Comparing Curses

It is certainly suitable for his work and name to frame TheTorah.com’s treatment of Leviticus—he was both a rabbi and a professor, deeply committed to bringing Jewish scholarship into mainstream biblical studies, and critical biblical scholarship into the Jewish community. The three volumes were published between 1991-2001 as part of the Anchor Bible Series by Doubleday.

The final chapter of Leviticus, chapter 27, is in its entirety an addition; it fits in neither thematically nor structurally. That chapter (v. 34) concludes with a formula similar to that found at the end of ch 26:

אֵ֣לֶּה הַמִּצְוֹ֗ת אֲשֶׁ֨ר צִוָּ֧ה יְ-הוָ֛ה אֶת־מֹשֶׁ֖ה אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל בְּהַ֖ר סִינָֽי׃

These are the commandments that YHWH gave Moses for the Israelite people on Mount Sinai.

Together these formulae form what scholars call a repetitive resumption or resumptive repetition—a translation from German Wiederaufnahme. These are found frequently in the Bible and serve various functions, but often mark an editorial insertion. Therefore, biblical scholars are alert to these repetitions, which are useful markers of additions. (For more on this, see Zev Farber’s, “The Resumptive Repetition (Wiederaufnahme).”) If we were editing Leviticus now, we would have inserted Lev 27:1-33 before Lev 26:46 so that the book concluded only once. Editors of the Bible were often more conservative; they left the text as it was, and then added to it, and when they were finished their addition, they repeated or paraphrased the verse immediately before the addition, as if to say, “now let’s go back to where we were.”

I will be treating both rebukes as a literary whole, though this is debated in scholarship. Their unity or history of composition is immaterial for the arguments I am adducing.

I am using the term “Priestly” here very broadly, to include both P, the main Priestly document, and H, the Holiness Collection (predominantly in Lev 17-26), a later addition to, and reinterpretation of P, which nevertheless is from the same broad school.

^{ויקרא כו:טז} ‏ אַף־אֲנִ֞י אֶֽעֱשֶׂה־זֹּ֣את לָכֶ֗ם וְהִפְקַדְתִּ֨י עֲלֵיכֶ֤ם בֶּֽהָלָה֙ אֶת־הַשַּׁחֶ֣פֶת וְאֶת־הַקַּדַּ֔חַת מְכַלּ֥וֹת עֵינַ֖יִם וּמְדִיבֹ֣ת נָ֑פֶשׁ וּזְרַעְתֶּ֤ם לָרִיק֙ זַרְעֲכֶ֔ם וַאֲכָלֻ֖הוּ אֹיְבֵיכֶֽם׃

^{Lev 26:16} I in turn will do this to you: I will wreak misery upon you — consumption and fever, which cause the eyes to pine and the body to languish; you shall sow your seed to no purpose, for your enemies shall eat it.

^{ויקרא כו:יח} וְאִ֨ם עַד אֵ֔לֶּה לֹ֥א תִשְׁמְע֖וּ לִ֑י וְיָסַפְתִּי֙ לְיַסְּרָ֣ה אֶתְכֶ֔ם שֶׁ֖בַע עַל חַטֹּאתֵיכֶֽם׃

^{Lev 26:18} And if, for all that, you do not obey Me, I will go on to discipline you sevenfold for your sins,

^{ויקרא כו:כא} וְאִם תֵּֽלְכ֤וּ עִמִּי֙ קֶ֔רִי וְלֹ֥א תֹאב֖וּ לִשְׁמֹ֣עַֽ לִ֑י וְיָסַפְתִּ֤י עֲלֵיכֶם֙ מַכָּ֔ה שֶׁ֖בַע כְּחַטֹּאתֵיכֶֽם׃

^{Lev 26:21} And if you remain hostile toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will go on smiting you sevenfold for your sins.

