Jeremy Rosen
Making Sense of the Bible: Can its Ancient Text be Relevant Today? Deuteronomy 1, Recapitulation!

Jeremy Rosen | Making Sense of the Bible: Can its Ancient Text be Relevant Today? Deuteronomy 1, Recapitulation!

- We now start the last of the five books, the Book of Deuteronomy, as it’s called, which goes back to the Greek equivalent of a copy, a repetition, and the Hebrew version of it is “Devarim,” which literally means “the words.” And this is supposed to be the final speech of Moses at the end of 40 years, just before he dies, and the children of Israel go into the land of Canaan. Scholars argue, as they like to do, about when this might have been written. Remember, we have no actual evidence, historically, of when something was written. You can look at the style, you can look at the context. And we know already that the book we call the Torah is a composition. It’s a composition anyway of history, of law, of customs, of arguments, written in poetry, written in prose. It’s a complex collection, and I often feel that when academics try to fit things conveniently into little packages, then we reach a similar situation that we have today, where the academic world is so, shall we say, fractured and blinded by dogma, and the official explanation of everything, that one really just gives up and says, “Look, can’t you just enjoy the experience and look at it and feel what it’s trying to convey?” So the Book of Devarim, everybody agrees, is written at the end of the 40-year period, and everything we’ve done up to now has been a lead up to that. And at different stages, there were new developments. This is important for two reasons. Reason number one is because in the book of Devarim, we’re going to go back over everything we’ve done, but there are going to be slight differences, slight nuances, and there will also be certain elements that were not part of the original revelation on Sinai. Of course we’ve already seen that in the Book of Exodus.

After the 10 Commandments, there were a whole series of chapters in Mishpatim that clarify what the original commandments were. So “thou shalt not murder” has to be explained to differentiate warfare, intentional murder, accidental homicide, and the variations. And so we’ve had lots of these clarifications going on throughout the period of the Torah. And when we come to the question of theology, of course the Jewish world is divided. On the one hand, we’ll call them the fundamentalists, and on the other hand, we have the academics and we have a whole list of variations between those two extremes, the rationalists and the mystics. Those who want to believe that the world is 5,700 years approximately, and those who believe that every single word that we have in the Torah today was dictated by God to Moses on Sinai. And yet this book itself is saying that this is Moses speaking after 40 years. And indeed, the Talmud has clarified and said there is a debate as to whether the Torah itself, in the Talmud , was written in stages or all in one go, in separate scrolls, or so to speak, one big one. So this is a debatable issue. And in this, our only position, or my only position, is look at the text, see what the text says, and see how you can make sense of it. And because each one of us is different, each one of us may interpret the text in a different way. And this is what has been going on for the last 2,000 years, at least this constant reinterpretation, almost in every generation, of the text. So let’s turn now to the actual text itself. “Eleh had'barim.”

These are the words or the things or the ideas because “devar” can mean any one of those words. So even translating “devarim” as words is a debatable issue. That Moses spoke to all Israel. “Be'ever hayarden”, crossing over from the Jordan. “Bamidbar,” that’s I say before they crossed over. “Be'ever” means on the other side of the Jordan. In the wilderness, “arabah,” “muwl suf,” opposite. What is “suf?” Is “suf” the Red Sea? But the Red Sea or the Reed Sea has long gone. So is “muwl” another way of saying not opposite, but having passed on from the Red Sea? And we’re in an area between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab. And these words and these terms and these names, we really have no accurate information about them. We now know it is said in verse two that is “achad asar yom,” this is 11 days, towards the way of Seir, coming to Kadesh-barnea. Now, this is also confusing. Seir, we know, is the place where Esau used to live, and that’s up near the Golan Heights. Kadesh-barnea, we know, is an area on the East Bank where the Israelites spent a lot of time. What was Di-zahab have up there? The place of gold, zahab is gold. And what is Laban, the white place? And Tophel actually is used as an alien guard. And Paran is another location. But exactly what they are and whether we are supposed to take them chronologically, that is to say these are steps on the route from A to B, or whether they are supposed to describe specific events on the route from A to B is a matter of the commentators argue about.

