The Song of Moses is the name sometimes given to the
poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
which appears in
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy ( grc, Δευτερονόμιον, Deuteronómion, second law) is the fifth and last book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called (Hebrew: hbo, , Dəḇārīm, hewords Moses.html"_;"title="f_Moses">f_Moseslabel=none)_and_th ...
of the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...
, which according to the Bible was delivered just prior to Moses' death on
Mount Nebo
Mount Nebo ( ar, جَبَل نِيبُو, Jabal Nībū; he, , Har Nəḇō) is an elevated ridge located in Jordan, approximately above sea level. Part of the Abarim mountain range, Mount Nebo is mentioned in the Bible as the place where Moses ...
. Sometimes the Song is referred to as Deuteronomy 32, despite the fact that strictly speaking Deuteronomy chapter 32 contains nine verses (44–52) which are not part of the Song.
Most scholars hold that it was composed between the tenth and eighth centuries BCE, although dates as early as the twelfth century or as late as the fifth have been proposed.
Biblical narrative
According to ,
YHVH
The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', '' he'', '' waw'', and ' ...
met with Moses and his nominated successor
Joshua
Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' lit. 'Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَعُ ٱبْنُ نُونٍ '' Yūšaʿ ...
people of Israel
Israelis ( he, יִשְׂרָאֵלִים, translit=Yīśrāʾēlīm; ar, الإسرائيليين, translit=al-ʾIsrāʾīliyyin) are the citizens and nationals of the State of Israel. The country's populace is composed primarily of Je ...
would renege on the
covenant
Covenant may refer to:
Religion
* Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general
** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible
** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...
that YHVH had made with them, and worship the gods of the lands they were occupying. YHVH told Moses to write down the words of a song and teach it to the community, so that it would be a "witness for Me against the children of Israel." states that Moses did as he had been instructed, and in he then "spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were ended".
contains the text of the Song.
The Song opens with an exordium (verses 1–3) in which heaven and earth are summoned to hear what the poet is to utter. In verses 4–6 the theme is defined: it is the rectitude and faithfulness of YHVH toward His corrupt and faithless people. Verses 7–14 portray the providence which conducted Israel in safety through the wilderness and gave it a rich and fertile land. Verses 15–18 are devoted to Israel's unfaithfulness and lapse into idolatry. This lapse had compelled YHVH to threaten it (verses 19–27) with national disaster and almost with national extinction. Verses 28–43 describe how YHVH has determined to speak to the Israelites through the extremity of their need, to lead them to a better mind, and to grant them victory over their foes.
In a
Torah scroll
A ( he, סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה; "Book of Torah"; plural: ) or Torah scroll is a handwritten copy of the Torah, meaning the five books of Moses (the first books of the Hebrew Bible). The Torah scroll is mainly used in the ritual of Tor ...
the song is written with a special layout, in two parallel columns.
Critical view
The parallelism is unusually regular.
The general plan of the poem resembles that of
Psalm 78
Psalm 78 is the 78th psalm in the biblical Book of Psalms. It is one of the 12 Psalms of Asaph and is described as a "maskil" or "contemplation". It is the second-longest Psalm, with 72 verses ( Psalm 119 has 176 verses), and the first of the th ...
Ezekiel 29
Ezekiel 29 is the twenty-ninth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet/priest Ezekiel, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. ...
documentary hypothesis
The documentary hypothesis (DH) is one of the models used by biblical scholars to explain the origins and composition of the Torah (or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). A vers ...
the poem was an originally separate text that was inserted by the
deuteronomist
The Deuteronomist, abbreviated as either Dtr or simply D, may refer either to the source document underlying the core chapters (12–26) of the Book of Deuteronomy, or to the broader "school" that produced all of Deuteronomy as well as the Deutero ...
into the second edition (of 2), of the text which became Deuteronomy (i.e., was an addition in 'Dtr2').
The poem, cast partly in the
future tense
In grammar, a future tense (abbreviated ) is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French ''aimera'', meaning ...
, describes how
Yahweh
Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he posse ...
is provoked into punishing the Israelites due to their
apostasy
Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that i ...
