| Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:22
A number of years ago I was preparing to read Torah. I noticed a number of different section in this parashah had a different cadence and theme than the rest. At the time, I was trying to learn Yemini cantillation. So, I chanted Dt. 2:10-13, 20-23 in a different trope. Nobody noticed, but I have thought about it since then.
| 2:10 It was formerly inhabited by the Emim, a people great and numerous, and as tall as the Anakites. 11 Like the Anakites, they are counted as Rephaim; but the Moabites call them Emim. 12 Similarly, Seir was formerly inhabited by the Horites; but the descendants of Esau dispossessed them, wiping them out and settling in their place, just as Israel did in the land they were to possess, which the Lord had given to them. — |
2:20 It, too, is counted as Rephaim country. It was formerly inhabited by Rephaim, whom the Ammonites call Zamzummim, 21 a people great and numerous and as tall as the Anakites. The Lord wiped them out, so that [the Ammonites] dispossessed them and settled in their place, 22 as He did for the descendants of Esau who live in Seir, when He wiped out the Horites before them, so that they dispossessed them and settled in their place, as is still the case. 23 So, too, with the Avvim who dwelt in villages in the vicinity of Gaza: the Caphtorim, who came from Crete, wiped them out and settled in their place. — |
3:9 Sidonians called Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir — 10 all the towns of the Tableland and the whole of Gilead and Bashan as far as Salcah and Edrei, the towns of Og’s kingdom in Bashan. 11 Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephaim. His bedstead, an iron bedstead, is now in Rabbah of the Ammonites; it is nine cubits long and four cubits wide, by the standard cubit! |
(See also Gen 6:1-4 14:5, 15:20, 36:20, Josh 3:13, 13:13, MAP)
In the book of Numbers, we read quotes from the book of Wars of YHWH. In Joshua and other books, we read of the book of Yashar. In the book of Kings, we read of the Chronicles of the Kings. So, it is not uncommon for the Bible to quote other books. Sometimes the poems, such as Exodus 15 or Numbers 21:27-30 are quoted without reference. I believe these two sections in Dt. 2 were copied from another source.
I will not write, now, about textual criticism, however. I will write about the function these sections serve in explaining Israel’s conquering its northern border.
Emim, Refaim, Zamzumim words of fear, more on this later. |
