The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [118]
‘I was translating from the bottom of the second tablet.’
‘Then let’s go on to the next one.’
The Jehovah-ites were a warrior people and did not wish to stay outside Canaan as we did. So they entered Canaan in battle with their leader Judah.
‘Did the Israelites have a leader called Judah at the time?’ asked Gabrielle.
Daniel’s eyes lit up. ‘No, but there was a tribe called Judah! And for much of history Judah was a separate kingdom from Israel. And of course Judah can also mean the One Who Knew Jehovah.’
‘That would explain the fragmented history of your people,’ she said with a smile.
‘Absolutely. It explains quite a lot of things such as the varying linguistic styles of the early parts of the Bible and some of the apparent contradictions…’
Again his train of thought had been arrested. This time by the words that he had just read and translated in his mind.
‘Daniel?’
But the people complained against me and against Jehovah because there was no water. And so I built an idol to the Snake God that was the god of the place where we settled, to appease its anger and we prayed to it for food. But Jehovah was jealous and he sent a plague against the people. And we were afflicted with boils on our skin that looked like fiery snakes. And the people came to me and begged me to take the snakes away. But I knew that the snakes on our flesh were a punishment from Jehovah so I told the people to destroy the snake idol and repent to Jehovah…
He couldn’t continue.
‘So that’s what the Snake Monument was,’ said Gabrielle.
‘It’s mentioned in the Bible, in the book of Numbers, albeit in somewhat different form – just before the reference to The Book of the Wars of the Lord in fact. Remember what I told you about the fiery serpents and Moses putting a snake on a pole so that when they looked up at it, they were cured.’
‘But that stone base was hardly what you could call a pole.’
‘I know,’ Daniel replied. ‘But pole is just a modern translation. It could be a pedestal or base. Aside from that, in order for the Israelites to see it, it must have been something big. A small serpent on a pole would hardly be visible to such a numerous band of people. But a huge stone monument on a huge base is something else.’
‘But didn’t you say it was a bronze or copper snake? Not a stone one.’
‘Yes, but that was just other people’s interpretation. Later parts of the Bible describe how the bronze snake head of Moses’ staff was used to burn incense in the temple – until it was destroyed by one of the kings of Israel. He said it was being used for idolatry. He called it the Nehustan, which is a corruption of the Hebrew for snake.’
‘Let’s go on with the translation,’ Gabrielle suggested.
It was Jehovah’s will that we leave the accursed place and go into Canaan as the Jehovah-ites had done. So I sent men to spy out the land and they returned and one of them whose name was Caleb told me that it is the will of Jehovah that we enter the land of Canaan and fight for its holy soil and its fruits and its trees. But the other spies said that the men of Canaan are giants and we are like grasshoppers in their eyes.
‘What about Joshua?’
Daniel’s eyes widened.
‘Oh, come on now, Danny, I may not be a Bible scholar like you, but I know the story of the twelve spies that Moses sent to spy out the land. Ten came back with negative reports but Joshua and Caleb said it was a land flowing with milk and honey and they could beat the natives and conquer the land.’
‘Well, in this narrative there’s no Joshua, just Caleb. Oh, hold on… wait a minute…’
‘Yes?’ she said, desperate to know.
‘This next bit…’
‘What?’
The man at my right hand Joshua said to me that Caleb was a righteous man. But I am old and I know that I cannot lead the people in battle. And when I told Joshua that he must lead the people, he said that he did not wish to leave my side. He said that if I was too weak to lead the people in battle, then they would stay here with me. But now I too am stricken by the plague and I know I will soon see God face