And so it’s still open. Anyway, we have update now. Verse three, “arba'im shanah,” 30 years, sorry, 40 years on the 12th, the 11th of the first month. So the first month is nisan. Nisan is the beginning of the year in biblical terms, the first month. Moses speaks to the children of Israel. Everything that God commanded them, commanded him to tell them. Another term for the Book of Deuteronomy or Devarim is Mishneh Torah. Mishneh Torah is also actually the name of Maimonides, this great first compilation of Jewish law. But Mishneh Torah means a copy of the Torah. And we’re going to see this term used specifically later on in this book when we talk about the king having to have a copy of the Torah with him all the time. And now the Torah specifically says it’s Mishneh Torah. So, so much for generally what this book is. Now we have verse four, the events now we’re talking about of Moses standing up and speaking to us is after having killed Sihon King of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, Edrei. We met them in the book of Numbers. This is still, once again, , in the land of Moab, when “ho'il mosheh,” “mosheh” began, “be'er,” to explain, to clarify, “et-hattorah hazzot,” the Torah. So we agree that this is now Moses trying to clarify. And therefore, if we are going to come as we will do, differences of opinion between the record as stated in Exodus and Numbers and the events that Moses is going to talk about now. And that’s going to be the great challenge. Now, in verse six, God spoke to us at Horeb. Horeb is a mountain. It is normally associated with Mount Sinai. But here, it can’t be, as we’re going to see.

He says, . “I don’t want you to hang around in this place anymore.” I want you to turn, to come to the Amorites. And all the people who live around them. Whether it’s . Whether it is in the Shephelah, which we now talk of as the coastal plane, the “Neguev,” which we now talk of as south of Israel, and “hof hayam,” in the edge of the sea. Now that looks like the Mediterranean normally. Not only of the Canaanites, but Lebanon. All the way to the Euphrates. Now, what is he saying? Is this all the area that is being promised? It wasn’t exactly what God said to Abraham or Isaac and Jacob in talking about the land. It’s extended beyond that. So is this initially Moses’ dream of where we should be going and what our territory should be? And these words which are familiar to us now in modern Israeli topography, nevertheless raise questions as to exactly what Moses meant. But now we get this clarification in verse eight. I’m giving you all this land, implies God. Go and inherit it. God promised this to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give you and your seed after that. And that itself is very controversial, because God did not mention Lebanon, he did not mention the Mediterranean Sea, didn’t even mention the Shephelah if it comes to that.

So this is now a new clarification. And we know that there was no way that in the hundreds of years preceding the movement into Canaan, that this territory was in fact dominated by the Israelites. In fact, you can’t say it happened until King Solomon, and that’s what 2000, nearly 3000 years ago. And even then, that split after Solomon died into two rival kingdoms. So the whole idea of what Moses means here is possibly he’s giving this broad painting, this broad picture that we’re not supposed to take too literally an examine in the light of history. And many people say that this book might have been written at the time of King Solomon when the area that the Jews inhabited covered all this. And it’s possible, it’s a theory, but we have no proof. Anyway, so here we are, down on the other side of the river. And God, I say to God at this moment, “Look God, as things stand, I can’t cope.” I can’t cope with you. You are such an impossible bunch of people. in verse 10, your God, , has expanded you, you’ve grown. You are as many as the stars in the heavens. So this lovely expression, you’ll be like the stars of the heavens. You’ll be like the sand of the sea is another beautiful way of saying you are a lot, but obviously, we’re not going to take it literally. We know there are many more stars. And in those days, they too knew, because they looked at the heavens without all the atmospheric intervention that exists in many parts of the world today and had a very clear idea of how many stars there were. And that’s why the term is used metaphorically to describe a lot.

So in addition, he’s saying, not only that you’ve got a lot so far, but in verse 11, God will add to you a thousand times and he will bless you as he spoke to you. If only. But I said to God in verse 12, . How can I possibly bear? , the trouble you cause me, the burden you impose on me, and your constant bickering. And whether this was written 3000 years ago or 3,200 years ago or three or four, here we are years later, and we could say this applies to us just as much as it applied then. We have not changed. But Moses is basically saying, “I can’t cope.” And therefore, . I want you to find, in verse 13, wise and understanding men who are known or who know the tribes, And I will point them as your leaders. So now we have the involvement of leadership at a broader level than simply a dictatorship. And you answered me, , and you said, . That’s a good idea, we agree. verse 15, , heads of your tribes. Wise men. . Knowledgeable men. Not like politicians nowadays who don’t their ass from their elbow. And I’ll appoint them as heads over you. And I’m going to subdivide the whole arrangement, so there’ll be offices in fine in charge of a thousand, and then officers in charge of a hundred, and then officers in charge of 50, and then 10s, and there will be these , and they will help manage policemen but not in the way we use it, and they will direct the community.

