem to be lost within a long series of ritual and
cultic commandments " ; but a glance at the text shows that the ritual and cultic
commandments constitute less tllan half in the Egyptian, and only a small fraction
in the Babylonian.
1 11 Bruno Gutmann, Die Stammeslehren der Dschagga (3 vols., 1932 ff.).
132 Mowinckel, op. cit. p. 101.
131 Nowack, Der erste Dekalog (Baudissin-Festschrift, 1917), p. 395
134 Beer, Moses und sein Werk (1912), p. 26.
1 36
Cf J. Kaufmann, History of the Religion of Israel, 11/1, p. 77 He connects
Aaron with these inftuences.
1sa With regard to the powerful in.Buence exerted particularly by the " Faustian "

element in the Moses saga on Goethe, cf. the fine essay by Burdach, Faust und Mose
(Sitzungsberichte der Koeniglich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, philo
sophisch-historische Klasse, 1912).
117 Mowinckel, op. cit. p. 75
"8 Wellhausen, Reste aubischen Heidentums, p. 102.
138 Chantepie de Ia Saussaye, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, 4th Ed. (1925),

I, p. 89.
 NOTES 213
140 Thus, e.g., Edvard Lehmann, ibid., I , p . 3 3 ; cf. also Florcnz, ibid., I , p. 294 ;
Hempel, Politische Absicht und politische Wirkung im biblischen Schrifttum (193 8),
p. 14 ; also Gressmann, Mose, pp. 203, 207, 2II. In my book, " The Teaching of the
Prophets ", I have dealt with the matter in detail in the chapter, " The God of the
Fathers " ; cf. also Koenigtum Gottes, p. 73 ff.
141 Lagrange, Etudes sur les religions semitiques, 2nd Ed. (1905). p. 507 ; cf.
Fevrier, La religion des Palmyreens (1931), p. 37 ; cf. also Rostovtzeff, The Caravan
gods of Palmyra Uoumal of Roman Studies XXII, 1932), p. I I I f.
14 2 Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3rd Ed. (1903), p. 29.
143 Haller, Religion, Recht und Sitte in den Genesissagen, p. 23, is of the opinion,
to be sure, that YHVH " detached hiinself from stone, tree and spring and linked
himself with the person of the shepherd ", but also remarks : " Or is the process
to be regarded as reversed, so that Yahve was originally a protective spirit that wan
dered with the shepherds and gradually, as the nomads began to settle, became
established at a fixed habitation ? " Gunkel noted in his copy of Haller's book
that stationary god and settled worshippers as Canaanite are faced by " wander
ing god and wandering nomads as Israelite ". It must, however, be added that this
god does not sleep in the tents of the nomads like the theraphim fetishes, but from time
to time withdraws to the spacious heavens, which are inaccessible to men ; Jacob's
vision of the gate of Heaven is a primordial constituent of the tradition. (That
it is therefore impossible to " have " this god may hence have been one of the
chief reasons for the women of the tribe to take the theraphim about with them.)
140 According to Lods, Israel, p. 531, the people imagined YHVH with an aerial
and therefore invisible body, " susceptible d'apparaitre sous des formes diverses ".
1 45 For the relation between imagelessness and invisibility cf. Max Weber,
Gesammelte Aufsaetze zur Religionssoziologie (1921) III, p. 1 70, who sees the rela
tion otherwise but as no less close : " A god whose cult has been imageless since im
memorial time had to be normally invisible as well, and also had to nourish his specific
dignity and uncanny quality by means of that invisibility ".
146 Mowinckel, ibid., p. 103.
1 47 Mowinckel, ibid., p. 6o.
1 48 Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien II (1922), p. 224.
148 Mowinckel, Le decalogue, p. 100.
150 Eissfeldt, Hexateuch-Synopse (1922), p. 275 *
15 1 Cf. Koehler, Theologie des Alten Testaments, p. 238 : " The fact that in the
Biblical decalogue any such co=andment as ' Thou shalt not lie ' is absent,
awakens all kinds of thoughts ".
15 2 Gunkel, Die israelitische Literatur (Die Kultur der Gegenwart 1/7, 1906), p. 73
15 3 Gressmann , Mose, p. 477
154 Cf. Huber-Rosenzweig, Die Schrift und ihre Verdeutschung, p. 176 ff. ;
Staples, The Third Commandment, Journal of Biblical Literature LVIII (1939),
p. 325 ff.
155 Cf. Procksch, Der Staatsgedanke in der Prophetic (1933), p. 5
156 J. M. Powis Smith, The Origin and History of Hebrew Law (1931), p. 8 f.
157 Hempel, Das Ethos des Alten Testaments (1938), p. 1 83 .
1 & 6 Volz, Mose, 2nd Ed., p. 25.
m Volz, Mose, 1st Ed. (1907), p. 93
16 0 Caspari, Die Gottesgemeinde von Sinaj, p. 1 59
101 Sellin, Geschichte des israelitisch-juedischen Volkes I. {) 72.
16 2 Volz, Mose, 2nd Ed., p. 78.
163 L. Koehler, Der Dekalog (Theologische Rundschau I, 1929), p. 1 84.
164 Rudolph, Der " Elohist ", p. 47
1"" Cf Ganszyniec, Der Ursprung der Zehngebotetafeln (1920), p. 1 8. (The
little study contains interesting material, from which, however, unwarrantable con
clusions are drawn.)
2!4 NOTES
188
Cf Eerdmans, Alttestamentliche Studien III, p. 69 f.
18 7 Morgenstern, The Book of the Covenant I (1928), p. 34, argues against the
originality of the tradition of the Tables that the description " Tables of Witness "
is late, and is only found in the Priestly Code. But Exodus xxxii , 15, in general,
is not attributed to P.
188 Morgenstern, /oc. cit., adduces the absence of any such tradition as his chief
argument against the witness character of the Tables. But it seems reasonable to
assume that Solomon, with his cult policy which aimed at immobilizing the Ark
and its contents in order to withdraw the political coloration from the melek character
of YHVH, would have no objection to ordering the removal of all traces of such a
tradition (cf. Klamroth, Lade und Tempel, 1933, p. 6o ; Buber, The Teaching of the
Prophets, p. 78 f.).
18 8 Hans Schmidt, Mose und der Dekalog (Gunkel-Festschrift), p. 90.
170 L. Koehler, Der Dekalog, p. 179.
17 1 Wellhausen (Die Composition des Hexateuchs, p. 89), followed by many
others, has regarded the word as " most strikingly " Deuteronomic ; but this can