, resulting in the Israelites being destroyed. Dtr2 is believed to have been produced as a reaction to the
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah ( he, , ''Yəhūdā''; akk, 𒅀𒌑𒁕𒀀𒀀 ''Ya'údâ'' 'ia-ú-da-a-a'' arc, 𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤃𐤅𐤃 ''Bēyt Dāwīḏ'', " House of David") was an Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Ce ...
being sent into its
Babylonian exile
The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon, the capital city of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, following their defeat ...
, and thus to Dtr1's (the hypothesised first edition of Deuteronomy) positive outlook, and suggestion of an upcoming golden age, being somewhat no longer appropriate. Consequently, the poem fits the aim of Dtr2, in retroactively accounting for Israel's misfortune, and, indeed, may have been composed at a similar time.
Though both Jewish and Christian sources have traditionally attributed the Song to Moses, the conditions presupposed by the poem render the Mosaic authorship of it impossible according to critical commentary. The Exodus and the wilderness wanderings lie in the distant past. The writer's contemporaries may learn of them from their fathers (verse 7). The Israelites are settled in Canaan (verses 13–14); sufficient time has passed for them not only to fall into idolatry (verses 15–19), but to be brought to the verge of ruin. They are pressed hard by heathen foes (verse 30); but Yahweh promises to interpose and rescue his people (verses 34–43).
Dating the Song
There are differences of opinion as to precisely when and by whom the song was written.
George E. Mendenhall
George Emery Mendenhall (August 13, 1916 – August 5, 2016) was an American Biblical scholar who taught at the University of Michigan's Department of Near Eastern Studies.
Career
Mendenhall graduated from Midland College in Nebraska in 1936 ...
from the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
assigns it to the period just after the defeat of the
Israelite
The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...
militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
at the battle of
Eben-Ezer
Eben-Ezer (, ''’éḇen hā-‘ézer'', "the stone of help") is a location that is mentioned by the Books of Samuel as the scene of battles between the Israelites and Philistines. It is specified as having been less than a day's journey by f ...
, and its authorship to the prophet
Samuel
Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bibl ...
:
:"The poem cannot have originated at any time than after the destruction of Shiloh" and "... there is an impressive number of linguistic correlations in this text with the language and idioms of the syllabic texts from
Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 880 ...
; those correlations also cluster around Exodus 15, Judges 5, Deuteronomy 33, and Genesis 49".
When all of Deuteronomy 31:14–23 was referred to JE, the poem was believed to be anterior thereto, and was believed to be contemporary with the Assyrian wars under Jehoash and
Jeroboam II
Jeroboam II ( he, יָרָבְעָם, ''Yāroḇə‘ām''; el, Ἱεροβοάμ; la, Hieroboam/Jeroboam) was the son and successor of Jehoash (alternatively spelled Joash) and the thirteenth king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, over which ...
(c. 780 BCE). To this period it is referred by
August Dillmann
Christian Friedrich August Dillmann (25 April 18237 July 1894) was a German orientalist and biblical scholar.
Life
The son of a Württemberg schoolmaster, he was born at Illingen. He was educated at the University of Tübingen, where he became ...
, Schrader,
Samuel Oettli Samuel Oettli (29 July 1846, in St. Gallen – 23 September 1911, in Illenau near Achern) was a Swiss Protestant theologian, who specialized in Old Testament studies.
He studied theology at the universities Basel, Zürich and Göttingen, and ...
,
Heinrich Ewald
Georg Heinrich August Ewald (16 November 18034 May 1875) was a German oriental studies, orientalist, Protestant theology, theologian, and Biblical exegete. He studied at the University of Göttingen. In 1827 he became extraordinary professor there ...
,
Adolf Kamphausen
Adolf Kamphausen (10 September 1829 – 13 September 1909, in Bonn) was a German Protestant theologian. He was known for his liberal views in regard to Biblical exegesis.Edouard Guillaume Eugène Reuss. Kuenen and Driver, who believe that the expression "those which are not a people" in verse 21 refers to the
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
ns, assign the poem to the age of
Jeremiah
Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning " Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish ...
and
Ezekiel
Ezekiel (; he, יְחֶזְקֵאל ''Yəḥezqēʾl'' ; in the Septuagint written in grc-koi, Ἰεζεκιήλ ) is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible.