So again, notice an interesting issue. It seems to me that this is saying two things. There will be an overall parliament, a Sanhedrin as it later it’s going to be called of 70 elders. And 70 elders are referred to throughout the Bible. But in addition, they will have to subdivide, because if there are a lot of people, they can’t deal with ‘em. It’s expecting like a member of parliament to deal with all the constituency has, and you can only get through to a small number. So you need to make people feel they have a line to authority, they can connect, and they feel that their voices will be heard. And so that’s what I did in verse 15. I gathered all these heads, wise men, and I appointed them, 1000s, the 100s, the 50s, and the 10s. And I commanded them saying, in verse 16, I want to give you your terms of reference. Listen to your brothers. Listen to them. And guide them through righteous, honest ways. The issue between a man, his brother, and a stranger. In other words, generally, justice has to be the way we run our affairs. And not only that, in verse 17, I don’t want you to favour people. , injustice. Listen to the small guy, the poor guy, and the rich guy equally. Don’t be frightened of somebody 'cause he’s richer or more powerful. Justice is God. Justice is defined by God’s commands, and you must not deviate because you’re frightened of what other human beings are going to say.

And if there’s anything that you can’t sort out, then , you can bring it to me as the final arbiter of what’s going on. And in addition in verse 18, “I command you, at that time, to do whatever I’m going to say.” Now, you might remember from the book of Exodus that when Jethro goes to visit his son-in-law, Moses, after he’s come out of Egypt, they’ve crossed over into the desert and he comes to visit and brings the children, his grandchildren with. And he’s so delighted to see Moses still alive. And then he turns to Moses says, “Look, I can see what you’re doing. You are going to kill yourself. Everybody is lining up to see you, and you’ve got to judge and you’ve got to deal with everything. You will wither away. You’ve got to appoint other people.” And that is the first statement of appointing these elders, the 70 elders. So from the book of Exodus, it seems that this was coming from Jethro before the 10 commandments had been given, but here, it seems to say something else. And so this is another example of the similar idea either repeated, because remember, in the book of Numbers, there is a repetition of this as well, and this repetition involved the 70 elders getting together and two men elder were left out, and there was a little bit of a kerfuffle over that. And so you’ve got these three very different reports of what happened. Now, they all agree that there were 70 elders. What they can’t agree is, was Jethro’s idea just meant initially as good advice?

Was the command later on formalised as actually a constitutional settlement? Or was it just a matter of interpreting its functions in different ways? Either way, the book is open, and whichever version you prefer, you take it. Verse 19. So we journeyed on from Horeb, and we’re still not certain where Horeb is and what Horeb means. Some people even want to apply that term to Jerusalem. And we went, , through this great wilderness, this big spacious and , and quite frightening. And you saw this and you went through it all the way through to the Amorites, and the Amorites, as we know, where Jordan is today. And this is as God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea to this place in Kadesh-barnea. , in verse 20, and I said to you at that stage, You’ve come to the Amorite territory, , which God has given us. God is giving you this land, “aleh rish.” Go up and take it over, inherit it. As God says, don’t be frightened. Have the guts to go. So this is all happening in the first year. So in the first year, they’ve crossed over into Sinai, they’ve passed wherever Mount Sinai was and where Mount Sinai is supposed to be today. The Jabal Mūsa as it’s called in Arabic. And people argue about whether that was possibly or was not.

And some people say there’s evidence it was a volcano and that explains the fire on Mount Sinai, and others say no, it couldn’t have been there. It’s got to be somewhere else. But anyway, moved from Horeb, going all the way through Sinai Peninsula, coming up from the Negev to the other side, and then we say we are ready to invade. And this is the first time in the first year. Verse 22. And you all gathered around me, , and you said, . Let us send men, before us. And they will , literally to dig, to undermine, to spy on the land. They will reply, they will come back with , which way we should go to invade. There’s no question we’re going to invade. The question is, which way is the best way? We’ve got to do due diligence, we’ve got to plan, we’ve got to know what we’re doing, not just rushing like a mad bunch of invading lunatics. They’ll bring back word. By the way we should go. Which cities we should come to. And so in verse 23, . And I agreed, I gave into you. , and I took from you, , 12 men. , one per tribe. Now you’ll remember, it was not many months. A couple of months back, we were in , and we came to the Parashat Shelach Lekha. And the parashat of Shelach Lekha starts off by saying, Shelach Lekha, God says to Moses. God commands Moses and says, . I want you to send men to go in la tour to take a view of the land. Now if you follow , the decision to send spies came from. If you look at this, the decision comes, first of all, from the people, and then approved of by Moses. Now, which one is right? And which aspect is Moses trying to deal with? Maybe here, he’s simply trying to deal with, if you like, we’ll call it the political events. Whereas previously, he was trying to describe the spiritual events.