have a meaning only if the end of the Song of Deborah is mutilated ; which
has been done by some for no other reason than the use of this word. The turns of
phrase which it is customary to regard as Deuteronomic, and hence as late, derive
naturally from the history sermon (cf. Koehler, Der Dekalog, p. 169) ; which col
lected its basic phrases from verbal and written tradition, while admittedly depriving
them of their original weight by incorporating them in the rhetorical sequence.
The fact that Exodus x:xxiv, 7 does not mention the haters and the lovers does not
prove anything, since here almost half of the sentenc, including the entire positive
section, has been omitted. This appears to be an extract from the Decalogue section,
introduced here for elucidatory purposes.
17 2 A. Klostermann, Der Pentateuch II (1907), p. 515.
178 Jepsen, Untersuchungen zum Bundesbuch (1927), p. 25 ; cJ. S. A. Cook,
The Laws of Moses and the Code of Hammurabi (1903), p. 155.
17 Cf Ring, Israels Rechtsleben im Lichte der neuentdeckten assyrischen und
hethitischen Gesetzesurkunden (1926), p. 148.
176 Schmoekcl, Das angewandte Recht im Alten Testament, p. 65.
1 78
Cf Eerdmans, The Ark of the Covenant (The Expositor, 1912), p. 415 f.
1 77 It is not correct, as supposed by Benzinger, Jahvist und Elohist in den Koenigs-
buechem (1921), p. 12, that the plural would be suitable here because there are two
images. Nobody would say of two images which are placed at two different spots,
" These arc thy gods ".
178 Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity, p. 230 : " Conceptually there is,
of course, no essential difference between representing the invisible king as enthroned
on the cherubim or as standing on a bull ".
17 8 Reichel, Ueber vorhellenische Goetterculte (1897), p. 37
n o Oppenheim, Der Tell Halaf (1931), p. 85.
181
Cf inter alia Malten, Der Stier in Kult und mythischem Bild Uahrbuch
des Deutschen Archa:ologischen Instituts XLIII, 1928), p. 101 ff. ; where, however,
it becomes particularly clear that the concept of the god-carrier can develop into that
of the incarnation of the god. The historical way is the reverse, from the bull " as
the abode of a demon or a god " to the bull as a god-carrier and divine attribute ; but
in such developments popular atavisms are frequent. Eissfeldt, Der Gott Bethel
(Archiv fuer Religionswissenschaft XXVIII, 1930), p. 1 5, justly points out that
precisely the same weather-god, who is imagined as standing on the bull, is also
himself portrayed as a bull ; however, it should be home in mind that since the
purpose of Jeroboam was primarily to introduce the " true " and legitimate YHVH
cult, he could not permit himself to go too far.
1 82 Obbink, Jahwebilder (Zeitschrift fuer die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft,
New Series, VI, 1929), p. 269.
 NOTES 21 5
183 Hempel, Jahwegleichnisse der israelitischen Propheten (Zeitschrift fuer die
alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, New Series, I, 1924), p. 101.
18' Ibid.
185 R . Kittel, Geschichte des Volkes Israel I, 5 /6th Ed., p. 374
188
Cf Eichrodt, Theologie des Alten Testaments I, p. 47 ; Albright, From the
Stone Age to Christianity, p. 203.
18 7 Caspari, Die Samuelbuecher (1926), p. 476.
188 Cf inter alia Reichel, Ueber vorhellenische Goetterculte, p. 3 ff. ; A. B .
Cook, Zeus, I (1914), p. 1 3 5 ff. ; S . A. Cook, The Religion of A11cient Palestine in
the Light of Arch:eology (1930), p. 21 ff. ; Dibelius, Die Lade Jahves (1906), p . 6o
ff. ; Hans Schmidt, Kerubenthron und Lade (Gunkel-Festschrift), p. 1 3 2 ff.
189 Cf inter alia Dibelius, op. cit., p. 96 ff.
1o o Musil, The Manners and Customs of the Rwala Bedouins (1928), p. 571 ff. ;
Jaussen, Coutumes des Arabes au pays du Moab (1908), p. 173 f. ; relevant material
from various accounts of journeys can be found in R. Hartmann, Zeit und Lade
(Zeitschrift fuer die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft XXXVII, 1917/18), p. 2 1 7 ff. ;
Seligman, Sacred Litters among the Semites, Sudan Notes and Records I (1918),
p. 265 ff. ; and Morgenstern, The Book of the Covenant I, p. 88 ff. ; cf. also Lammens,
Le culte des betyles et les processions religieuses chez les Arabes preislamites, Bulletin
de l'Institut Francais d'Archcologie Orientale XVII (1920), p. 38 ff. Recently, the
subject has found a comprehensive presentation, based upon thorough comparison
of the ethnological material in Morgenstern, The Ark, the Ephod and the Tent of
Meeting, Hebrew Union College Annual XVII (1942-43 ), pp. 153-265, XVIII
(1944), pp. 1-52. Unfortunately the learned study does not appreciate the place and
the value of the historical, the happening but once, in the history of religion. History
of religion and history in general exists only if, and as far as, we distinguish between
the happening but once and the recurring, the first being a fashioning, so to say, of
the latter.
181 A conjecture of this kind can be found in Eissfeldt, Hexateuch-Synopse,
p. 52 f.
12 C Klostermann, Der Pentateuch II, p. 492
f
1 03 Thus already Ibn Ezra in his commentary. Eerdmans, Alttestamentliche
Untersuchungen Ill, p. 74 f. remarks : " All of a sudden there is talk here of a tent
which had never previously been mentioned " ; but the reference in xviii, 7 clearly
appears to have been sufficient for the redactor. Cf also van Hoonacker, Le
sacerdoce levitique, p. 146, and Hertzberg, Mizpa (Zeitschrift fuer die alttestamentliche
Wissenschaft XLVII, 1 929), p. 171.
1 " Regarding the composition of the conversations see Buber and Rosenzweig,
Die Schrift und ihre Verdeutschung, p. 262 ff.
16 Whether these are " secondary " in their context (Eissfeldt, Hexateuch
Synopse, p. 274*), is not relevant to our question regarding the genuine character of
the biographical tradition.
108
Cf Bubcr and Rosenzweig, op. dt., p. 273.
18 7 R. Kittel in the earlier and more comprehensive editions of his Geschij:hte