In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Ezekiel is acknow ...
(c. 630 BCE); while Cornill, Steuernagel, and Bertholet refer it to the closing years of the Exile, i.e., the period of the
second Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century B ...
.
Similarity to other places in the Old Testament
Isaiah 1:2 begins similar to Deuteronomy 32:1 by calling on heaven and earth as witnesses, making Isaiah's introduction in the style of the Song of Moses.
Psalm 50 in Psalm 50:1 and Psalm 50:4 will also begin the same as Deuteronomy 32:1, making that Psalm poetically also in the style of the Song of Moses.''Psalms for Preaching and Worship, A Lectionary Commentary'', 2009, editor: Roger Van Harn, p. 167
Musical settings
:''Disambiguation; for Cantemus Domino see
Song of the Sea
The Song of the Sea ( he, שירת הים, ''Shirat HaYam'', also known as ''Az Yashir Moshe'' and Song of Moses, or ''Mi Chamocha'') is a poem that appears in the Book of Exodus of the Hebrew Bible, at . It is followed in verses 20 and 21 by a ...
''.
* Audite cæli quæ loquor, grand motet, S.7 by
Michel Richard Delalande
Michel Richard Delalande e Lalande'' (; 15 December 1657 – 18 June 1726) was a French Baroque composer and organist who was in the service of King Louis XIV. He was one of the most important composers of grands motets. He also wrote orch ...
.
* Audite caeli by
Francesco Provenzale
Francesco Provenzale (25 September 1632 – 6 September 1704) was an Italian Baroque composer and teacher. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. Notably Provenzale was the teacher of famed castrato 'il cavaliere ...
.
* Song of Moses for solo snare drum by
Jason Bahr
Jason Thomas Bahr (born February 15, 1995) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent.
Career
Bahr attended Lake Mary High School in Lake Mary, Florida. He enrolled at the University of Central Florida (UCF) and made the UCF ...
.
Both Songs of Moses, as with Habakkuk 3 (Domine Audivi), and 1 Samuel 2 (Exultavit Cor Meum) are counted as
canticle
A canticle (from the Latin ''canticulum'', a diminutive of ''canticum'', "song") is a hymn, psalm or other Christianity, Christian song of praise with lyrics usually taken from biblical or holy texts. Canticles are used in Christian liturgy.
Ca ...
Haazinu
Haazinu, Ha'azinu, or Ha'Azinu ( — Hebrew for "listen" when directed to more than one person, the first word in the parashah) is the 53rd weekly Torah portion (, ''parashah'') in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the 10th in the Boo ...
References
Further reading
*
* Mendenhall, George E., ''Samuel's "Broken Rîb": Deuteronomy 32'', 1975, Reprint from No Famine in the Land ''Studies in Honor of John L. McKenzie''. Scholar's Press for The Institute for Antiquity and Christianity - Claremont
*
* ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' bibliography:
** Kamphausen, A., ''Das Lied Moses: Deut. 32, 1–43'', 1862; Leipzig: Brockhaus
** Klostermann, A., in ''Studien und Kritiken'', 1871, pp. 249 ''et seq.''; 1872, pp. 230 ''et seq.'', 450 ''et seq.'';
** Stade's ''Zeitschrift'', 1885, pp. 297 ''et seq.'';
** Cornill, C. H., ''Einleitung in das Alte Testament'', 1891, pp. 70 ''et seq.'',
** Driver, S. R., ''Deuteronomy'', in ''International Critical Commentary'', 1895, pp. 344 ''et seq.'';
** Steuernagel, ''Deuteronomium'', in Nowack's ''Handkommentar'', 1900, pp. 114 ''et seq.'';
** Bertholet, ''Deuteronomium'', in ''K. H. C.'' 1899, pp. 94 ''et seq.'';
External links
*
Michael S. Heiser
Michael S. Heiser is an American biblical Old Testament scholar and Christian author. His area of expertise is the nature of the spiritual realm in the Bible, namely the Divine Council and hierarchy of the spiritual order. He is Executive Director ...