That’s a possibility. But nevertheless, there’s a very, very clear distinction between the version in Numbers and the version we have here. You might say, well, over 40 years, I can tell you myself and I’m sure we’ve all had this experience, our memory is not always that reliable. And a lot of things were not written down. At that stage anyway, the process of writing down was complicated. It would appear, if you take the 10 commandments, that things were carved in stone, in cuneiform. They were carved into clay tablets. So we don’t know exactly what the process was. But anyway, we now have Moses 40 years afterwards giving his version. And remember, he’s speaking to the masses, and therefore, he wants to say something that is going to make an important point. So verse 24. They went up the mountain. And they came to this valley or wadi of Eschol. And they sort of spied it out and saw what it was. And it was a great place. And they took from the fruit of the land. And they brought it down to us. And they gave us a report. The land that we have been given by God, this is a very good land. But in verse 26, nevertheless, . You did not want to go up. And you rebelled against God. This question of going up is interesting from another point of view. We heard at the beginning of this chapter that they have now turned and come to the land of the Amorites. And the Amorites are living where Transjordan is. On the other hand, if you take the earlier version, it seems that they invaded from the south of Israel, from Arad and from the territory of the Amalekites. The Amalekites did not live on the East Bank. They lived towards the sea on the West Bank.

So which way up are they going? And now, we’re talking about the invasion that it happened at the beginning of the 40 years. Whereas in due course, we’re going to talk about the invasion that happened after 40 years. But meanwhile, the first year, they come back and they say, “We can’t do this.” Verse 27, . And you were depressed or sulking or angry. And you said, . It’s because God hates us. He took us out of Egypt. To destroy us. Look how quickly they turn. One minute, they’re triumphant. “God’s on our side, he’s helping us. We’re getting somewhere.” And then before you can snap your fingers, what happens is they’re complaining. The Jews, they’re stiff neck people. , 28. Where are we going to go? Our brothers have undermined our hearts. They’ve come back and said this is terrible. And they’ve said, . They are stronger, they are more than us. They have “arim g'doloth,” big cities. They are armed to the heavens. And we saw giants. So their initial reaction was, “We can’t do this. This is a challenge.” There’s so many of them. They’re bigger and they’re stronger than us. Now this is the first year, and you may say yes, these are still the insecure slaves who have come out of Egypt who are so used to being bullied. So used to being forced to do things. Verse 29, . But I said to you then, . Don’t be frightened. God who goes before you.

He will fight for you. As all he did before in Egypt. Notice, he’s not mentioning at this moment Kalev and Yehoshua who were the two at the time who tried to fight with the other 10 and say, “No, no, no, no, it’s good and we can do it.” It’s going to come to them, but at this moment, he’s not mentioning them. So I said, “Don’t worry, God will take care of you.” In verse 32, you didn’t believe in God. And there’s another interesting issue here. The issue of, what do we expect of God? I mean, this is something that we have to grapple with at this moment. Why does God allow bad things to happen? Why do we have to suffer at the hands of our enemies? Why can’t the world see that there’s another point of view? Why do these things happen? And in one way, you can say, as some people do, that God creates a world, allows it to function according to its own rules. And if we screw up, we screw up. And humans screw up. And it’s not as though God is superman that intervenes every moment when somebody’s about to do something wrong. That approach to God treats God rather like Superman. You expect Superman to intervene. The world functions according to its system, according to the way it has evolved, the way it has been created, with the good side and the bad side. The things that go wrong like volcanoes or like climate change, and the things that are going right, that we are able to produce food and feed people and things are getting better in the medical sense and so forth. And yet, by nature, we always complain when things go wrong and say, “Why did God do this to us?”