des Volkes Israel I, p. 309 ; cf. Sellin, Das Zeit Jahwes, Kittel-Festschrift (1913),
p. 168 ff.
198 Genesis xxv, 27, should be compared for the meaning of the construction :
" To sit in the tent " means here to visit it again and again, " according to one's
habit " (Caspari, Die Samuelbuecher, p. 59).
109
Cf Dibelius, Die Lade Jahves, p. 21 ff. His proofs do not seem to me to
have been overthrown by Hans Schmidt, Kerubenthron und Lade, p. 143
20 C also Klostermann, Der Pentateuch II, p. 73 ; Boehl, Exodus (1928),
f
p. r67 ; Torczyner, Die Bundeslade und die Anfaenge der Religion Isracls, 2nd Ed .
(1930), p. 3 8.
216 NOTES
201 Dibelius, op. cit. p. II s.
202 Ibid.
203 The second saying should not be emended, as Torczyner proposes, so as to

read, " Be mounted, YHVH ", instead of, " Wend homewards, YHVH ". The
victorious leader of " the myriads of units of Israel " is now called upon to return
to His heaven (and to cover and protect His people from thence ; until the latter
need His direct leadership once again).
204
Cf Torczyner, op. cit., p. IS ; Dhorme et Vincent, Les Chcrubins (Revue
biblique XXV, I926), p. 48s.
28 Dibelius, op. cit., p. IOO.
208 Ibid. p. I I7.
20 7 Cf Galling, Biblisches Reallexikon (I937), p. 343
208 According to Numbers xiv, 44 the Ark, and hence the Tent, is unequivocally
to be found within the camp. From Numbers xi, 26 and xii, 4 it has to be assumed
that the camp consisted of a circle of tents, in the centre of which the Tent of God is
to be found ; and that people therefore " went forth " to it.
2oe Caspari, Die Samuelbuecher, p. 476.
uo W. Andrae, Das Gotteshaus und die Urformen des Bauens im alten Orient

{I930), p. II ff., 2I ff. ; if. Rost, Die Vorstufen von Kirchc und Synagoge im Alten
Testament (I938), p. 36.
211 This verse must be reckoned as part of the older kernel, which may well be

ascribed to the time of David, of the address of God, afterwards reworked in sermon
style. Cf Rost, Die Ueberlieferung von der Thronnachfolgc Davids (I926), p.
68 ff. When Wellhausen (Prolegomena zur Geschichte Isracls, p. 46) holds that the
reading of the parallel passage in Chronicles (I, xvii, s) " from tent to tent " is based
" on an entirely correct understanding ", he misses the connection between the speech
of Nathan and the tradition which stands firm by the unity of the Tent (if. Sellin,
Das Zeit Jahwes, p. I72 f., on the Chronicles text).
212 R. Hartmann, Zeit und Lade, p. 22s.
213 Cf Buber, The Teaching of the Prophets, p. ISS f.
214 This docs not in any way mean that during the battle YHVH sojourns upon
the Ark ; there is certainly no contradiction between His relation with the Ark
and His advancing before the vanguard of Israel Qudges iv, I4). He displays His
presence by His appearance over the Ark, and repeatedly stays there as it is His throne ;
but meanwhile He advances against the foes and also supplies heavenly hosts to
participate in the battle. Yet it should not be assumed, as is done by J. Kaufmann
(History of the Religion of lsrael II, p. 83, 35I ff.) that only the moving forward of
the Ark compelled YHVH, in a kind of higher " sympathetic magic ", to depart
from heaven and, riding upon the heavenly cherubim, to attack the foes of Israel.
Such a verse as " I went about in tent and habitation " cannot be explained by any
such provision for action at a distance.
218 This is clearly the nature picture in Exodus xvi, Io.
216 That is presumably the proper way to imagine the natural background of

Numbers ix, I6.

217 Grcssmann, Mose, p. 268.
21 8 Goldziher, Abhandlungcn zur arabischcn Philologic (1896), p. I 5 ; Hoelscher,

Die Propheten (I9I4), p. 99

21 9 Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel (1 897), p. 392 ; if. Goldziher, op.

cit., p. 74
220 Musil, Miszcllcn zur Bibelforschung (Die Kultur XI), p. 10.
221 Doughty, Arabia Deserta II, Chapter 5
222 Musil, The Manners and Customs of the Rwala Dcduins, p. 400.

