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Daniel Berrigan is an internationally known voice for peace and disarmament. A Jesuit priest, award-winning poet, and the author of over fifty books, he has spoken for peace, justice, and nuclear disarmament for nearly fifty years. He spent several years in prison for his part in the 1968 Catonsville Nine antiwar action and later acted with the Plowshares Eight. Nominated many times for the Nobel Peace Prize, he lives and works in New York City.

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NO GODS BUT ONE

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

Introduction: Is the Lost Past the Future Found?..................................................................1Part One Reminiscence and Counsel: Moses' First Discourse........................................................71. The Recollection: Forty Seasons of Discontent (Chs. 1:6-3:29)..................................................92. The Admonition: No Gods but One (Ch. 4:1-40)...................................................................27Part Two Expounding Covenant and Law: Moses' Second Discourse....................................................411. The Commandments: The Heart of the Covenant (Chs. 5:1-11:32)...................................................432. The Book of the Law: One Nation, One Law, One Lord (Chs. 12:1-26:15)...........................................853. The Covenant Proclaimed and Renewed (Chs. 27:1-29:1)...........................................................138Part Three Calling Israel to Covenant Faithfulness: Moses' Third Discourse (Chs. 29:2-30:20).....................153Part Four The Last Days of Moses: Song of Tragedy, Song of Triumph (Chs. 31-34)..................................171

Chapter One

the eleventh month....

The words, the numbers, are like a held breath. How carefully noted, and how poignant! We near the end of a seemingly endless sojourn, recounted in detail in Exodus and Numbers - and now in Deuteronomy.

We have come so far; we stand so near. Moses stands so near - and yet farthest of all. This side of death, he is forbidden entrance to the Land of Promise, that dearest - and nearest - of rewards. He stands under a fierce indictment, a delict held in secret by the god.

An astonishing irony - a miscarriage of justice? His offense is unknown (unknown to himself?). The consequence is known to all-to all the ages.

No accounting for this God!

* * *

Moses is circumspect. The god keeps a secret; so will he. In an ever-so-slight reference to his "crime" and its punishment, he says only this to the people (in v. 37):

The Lord was angered

also against me,

on your account,

and said,

"Not even you

shall enter here."

"On your account"? The mystery remains; the delict stands. A harsh sentence is decreed. The classic insider, the man of unparalleled access to the Holy-he will undergo the death of an outsider. Worse-of a reject.

A biblical conundrum, this delict of Moses. One ponders the implication as the pen of our scribe lifts from the page, circumspect. He shakes his head, slowly. No, it shall not be told. Let the dire effect be underscored, the cause left blank.

Is the implication an instance of the deity's double mind regarding his favorite? Has Moses drawn too near, does he know too much, is he too powerful? Does he threaten, all unwitting (or perhaps witting), to play the supplanter? Must he, in consequence, be rudely reminded of his creaturely status?

"Fear God, and grow wise." Indeed, Moses had obeyed the command to the hilt. But, but - did God fear him?

Of all the mysteries that shroud the mystic and lawgiver, this seems the deepest: the deity's ambivalence toward one pre-eminently chosen from among the chosen.

* * *

At the start of the Moses saga, we were told of an inexplicable, near murderous attack against the favored one. Now, as he nears the end, the grand entrance, triumph is denied him.

* * *

In the desert years, we recall, Moses and Aaron hardly stood alone in divine disfavor. For a variety of sins, the entire nomadic generation was condemned. The corpse of Moses, together with that of his brother and sister, would be mingled with a vast trail of bones in the wilderness.

Experts have sifted those bones over the centuries, seeking clues as to the traditions surrounding great Moses. The bones keep their secret.

Like the bones of Ezekiel's vision?

No, these bones are different; they refuse to knit together.

* * *

One example of the inflation of the "legend of beginnings." The priestly scribe of 500 C.E. calculated that Moses led an armed force of some 600,000 men. The number suggests a population of Exodus folk of some 3 million. In The Old Testament without Illusion, John McKenzie remarks acidly, "One may calculate that a Hebrew host of this size would have caused an exodus of Egyptians rather than Hebrews."

* * *

Scholars have likewise sought light on the notorious Mosaic default "at Meriba, by the waters." As noted before, little of substance has come to light. The text, livid with divine anger, is opaque to probing eyes. The god does not easily give away the god's secrets.

* * *

In the era of Moses, the God of compassion, the God of the prophets, is emerging slowly, painfully, ambiguously, in national consciousness. At least on occasion, the god stands with the oppressed. With due reservations about fiery moods and reprisals, one is grateful for isolated acts of mercy and mitigation.

Still, an ethic of "to-fro" holds firm. Powerful opposing influences are at work. As we approach the imperial era, another god than a champion of the underdog appears. The emerging royal deity is a phobogenic projection, a fabled warrior seizing the reins of history, riding fast and furious.

War after war erupts. And in the era of kings, we note a series of ominous social developments, including, for the first time, an army of conscripts. Forced laborers construct grandiose emblems of empire. Taxation throttles; a class system coddles the wealthy and ignores the poor. Israel, in sum, has become a new and onerous Egypt.

And, crowning all, a pharaonic god. The God of the oppressed is nearly in eclipse, in favor of a god of the oppressor.

* * *

All, however, is not lost. Indeed, the worst times beget the breakthrough. Kings, whether David, Solomon, Hezekiah, or the royal nonentities who follow-the oppression that is their stock-in-trade brings in its wake an inspired opposition.

We will never have done with hailing them, the grand prophets. They salvage an onerous, odious scene, announcing a radically different God than the official deity of the greedy and violent. More-these passionate truth-tellers hold their rulers accountable for the sin that brought ruin to Egypt: idolatry.

Thus, out of the darkness of a wicked time, a dawn at last: the blessing bestowed on their time (and ours as well) of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and company.

1:6ff.

Our text is a summons to remembrance. In memory lies healing from the world's incursive ills. In memory apprehended and courageously acted on, truth and strength flourish.

* * *

Firmness and suppleness here, and a deep human sense. It is as though the shade of great Isaiah stood near the scribe, attentive to the voice of Moses.

The address is direct, the memory urgent, the instruction lucid. We had not heard before a command imbedded in a code of law. Probity and...