And we rarely appreciate it, as we ought to, the good things that we have. But life is not perfect. And yet here you have the natural response of people then, as is the natural response of people today, to look at the bad side and feel overwhelmed and unable to see the good side, unable to see, for example, that we have a state that can defend itself. It doesn’t mean it always wins, but we’ve got agency which we haven’t had for thousands of years. And yet you could turn around and say, “But look at all the horrible things that have happened to so many people who were tortured and killed and murdered and wounded and gassed and so forth.” So this is, in a sense, dealing indirectly with a major theological problem. And the theological problem essentially is that you should not expect God at every moment to do exactly what you want God to do. I mean, looking at the Euro Finals, the football, and you notice all these people trotting onto the field and crucifix themselves or bowing down or whatever it is, and expecting God to help them win a football match, and poor God can’t support everybody. Somebody’s going to win and somebody’s going to lose. So here, we have this statement of the low morale after the first year of a people, and they can’t go on. Verse 34. And God heard your complaints. , God got angry. And again, this is a metaphor. It’s not as though God’s blood pressure kept on rising.

And he, so to speak, took an oath. And he said, in verse 35, . Not one person from these people. , that is bad generation. None of them will see , this good land, that I have promised to give your fathers. So if you like, you can say, God is speaking vengeance. On the other hand, you could turn around and you could say, this is a realisation that it takes time to change the psychological makeup of people, to turn them from slaves and victims into people who can take responsibility and fight and are prepared to go forward and fight. This takes time, it doesn’t happen overnight. You can’t overnight suddenly switch somebody who’s never fought in his life to somebody who can fight. Now, nowadays we can train people more easily, but it’s a huge big leap. And now he says to the qualification, verse 36, Only Kalev. He will see the land. And the area that he walked through will go to his sons. Now that’s interesting because we know for later that Kalev’s sons lived in the north. Did he go that far north all the way up to Metula when the spies were going through the land? Doesn’t seem like that. But anyway, I’m going to give him, he’s going to live to see it. He’s going to live to come into the land. Because he was, if you like, supportive and believed or accepted God’s authority and was prepared to trust that things would work out. Didn’t mention Joshua, why not? We know Joshua is going to inherit his leadership. Did he take it for granted? , verse 37. Also, God was angry with me because of you. And he said, and you’ll not go over. But hold on, I thought he was not going to go over because of the battle over the waters at Meribah when he didn’t sanctify God and he smocked the rock. But maybe all this is saying is, I’m not going into the detail, I’m just saying that you will not go but not maybe because of this, because there’s another reason.

And here we have Yehoshua. Verse 38, . He is standing before you as your deputy. He will also come there. And you are going to have to strengthen him. He will take over Israel, or will be able to transfer this positive approach to the Jewish people. So the people certainly are not ready to go. Only two people are going to go eventually after 40 years. Verse 39, . And your little children. That you said they’re going to be captured and they’re going to be destroyed by the enemy. And your sons who are too young to know the difference of good and bad, these babies and youngsters, they will come there. I will give the land to them. They will inherit it. And now, to end this conversation, you have to turn around, go back to the wilderness, back to towards yam-suph, not all the way maybe back to yam-suph, to the Red Sea, but back in that direction to Egypt. Then what happened is, verse 41, And you replied, “wata'anu” and said, “Oh no, no, no, no.” Now it’s too late, we’ve sinned. We know we done wrong. We are ready to go and give it a try. As God has commanded us. And some of you were able to get hold your arms, , and you crazily stupidly decided to go up the mountain in an act of desperation. So this is up the mountain, I think coming from the desert. , verse 42. And God said to me, . Don’t go up. You’re not ready. I’m not with you. Otherwise, you’re going to be beaten up by your enemies. And I spoke to you in verse 43, , and you weren’t prepared to listen to me. You rebelled against God. You arrogantly took it upon yourself to go up the mountain.

Now, is this everybody, somebody, a small group, if you like, the extreme right wing deciding to take it into their own hands? We realise you’ve made a mistake, we realise you’ve got to do something. But if it’s not the right moment, if you don’t have the right morale, if you are not in their terms connected to God, it’s not going to work. And so in verse 44, . And the Amorites, who live there and are going to come to meet you. They will pursue you. As the bees of hornets will attack you. And they destroyed you. All the way to Hormah. Previously, they were Amalekites as well as the Amorites, which is why I, when it happened the first time, I mentioned that difference. Now, the Amalekites have been left out. Were they left out because they were no longer a threat? There hadn’t been a fight against them since then. But anyway, they were destroyed and they were pursued all the way to Hormah. And remember that name, because in the next generation, when they do invade, they do destroy the enemy at the very same place, Hormah. So they were given another chance, but this other chance came 40 years later. Verse 45, . And you came back and you were weeping. And God didn’t pay any attention, , and he didn’t listen to you. , verse 46, for a long, long time. Where you spent 40 years in that part, or almost 40 years in that area, in the area of Kadesh-barnea. And if you look again on the maps that you can find on the internet, you will see the different versions of where Kadesh-barnea might actually have been. And there, we will end for today and turn to the questions.