2 23 Wellhausen, Rcste arabischen Heidcntums, p. I J S

224 Cf Guillaume, Prophecy and Divination among the Hebrews and Semites
(I93i), p. I25 ; an ominous croak of raven is " seen " by those who arc seers.
 NOTES 21 7
220 Cf. inter alia Mowinckel, Psahnenstudien III (1929), p. 9 " The gift of the
seer is in all probability genuinely Israelite ".
226Jepsen, Nabi (1934), p. 1 17.
227 Cf. Hempel, Gott und Mensch im Alten Testament, 2nd Ed. (1936), p. 165.
228 Cf. Gressmann, Mose, p. 137 ; Gressmann, Die Anfaenge Israels, p. 8 1 .
220 Cf. Buber and Rosenzweig, Die Schrift und ihie Verdeutschung, p. 3 3 ff. , 1 3 1
If., I 6 o If., 279 If.
23 Cf. Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. I67 f. ; Buber, The Teaching of the
Prophets, p. 6o.
zn Cf. Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 173 f.
231 On the relation between rua and word cJ. Buber, The Teaching of the

Prophets, p. 61. J. Kaufmann in particular has recently indicated the emissary element
of the Israelite religion, in his History of the Religion of Israel ".
"

233 Mowinckel, The " Spirit " and the " Word " in the Pre-exilic Reforming

Prophets, Journal of Biblical Literature LIII (1934), p. 199 If. ; Mowinckel, Ecstatic
Experience and Rational Elaboration in Old Testament Prophecy, Acta Orientalia
xm (1935), p. 264 If.
23' Cf. Masing, The Word of Yahweh (1936), who, however, does not keep
ruo and word apart ; Duerr, Die Wertung des goettlichen Wortes im Alten
Testament und im antiken Orient (I938), p. 22 ff.
zaa Jepsen, Nabi, p. 119 f.
238 Hempel, Gott und Mensch, p. 271.
237 I agree with the view that a tribe called Kushan, associated with Midian
(Habbakuk III, 7) is meant here ; and that the end of the verse is a gloss. The
word, however, is certainly not to be taken as meaning, after Gressmann (Mose,
p. 272 f., Die Anfaenge Israels, 2nd Ed., p. 96) that Zipporah was abused here with
the secondary sense of " negro woman " (and hence also the Kenite god YHVH as
" negro god "). The strange Ethiopians dwelling on the edge of tlxe world are, to
be sure, a subject of metaphor and simile for the Biblical writers ; but there is no
feeling of abuse in the use made of their national name.
138 Cf. Bacon, The Triple Tradition of the Exodus (I894), p. 175 ; Harold

Wiener, Essays in Pentateuchal Criticism (1909), p. 99.

21 Cf. J. Kaufmann, History of the Religion of lsrael, II/I, pp. 46, 122.
"' Cf. e.g., Musil, Manners and Customs, p. 400 ; Guillaume, Prophecy and
Divination, p. I22 ff.
2" Cf. Alt, Der Gott der Vaetcr (I929) ; Boehl, Das Zeitalter Abrahams (I93 I ) ;
Buber, The Teaching of the Prophets, p. 29 If.
"" Cf. Dillmann's Commentary ad loc.
203 Cf de Groot, Numeri (I930), p. I28 : " without there having been any
division between the two ".
"' Cf. Holzinger in Kautzsch, Die Heilige Schrift des Alten Testaments, 4th
Ed., ad Joe.
Thus Smend, Die Erzaehlung des Hexatcuch (I912), p. 230.
206 Cf. Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 133.
207 The interpretation given here is the only suitable one in this connection.
248 A division of sources which separates XXIII, 23 and XXIV, I (as, most

recently, Rudolph, Der " Elohist ", p. 12I f.) is something I cannot agree to ; they
point to one another in the same way as XXIII, 23 and XXII, 7
240 In the oldest popular saga of the evil wizard Balaam, the late effects of which
have been retained in Numbers xxxi, 8, I6, and Joshua xiii, 22, his demon
should have been the inspiring one (cJ. Loehr, Bileam, Archiv fuer Orientforschung
IV, 1927, p. 88 ; Rudolph, op. cit., p. Io).
200 Rudolph, op. cit. p. 105.
201 Kuehtreiber, Bericht ueber meine Reisen (Zeitschiift des Deutschen Palaestina

Vereins XXXVII, 1914), p. I I .

218 NOTES
262
Cf Woolley and Lawrence, The Wilderness ofZin (1914), p. 58 If.
263 Woolley, op. cit., p. 71.
m Cf A. Klostermann, Geschichte des Volkes Israel (1 896), p. 69.
265 Garstang, The Heritage of Solomon (1934), p. 177.
268 Gressmann, Die Anfaenge Israels, .2nd Ed., p. ro6.
257 von Rad, Das theologische Problem des alttestamentlichen Schoepfungs-
glaubens, in : Wesen und Werden des Altcn Testaments (1936), p. 1 39.
26 8 Galling, Die Erwaehlungstraditionen Israels, p. 65.
260 Alt, Der Gott der Vaeter, p. 57
260 Ibid. p. 41.
20 1 Ibid. p. 46.
262 H uber, The Teaching of the Prophets, p. 40.
283
Cf ibid. p. 36.
ec The Arabs of Sinai, to be sure, use the name qadeis for a spoon-shaped wooden

