Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- ONE Desert Bound
- TWO Weaving by Design
- THREE Priestly Purposes
- FOUR Variations on a Theme: Shaping Memory in the Wilderness
- FIVE Crisis and Commemoration: The Use of Ritual Objects
- SIX Falling in the Wilderness: The Politics of Death and Burial
- SEVEN Inheriting the Land
- APPENDIX A The Priestly Sphere of Activity in the Book of Numbers
- APPENDIX B The Use and Variation of God's Address to Moses and to Aaron
- APPENDIX C Death Reports
- APPENDIX D Proper and Improper Treatment of the Dead
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Scriptural Index
- Selected Hebrew Index
ONE - Desert Bound
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- ONE Desert Bound
- TWO Weaving by Design
- THREE Priestly Purposes
- FOUR Variations on a Theme: Shaping Memory in the Wilderness
- FIVE Crisis and Commemoration: The Use of Ritual Objects
- SIX Falling in the Wilderness: The Politics of Death and Burial
- SEVEN Inheriting the Land
- APPENDIX A The Priestly Sphere of Activity in the Book of Numbers
- APPENDIX B The Use and Variation of God's Address to Moses and to Aaron
- APPENDIX C Death Reports
- APPENDIX D Proper and Improper Treatment of the Dead
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Scriptural Index
- Selected Hebrew Index
Summary
For league upon league no voice, no syllable breaks the stillness; oblivion has swallowed forever the victories of a bold generation. Whirlwinds have razed the footprints of the terrible warriors of the wasteland, sand has piled up around them, rocks thrust out through the dunes; the desert holds its breath for the brave sunk in endless sleep.
[H]e must unpack the concentrated focus of memory: he must “write” it as narration, description, reflective interpretation.
Shortly after God denies him entry to the promised land, a fate Moses shares with an entire biblical generation, the prophet nonetheless proceeds to set a course there on behalf of the generation to follow. That course would take the people Israel across the territory of Edom. In seeking the permission of the king of Edom to cross his land, Moses can think of no better opening to his request than a brief recital of Israel's past:
Thus says your brother Israel, you know all the hardship that has found us; our ancestors went down to Egypt and we dwelt in Egypt many days and Egypt caused us and our ancestors harm; And we cried out to yhwh and He heard our voice and sent a messenger and took us out from Egypt and behold we are in Kadesh, a town at the edge of your border. Please let us cross through your land.
(Num. 20:14b–17a, translation mine unless otherwise noted)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Memory and Tradition in the Book of Numbers , pp. 1 - 24Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007