Q&A and Comments:

Q: On the other side of the Jordan, asks Frank, what does this mean in terms of when and where? Deuteronomy. Well see, I’ve lost your question for a moment. Yeah, sorry. What does this mean in terms of when and where Deuteronomy was written?

A: Well, the answer is we don’t know. It could be any number of possibilities. It could be the date that originally, the Torah seems to indicate. It could have been at some other place where the across the other side of the Jordan is, is essentially anywhere east of the River Jordan, which would include today parts may be of Syria, parts of Golan, Jordan, Transjordan, anywhere on the east side counts as “be'ever hayarden,” the other side of the River Jordan.

Q: Romaine. Hashem recognises human restlessness and gives us a direction in a home. Is this spirituality and practicality?

A: I always find it very difficult to talk about God, and I find it difficult to talk about God because God means so many different things to so many different people. For some, God is a constant immediate presence. But how to define that constant immediate presence is a matter of debate. Is it a presence that is like, as I mentioned before, Superman who looks after you wherever you go? Or is it, if I can give an analogy, between one’s parents? One looks to one’s parents when one is young to look after us, to protect us, and very often, they do their best. But it doesn’t mean to say they can prevent bad things happening to us. They can’t act as a permanent shield. But nevertheless, the fact that we have loving parents gives us a feeling of security which helps us cope. It doesn’t mean to say we always will cope, but it, in a sense, gives us this confidence and this security in the same way that belonging to a people gives us a sense of identity and feeling where we belong.

So for those people who are constantly praying to God, they can pray to God in one of two ways. They can pray to God and say, “Please God, may I have?” Or they can say, “I hope that whatever God has in store for me coincides what I want, but it might not necessarily be so. It might be for the better that God does not give me what I want, if all I want is something material.” So for all these reasons, there is no simple answer. However much people like to write books or write philosophy or theology and claim they’ve got an answer, you know and I know they don’t. And therefore, in that sense, the only really honest answer is to say, I don’t know. I don’t have an answer. I can only tell you what my relationship with God is. And that may be a mixture of something rational and of something mystical. We all have our own path. But if we don’t explore the path, we won’t find any answers. We won’t find any direction. We’ve got to make an effort, which is why constantly, throughout the Bible, God says, “If you come towards me, I’ll come towards you. If you push me away, I’ll retreat from you.” So I hope that helps. But if not, come back to me.

Q: Anthony asks, didn’t even Ezra suggest that Moses spoke be'ever hayarden across the Jordan so the Torah looks as though it was written on the west side after the entry to Canaan?

A: I’m not sure I understand exactly the point that you’re making. If be'ever hayarden means across the Jordan, it’s across on the east side of the Jordan, Be'ever hayarden never applies to the west side of the Jordan. It just doesn’t apply that way. And now it’s true. “Ever” can mean, theoretically, this way and that way, but it’s used entirely to describe the East Bank, not the West bank. Deuteronomy 1:15. It is interesting that 10 is the base number in previous books, the base number, whereas in previous book, seven was the base. 7 days, 7 weeks, 70. That’s a very good point, a very interesting point. And it reflects the fact that in the ancient world, there were a series of different codes, different numbers, different calendars, different ways of calculating, whether in business or whether in events we call history.

So there were, and there were numbers. There was the number three that recurs, the number seven dimension recurs, 10 recurs, 12 recurs, 40 recurs, 400 recurs. There are recurring numbers. And the question is, should these numbers be taken literally, or in a sense, poetically or metaphorically? And that also becomes an interesting issue. Remember when we were before the end of Numbers, we were talking about the census, and the census rounds off everything to zero. There’s no tens, they’re just numbers. And clearly, these numbers are not meant to be taken as we take them, as numerically accurate scientific mathematical numbers, just numbers that give broad impressions or numbers that signify a spiritual dimension, a dimension of divine intervention. As, for example, eight is a good example of human intervention with circumcision. So you have both. You have numbers that indicate God’s presence, and numbers that indicate man’s dynamic.

Q: Romaine, is this our first invasion?

A: Yes, this is only the first invasion. We’re not talking yet about the second invasion. Carla, I’m glad you explained it all, because I found it very confusing. It is confusing. A lot of things are confusing indeed.

So thank you very much everybody, and please God, we’ll all be together in good health next week.