vessel which they employ when drawing water out of an almost empty well (Woolley
and Lawrence, The Wilderness of Zin, p. 53). This name is held to come from a
word in the Hedjaz dialect. But it can be explained properly only as a folk-etymology
of the name of the place, not as genuine etymology. Phythian-Adams, in The Call
of Israel, p. 196, assumes quite incorrectly in this connection that the name has
nothing to do with sanctity.
200 Rhodokanakis, Die Bodenwirtschaft im altcn Suedarabicn (Anzeigcn der
Wiener Akademie der Wissenschaften LIII, 1916), p. 174.
206 von Rad, op. cit., p. 139.
207
Cf Jirku, Das israelitische Jubeljahr (Reinhold-Seeberg-Festschrift, 19.29), p.
17.2 If.
Pedersen, Israel, its Life and Culture 1-11 (19.26), p. 544
269 Ibid.
27 0 Alt, Die Urspruenge des israelitischen Rechts, p. 65 ; cf. also von Rad, Das
formgeschichtliche Problem des Hexateuchs, p. 3 I f.
2 7 1 Menes, Die vorisraelitischen Gesetze Israels (1926), 39.
27 2 Pedersen, op. cit., p. 480.
273 Alt, op. cit., p. 65 f.
274 Fenton, Early Hebrew Life (r 8 8o) , p. 67 If. ; Kennett, Ancient Hebrew Life
and Custom (1933), p. 77 ; Alt, op. cit., p. 66.
076
Cf Musil, Arabia Petraea III, p . .293 f.
270 Jirku, op. cit., p. 178.
277 Alt, op. cit., p. 66.
2 78 Alt, op. cit., p. 67.
27 9 Ed. Meyer, Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstaemme, p. So f.
20 Kugler, Von Moses his Paulus (19.22), p. 4.2 If. ; Kennett, op. cit., p. 77
281
Cf inter alia Baudissin, Die Geschichte des alttcstamentlichen Priestertums,
p. 35
282 Thus Gressmann, Mose, p . .261 f.
283
Cf Gray, Sacrifice in the Old Testament, p . .249 f.
284 The article " Levi " by Hoelscher, in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Enzyklopdic
des klassischcn Altertums XII, p . .21 ss tf., is most comprehensively based, but is
nevertheless an unsuccessful attempt to view the Lcvites as the ancient priestly order
of Kadesh, by whom Moses was supported. Cf Gray, Sacrifice in the Old Testa
ment, p . .239 If., on the complexity of the problem. Albright's assumption, in
Archawlogy and the Religion of Israel (1942), p. 109, that the Levites were " a class
or tribe " which as such exercised sacral functions (even in pre-Mosaic times), and
which increased both naturally as well as through children who were dedicated to
the service of YHVH, is satisfactory in certain respects, but still does not offer any
adequate solution of the problem. And that Moses as well as Aaron were Lcvites
 NOTES 219
" by virtue of their priestly function ", presupposes a professional priesthood on the
part of Moses, which must be questioned.
286 Cf Rost, Die Vorstufen von Kirche und Synagoge im Alten Testament,
p. 7 ff., 32 ff. ; on Numbers "-vi f., pp. 10, 14, 90. The double sense of edah in our
section is not given consideration here.
28 Cf Buber and Rosenzweig, Die Schrift und ihre Verdeutschung, p. 217 ff.
287 The last attempt of which I am aware to prove that Moses was a priest, in
Gray's Sacrifice in the Old Testament, p. 198 ff., is one that I likewise cannot regard
as successful.
288 This is inter alia the thesis of J. Kaufmann, History of the Religion of Israel,
II/I, p. 342 ff.
28 9 Thus, e.g., Bacon, The Triple Tradition of the Exodus, p. 1 90 : " Certain
prominent individuals aspire to the priesthood and raise rebellion against Moses ".
2 90 To complete what follows cf. Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 140 ff.
291 Cf the chapter on Hosea in my book, The Teaching of the Prophets.
29 2 Cf Bubcr, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 65 ff., 204 ff. and the literature cited there ;
Buber, The Teaching of the Prophets, p. 67 ff.
293 Buber, The Teaching of the Prophets, p. 69.
29' Cf Buber and Rosenzweig, Die Schrift und ihre Vcrdeutschung, p. 58 ff.
296 Cf Pedersen, Canaanite and Israelite Cults (Acta Orientalia XVIII, 1939),
p. 6 : " Aliyan Baal is the bull-god whom we know from the Old Testament ",
he " represents fertility ".
2 98 Cf Buber, Koenigtum Gottes, p. 282, note 19, for textull analysis.
29 7 Cf Ibid.
208 Alt, Josua, in : Wesen und Werden des Alten Testaments, p. 13 ff.
2 99 Bin Gurion, Sinai und Garizim.
aoo Meek, Hebrew Origins (1936).
 IN D E X
AARON, 40, 48, 59, I I), I47 If. , I )2, Balaam, 32, ro8, I63, I69 ff., 191,
I67 If., 1 83 , 209, 2I8 2I7
Abraham, 24, 27, 30 , 44, 57, 85, Bashan, I96
8B, 96 , I04, I I2, 126, I4B, 193 Basic rights of existence, r 3 3
" Admonitions of a Sage ", 25 Bedouins, 87 , 90, 92, roB, I I I, 150,
Adoption, 65 , 207 152, IBB (see also sub Arabia)
Africa, 122 Beersheba, I72
Akaba, 75, 172 Berbers, 29
Akkad, 34 Bethel, 147, 149
Amalekites, I I , 90 If., 94 " Blessing of Moses ", 40, 107, I83
Amenophis iv, 10, 45 Blood Covenant, 7I, I I 5, IIB, 124
Amorites, 25 , 193, 196 Blood rites, 70 If. , I I4 , 1 37
Amphictyonies, II2 " Book o f the Covenant " , B4, 104,
Anatolia, 24 I43. I77, 182
Ancient East, 43 , 87, I I), I22, 150, Book of the Dead, 23, 122
1 )2, I76 " Book of the Upright ", I07
Angels, 39, I I7 Books of Kings, I 5
Anthropomorphism, B4, I I7, I26, Bull, 2I4, 2I9
I94 Burning Bush, 32, 39-55, 59, 62, 66f.,
Anti-cultic religion, I28 f. IOI, I54. I66, I74
Antinomist sects and movements,
J 87 CALENDAR reform, 73
Arabia, Arabs, 29, 37, so, 66, 70, Calling of Moses and calling of the
B7 , 103, I I5, I24, I59, I62 , prophets, 40 f
I6B , I76, 17B, I89, 203, 209, Canaan, Canaanites, 24 , 49, 58,
2I8 (see also sub Bedouins) II2 , I 52, I62, I72 , I77, r 8o ,
Aram, Ararneans, 27, sB I96 , 20I (see also sub Palestine)
Archa:ology, 24, 33 Carmel, I I I
Archaic theology, 55 Carthagi.nians, I 5 9
Ark of the Covenant, 20, I09, II6, Catalogue o f sins, I22
I 3 8, I40, 147-I 50, I56-I6I,' I 84 , Catechisms, I30
2I4, 2I6 Charismatic rule, roB
Art andWork, 170 Chastity, 104
Assyria, Assyrians, 7I, 7B, 1."9 Cherubim, 127, 157 f
China, Chinese, 2I, 26, 7B
BAAI, Baalim, I90, 195, 2I9 Choice of words, 9
Baalat, Baalot, I92 Christianity, 120
Baal Peor, 1 52, 192, I95. 20I Chronology, B, 33
Baalization, I94 Circumcision, 56-59
Babylon, 23, 26, 45, BI , B5, I I 5, Clan gods and national gods, 43
I22, I38, I45, I 58, I 76 205, 2!0,
, Collective work, 21
2I2 " Comn;?nwealth without govern
Babylonian exile, 54, 121 ment , 87
2.2.1
222 INDEX