^{ויקרא כו:כג} וְאִ֨ם בְּאֵ֔לֶּה לֹ֥א תִוָּסְר֖וּ לִ֑י וַהֲלַכְתֶּ֥ם עִמִּ֖י קֶֽרִי׃ ^כו:כד וְהָלַכְתִּ֧י אַף אֲנִ֛י עִמָּכֶ֖ם בְּקֶ֑רִי וְהִכֵּיתִ֤י אֶתְכֶם֙ גַּם אָ֔נִי שֶׁ֖בַע עַל חַטֹּאתֵיכֶֽם׃

^{Lev 26:23} And if these things fail to discipline you for Me, and you remain hostile to Me, ^26:24 I too will remain hostile to you: I in turn will smite you sevenfold for your sins.

‎^{ויקרא כו:כז} וְאִ֨ם בְּזֹ֔את לֹ֥א תִשְׁמְע֖וּ לִ֑י וַהֲלַכְתֶּ֥ם עִמִּ֖י בְּקֶֽרִי׃ ^כו:כח וְהָלַכְתִּ֥י עִמָּכֶ֖ם בַּחֲמַת קֶ֑רִי וְיִסַּרְתִּ֤י אֶתְכֶם֙ אַף אָ֔נִי שֶׁ֖בַע עַל־חַטֹּאתֵיכֶם׃

^{Lev 26:27} But if, despite this, you disobey Me and remain hostile to Me, ^26:28 I will act against you in wrathful hostility; I, for My part, will discipline you sevenfold for your sins.

The meaning of this key word is not fully certain; others render it “contrariwise.”

It is, however, found there e.g. in v. 63.

Although it avoids anthropomorphisms, this passage, like others in Deuteronomy, is full of anthropopathisms, namely attributing human emotions to God.

This concept is also found in Numbers 35:33-34, also a Priestly text.

במדבר לה:לג וְלֹא־תַחֲנִ֣יפוּ אֶת־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֤ר אַתֶּם֙ בָּ֔הּ כִּ֣י הַדָּ֔ם ה֥וּא יַחֲנִ֖יף אֶת־הָאָ֑רֶץ וְלָאָ֣רֶץ לֹֽא־יְכֻפַּ֗ר לַדָּם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר שֻׁפַּךְ־בָּ֔הּ כִּי־אִ֖ם בְּדַ֥ם שֹׁפְכֽוֹ: לה:לד וְלֹ֧א תְטַמֵּ֣א אֶת־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֤ר אַתֶּם֙ יֹשְׁבִ֣ים בָּ֔הּ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲנִ֖י שֹׁכֵ֣ן בְּתוֹכָ֑הּ כִּ֚י אֲנִ֣י יְ-הֹוָ֔ה שֹׁכֵ֕ן בְּת֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל: פ

^{Num 35:33} You shall not pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and the land can have no expiation for blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. ^35:34 You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I Myself abide, for I YHWH abide among the Israelite people.

Repentance is a key Deuteronomic, but not Priestly, theological conception. Indeed, the first biblical use of שוב in the sense of repentance is found in Deut 4:30.

For a recent summary, see Christoph Koch, “Covenant II. Hebrew Bible/Old Testament,” Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception 5.901-906.

Jeffrey Stackert, “Distinguishing Innerbiblical Exegesis from Pentateuchal Redaction: Leviticus 26 as a Test Case” in The Pentateuch: International Perspectives on Current Research, ed. Thomas B. Dozeman et al. (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), 369-386.

Deuteronomy 30:1-10, which is likely later than 28, adds a positive coda to Deuteronomy’s rebuke.

^ויקרא ‎ ^כו:מד וְאַף גַּם זֹ֠את בִּֽהְיוֹתָ֞ם בְּאֶ֣רֶץ אֹֽיְבֵיהֶ֗ם לֹֽא מְאַסְתִּ֤ים וְלֹֽא גְעַלְתִּים֙ לְכַלֹּתָ֔ם לְהָפֵ֥ר בְּרִיתִ֖י אִתָּ֑ם כִּ֛י אֲנִ֥י יְ-הוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵיהֶֽם׃

^{Lev 26:44} Yet, even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or spurn them so as to destroy them, annulling My covenant with them: for I YHWH am their God.

Although he does not suggest this here, Stackert (op cit.) shows many other cases where H knows, and reworks D.