Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 1-2.

Today’s passage consists of Moses giving a recap of the Israelites journey through the wilderness from the time they left Mount Sinai until they arrived on the east bank of the Jordan River, preparing to cross into the Promised Land.  The first thing I thought about (and think about every time I read this passage) is the different interpretation of events than the way they were recorded in the earlier books.  Considering that this is a review of events for people who had experienced many of these events as they happened, and whose parents had experienced the rest, this difference in interpretation makes sense. The passage skips over the incident and fight with the Canaanites in the Negev.

However, Moses does mention that God told them not to harass, or provoke, the Moabites, which is not mentioned in the earlier accounts.  Here we find a clear editorial insertion by someone after the original compiler of this account.  That later writer tells us that the Moabites displaced the Emites, and tells us a bit about the Emites.  He transitions from the Emites being displaced by the Moabites to the Horites being displaced by the Edmites.  One might think that was just editorial comment by the original writer, except he finishes this parenthetical part by saying that the Edomites had destroyed the Horites in the same way that the Israelites had destroyed the people in the land which God gave them.  A few verses later, when the prohibition against provoking the Ammonites is mentioned, a similar editorial insertion is made concerning the people whom the Ammonites displaced.  In that sidenote, the editor repeats that the Edomites displaced the Horites, then mentions that the Caphtorites drove the Avites out of Gaza and surrounding territory.  Caphtorites is probably an alternative name for the Philistines.

If the Caphtorites were indeed the Philistines, that would put the compilation of this account sometime during the period of the Judges.  I say that because by the time of David, the Israelites referred to them as Philistines, and anyone writing that late would have used that term for them.  Additionally, it has to be after Joshua because the Philistines appeared in the historical record a few hundred years after Joshua.  I consider this important because there are those who contend that the Old Testament was written by post Babylonian Exile Jews to justify their control over the land around Jerusalem (and others who claim that Deuteronomy was written at the time of Josiah).  However, those writing at those later dates would have referred to the Philistines, not the Caphtorites.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.