Conununion, 71 EcsTATICISM, I62 , r65

Comparative mythology, 34 f. Edom, 196
Comparative religion, 43 Egypt, Egyptians, 2o-32, 36 , 40,
Comparative study, 3 5 44 , 53, 6r f., 86, 122 , 125 ff.,
Conjuration tablets, 122 212
Conquest of death, 22 Egyptianization, 20, 32, 3 5 ff.
Consecration, 71 , 83, 129, 132 f. Elders, 95, I I 5, II7, I63-r66
Continuity of national time, 132 El ' Elyon, 3 0, 44, 96, 208
Cosmic and holy rhythm, 83, 85 Elijah, 42 , 63, 90, 96, I I I , 148,
Court literature, I 3, 149 I95
Covenant, 17, 55, 58 , 66, 69, 71, Elisha, 63, 90, r62
87, 98, rbr-ro5, 107 , I Io-II5, Elohim, 27, 95
uS, 1 3 5, 137 ff., 154, 159, 189, " Elohist ", 8, 54
202 ff. Empty god thrones, I 50
Covenant of Brotherhood, 103 Enoch, 57
" Coveting ", 129, 1 3 3 Enthusiasm, 14, I7 , 164, I7I
Creation, 48, 79, 84 f., 164 Ephraim, 197, 203
Critical days, 8 I Eschatology, I09, 167, r88
Critique of tradition, 8, I 5 , I 8 , " Ethical " and " religious " com-
6r mandments, I 3 I
Cult and morality, I I9-123, 129 " Ethical Decalogue ", I I9
" Cultic Decalogue ", II9 ff., 141 Ethnology, 57
Euphrates, 24
Evening star, 126
DAN, 147. 149. 175 Exodus, 8, 20, 32-34, 37, 42, 69-72,
David, 92, 103, roB, r6o, 210 88, 97 f. , 105, I I 3
Deborah, I 5 Exodus (Book of), 162
Decade system, 99 f. Ezechiel, 47, II7
Decalogue, So, no , I I9-144, 185
Delta, 25, 33, II7
Demagisation, 51, 53 FACB O F Goo, 155
Demons, 2I, 70, 77 Faith, I9, 87, I24, I28, I 3 I , 189
Dervishes, 50 " False prophets ", I 64
Deuteronomy, 47, 105, 199 Families and people, 72
Dialogic relationship, 46, 55, 154, " Fathers " of Israel, 24, 3 I , 38, 44 ,
I56, r65 49, 60, 85, I I I , 173 ff., 204, 207
Dionysos, 50 " Faustian magician ", 123
Divination, 169 f., 185 Festival of peace, 70
Divinatory springs, 44 Fire gods, 97 f.
Divine demonism, 56 ff., 6o, 77, 83 Flesh and spirit, I64
Divine freedom, roB, 187 " Foes " or " haters " of God, 142
Divine justice, 63, 88, roB, 187 Folk-book ofBalaam, 169, 171
Divine manifestations, n6, 126 , Folk-song, 3 4, I07
I6I (see also sub Revelation and " Following the divine leader ",
sub Theopha.nies) 76 , 83
Divine names, 50 " Founded " religion, I 27
Divine presence, 52 , 64, 126, I57- Founders of religions, 57, 82 f.
I6I, 169 f., 185, I88 " Free " and " bound " god-might,
Dragon, 79 187
 INDEX 223

