Deuteronomy 2 - Introduction

From Ḳadesh-Barnea- round Mt Se-îr

The discourse continues: After the repulse on Ḳadesh (Deuteronomy 1:45), Israel turned back towards the Red Sea, skirting Mt Se-îr many days (Deuteronomy 2:1), when Jehovah said, Enough, turn N.! (Deuteronomy 2:2 f.); in crossing Esau's land Israel must purchase bread and water (Deuteronomy 2:4-6); for here the address changes from Pl. to Sg. thou hast lacked nothing these 40 years (7); so they passed (Pl. resumed) through the sons of -Esau in Se-îr, leaving the -Arabah with Elath and -Eṣion-Geber behind them (Deuteronomy 2:8 a). The many days of the skirting of Mt Se-îr before they turned N. is to be defined, if not by the 40 years of Deuteronomy 2:7, then by the datum in Deuteronomy 2:14: 38 years from Ḳadesh to the Moabite border. The section implies a slow drift of Israel from Ḳadesh along Mt Se-îr and says nothing of a return to Ḳadesh.

In JE the same march is differently described. After the repulse on Ḳadesh comes the story of Dathan and Abiram (interlaced with one by P of Ḳorah's rebellion), Numbers 16, the death of Miriam and strife of the people with Moses (interlaced with a parallel from P), Numbers 20:1-13. Still at Ḳadesh Moses requests a passage through Edom, promising not to harm vineyard or field and to pay for water, and is refused (Numbers 20:14-21 a). Israel then turn from Edom, journeying from Ḳadesh (id.Numbers 20:21 b, Numbers 20:22 a). Having defeated the Canaanite king of Arad in the Negeb (with another explanation of the name Ḥormah, Numbers 21:3; cp. above Deuteronomy 1:44) Israel journey towards the Red Sea, to compass Edom, and murmuring at the length of the way are bitten by fiery serpents, whereof many die till Moses makes a bronze serpent, to which whoever looks lives (Numbers 21:4 b Numbers 21:9). Then they reach the wilderness E. of Moab (Numbers 21:11 b).

According to P, as we have seen, the spies were sent from and returned to not Ḳadesh in the desert of Ṣin as JE and D report but the desert of Paran (Numbers 12:16 b, Numbers 13:1-3; Numbers 13:25-26 a, Numbers 14:35) which lay S. of that of Ṣin (cp. Numbers 13:3 with Numbers 13:21 b); and it was in Paran that the sentence of 40 years wandering was pronounced (Numbers 14:33 f.). Some legislation follows (Numbers 15), the story of Ḳorah interlaced with JE's of Dathan and Abiram (Deuteronomy 16:1-22), the miracle of Aaron's rod (Deuteronomy 17:1-11), and other things (Deuteronomy 17:12-19). Only now do Israel move to the desert of Ṣin (Numbers 20:1 a) identified with Ḳadesh (Numbers 33:36). The date of the removal is given as the 1st month, but curiously no year is mentioned (Numbers 20:1 a). The last previous date in P was that of the start from Sinai, 2nd month of the 2nd year (Numbers 10:11), while the next stage after Ḳadesh is Mt Ḥor (Numbers 20:22 b), reached in the 40th year (Numbers 33:37 f.). But, since P notes at Ḳadesh only the people's murmuring for water and the struck rock (interlaced with a parallel from JE, Numbers 20:1-13), the bulk of the time of wandering, all in fact from the 2nd to the 38th year was, according to P, spent by Israel in Paran. The reason of the curious omission of the year of arrival at Ḳadesh, Numbers 20:1 a, is now clear. It would not harmonise with J E, which brings Israel to Ḳadesh in the 2nd year, and was therefore omitted probably by the compiler of JE and P (Nöldeke, Untersuch. 83; Dillm.). After Mt Ḥor P mentions only one other stage "Oboth, before -Iye--Abarim on the border of Moab (Numbers 21:4 a, Numbers 21:10-11 a). P thus says nothing of the march from Ḳadesh towards the Red Sea and round Mt Se-îr. This agrees with the itinerary in Numbers 33, which carries Israel from Mt Ḥor across the N. (not the S.) end of Mt Se-îr by Punon or Pinon, now Fenân in el-Gebâl, to "Oboth and -Iye--Abarim (v. 41 f.).

Comparison of these three (or four?) traditions of Israel's march from Sinai to Moab is hampered by the uncertainty whether we have them complete or only in fragments. D's review is only a summary; if we had the JE account in its original form we might find the apparent difference between the two JE assigning the bulk of the 38 years to Ḳadesh and its environs, but D to the march between Ḳadesh and the S. end of Mt Se-îr to be no real difference. They agree in carrying Israel from Sinai to Ḳadesh in the 2nd year; and as Dillm. remarks on Deuteronomy 2:1, D's view of the progress after the repulse of the attack on the Amorites -is not so very different" from that of JE. But whether we have the full account of P or not, it is very clear from what we have, that according to P Israel spent from the 2nd to the 38th year in the desert of Paran from which they then passed N. to the desert of ̣ Ṣin or Ḳadesh, while JE and D bring them to Ḳadesh in the 2nd year and assign the years 2 to 40 to their residence there and their march to Moab. Again, the silence of P as to a return S. from Ḳadesh round Mt Se-îr may be due to the compiler's omission of this from P's original narrative; but there remains the itinerary in Numbers 33 which undoubtedly brings Israel from Kadesh to Moab across the N. end of Mt Se-îr. Further, there is D's omission of the JE account of the embassy to Edom from Ḳadesh, with the request that Israel paying their way might pass through Edom, and obviously across the N. part of Mt Se-îr, which was refused; and we have instead the statement in this section that from the -Arabah Israel, without previously seeking permission, passed round the S. part of Mt Se-îr, charged by God to pay their way. Unless we are to assume the very improbable alternative, that both things happened, we must see in these two accounts variant traditions of the direction of Israel's march from Ḳadesh to Moab.