GALILEE, 42 Imageless cult, 124 , 127

Ghosts, 22 Images of God, 127 ff., 151 f, 153,
Gideon, 88, 108 1 59
Gift of writing, 139 lnvisibiliry of God, 8I, I I2, 126 f.,
God of Israel, 17, 19, 27 , 30 , 36, 159
41 ff., 45 , 59 , 76, 98, 102, I04, Isaac, 57, I I2
I I2, ISO , 202, 2I3 Isaiah, 40, 47, 7I, I09, I I6, 208
God of Moses, Io, 43, 83, 85, I69 " Israel ", 48 f., I I I-I I4, 137 f.
God of the Fathers, 42-45, 49, 66, 76, Itinerary, 18
1 74
God of the Kenites, 95, 97 JACOB, 37, 44 , 48 If, 58, I I I f.
God-cry, 50, 54, 93 " Jealous " God, 141 ff.
God property, 176 Jehu, 148
Goethe, II9 , I42, 2I2 Jeremiah, 47, 63, r6o
" Golden Calf", 147 ff., I 52, I67 Jeroboam I, 147 ff.
Goshen, 3 3 Jerusalem, 47, 72, I09, II6, 147
Greeks, 29, 4I, 78, I J 8 Jesus, 72, 123 f., 208
Group psychology, I6 Jcthro, J9, 94-99. I67, 2 1 1
Jonah (Book of), 47
HABIRU, 23-28, 3 1
Jonathan, 103
Hadith, I05
Jordan, 24, 201
Hagar, 44
Hallowing, 83, 106, IJ7 Joseph, 20, 31 ff., 3 5, 76, 99
Hebrew text, 8 Joshua, 90, I I J , 166, 1 84, 196, 202 f
Josiah, 203
Hebrews, 24, 32, 37
Herder, 120 Journey through the wilderness, 17 f.,
I63 , I72, 190, 20I
Hereditary charisma, I08
Jubilee, I78
Herodotus, 20
Historical mystery, 64 Judah, JI
Judges, 99, 165, 197
" Historization of myths ", 17
History, I4, I6-I9, 69, I27, IJ O , KADESH, II, 92, 138, 172, I76, 178 f
IJ6
Kamosh, 192
History faith, 19
" Kenite " hypothesis, 42, 48, 94 ,
History feasts, 34, 73
104
Hittites, 3 1, I45. 147
Kcnites, 37, 42, 94-98, 104, 2II
Hiung-Nu, 26
Key-words, 45, 5 8, 66, 86, 1 84 (see
Holiness, 83, ro6
also sub Repetition)
Holy ground, 42
Khapiru, see sub Habiru
" Holy people ", IOS ff., r8I, 1 84 If.
Khirgis Kazaks, 26 f.
Homer, 1 3
Kings, 22 f., 63, 108
Homo faber, 2I Kings (Books of), 1 5
Horeb, 39 Kings of lsrael, 1 3 , 1 3 4
Horus, 25 " Kingdom o f Priests ", 105 ff. , 167
Hosea, 53, 62, 148, I52, 191, 195
" Humility " of Moses, 166, 1 89 Kingship of God, 40, 78, 104, 109 ,
II5, 124, 1 3 I , 137 If, 157 , 161,
Hyksos, 27, 28 , 3 3 167, 170, 174 , 188
IDENTIFICATION o f gods, 44 , 9 6 , " Knowing men , 92 "

174 Korah, 182 ff., 186-190

Idols, 77, 132 Kushites, 167
224 INDEX

LEADERSHIP of God, 76 f. 132 f. (see Nomads, 24-30, 70 ff., S2 , 91, 10S

also sub Kingship of God) Northern Kingdom of Israel, 53,
Legends, 19, 34 , 41, 62 , 69, 72, 14S, 1 50
123 f., 12S, 1 50 , 170 Numbers (Book of), 162
Legislation, 37, IOS, 1 3 1-136, 143 ff.,
175 , I SO, 1 S6
Levites, I I , 67, 104, 149, 1 53, 173, OASIS society, 2S
1 79. I S2 , 197 Odysseus, 1 3
Liberation, 35, 61, 165 Og, 196
Libido, 1 S7 Oracle, 123, 126, 1 5 1 , 1 S 3 , 1 S 5
" Lovers " of God, 132 " Ordaining the sins o fthe fathers ",
1 42 f.
MAGIC, 22 , 47, 51 ff., 67, 77, S3, Ottoman empire, 26
123 , 171, 192 f.
Manifestation temples, 1 59
Manna, So, 163 PALESTINE, 20, 24 , 29, 33 (see also
Masai, 20S sub Canaan)
Mediterranean, 201 Pan-sacralism, 120
Melchizedek, 44, 96 f. Pantheons, 10, 45
Mesopotamia, 24, 160, 202 Paran, 164
Method, S , 1 5-19 Particularism and universalism, 1 19 f.
Micah ben Yimla, I I 7, 164 Passion for success, S S
Midian, Midianites, 3 1 , 3 2 f., 44, Passover, 34, 69-73, So, S 3 , 124, 129
56, 6o, S2, S7, 94, 1oo, 173 , 175, Pharaoh, 20 f., 33 , 37, 46 , 61 -65,
217 67 , 175 . 194
Mimetic dance, 71 f. Pharaonism, IOS
Miracle, see sub Wonder Philistines, 27, 14S, 205
Miriam, 74, 162, 167 f. Phcenicia, Phcenicians, 20, 192, 194
Mission, 47, 6 1 , 105 Pisgah, 201
Moab, Moabites, 70, 1 52, 192 , 201 " Plagues ", 6 1 , 63-6S
Mohamrned, 6o, ros " Position in life ", 1 3 7
Monolatry, 97 Prayer, 49, 5 1 , 1 54 ff. , 1 59, 166
Monotheism, 9 f. " Priestly Code ", 84
Moon, 8 1 , 125 f. Priests, 48, 95-9S, 1 S2 , 1S5 , 19S
Moral Code, 122 " Primal sounds ", so, 55
" Moses ", 35 ff. Primitivism, 56 , SI, 12S
" Mountain of God ", 39, 94 Prohibition of images, 120, 124 ,
Mountain gods, 40, 46, 97 f. 127, 132
Mummies, 20, 22, 76 " Projection ", 19
Myth, Mythology, 1 7, 40 , S 5 Promise of the land, 173 f.
Mythization of history, 1 7 Prophetism, Prophets, 1 3 , 41 f., 47,
59 , 62 ff. , 74. 7S, S6 , 120, 12S,
NABATAEANS, 126 144, 1 49. 1 62-1 71, I S4, I S6, IS9,
Name magic, 5 1 200
Nature an d history, 76, 7 S , 127 Prophet versus King, 63
Nazarites, 191 Protection walls, 26
Nebo, 201 Psalms, 3 6, loS , 192
New moon, S 1 , 129 Pyramids, 22
Nile, 20 , 35 , 67 Pythagoras, 41
 INDEX 225

RACHEL, 37 Schizoid development, 1 8 8

Radiation of the divine " mass ", Scorpion (king of Egypt), 21
1 16, u s , 169 Secret societies, 1 86 f.
Ramescs II, 3 3 Seers, 162 , 168
Ras Shamra, 192, 194, 205, 208 " Seeing " sounds, 162
Rationalization, 54 Semi-nomadism, 24 , 28, 3 0 , 37,
Realism and symbolism, 87, 176 129, 178, 2 I I
Red Sea, 36, 74-79, 86, 1 55, 202, 208 Semites, 20, 23 , 3 7 , 50, 5 6 , 70, 8 1 ,
Redemption of the first-hom, 120 roo, r o 8 , I I 4
Religion and society, 1 3 5 f, 144, Sexual rites, 152, 192
178 f, 1 86, r 88, 199 Sexuality and God, 194
Religion of Moses, 77 Shaddai, 49
Religious experience, 47, 55, 58 ff., Shechem, I I 3 , 142, 202 ff., 205
77 , 1 1 6 , 1 54 , 169, 1 8 5 " Signs ", 46 , 63 , 84, ror
Renewal, 86, 178 , 1 8 8 (see also Sinai, 8, r6 , 37, 3 9 , 42 ff., 64, 71,
sub Transformation of rites) 80, 97 , IOI, 107, I I I , I I 5 , 1 17,
Renewal of Covenant, 1 04, 1 1 3 , 179 139. 147. 149. 1 52, 1 64, 166, 20) ,
Repetition, 9, 32, 34, 39, 41, 45, 52, 218
58, 66, 86, 94. 96, 1 12 Sirbonian Lake, 75
Resistance to mission, 47 Slaves, 3 4 ff., 84, 145 , r 8o
Restoration of integrity, S r Small groups, 74
Revelations, 3 8, 4 1 , 62, 79, roo, Social ideas, 84
u o, 144 , 1 74, r 86 (see also sub Social justice, 122, 1 3 4, 143 ff.
Divine manifestations and sub Social laws, 143-146, 1 76-r S r
Theophanies) Solomon, 78, i40, 148, 1 57, I60, 214
Revolt, 86 f., 89, 1 5 1 ff., 1 83-190 Song of Deborah, 1 5 , 42, 107, 142,
Rhythmical form, 14, 101 202, 206, 214
Ritualism, 120, 128 Song of the sea, 74, 104
Royal Covenant, 103, 108, u8,1 57f. " Song of Moses ", 1 12
Royal Lists, 1 5 Soul of the dead, 22 f.
Rurni, 50 " Source documents ", 8, 1 3
Spanish agriculture, 29
SABBATH, Bo-Bs, r2r, 124, 129, 132 , Spirit, roB, 163-167, 1 84, 198, 200
140, 177, r 8o, 210 Spring festival, 72 f.
Sabbatical thought, 145, 1 77-180 Staff, 17, 65, 90-93
Sabbatical year, 177-1 8 1 State, 21 f.
Sacramental meal, 7 0 ff., 1 3 7 Statues, 22, 127
" Sacred history " and " sacred Strangers, 84
legend ", I 9 Suez, 75
Sacrifice, 96, 1 04, 120 Sumerians, 1 5 , 23
Saga, 1 3 -19, 41, 61 f., 123 f. Sun-god, ro, 21
Samaritans, 72 Symboh, 47. 72, 76, 79. 7I , I 58, r6o,
Samaritan text, 45 194
Samuel, 63, 78, 96, roB, 140, 149, Symbolic acts, 70 ff.
1 6 3 , 205 Symbolic function, 91 f.
Saracens, 29 Synthetic function, 1 50, 2 1 5
Sargon, 3 4 Syria, 20, 2 4 , 27, 29, 126, r62, 205
Satan., 58 Syro-Canaanite culture, Syro-Phce-
Saul, 92, 162, 165, 1 8 3 nician culture, r62, 172
226 INDEX

" TABERNACLE ", 1 56 Tribal lore, 122

Tabernacles (Feast of), 179 Tribal system of Israel, I I2
Tables of the Law, no, II9 , Turanians, 26
1 3 S ff., I4S, I5S, 1S5 Typology, 6o, 62, 64, 136, 1S6
Tabor, 42
Tahnud, 54 UNDERWORlD, 21
Tell el Amarna, 20 Unifying the people, 72, S3, 134 ff.,
Temple of Jerusalem, 72, u6, 140, I3S
147 f., 1 57. 160 Unleavened bread, 72
Tendency to persist, 22 Ur, 26
Tent of meeting, 42, 96, 153 , 1 56, Urim and Thummim, 1S3, 19S
159 ff., 164, 166, 216 Uzziah, 109
Teraphim, 213
Tetragrammaton, 4S-55, 64, 66, So, VISION of God, I I 5 ff.
92, 97. lOS, 151, 175
Tettish, 27 VVAY-GODS, 125, 192
Theophanies, 40 , u6-uS, 137, VVeather god, 14S, 194
161, 16S VVellhausen, 87, 120
Theopolicical idea, 101, 106 , u s, Wonder, 14, 16 , 4S, 63, 74-79, 123
1 3 5 , 15S, IS6 Word of God, 63 , 165
" Theosophia ", I I9 "Words ofYHVB", 143
" Thou ", 130, 162
Thutmose III, 3 3 " YAHVIST ", S
Tradition, S, 16, IS, 55, 59, 62, So, " Yeshurun ", 107
S6, 99. 150, 156, 174 , 199 Yochebed, 50
Tragedy of Moses, 59, 1SS f. " Youths of the Children ofIsrael ",
Transformation of rites, 72, So , II4
124, 1S5 (see also sub Renewal)
Tree gods, 40 ZARATHUSTRA, 20S
Tribal gods, 49, 7S, 10S, 209 Zippora, 56, 167 , 217